This IS my idea of a good time

In Back to the Future, Marty McFly journeyed from the '80s to 2015. But on Oct. 24, I went back to the past -- the '90s to be specific.

The first event was the inaugural Entertainment Weekly Fest, which I had just found out about a couple days earlier, thanks to a tweet sent by a friend I had met just a couple weeks earlier at the New York Comic Con X-Files Meetup. And this was a doozy too.

She said X-Files creator/executive producer/director Chris Carter would be doing a panel at EW Fest. But what she didn't know was that Darin Morgan, my favorite writer from the show, also would be on hand. And that news about sent me to another planet, because he was someone I've always wanted to see/meet very badly.

So I trekked in to the Industria Superstudio in Manhattan to enjoy the event with a growing circle of friends I've made in recent weeks on The X-Files front. I saw a screening of the Halloween episode of You're the Worst first, and that was entertaining enough, but all I could really think about was the XF panel.

After standing crookedly and rather uncomfortably on a slanted ramp for the better part of an hour, we were allowed in to the panel room. I sat with my friends, Rachel, who bemoans the fact that the show didn't use a show bible to keep proper track of its facts and history, and Ana, who never did get a satisfactory answer to her question about why Mulder and Scully couldn't weather a few bumps in the road after all they had been through. Their reactions to particular moments in the panel made it even more fun.

When moderator Jeff Jensen introduced Chris and Darin, there was a third person in tow -- Glen Morgan, Darin's brother and another exceptional writer for the show. Frankly, I wouldn't have been happier with the actors from the show, because the writing aspect always has and continues to fascinate me. (And maybe because I just sat in on the acting panel a couple weeks before.)

Now for a couple days, I had prepared what I would say and how I would ask my question. And then Jeff Jensen stole my thunder, almost with my same exact wonders. He proclaimed Darin's episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" to not only be his favorite of the show's run, but also of television in general and then asked how he came up with such an intricate plot.

Anyway, Darin said all he initially had for the opening of his fourth and final episode from the series' initial run was the opening sequence in which two teenagers are abducted by two "aliens," who in turn are then menaced by a different species of alien. And when he pitched that idea, he was told never to bring it up again. Sure glad he did, though!

The title character of the episode, author Jose Chung (played so memorably by Charles Nelson Reilly) was fleshed out after Morgan saw actors auditioning for a previous episode of his, "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose." As Darin explained, the actor reminded him of Truman Capote, and although he wasn't ultimately hired for the role, it did provide the impetus for turning Jose Chung into a quirky writer investing an alien abduction story.

For every story I had already heard at the panel, such as how the controversial episode "Home" stemmed from a story in a biography Glen read on Charlie Chaplin, there was one I didn't know, like how Glen and writing partner James Wong came up with their initial baddie Tooms while locked away in a "little box of an office" trying to find something to hang an episode on. They looked up at a small vent and wondered what would happen if someone came through it. Chris had been to France and was going on and on about "foie gras," and thus the idea that the man who could fit through small vents was searching for livers to harvest.

Speaking of "Home," Glen cracked up the room by admitting he called the episode he wrote for the revival "Home Again" merely to stir up fans on the internet. That scheme has definitely worked, by the way, as social media has gone wild expecting a sequel to the incestuous baddies' story.

Darin said playing the Fluke Man in an early episode gave him special insight into actors having to wear costumes when he later became a director and also said that The X-Files was the only show that was never besieged by network interference. He got to write scripts the way he wanted to, and that was the reason he was interested in coming back for the revival. He also revealed that his episode will be called "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster."

Glen added that, of all the shows he's ever worked on, XF is the only one he's come up with ideas after the run ended. And Chris said that once again, the time seems to be right with people very interested in the concept of conspiracies within the government.

When they "got the band back together," the panel participants and other show creative forces such as Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan and Howard Gordon got together to discuss how they could make it work. The other three had current projects that precluded their involvement. "We're the only losers who didn't have anything else to do," Glen laughed.

