When I first heard of Unsolved Mysteries, I have to admit that it didn't immediately strike me as a documentary series. Although I recall having seen a commercial or two for it in 1987 or early 1988, I wasn't completely attentive to them. So I initially thought that UM was an anthology series, a la The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Eventually, however, I realized that it was a non-fiction series. But when I first watched the show in early 1989, I was amazed by the style of it. Because of its documentary style, my impression was that UM was the type of TV show that seemed more appropriate for PBS than for a primetime network.

To any and all members of this UM forum, I am curious as to what you initially thought about the show when you first heard about it and/or first watched it.

When I first heard of Unsolved Mysteries, I have to admit that it didn't immediately strike me as a documentary series. Although I recall having seen a commercial or two for it in 1987 or early 1988, I wasn't completely attentive to them. So I initially thought that UM was an anthology series, a la The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Eventually, however, I realized that it was a non-fiction series. But when I first watched the show in early 1989, I was amazed by the style of it. Because of its documentary style, my impression was that UM was the type of TV show that seemed more appropriate for PBS than for a primetime network.

To any and all members of this UM forum, I am curious as to what you initially thought about the show when you first heard about it and/or first watched it.

I can't remember my first reactions or thoughts, but I used to sit and watch it every week, and would usually end up scared ****less. I'd be sitting on the couch, usually taking up no more than one cushion. I would allow no part of me off that cushion, for fear that someone would reach out from under the couch and grab me. :D

Hey, I was a kid. LOL

My first impressions was that this was the scariest show I ever saw on television!!!:eek:

The first episode I saw was Omar the Arsonist episode which scarred me for weeks.

The next episode I saw was the Patricia Meehan case which scared the heck out of me with that photo of her.

Good nightmare fuel.

I was 8 years old and it scared the crap out of me! First episode I can remember is the haunted bunk bed...I didn't sleep much that night, but I was hooked from day one!

My first episode was when I was 6 years old.... there was the one which the son went somewhere to shop and left his dad at home and then returned with his dad's skeletons or something...
Then, Gabby's chest, aka the footlocker.
Every time I sleep, I have to turn on the lights before I come into my bedroom. Then, satisfied that nothing is in my room, I turn my light off and go to sleep.

Also, although my house has the alarm, if your phone line is cut, then the alarm service becomes virtually useless.

I'm not exactly sure when I first saw it. I think I was 7 or 8 so that was 91, 92 and it was a rerun on Lifetime. I got sucked in by the Judith Himes segment. I didn't really get hooked on the show until a few years later and I never saw that segment again. I don't even remember anything about it but I will never forget that Judith Himes is alive and she lives in Omaha. That scared the crap out of me.

I was probably about 10 or 11 when I saw my first episodes of UM. I *think* the first one I saw was Son of Sam, but I also remember seeing the Tara Calico, Liz Carmichael, and Audrey Moate episodes early on as well. I was utterly fascinated, to the point that I started telling everyone I wanted to be a detective and work for the FBI. But yes, some episodes were definitely scarier than others!

Good question. I think I got into it pretty quickly, but the first image I ever saw was a piece of the Robert Hamrick case, where the fellow officer comes on the scene of his wrecked car and yells "Chief, chief!" Some of the first stories (which I have taped still) that stood out to me were miracle cures, Lee Young, Nick Karopolous and Angela Hammond.

This was sometime in 1993 (maybe late '92) and interestingly I almost always saw it on Lifetime instead of NBC so it was always "a little older" since they were reruns. That's another of many reasons I think the 80s still had a strong presence for at least the first half of the 90s, but that's another story.

I thought of it as suspenseful and sometimes sad, but always interesting. When the show had a makeover about 2 years later (i.e. with Keely) I did like the more lighthearted stories, but I got annoyed when they did too many of those...since I got used to it when it was more serious. The fugitive ones I liked the best 'cause I had just gotten into another show called Real Stories of the Highway Patrol then too.

I started watching the original as a kid and I too was scared!!! I would turn the lights on in my room and watch. The ghost stories were the worst. I would have trouble sleeping. UM still kinda freaks me out. I really got into it again when it ran on lifetime.

UM is scary for me too.

I remember first seeing commercials for UM on NBC around 1988 or 1989. I was probably 7 or 8 years old. Even at that young age, I was intrigued by these slight glimpses of the show. I yearned to watch a full episode, but it was on past my bed time and my parents wouldn't let me stay up to watch. I remember wondering what the show was about and trying to imagine how some of the stories might play out based solely on the commercials.

I can't remember the first episode I saw. I have some early memories of the stories about missing time abductions, the two priest killings, the rock of good fortune, the Lancaster postal extortion. However, these memories are very foggy and were probably based on snippets of the show I might have seen at neighbor's or friend's houses. I vividly remember watching a summer 1990 repeat of the extended Alcatraz report while at my grandparent's home in Minnesota. I also remember watching the Ralph Probst episode that aired the following week.

I remember when Lifetime began showing repeats in the early to mid-nineties and that was when I saw segments like Son of Sam and the "Omar" arsonist for the first time.

Been hooked ever since. It's funny but as the years go on I find myself watching less and less of current television and watching more of UM. It's just more interesting. I enjoy Googling the cases and finding out if there have been updates all these years later. I find myself often wondering about the families and people profiled on UM. Just wondering how they are doing.

You know, it seems that most of us here were kids when this show was in its prime popularity. I don't really remember getting to watch a full episode (past my bedtime)... I do remember the UFO case where the guys get abducted from their boat, the Omar arsonist, and The Wackers, but most of all... I remember the MUSIC!
I would go to bed thinking about all the scary things I just saw and having that music stuck in my head was no comfort! Plus, and I don't know if you guys remember this, but Time Life magazine was advertising their issue dedicated to aliens in the late 80's, and that commercial was like 5 straight minutes of full-screen alien depictions, one after another. It was more than 6-year-old flesh and blood could handle!

