How would you improve the new UM and who would you want to host it ??

I would like them to use the old music and maybe have Peter Graves as host of UM.

I would cancel it and bring back reruns of the old shows. The host would be Robert Stack.

I would cancel it and bring back reruns of the old shows. The host would be Robert Stack.

is the new show that bad? i haven't had a chance to watch it yet

I would actually like the show to tackle all new cases, but revert to the old show's slow, eerie format and brilliant music. Farina doesn't "stack" up, but I suppose I could eventually live with him if all the other changes were made. Announcing dates is also an absolute must, and I don't like the new show's irritating over-reliance on on-screen text.
The sole aspect of the new show I prefer to the old one is the concentration on crime cases. I always disliked the segments on miracles and ghosts, and other such supernatural drivel.

Dates would be nice.

The 1st case today named clues that were dependant on when a certain poison was purchased, but they gave no dates.

Give the dates these stories happened.

Only put in 4 segments per hour and knock off all the editing.

Give a phone number in addition to an email address for people that have tips.
That would give all those actors in the call center something to do, lol.

I would cancel it and bring back reruns of the old shows. The host would be Robert Stack.
i agree. it's not that bad of a show, but the new host just doesn't have the voice to scare me and the music doesn't scare me either. and what's the point in showing old shows with new commentary? just show reruns of the old shows.. i wonder who was the genius behind this. they should do more current events too.

I would replace Dennis Farina with one of these actors

1. Dennis Haysbert (actor who starred in 24, Major League, The Unit)
2. The narrator who does "City Confidential" {not the late Paul Winfield, the current guy}
3. Martin Sheen
4. Jeremy Irons
5. Jonathan Frakes (played Commander Riker in Star Trek)

^ I think Jonathan Frakes could be a good narrator. I would lose less music and sound effects on certain segments.

Sometimes, there's no better way to improve a show than by returning it to its roots. Although some changes may be inevitable, there will always be things that don't need to be changed.

Having said that, if I had the chance to improve the show, I would do so by curtailing the fast-paced nature of the re-edited segments. However, I would keep Dennis Farina as the host. I would just have him change his vocal interpretation so that it would be more compatible with the atmosphere of the show. I believe that Farina can and will improve his performance on the show. It just may take some time, especially since he is still the new host.

Being typecast in law enforcement roles (including that of Eliot Ness) was something that Robert Stack parlayed into UM. He did it so well that it is one of those qualities that makes the host. Dennis Farina himself, of course, was a cop before he became an actor. He too became typecast as cops and tough guys. The combination of that typecasting and his history of working in law enforcement made him an appropriate selection to be the new host.

It is interesting to note that neither Stack nor Farina had a lot of narrating experience prior to hosting UM. So one has to wonder if that was just a coincidence, or if the UM staff had advance knowledge of it and preferred to hire someone who was not "typecast" as a narrator.

The narrator who does "City Confidential" {not the late Paul Winfield, the current guy}

That would be Keith David. But he's not "the current guy" anymore, since City Confidential is no longer in production. Of the people you listed, he's the most ideal.

As for the others you listed, Jonathan Frakes is a good actor. PRO: He hosted the show Beyond Belief: Fact of Fiction, which gave him a presence that he was able to work into the show. CON: He doesn't offer much in terms of providing a law enforcement image.

Martin Sheen is a good actor, and has shown his talents in a lot of work, such as the Stephen King movie The Dead Zone. But he would be a controversial choice for a show like UM (hint: google his name and "cop killer"). For this reason, bringing someone like Sheen onboard would be counterproductive.

Dennis Haysbert has that authoritative-sounding voice, but he would be unlikely to take the hosting job at this point, even if he wanted it. He is currently busy with his own TV show (The Unit) and will probably remain so for another couple of years.

Jeremy Irons is another good, talented actor, but I'm not sure what he would add to UM. Besides, with his busy schedule as a movie actor, it's unlikely that he would commit to a long TV run.

