Here is a relatively recent (August 2025) interview with editor Jeff Cahn, by the X-Files Museum. An overall great guy and a fan of the show itself, he is full of behind the scenes stories beyond just about his role as assistant editor. He is credited for no less than 148 episodes of The X-Files over all seasons (s1-9) + on Fight the Future. His first credited episode was early season 1’s “Shadows”; essentially he has a credit on all episodes, except the first 2 seasons where rotating editing crews meant that he was on every other episode. Here are my notes.
- He started working with Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” in 1980! [I cannot recommend it enough!]
- He was looking for work. Heather MacDougall (main editor of 60 episodes over s1-8 + s10) recruited him on Friday to start work on Monday. That same day he first watched TXF on TV, it was “Squeeze”. On Monday he congratulated Morgan & Wong, it was the first time they got praise and they were surprised.
- He got a sense of the popularity of the show hearing people at malls and cafes, early on. The crew was surprised and relieved to get an order for the back 9 episodes of season 1. [Initially only 12 episodes were ordered after the pilot.]
- Mary Astadourian [Carter’s assistant, then Ten Thirteen vice-president] wanted TXF to have a presence on the internet. She urged him and assistant editor Sue Kesler to go online to chat with fans, on Delphi, AOL. He got fans invited to Ten Thirteen parties.
- For the first 2 years they had 3 teams of main editors and assistants working on 3 episodes at any point in time. Later, the 2 assistant editors were working on all episodes at once. [The editor/assistant couples were Heather & Jeff, Steve Mark & Sue.]
- This was the first show he worked on that he was a fan of. He had access to the scripts early on, but he didn’t want to read them to spoil the entertainment.
- “FTF”: he was the last one to get a script. Carter told him it was because he was talking to the fans, he didn’t want story details to come out. The script was printed on red paper, with the owner’s name stamped on each page, and the cover page saying “please don’t share details with others”. [pictured] Codename Blackwood. They were working on the editing for a year. There were storyboards and animatics. The special effects shots were the last thing that came in.
- There were not that many special effects. They would call in Mat Beck [VFX producer] and give him start and end time codes for each shot. “First Person Shooter” had the most, with 100 visual effects shots.
- During season 6 he would walk down to the set. He remembers the shooting of “First Person Shooter”, with Maitreya shooting machine guns.
- He went to the studio where the “FTF” Antarctica scenes were being shot, the ice box, DD & GA were running and were freezing.
- Mary Astadourian presented him Mitch Pileggi just when he got hired, he went to have drinks with him on Pico Boulevard.
- When they moved to LA, David and Dean Haglund would hang around the editing room. David was an extrovert, Gillian an introvert. When David was directing the editing room door was open; when it was Gillian it was closed.
- He was on set when Darren McGavin worked for the last time. [“The Unnatural”] He shot his scenes, went home, had a stroke.
- He imitated Jon Landau’s voice for ADR for “FTF”; Jon later congratulated him.
- He came up with the name “The Wongs” for Glen & Jim. Joanne Service [Carter’s assistant] laughed, word of it got to Canada, it stuck.
- He told Carter that his directing job on “The List” was “just OK”. He expected to be fired. But Carter gave him a promotion instead! He supervised the editing of all 9 seasons for syndication.
- Carter is “old school”. He doesn’t want overwhelming music or sound effects. He wants to feel the scene, the acting, the editing. Frank Spotnitz has a good vibe, he is always smiling. Carter’s door was always open. Carter drove a white Toyota SUV with a surf board.
- One Saturday, Carter was rewriting “Alpha”. He wrote in a character named after him, Jeffrey Cahn, but Jeff told Chris that nobody actually mentions the name in the dialogue. By the time the episode was finished, Mulder says the name several times.
- Writers would forget details, like when did Mulder last use his flashlight. They’d ask him, and he would go online and ask the fans, he got replies instantly.
- The day after “Home” aired, he was with Michael Stern [“Home” editor], Kim Manners walked in and said this is never going to be shown again.
- They’d work a lot and late, to 11 pm, 1 am. Carter and Spotnitz would wait for a VHS to show to somebody, the producer cut, the studio cut, etc. One night at like 1 am he tripped on the power cord of the Avid, and they had to start all over again. [Note to Gen Z: VHS recording happens in real time, there is no way to accelerate the process like when copying a digital file.]
- The writers eventually got themselves in corner. He told Carter that the mythology was getting too convoluted. He was not a fan of the William storyline.
- They were all proud of working on the show. Even the security guard at the studio lot had printed business cards with his name and TXF logo!
Tags: 1013interviews, jeff cahn, thexfiles, xfilesmuseum
Leave a Reply