You know, it seems that most of us here were kids when this show was in its prime popularity. I don't really remember getting to watch a full episode (past my bedtime)... I do remember the UFO case where the guys get abducted from their boat, the Omar arsonist, and The Wackers, but most of all... I remember the MUSIC!
I would go to bed thinking about all the scary things I just saw and having that music stuck in my head was no comfort! Plus, and I don't know if you guys remember this, but Time Life magazine was advertising their issue dedicated to aliens in the late 80's, and that commercial was like 5 straight minutes of full-screen alien depictions, one after another. It was more than 6-year-old flesh and blood could handle!


I totally remember that Time Life series of books. :D

You know, it seems that most of us here were kids when this show was in its prime popularity. I don't really remember getting to watch a full episode (past my bedtime)... I do remember the UFO case where the guys get abducted from their boat, the Omar arsonist, and The Wackers, but most of all... I remember the MUSIC!
I would go to bed thinking about all the scary things I just saw and having that music stuck in my head was no comfort! Plus, and I don't know if you guys remember this, but Time Life magazine was advertising their issue dedicated to aliens in the late 80's, and that commercial was like 5 straight minutes of full-screen alien depictions, one after another. It was more than 6-year-old flesh and blood could handle!

Yeah, I bet alot of people liked it, but I think it sticks with you more if you're a kid. Like it defines your tastes more so you remember it in bigger detail (that's how I am with stuff I like anyway). You're lucky though, I didn't see it until 1993 when I was either 11 or 12. Even those were the Lifetime reruns.

Don't remember that Time Life article, but I personally believe alot of the alien abductions are true, so that tends to make it scarier.

I remember being fascinated by the tv spots for the very first episode. I was 12 or 13 at the time. Unfortunately I only got to see the segment about the woman who claimed she was heir to the Dodge fortune. I remember the bit where they were comparing photos of the womans family with pictures of the Dodge family. God it feels like last night! After that I watched it fairly regularly, I'll always remember taping that charlie scheel episode. I wasn't quite addicted straight away but pretty soon I was watching it religiously.

Even today, at 35, it still scares the crap out of me.

The first one I saw was their Halloween special that included first run segments of the Tallman Ghost and Queen Mary Ghosts. Great way for my 8 year old self to get introduced to the show. It scared the crap out of me, and I loved it. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Unsolved Mysteries, which i also discovered as a teen (I'm 30 now), had this weird effect on me.. kind of like a car crash I guess: It always scared me and made me really nervous about being home alone, but I just could NOT turn away, lol. I remember the music, the intriguing stories, and most of all, Robert Stack's voice. When it came on Lifetime I would watch the repeats home alone sometimes, and get so scared I couldn't even move.

And after I graduated from college, I used to live in a rural area, and I would watch UM when it came on late at night, and get myself into a panic, thinking about all the psychos trying to get into my house and kill me! It has a way of messing with your mind.

Great, great classic show!!!

When it came on Lifetime I would watch the repeats home alone sometimes, and get so scared I couldn't even move.

And after I graduated from college, I used to live in a rural area, and I would watch UM when it came on late at night, and get myself into a panic, thinking about all the psychos trying to get into my house and kill me! It has a way of messing with your mind.

Great, great classic show!!!

Me, too! Although I had a reason to think a psycho was coming to get me (I had a neighbor at one of my apartments who was not playing with even a quarter of a deck), I used to sit up watching it and creep myself out. There was one night where my girlfriend went to bed as UM started on Lifetime, because she didn't want to get creeped out. I laughed at her, and watched. It ran from 0100 to 0300, if I remember right. When it got done, I went to bed. I lay there, trying to sleep, but I was totally creeped out (they had been some good ones). So I got back up and went out to the living room, and proceeded to watch even MORE UM, from my DVDs. She found me the next morning, around 0700, just getting ready to go to bed, because it was now light out. That was a fun night :)

UM can scare you so bad that you literally have to watch another just to cope with the one you just saw. You can't stop watching because then you have to turn the TV off and face the silence, so you keep watching even though you know you're making it worse. It is one of the real experiences of what it is like to be around a campfire with a genuinely terrifying ghost story. More feature films should figure out the UM formula, because they aren't scary at all. UM gets under your skin, touches your soul.

I first saw Unsolved Mysteries with the four story ghost special: the Queen Mary, Tatum's ghost, Tallman's ghost, and the General Wayne Inn. I was 13 years old and had eagerly read ghost stories since childhood so this ghost special had me hooked. What kept me coming back was the excellent way the recreations were done. The show's creators and Robert Stack did a great job of building suspense.

I just recall that my son was a toddler when it first came on,and Stack's voice would creep him out so bad he would start crying and run out of the room! LOL.
So I didn't get to watch it much until later when it came on Lifetime in the daytime,which was the early 2000's I guess? I also liked the show Beyond Chance that came on before it.
He also got upset over Alien Autopsy (anyone recall that?),so I didn't get to see that one till later,only to find out it was a fraud.

My first impression...being terrified of Robert Stack when I first watched Unsolved Mysteries back in the mid-90's, say around 1995 or 1996 maybe 1997. I later conquered my fears and started watching it full-time when the 2001-2002 season began. I am 22 now and still love the show and the nostalgia of it all.

I was about 8 or 9 when the Robert Stack episodes started. My grandparents and I watched every week and yes, quite a bit of the episodes scared me out of my wits, especially with that frightening music in the background. Even today at 36, I can still watch certain segments and get creeped out, especially when I'm up alone at night.