Being typecast in law enforcement roles (including that of Eliot Ness) was something that Robert Stack parlayed into UM. He did it so well that it is one of those qualities that makes the host. Dennis Farina himself, of course, was a cop before he became an actor. He too became typecast as cops and tough guys. The combination of that typecasting and his history of working in law enforcement made him an appropriate selection to be the new host.
Farina may have the law enforcement credentials, and he may be a nice guy, but I think most people here agree, he doesn't have the somber, mysterious presence of someone like Stack. His affect, voice, and inflection are not appropriate for the show, at least in comparison to the version of old. All those nonsensical pauses he injects into his narration don't confer authority onto it.

I thought today's episodes were actually reedited well and Dennis did good narration.

Farina may have the law enforcement credentials, and he may be a nice guy, but I think most people here agree, he doesn't have the somber, mysterious presence of someone like Stack. His affect, voice, and inflection are not appropriate for the show, at least in comparison to the version of old.

Well, maybe Dennis Farina will do some tweaking on that as time goes on. Who knows? :idea:

However, IMHO, some of the host ideas mentioned on this thread leave something to be desired. But I realize that no matter who eventually became the new host, and no matter how compatible that new host was, not everyone was going to be satisfied. Needless to say, Robert Stack is a tough act to follow.

By the way, I must admit that I sometimes wonder who Robert Stack would have wanted as his UM successor. Has anyone here ever wondered the same thing?

---Farina may have the law enforcement credentials, and he may be a nice guy, but I think most people here agree, he doesn't have the somber, mysterious presence of someone like Stack. His affect, voice, and inflection are not appropriate for the show, at least in comparison to the version of old.---

The problem with Farina's voice is that he has too much of a trace of Chicago/Italian accent in his voice.

It's kind of like having Robert DeNiro or Paul Sorvino doing Unsolved Mysteries.

if you are looking for someone with a law enforcement image, how about Andre Braugher of Homicide fame?

Also Sam Shepard of L & O fame. I'm pretty sure he;s coming close to the end of his run on that show.

It's kind of a shame but one person who would be perfect but is too old now, would be Leonard Nimoy (everyone remember "In Search of.."?

Well, Robert Stack continued to host UM when he was older than Leonard Nimoy is now (Nimoy is now 77 years old). However, Leonard Nimoy retired from acting a few years ago to focus on photography. So if he does any more TV/movie work in the future, chances are it will only be limited to short-term projects (such as bit parts, TV guest appearances, and perhaps narrating specials).

As for someone who might be "perfect" for UM, I would say Robert Davi. He would have provided a great presence on the show. Davi played an FBI agent on the NBC TV series Profiler, so he would have effectively worked that law enforcement image into the show.

I'd get rid of the new format, and bring back the old way they did things. No more tacky effects, cheap rock music, lack of dates, and so on. Above all else, there would be new cases. It's pointless to redo old cases. Spike should just show the old UM with Stack.

On the subject of hosts, I like Farina but Keith David would be a better host for UM. Dare I say it, he could probably even outdo Stack.

What he said ^^

I like the idea of Jonathan Frakes as host as well, although Bill Kurtis is my dream host for UM...haha. No one will ever be able to fill Stack's shoes though...no one.

Bring back the old music and cut out the rock music for the segments but most of all......GIVE US DATES!

Dates...the dates the events happened. EVERY segment should cover who, what, WHEN, where, why, how, and how much. This is just carelss and lazy. Furthermore, it makes the hsow look bad to anyone who wa snot originally a fan. All the segments have been cleaned up (to look crisp on TV). But hairstyles, glasses (i.e. GIANT glasses), cars etc are now at least 20 years outdated on some segments. This looks like everyone involved with the show is 20 years behind the times.

The biggest improvement would have to be adding new segments. Are they that hard/expensive to produce? I know you need to do the reinactments, but seriously, they're not acted by Philip Seymour Hoffman. There are SO many new and compelling cases out there, which participants in the listserve have noted.

