2. The Lone Gunmen
Fan favourites ever since their first appearance in season one's E.B.E., The Lone Gunmen appeared sporadically throughout The X-Files. They were even given their own episodes in Unusual Suspects and Three Of A Kind, but it wasn't until the show's Eighth season that they would have their own spin-off, coming just a tad too late. Interest in The X-Files had started to wane by this point, and David Duchovny leaving the series didn't help much either. If The Lone Gunmen had been produced just one season earlier, there would have been a bigger audience willing to watch it. This would arguably have allowed its parent show to bow out gracefully while it took over. Instead The Lone Gunmen had only one season, while The X-Files went on too long. The Lone Gunmen was a perfect successor in so many ways; it continued the conspiracy theory elements The X-Files was so famous for, but gave them enough of a fresh twist by focusing on the technological rather than supernatural. Not that these mysteries were all so entrenched in hacking so as to alienate the average viewer, cases involved proving the innocence of a death row inmate, discovering how a Children's TV show was being used to transmit secrets to China, and even helping an intelligent Chimp from escaping a research facility. Ok, so maybe a bit more different than The X-Files than I may have originally implied, but it was nonetheless still entertaining in its own right, and Three Men And A Smoking Diaper managed to mix baby humour and genuine political commentary in a way that is much needed on our TV screens.