If you’ve ever spent long weekends watching the X-Files on DVD, re-living the glory days of Scully and Mulder as they chase after green aliens, battle sewer-lurking monsters and buck the entire system of Conspiracies and Lies, you must have taken note of the cars they consistently drove to and from the numerous occult towns, eerie villages and urban underbellies as they went solving one case after another.

If you grew up watching this series, then you pretty much have a good idea on how many times the Ford Taurus appears in many of the episodes.

As with many tidbits contained in the X-Files universe, I believed—for the longest time—that it was another fictitious brand name much like the pack of Morley’s that one of the Men In Black (Cigarette Smoking Man to be sure) always smoked.

Turns out, the Ford Taurus is real enough and not a figment of the writers’ imaginations. The name was given by Lewis Veraldi who helmed the team that developed and brought the Taurus models into production.

So the next time you watch those X-Files episodes and see these mid-size cars (front wheel drives, of course), then you know.

P.S.

The Ford Taurus was launched in 1985 to wide unexpected acclaim that would continue for years to come.