For me the big "hook" of the show back in the 80's and 90's was that these were new mysteries (less than 1 yr. old) that were fascinating. The real public service aspect of the show was giving the cases a national audience, and God knows how many cases were solved by viewer tips THAT OTHERWISE MIGHT NEVER HAVE BEEN SOLVED. There was a case on recently where an immmigrant man murdered his wife and disappeared to Canada. He was located as a sole result of someone watching UM. What are the chances he would've been caught w/o the show?

I want to return to the time when Stack's opening rang true, "For every mystery there's someone somewhere who knows the truth. . . Perhaps that person is watching . . . Perhaps it's you."

Dates would be nice.

The 1st case today named clues that were dependant on when a certain poison was purchased, but they gave no dates.

After having switched to a full screen, if they include dates, I can live with this new version. I know that we will never get back the old UM so this new version with dates is probably as good as it will get and I can accept that.

Farina's a joke as host. Stack and Burr wer eboth good (obviously, I prefer stack). Malden reminded me of a Mr. Magoo meets Inspector Gadget bumbling type and his voice inflection drove me nuts (horrible). In fairness to farina, the shortcomings are more with the show iteself and the presentation.


To answer the Thread's question (I gave one rant about dates not being mentioned earlier)... I wouldn't have made a new UM. Instead of dumping money into paying Farina, revamping old segments, etc, Spike should have purchased the UM library and just run reruns of old episodes.

Farina isn't worthy to lick the elbow patches on Stack's corduroy brown blazer he wears in some segments .

The biggest improvement would have to be adding new segments. Are they that hard/expensive to produce? I know you need to do the reinactments, but seriously, they're not acted by Philip Seymour Hoffman. There are SO many new and compelling cases out there, which participants in the listserve have noted.

For me the big "hook" of the show back in the 80's and 90's was that these were new mysteries (less than 1 yr. old) that were fascinating. The real public service aspect of the show was giving the cases a national audience, and God knows how many cases were solved by viewer tips THAT OTHERWISE MIGHT NEVER HAVE BEEN SOLVED. There was a case on recently where an immmigrant man murdered his wife and disappeared to Canada. He was located as a sole result of someone watching UM. What are the chances he would've been caught w/o the show?

I want to return to the time when Stack's opening rang true, "For every mystery there's someone somewhere who knows the truth. . . Perhaps that person is watching . . . Perhaps it's you."

Exactly! The money poured into revamping the older segments could have been used into doing new ones. Use the old ones, first and then when the new ones were ready, start showing those. Common sense would dictate that. However, if Spike wouldn't do that, just cut the rock music, fancy graphics, and the stupid NASA set and use the money for new segments. UM before didn't have a fancy call center, just cubicles with operators with computers. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Farina's a joke as host. Stack and Burr wer eboth good (obviously, I prefer stack). Malden reminded me of a Mr. Magoo meets Inspector Gadget bumbling type and his voice inflection drove me nuts (horrible). In fairness to farina, the shortcomings are more with the show iteself and the presentation.


To answer the Thread's question (I gave one rant about dates not being mentioned earlier)... I wouldn't have made a new UM. Instead of dumping money into paying Farina, revamping old segments, etc, Spike should have purchased the UM library and just run reruns of old episodes.

Farina isn't worthy to lick the elbow patches on Stack's corduroy brown blazer he wears in some segments .

Whatever....bitching about Farina will not make them summon up Robert Stack's ghost so he can film new cases and updates for you...so it's pointless..the producers don't give a rat's ass about that.

I'm glad they brought it back..I wish there were some improvements but....i can understand on some of the cases how the updates were scattered in the next episode, and how several cases have since been solved (as shown on this website). Doing the Lifetime route forever and cutting out important parts to put in text you have to read wouldn't work forever.

