Bruce Bryant and Carol Johnsen were two of the three designers of the opening credits sequence of The X-Files. They were married since 1985 and both died within a few months of each other, in December and April.
Together with Jim Castle, they formed the company Castle/Bryant/Johnsen in 1987, which designed, produced and directed opening titles for hundreds of shows, such as Cheers, Frasier or The X-Files. In 1997 the trio continued as a duo, as Bryant/Johnsen Media Design. (Dates from Fandom.com)
They had little online presence. The photos of them I could gather are from their obituaries, obviously from very different time periods. There’s nothing I can find about Jim Castle, either. Their professional website is accessible via archive.org.
In 2013 they did an interview for Empire, where they shed light on a lot of the details behind the opening credits of our favourite series — for which they received an Emmy Award. They appear several times in the credits! That’s Carol in that photo pointing to a UFO, and also as the figure falling into the hand, and that’s her eye at the end. Carol signed Scully’s badge and Jim Mulder’s. That’s Bruce as a ghost behind “Government denies knowledge”.
“We had a deadline of maybe a couple of months until the airdate.”
“Chris Carter had already designed the logo itself. So he gave us “The X-Files” in that typeface. Midway into the project, we were given Mark Snow’s theme tune. When we’re working on a project, we do like to have the music.”
“It helps us to create the cuts, the mood, the timing. Everything.”
“We’re enormously proud of our work on The X-Files. It won the show its very first Emmy.”
These opening credits are instantly recognizable and were definitely part of the show’s success in the 90s. As time passes, we continue to acknowledge, remember and cherish the people behind the scenes that contributed in making this show, especially those that are not as well-known at large.
Tags: bruce bryant, carlon johnsen, castle/bryant/johnsen, obituary, thexfiles
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