I got my courage up to ask the second part of my original "Jose Chung" question (about the Detective Manners character and my favorite TV director Kim Manners), and Jeff Jensen actually signaled for me to ask the last question of the session, but new friend Roileigh (of X-Files News) got to and really stirred the crowd into another frenzy by asking about whether Mulder and Scully were married -- based on comments David Duchovny has been making in the media. Chris quickly put the kibosh on that idea.

EW Fest came up with the brilliant idea of "funneling" participants from the panel into a neighboring room for autographs, so we gleefully skipped off to wait on line. At that point, only Chris' name was listed for the session, but the brothers Morgan also joined in and I wasn't real sure I'd be able to stay vertical.

I got to Chris first and used part of my prepared speech, "Thank you for creating and nurturing my all-time favorite television show." And he genuinely thanked me, then called attention to the XF jacket I was wearing. It had indeed been popular that day, but acknowledgment from THE man almost stopped me in my tracks. Almost.

Instead of the series poster he was signing for everyone, I had him sign my "yearbook," which is a really nice keepsake after less than a year's worth of show-related autographs. And then I made way over to Glen Morgan, with my page for Darin already picked out. And then something really unexpected happened.

Glen just burst out laughing. I mean the kind of side-splitting laughter that probably would only emanate from one sibling making fun of another. He really was amused by the picture of Darin. That, of course, piqued the interest and attention of both Darin and Chris and they looked over at it as well. Darin probably hasn't frowned that much since he played Eddie Van Blundht in the XF episode "Small Potatoes." He was pretty unhappy with the picture, probably again because of the joy Glen was getting out of it.

I was definitely thrown off my game about that. After the laughter subsided and it was just me talking to Darin, I babbled something akin to "'Jose Chung' is my favorite episode of television ever. I want to be buried with a copy of it."

My spectacular friends combined to get pictures of me during all this, and it just goes to show what going to a sparsely attended meetup at a huge convention can ultimately do for you. I have people to talk XF with and they also look out for me.

We were at the very bottom of the ramp discussing our good fortune when Glen, Darin and Chris filed out before us. I said good-bye to them individually by name and got different reactions from each. Glen said "bye," Darin smiled brightly and Chris stopped for a second as though he was trying to place me from somewhere else.

Later, I was off to see Garbage, a band that I loved since the '90s but never actually got to see in person for the 20th anniversary of their first album, they've been doing a tour in which they only perform songs written in 1995-'96.

The thing that has always made the group special to me was the fact that a self-effacing woman with serious lungs -- Shirley Manson -- fronts some powerful musicians (including Nirvana producer Butch Vig). She takes the piss out of herself in her lyrics, but still comes off as empowering and inspiring. And the band tells the tale that they had heard many female singers who could scream out a tune, but no one even came near to doing what Shirley did.

With lyrics such as "This is not my idea of a good time" or "I'm only happy when it rains" or "When I grow up, I'll be stable," she always sang the truth while admitting that while situations might not be ideal, they could be handled and she'd come out stronger on the other side.

And actually still does. Sporting pink hair reminiscent of the color of that first release, Shirley's still a knockout singer who can hit all the notes and draw all the emotion out of every song. From start to finish, she still gallops around the stage and bends herself backward in ways that no one who has been doing this for 20 years should be able to do.

Whether it was hits such as "Stupid Girl," "Queer," "Milk," "I Think I'm Paranoid" or lesser-knowns such as "Butterfly Collector" or "Driving Lesson," the audience was enraptured. They didn't sit all night! (Well, OK, I admit I did. After walking around the city all day, I couldn't keep up. But I was still spellbound.

Shirley got emotional over being in the Brooklyn venue, the Kings Theater -- which reminded her of her first concert experience and how she dreamed of someday being up on the stage, the very place she was at that moment. How lucky were we to share that with her? Just like I'm able to share both these experiences with all of you now.