Ancient Alien Beginnings
The man pictured to the left is Erich Von Daniken. He is the author of the well known book, "Chariots of The Gods", which presented a controversial opinion on the origins of religion. He wrote this book as a hotel manager. The book was very popular and sprung his career as a very popular non-fiction writer. This popularity led to shows such as, "In Search of Ancient Astronauts", and various other books related on the topic of Ancient Aliens. This has earned him the title, "the father of the Ancient Astronaut Theory". Von Daniken also spent some time in prison on financial charges and fraud.
Erich Von Daniken's, "Chariots of the Gods", was an international bestseller. This book presented the main ideas of the Ancient Astronaut Theory in a form in which was interesting and possibly shocking to the reader. Most people have not heard of such a theory before this book was written, so it was convincing with all the "evidence" that was thrown at the reader. The book gave new explanations to artifacts and structures, ancient artwork, and the origins of world religions. Many of the ideas presented in the book were considered to be false and pseudo-scientific by scientists and historians. It was also proven in 2004, in Skeptic magazine that Von Daniken plagarized many of the concepts in his book.
With that said, these series of events have lead to the explosion of interest in pseudo-scientific topics including Ancient Aliens. Whether Von Daniken plagiarized material or not, he and his book, "Chariots of the Gods", are responsible for the topics increased interest. They directly lead to the production of popular television shows and many other materials that have spread the theory to the masses. Von Daniken set the ball rolling to what we have today in our modern day media. Some television channels are focusing solely on pseudo-scientific material because of the attention they are bringing along with it. The time is right for this type of material and producers are taking advantage of that.