One such case would be the disappearance of Kari Lynn Nixon. Robert Stacks narrations of certain cases made them much more ominous. Many of these cases and segments have stuck with me years later. ![]() The CasesĪ byproduct of “Unsolved Mysteries” was that, for better or worse, its kitchen-sink approach created a sense of equivalency among seemingly disparate cases: A child murderer might get the same basic treatment as a conspiracy theory about the death of Elvis Presley.Unsolved Mysteries was my foray into becoming a lover of True crime. And Jim Beaver (“Supernatural,” “Deadwood”) appeared as an expert on the history of the “Superman” star George Reeves, convincingly arguing that Reeves’s suicide was correctly solved. In the next season, the future “Hawaii Five-0” star Daniel Dae Kim appeared briefly as the brother-in-law of Su Ya Kim, whose murder remains unsolved.Ī young Taran Killam (“Saturday Night Live”), Robert Stack’s great-nephew, appeared in Season 7. Matthew McConaughey appeared in a Season 5 episode as the murder victim of Edward Bell, who was arrested with the help of viewer tips shortly after the episode aired. Most of the performances in these dramatizations wouldn’t make an actor’s highlight reel, but familiar faces pop up throughout the run of the series. These were famous crime solvers, further blurring the line between news and fiction in a way that continued on TV in the years to come.Ī hallmark of “Unsolved Mysteries” became the re-creations of horrific crimes and unexplainable events. ![]() Episodes included a disclaimer that ended, “What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.” Even the show’s casting recalled scripted crime dramas - Raymond Burr had played Perry Mason and Robert Stack had played Eliot Ness. When “Unsolved Mysteries” premiered, NBC was careful to distinguish it from the programming coming out of its news division. ![]() Hosted by Dennis Farina, it often confused viewers by presenting cases that were no longer unsolved. In 2008, Spike TV launched the first real reboot of the show, but it merely repackaged old segments instead of producing new ones. “Unsolved Mysteries” was claimed by Lifetime, which had already been airing reruns of the show, and Stack returned until prostate cancer sidelined him and the show again in 2002. But it was often a lot of fun.Īfter nine seasons on NBC, “Unsolved Mysteries” was canceled and picked up by CBS, which tried to resurrect the program with shortened seasons and, briefly, a co-host in Virginia Madsen. It was sensationalistic, it had low-budget aesthetic, and the dramatizations could be downright sleazy and laughable. In 1988, NBC turned the program into a weekly offering and made Stack the full-time host. Raymond Burr hosted the pilot of “Unsolved Mysteries” in January 1987, followed by two more specials hosted by Karl Malden and another four hosted by the actor Robert Stack, perhaps best known for his Emmy-winning role in “The Untouchables” (1959-63). The HistoryĬreated by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer, “Unsolved Mysteries” began in 1985 as a series of three specials - basically televised versions of milk carton alerts - titled “Missing … Have You Seen This Person?” The specials proved successful enough to expand the concept into something encompassing different kinds of mysteries, including unsolved crimes, lost loves, paranormal activity and alien abductions. In the years since its heyday in the late ’80s and ’90s, imitators have come and gone, but “Unsolved Mysteries” remains. ![]() What abides is its focus on the unexplained, whether pulled from old police files or steeped in paranormal legend. When the Netflix reboot debuts on Wednesday, the theme music will be familiar, but much else will have changed, including the format. Not so much with those involving Bigfoot and haunted houses. Unlike the regular news broadcasts of its day, “Unsolved Mysteries” urged viewers to get involved and call in with tips, leading many of the cases to be solved with the help of everyday people. Spawned from a series of prime-time missing-persons specials in 1985, the original “Unsolved Mysteries” laid some of the foundation for the modern true-crime phenomenon, turning regular citizens into detectives, paranormal investigators and U.F.O.
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