I agree with those who have expressed the notion that "it's new, and the Old UM isn't coming back." There is no point in wishing for something that can't come back. This makes it all the more mysterious, in my view, that Spike spent all this money and time repackaging these old mysteries and refuses to give dates in a half-assed attempt to hide the fact that these are old from the younger, hipper audience they think of as their core demographic, rather than buying the name unsolved Mysteries but applying it to new mysteries.

Also, does anyone else find it comically ridiculous that they have Dennis Farina in what appears to be a call center, only they don't take calls?

The other thing is: the old UM worked, to some degree, because the segments were long enough to get you invested in the mystery and "characters," so to speak, at least on a minimal level. With the recreations given a very small part in the show (presumably to avoid paying anything like royalties to the actors who played in them), it's hard to feel much connection to the mysteries they are describing.

Also, for a fan like me who is familiar with the longer, more detailed versions of the segments, this is a remarkably poor strategy.

I guess my biggest complaint (if you want to call it that) is this: it is not at all clear to me who these "new" episodes are for. Are they for the old fans? pretty clearly not. Are they meant to draw in new audiences? The whole format doesn't seem like hte kind of thing likely to engage younger viewers, and picking an older actor who'd been off even the small screen for a few years in Dennis Farina doesn't help that.

The biggest Unsolved Mystery in my mind is why Spike TV agreed to spend just enough money to lose quite a bit of money on a bizarre hybrid show that neither satisifies existing fans nor seems likely to be much of a draw to new viewers, rather than either a) finding another show to buy that would require no new work on their part or b) developing the concept in such a way as to be more "their" show, new and fresh.

How would you improve the new UM and who would you want to host it ??

I would like them to use the old music and maybe have Peter Graves as host of UM.

REALLY?

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/5670/petergraves3yk1.jpg

1. Loose the Lipozene, ITT commericals.
2. The entire hour consists of nothing really new, it's all shortcuts of previous segments, then long commercials after about 4 segments the entire episode is over.
3. Feels too much like AMW.

I believe the major flaw of this new incarnation is simply that it's being shown on the Spike TV network. Because of that fact, we are getting rushed, dumbed-down versions of cases that demand closer attention. The magic of the original was it's ability to intrigue and frighten us through carefully retelling the events in a subtle, chilling fashion. And because it's being shown on Spike, I don't see us getting back to the show's roots. The show's creators are more interested in distracting us with all the fancy graphics than telling us a story.

Yep, looks like they didn't improve a damn thing in their month-long hiatus. None of the shortcomings was addressed. Oh well, I don't think I'll be watching much longer. All the magic of the original show is gone.

I agree nothing has been improved. I did like the lost loves segments and I thought they were edited well.

you people should stop complaining about this new version of UM. When it first started, all some people could do was complain. When it went off the air for several weeks, all people could do was speculate on what was being done (not a bad thing) and wished that it would come back. Now it's back and some of you still aren't satisfied.....

whatever.


I think the only thing I would improve is the new "graphics". I watched the Dennis DePue segment and the whole part where he and Marilynn where fighting and he threw her down the stairs.... I'm going to need corrective lenses because of that. And then the heavy metal music in the background. Kind of out of of place. I did have a question about that segment though... When Dennis got to the bottom to where Marilynn was, did he say dammit three times?

the segment isn't funny, but with the heavy metal background music..... it kind of took away from the severity of the situation.... :lol:

you people should stop complaining about this new version of UM. When it first started, all some people could do was complain. When it went off the air for several weeks, all people could do was speculate on what was being done (not a bad thing) and wished that it would come back. Now it's back and some of you still aren't satisfied.....

whatever.


I think the only thing I would improve is the new "graphics". I watched the Dennis DePue segment and the whole part where he and Marilynn where fighting and he threw her down the stairs.... I'm going to need corrective lenses because of that. And then the heavy metal music in the background. Kind of out of of place. I did have a question about that segment though... When Dennis got to the bottom to where Marilynn was, did he say dammit three times?

the segment isn't funny, but with the heavy metal background music..... it kind of took away from the severity of the situation.... :lol:

I'm very thankful that it's on television again, I'm just sad that they cut a lot out of segments, and the same commericals play after each segment.

