I know that there has been some discussion about the differences in UM's production between the NBC, CBS, and Lifetime episodes. So what do you think the best produced UM segment is?

I'm not sure if it's the best, but I would cast a vote for the NBC "Son of Sam" segment (it was really creepy) or the Tami Lynn Leppart segment (The shot of her breaking the big bay window with a baseball bat was really well done.)

Your thoughts?

I always felt the Eliot Ness sequence was excellent and brought out a side to Ness that I wasn't familiar with (the torso murders?).
I also liked how moving the story was about the man who wanted to contact his long lost daughter that he had abandoned years ago. It was the case where he had fallen in love with the neighbor girl, she got pregnant and her parents were opposed to them being together (they were going to charge him with statutory rape). He ran off to avoid the police and a year later he met up with the girl again- she was working at a diner. When she had him come over to see the baby, he saw the mother was there and ran off yet again. I liked this segment because you could tell that years later he was very sorry for what he had done, and he knew that he had done the wrong thing by running away when things got tough. I liked how they found the daughter and showed a segment of them meeting, including the biological mother's perspective. This was a great segment because it was complex, not overly moralizing. It let the viewer draw their own conclusions.

100th Post!!!!!!!!! It's hard to chose which ones, they're all so Great in there own way!

I vote for the Unabomber/Zodiac episode - the shots of the Zodiac shooting at the kids in the car are so well composed.

"Son Of Sam" is a good one production wise, "Kurt Sova" is another one that was extremely well done. But I think I would have to give the nod to "Rick Church" because that whole segment was extremely well put together and I think the actors who portrayed Rick Church and Colleen Ritter did an extemely good job of portraying the horror of those events.

In fact the whole episode plays out like a real creepy low budget horror flick which is a good thing because it comes off very well. There are also some nice "little touches" in this segment (The Springsteen poster on Church's wall) which I don't know, the attention to detail is very pronounced in this segment.

I thought the I-70 Killer segment was put together extremely well. It had the over-the-top sinister music. The dialogue between the black customer and the killer was very suspenseful. The composite scared the crap out of me and the actor who played the killer looked so believable that he truly frightened me.

Also, the segment with Matthew McConaughey was excellent because it felt so real.

I'd say the worst one was the attempted poisoning of the husband by that b*tch who wanted to beef her husband up because he was to small for her fat ass. "That man, he took Jonathon!":lol:

the worst segement was the one with david stone and "the beast" the acting was awful, the story was pretty pointless and it was pretty obvious what happened.

the best produced may be the Matthew McConaughey segment, creepy, well acted and chilling.

honorable mention to the "tamiyasu" segment. it was comical.

I thought the I-70 Killer segment was put together extremely well. It had the over-the-top sinister music. The dialogue between the black customer and the killer was very suspenseful. The composite scared the crap out of me and the actor who played the killer looked so believable that he truly frightened me.

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Yeah that one was killer (no pun intended) ... when the customer comes in the store and the guy's like, "Hey, come back here!" and the customer's like: "No! I'm not going back there!!!" ... and that goes on for a minute or two. I still can't get over that this guy who went into seemingly random strip mall stores and murdered people for NO REASON ended up letting this guy just WALK OUT!?!?!

Great question cricci! I've always like the Aileen Conway segment. The filming out on the rural road and then showing her house empty with the sliding glass door open and curtain blowing and the bathtub full of water and phone off the hook was downright eerie! I also like the Kathy Bonderson and Sherry Eyerly cases for how they were filmed in the dark and gave a spooky feel. Also the Patricia Meehan story when she was out walking in that moonlit field.

The one that they showed yesterday was beautifully done. The one about Todd Kelly's murder. It was very realistic. The casting was excellent. The Mafous Huck character was very creepy, Christy and Todd Kelly's characters were the epitome of 80s cheese. Nice sunglasses, Todd. Were those Oakley knock-offs from the flea market?:lol:

Yeah that one was killer (no pun intended) ... when the customer comes in the store and the guy's like, "Hey, come back here!" and the customer's like: "No! I'm not going back there!!!" ... and that goes on for a minute or two. I still can't get over that this guy who went into seemingly random strip mall stores and murdered people for NO REASON ended up letting this guy just WALK OUT!?!?!

