Millennium (season 1)

Millennium (season 1)
Season 1 DVD cover
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	22
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	October 25, 1996 – May 16, 1997
Season chronology
Next → Season 2
List of Millennium episodes

The first season of the serial crime-thriller television series Millennium commenced airing in the United States on October 25, 1996, concluding on May 16, 1997, and consisting of twenty-two episodes. It tells the story of retired FBI Agent Frank Black (Lance Henriksen). Black has moved to Seattle, Washington with his family and has begun working with a mysterious organization known only as the Millennium Group. He investigates cases with members of the Group and the Seattle Police Department, contributing his remarkable capability of relating to the monsters responsible for horrific crimes. He finds that his daughter has inherited the same "gift" that he has, while the cases become increasingly more personal.

Critics received season one well. Although the show got the highest number of viewers for a pilot episode for the Fox Network at the time, it steadily dropped in the ratings, which led to it losing the Sunday slot to its sister show, The X-Files. The main cast of the show were Henriksen as Frank Black and Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black.

The original idea behind Millennium came from an episode of The X-Files Chris Carter had written about a serial killer. The episode got Carter thinking about the "monsters" who lurked in the shadows. Later, he started to flesh out a character which would become Frank Black, but he was busy working with other projects at the time. In the mid-1990s, after the success of The X-Files, the Fox Network asked Carter if he could create another show for them.