Yes...Dennis is a little strange in the role (I feel like he enunciates too much and talks a bit haltingly) and the music is a little weird and the Google Maps thing a bit cheesy...BUT...I am soooo happy to have UM back on. I really love the 1 hour episodes they're featuring now.

I know a marathon starts tomorrow morning at 9am. Good thing for Tivo or I wouldn't get any work done! I swear I could simply watch UM all day given the chance.

It is a little odd when they give the updates..."so and so was captured, sentenced to 15 years and has now served his time". New cases would be nice :)

I actually like the Google map thing.

I cant understand why they have changed the format when everyone loved the old one so much. I dont mind Dennis but I always seem to be reminded of his role in Snatch rather than a new host for UM. I think the show has definitely gotten pretty fake with that very fake look 'telecenter'. When you compare it to the live UM shows from the telecenter, you could actually see people taking calls rather it just being a room of some bunker type setup. Also the segments are way over edited and watered down.

When Robert Stack died, I sorta figured that UM would disappear into oblivion. So it's perhaps a minor miracle that there are episodes of UM on TV at all.

Considering all the true-crime shows out there (shows, BTW, that might not have existed if UM hadn't been a success), I'd love to see UM transformed into something a bit like its successors, but retaining what made it unique. The fast cuts and short segments are, ironically, the opposite of what more modern shows are doing. Take a look at Cold Case Files or The New Detectives. Those shows only study two or three cases in an hour-long show, but they retain their sense of urgency with relevant details and good narration (sound familiar?). That's what an ideal update of UM should be striving for. Quick editing is a lazy producer's way of introducing tension. Most cases don't need it.

I don't think Dennis Farina is a particularly bad host, though I would have preferred Bill Kurtis, Paul Winfield (before he died, as well), or as a real longshot A. J. Benza. As someone else said the Google Maps feature is a good one, and to be honest some of the segments have actually benefited from tighter editing. Where it really falls down is that the edited segments have no sense of story. The slow pace of the old UM had a point--it was designed to immerse the viewer into the story and to jog memories. That's why the producers went through so much trouble to make the reenactments look realistic, using actual locations, historically-accurate sets and clothes, etc. Next time you see a car in a UM segment, look at the license plate. Is the state ever incorrect? Attention to detail is what made UM great. The new editing loses that.

Come to think of it, if it focused on unsolved cases instead of solved ones, Cold Case Files would be the new UM. It's got a lot of the pieces that made UM so successful: interviews with affected parties and law enforcement, tension-building music, a great narrator, attention to detail. It's missing the reenactments, but that's understandable given its focus on forensics and crime scene photos; reenactments would be a bit much. Change CCF's focus to unsolved cases, shoot it on film, stage reenactments, and voila--the new UM.

^Cold Case Files is unfortunately no longer being produced, though old episodes are still rerun on the network. From what I understand, Kurtis had a falling out with A&E. C.C.F. was more of a pure documentary show than U.M. (no reenactments), which I tend to prefer in a true crime show, but it accordingly never had the haunting quality that good storytelling - like that in U.M. - can evoke. C.C.F. was clinical, in contrast to U.M.'s warmth.

Despite my obvious alliance to the late great Mr. Stack, I have to say I'm a bit surprised; Farina seems to be doing a decent job. He's no Stack (nobody is), but I can't really think of anyone else who might do a better job hosting these days...well maybe Keith Morrison from MSNBC

While I, of course, love the old show and would love for the new version to be creepier with a different host and follow the old format - I have a very very minor complaint. (And sorry if this has been brought up before, but I don't get SpikeTV at school and have only been able to catch a new episode of UM a couple of days ago) They really need to get rid of that noise they play everytime they put some text on the screen. It is driving me crazy and since they're putting some new text on the screen every 20 seconds, I don't see how it's a good idea lol.