Yeah, that was the luckiest man alive at that moment. The actor that played the killer looked very deranged and angry. That scene creeped me out. I kind of laughed when the customer said "Look man, I don't know what's going on here". That scene is one of those instances where something made my skin crawl and was humorous at the same time.

Also the Patricia Meehan story when she was out walking in that moonlit field


I've said a few times that I'm from Montana. I remember Missing Persons ads running for her on TV when this happened. I can't believe that she's still missing.

The one that they showed yesterday was beautifully done. The one about Todd Kelly's murder. It was very realistic. The casting was excellent. The Mafous Huck character was very creepy, Christy and Todd Kelly's characters were the epitome of 80s cheese.

That segment creeps me out. I saw if for the first time when I was 22 or 23 and I was so creeped out I couldn't sleep. I shudder to think of my reaction to it had I seen it at the time it originally aired....

I like the one where the two ladies and a grandson encountered a strange aircraft near Houston. They then saw American Military guys, the ladies and the kid got sick, and the government now denies any knowledge. Seems like stuff was coming down from the sky too.

I feel for those people....

Rick Church and Dennis Depue definitely come to mind as well done episodes. Like many have noted,those were like mini-indy films that just had an eerie "feeling". When I was yonger one of my biggest fears was me or my family falling victim to a random shooting,so naturally I was petrified by the Blind River and Larry George cases.These segements were short but will probably stick in my mind forever.

But best produced? Well as a history buff I treasure the segments covering the events around Rev. Martin Luther King and John Wilkes Booth. They had many theories that I hadn't heard of. I also thought the case about the man who was kidnapped in Beirut was done very well.

I'd say the Georgia Rudolph episode is by far the most in depth, well-done and researched Reincarnation episode. The music and the storytelling all contribute greatly to the segment.

The Georgia Rudolph episode ranks up there as possibly one of the best produced segments on all of UM. Something about it makes it all the more eerier.

Also, Coral Polge.....the opening shot of the man being drawn and the start-up music for that segment......"I have a young lad here who doesn't know quite how he died......" The whole idea of drawing people that have passed on to another realm intrigues me. The whole showing of their portraits and photos really got me. awesome.

greatgarrett2

Yes there are many to choose from. I have actually been thinking about this recently. I think the segment about Larry and Debbie Race's boatride that turned drastic ranks up there. The way they were able to film this all in the lake, and the way the actress who played Debbie acted out her part. You get a full idea about just how panic stricken Debbie must have been aboard a boat that was sinking in the middle of a freezing body of water. This segment was done so well you almost feel like you are watching the real thing and not a re-creation. Very suspensful, even though you know how things are going to turn out.

Other segment done well would be L'Enfant, they way they use that trademark atonal background music as Bashir takes a threatning call. Whistle Blown also utilizes backdrop music and footage well.

Yes there are many to choose from. I have actually been thinking about this recently. I think the segment about Larry and Debbie Race's boatride that turned drastic ranks up there. The way they were able to film this all in the lake, and the way the actress who played Debbie acted out her part. You get a full idea about just how panic stricken Debbie must have been aboard a boat that was sinking in the middle of a freezing body of water. This segment was done so well you almost feel like you are watching the real thing and not a re-creation. Very suspensful, even though you know how things are going to turn out.

You are absolutely right. I didn't see this segment until about a year ago, and it haunted me for a few days afterward. The actress that played Debbie was AWESOME, although one could make the argument that her performance was a little over the top. Despite that, it was a well-done segment that sticks with you.

My personal favorite Um segments are of psychic Dorthy Allison, Kathy Hobbs murder, the disapperance of Kerry Lynn Nixon, and the murder of Joyce McClain. Also the very first ones that have never aired with the other hosts. I would love to be able to see those segments again.

I will have to add the case where Marvin and Sandra Maple abduct their grandchildren, Christy and Bobby Baskin from Murfreesboro, TN. I believe that the Baskins played themselves in the re-enactment scenes, the music is beautiful and the segment makes you feel what ordeal the parents went through. The update was so creepy too, especially the music mixed with the images of the home videos and the age-enhanced composites of the kids.

I think the Tami Lynn Leppert segment was really well done...you got a real sense of how she was losing a grip on reality as she began to fear for her life....the day she "lost it" when she smashed the window with the baseball bat thinking she'd been locked out was very well acted by the girl who played Tami....and the way they did her make-up to give the impression of her taking on a wild, paranoid persona was excellent too....

i also think the UFO segments were very well done...excellent use of computer tricks and special effects to really immerse you in the stories..in particular, the Roswell case, Hudson River Valley, and the Bentwaters case in the UK

I totally agree with you studster about Tami Leppert. That scene with her smashing the window with a baseball bat is very memorable!

Another one I'd like to add is one thats talked about very little on here. An older one about Jack Brown the guy from Michigan who was murdered in his office and no one seems to know why. I thought the actual shooting scene was very well done. The cameraman is panning around pretty quickly and there is total chaos and everyone yelling that made it seem very realistic.

There's just too many to choose from. :D

I would agree, though, with the posters who mentioned the I-70 serial killer. It had it all; good acting, terrifying music, and a creepy composite sketch.:eek:

Hmm, how about all of them.

The Marie Hilley segment

There have been a few numerous repeat segments when UM was running on Prime here in Canada.......they'd get recycled about every couple of months and the cycle would start over again with the same cases.

One case that sticks out in my mind was the Edward Harold Bell segment. The actresses that played Larry Dickens's sister and the woman whose house was intruded on gave a really good sense of how much hatred they had for him. Plus, the actress that played Larry's mother did a good job of showing how devastated she must have been.

As mentioned before, other well acted moments are Tammy Lynn Lepperts actress smashing the window, and Pat Meehan's actress walking off into the moonlit field. Actually, all of Tammy's paranoid's actions were memorable, there was some great dialouge in that segment:

Tammy (glaring): "What are you looking at?"
Wing Flanagan: "I wasn't looking at anything."

Tammy: "Look out that window and tell me what you see."
Wing Flanagan: "Well, the neighbors got a new van."
Tammy: "Exactly."

I'd have to go with the segment about Jill and Julie Hansen. The actor that played Donnie Hansen was creepy, especially during the scene when he was being interviewed by the policeman. What really got me is that Julie Hansen survived the fire, but ended up dying in the hospital when an airbubble got into her IV tube & it stopped her heart. So heartbreaking, feel so sorry for the parents.

That segment creeps me out. I saw if for the first time when I was 22 or 23 and I was so creeped out I couldn't sleep. I shudder to think of my reaction to it had I seen it at the time it originally aired.... I love that segment for another reason...for Mafouz Haq's actor's angry yell when he stabs Todd in the re-enactment. "YAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" :lol:

I'd say the worst one was the attempted poisoning of the husband by that b*tch who wanted to beef her husband up because he was to small for her fat ass. "That man, he took Jonathon!"

Thats funny.

One case that sticks out in my mind was the Edward Harold Bell segment. The actresses that played Larry Dickens's sister and the woman whose house was intruded on gave a really good sense of how much hatred they had for him. Plus, the actress that played Larry's mother did a good job of showing how devastated she must have been. "

I can't believe I failed to mention this segment has one of the most famous actors that UM has ever had on their show: Matthew McCounagehey. Is it just me, or does he get upstaged by a bunch of unknowns?:lol: Not his fault though, he didn't have that many speaking lines.

Definitely Richard's Rampage. The actress who played Colleen Ritter was amazing and it was just really well done.

Son of Sam is a close second for me, but it does have the cheesy moments of Berkowitz leering and the "what took you guys so long?" is pretty hilarious.

A reply in another thread brought one to mind for me: Dorothy Allison.

The Eric Kessler segment is a close second.

I think alot of the early 90's ones were well put together, like the ones about serial killers like the I-70 killer, Connecticut River killer, New Orleans killer, etc. The music was suspenseful and scenarios were played out well.

I also thought the Logan Carroll episode was produced well. The woman who played Logan's mom Tami was very convincing as a hysterical mother who lost her newborn.

The Circleville Letters. It's one case that always stands out to me and while not one of the scariest segments, still manages to this day to give me the creeps. The menacing voice used for the letter writer, the acting, and the scenes with the actress playing Mary Gillespie finding the gun trap on the road...it was extremely well done.

The episodes on NBC to me were the ones that did the best job of telling the story, scarying the crap out me, and making me wonder what the heck happened.

My personal favorite:

The KC Fire Fighters Arson Story- I thought they did a great job of building the basics of the back story, the incident, the aftermath, the victims and the impact on their families and the community and a call for Justice.

Also memorable
Son Of Sam
The Unabomber
Don Henry and Kevin Ives

Kecksburg UFO. For whatever reason I remember being majorly creeped out by this segment. Just starting from the opening scene where we see those two kids see the object fall into the forest and then later when people go in to investigate and see the object for the first time then later when the military shows up and the extremely cold way they were acting. Then I remember this part that really creeped me out. The citizens of the town said they later saw four men carrying a large box out of the forest. Someone said that the box looked too small to carry the actual object and wondered if there was something IN the object they were removing. I immediately assumed there were alien bodies in that box. Then later when the military leaves the town with the object a boy looks out his window and see the truck slowly roll past his house. Another moment that gives me creeps for some reason but the main moment I remember creeping me out severely was the final part of the segment when the investigator says something "I think there are only two possibilities when it comes to the object. That were are looking at a highly advanced space probe, possibly from a foreign nations, or there could be the possibility that this could be an extra terrestrial spacecraft". Then they show the show of the object flying across the sky with this really creepy music playing. Damn I am getting chills just thinking about it. Besides that though this segment I remember was really well made from a production standpoint and all the witnesses really seemed credible.

The Black Hope segment was really well done. I think that's a really stupid segment, but I can't say it wasn't produced well.

Other good ones I like are Dennis DePue, Eliot Ness, Sonny Liston, Zodiac/Unabomber theory, Roswell, and DB Cooper.

The Black Hope segment was really well done. I think that's a really stupid segment, but I can't say it wasn't produced well.

Other good ones I like are Dennis DePue, Eliot Ness, Sonny Liston, Zodiac/Unabomber theory, Roswell, and DB Cooper.

For me two that stand out are the orange sock murders and blind river killer segments. I thought the reenactments were good and the interviews were personal and chilling. In particular I thought the orange sock segment really did it well by focusing on the location and the conditions.

One of the best produced segments is one of the earliest: Eleanor Farber/John Burns. Good performances from the actors, the comments from the locals, and the overall narrative. With the Audrey Moate/Thomas Hotard segment, both the buildup to and the depiction of the murder came across as realistic.

The Georgia Rudolph segment was one the most beautifully produced, even if the actual story had more holes than swiss cheese.

Annette Burnside; Arthur Neal, the actor who portrayed Jim Burnside gave one of the best UM performances, imo. The Anna Anton/Greg Webb segment also had good performances by the actors who played them respectively, even Jerry Krieger had some hilarious on-spot parley with the guy portraying Webb.

Blind River!

I can't believe I forgot that one. It's really well done too.

Yes there are many to choose from. I have actually been thinking about this recently. I think the segment about Larry and Debbie Race's boatride that turned drastic ranks up there. The way they were able to film this all in the lake, and the way the actress who played Debbie acted out her part. You get a full idea about just how panic stricken Debbie must have been aboard a boat that was sinking in the middle of a freezing body of water. This segment was done so well you almost feel like you are watching the real thing and not a re-creation. Very suspensful, even though you know how things are going to turn out.

Other segment done well would be L'Enfant, they way they use that trademark atonal background music as Bashir takes a threatning call. Whistle Blown also utilizes backdrop music and footage well.
Oh yeah that backdrop music is chilling that you mention with L'enfant. I think it is also in the intro to the Swedish hitchhiker segment.

Another good one is the Aubrey moate segment. I'll never forget the first time I saw it on lifetime around 2003. It was very suspenseful and like the orange sock murders I felt like it really captures the location and puts the viewer in the story.

Glen and Bessie Hyde.

Glen and Bessie Hyde.
Yes! I love this one even after reading "Sunk Without a Sound" and learning about a lot of the inaccuracies. I love the music and the visuals of this one.

I still want to know whose bones those were in the boathouse and why Kolb had them. I think this is a bigger mystery than what happened to the couple, since it's pretty much a given that they fell out of the boat.

I really liked the Gold Buddha segment. It featured extensive reenactments of the treasure being found, Roger Roxas' time in captivity, and political intrigue. There are quite a few moments of suspense.

No votes for the magic rock? For shame.

The Nazi (Rudolph Hess) episode had a high production value. They actually had everyone dress up in authentic garb of the time, had authentic vehicles of the time, and hired actors to play top Nazi officials. That had to cost some dough and take quite some time to produce.

The Nazi (Rudolph Hess) episode had a high production value. They actually had everyone dress up in authentic garb of the time, had authentic vehicles of the time, and hired actors to play top Nazi officials. That had to cost some dough and take quite some time to produce.

This was exactly what I was going to post. From a strictly production based standpoint, the Hess segment has to be the very best UM has to offer. It’s pretty much perfect.

Debbie’s segment is the clear winner.

The Nazi (Rudolph Hess) episode had a high production value. They actually had everyone dress up in authentic garb of the time, had authentic vehicles of the time, and hired actors to play top Nazi officials. That had to cost some dough and take quite some time to produce.

Sorry, but it is SO riddled with errors.

As far as best-produced segments: Jim Baczkowski

Glen and Bessie Hyde.
yes...it just makes you want to go to the grand canyon doesn't it? I love the music in this segment as well.

For me, it would have to be the Audrey Moate and Thomas Chopard case. The vehicle 'Audrey' drove was a period car, and the woman playing Miss Caroline Slesher should have ended up with an Emmy.

The actress playing Tami Lynn Leppert was also very good, but I had a hard time getting past her hair. I know it was the style of the time, but her bangs are teased so high it looks as if she's wearing a wig.

The actress playing Tami Lynn Leppert was also very good, but I had a hard time getting past her hair. I know it was the style of the time, but her bangs are teased so high it looks as if she's wearing a wig.
It was definitely a wig, and a terrible one at that. I think they could have done a way better job, even if they didn't want to hire a blonde actress for the role. That wig was almost as bad as the one in the Pamela June Ray segment. :lol:

It was definitely a wig, and a terrible one at that.=

I KNEW IT!

It was definitely a wig, and a terrible one at that. I think they could have done a way better job, even if they didn't want to hire a blonde actress for the role.

Yeah, it was pretty bad. And the wig looked nothing like the real Tammy's hair. She had frizzy, shoulder length, blonde hair. The wig for the actress was straight and longer to her lower back and very light colored, which sometimes looked silver depending on the lighting of the scene.

Compare that to the Rhonda Hinson segment. The actress (who was so much a dead ringer for the real Rhonda that it bordered on creepy) actually posted here several years back and told us that the UM makeup/hair crew went through the long process of giving her actual hair those Farah Fawcett like curls, which was the style Rhonda and many girls from the early 80's wore.

But with the Tammy Leppert segment, it looks like they bought a cheap looking wig from the dollar store and put it on an actress who, granted she was pretty, didn't look at all much like the real Tammy. Maybe they were on a time budget and had to film in a hurry. This segment was filmed before the production values went down.

God yes Audrey Moate, also Georgia Rudolph. Agatha Christie probably gets my top vote. The actors were very good amd the sepia tone set the mood

Aside from the ones already mentioned:

New Hampshire serial killer
Michael Rosenblum
William Bradford Bishop

Clarence Roberts.

The concluding sequence in that graveyard is one of the best in the whole series, IMO.

Janice and Alyssa Owen