Truth Sleuth
01-09-2011, 06:00 PM
Hi there. I've been "lurking" on and off for a while and have finally gotten around to registering. I came across this board and was surprised (and more than a bit relieved) to find that there are so many other people like me out there who remain intrigued by Unsolved Mysteries.
In the 1980s I was a kid, yet even then I was fascinated by "based on a true story" movies on TV. One that really stuck with me was Adam, about the disappearance of Adam Walsh and the efforts of his parents to change the way police handled cases of missing children. (Of course today everyone knows who John Walsh is.) Likewise, I was also enthralled with the Missing specials, hosted by David Birney and Meredith Baxter-Birney, which showed recreations of other missing children cases and their real photographs. These were, I believe, the forerunner to UM.
But there was something different. I don't know why, but there was something in me that was truly bothered by these cases, and I very much wanted to see them resolved. I even tried to get my mom to let me call the phone number from the show and tell them I had seen a young girl walk past our house one night sometime recently. (She said no. ;) )
So of course when the first edition of UM aired (i.e. the one with Raymond Burr), I was glued to the TV. Likewise when the next two specials (hosted by Karl Malden) aired, that was what today we call "appointment TV" for me. I still remember seeing the first report on the Unabomber case and being scared out of my wits when the actor in the re-enactment looked right into the camera (to simulate how one witness had made direct eye contact with him and lend credence to the now-famous composite sketch.) Years later when the Unabomber became well-known, I told anyone who would listen that I had known about him years before by watching Unsolved Mysteries.
And thus when they switched over to Robert Stack, I watched all of those as well, and was delighted when NBC finally made it a regular series. Every Wednesday night, you could find me in front of the TV. I would still go and play with friends after school, but I made it very clear that I had to be home by 7, period! (By contrast, most kids my age made sure they were home in time to watch stuff like Who's the Boss? or Growing Pains.)
Now, all that said, you know how everyone has that fond childhood memory of something that at the time was more like a trauma? How you stayed up late one night when you weren't supposed to and watched some scary monster movie and couldn't get to sleep for a week after that? That's how Unsolved Mysteries was for me. On Wednesday nights I was usually the only one home. My dad was taking night school classes to earn a college degree, my brother was usually either working or at a friend's house, and my mom had a job that required her to be "on call" one or two nights a week. So there I was in that house, watching that darn show... :eek: Plenty of times it scared the you-know-what out of me, but I wasn't going to miss it.
And what always scared me most were those hair-raising composite sketches of suspects. Something about them just hit a nerve; those mysterious, anonymous eyes staring back at me from the screen... even now I can feel that chill running up my spine just thinking about it. The worst was from a "road rage" case where a motorcycle rider was killed after being run into a pole or a tree by a hot-headed driver (I don't recall any names but I do know the case has since been solved.) I remember that night I was so spooked I literally did not get off the couch until someone else came home!
So anyway, now that I've rattled on and on about all this :talk: , I suppose I'll finally start contributing to some discussions around here. :wave:
In the 1980s I was a kid, yet even then I was fascinated by "based on a true story" movies on TV. One that really stuck with me was Adam, about the disappearance of Adam Walsh and the efforts of his parents to change the way police handled cases of missing children. (Of course today everyone knows who John Walsh is.) Likewise, I was also enthralled with the Missing specials, hosted by David Birney and Meredith Baxter-Birney, which showed recreations of other missing children cases and their real photographs. These were, I believe, the forerunner to UM.
But there was something different. I don't know why, but there was something in me that was truly bothered by these cases, and I very much wanted to see them resolved. I even tried to get my mom to let me call the phone number from the show and tell them I had seen a young girl walk past our house one night sometime recently. (She said no. ;) )
So of course when the first edition of UM aired (i.e. the one with Raymond Burr), I was glued to the TV. Likewise when the next two specials (hosted by Karl Malden) aired, that was what today we call "appointment TV" for me. I still remember seeing the first report on the Unabomber case and being scared out of my wits when the actor in the re-enactment looked right into the camera (to simulate how one witness had made direct eye contact with him and lend credence to the now-famous composite sketch.) Years later when the Unabomber became well-known, I told anyone who would listen that I had known about him years before by watching Unsolved Mysteries.
And thus when they switched over to Robert Stack, I watched all of those as well, and was delighted when NBC finally made it a regular series. Every Wednesday night, you could find me in front of the TV. I would still go and play with friends after school, but I made it very clear that I had to be home by 7, period! (By contrast, most kids my age made sure they were home in time to watch stuff like Who's the Boss? or Growing Pains.)
Now, all that said, you know how everyone has that fond childhood memory of something that at the time was more like a trauma? How you stayed up late one night when you weren't supposed to and watched some scary monster movie and couldn't get to sleep for a week after that? That's how Unsolved Mysteries was for me. On Wednesday nights I was usually the only one home. My dad was taking night school classes to earn a college degree, my brother was usually either working or at a friend's house, and my mom had a job that required her to be "on call" one or two nights a week. So there I was in that house, watching that darn show... :eek: Plenty of times it scared the you-know-what out of me, but I wasn't going to miss it.
And what always scared me most were those hair-raising composite sketches of suspects. Something about them just hit a nerve; those mysterious, anonymous eyes staring back at me from the screen... even now I can feel that chill running up my spine just thinking about it. The worst was from a "road rage" case where a motorcycle rider was killed after being run into a pole or a tree by a hot-headed driver (I don't recall any names but I do know the case has since been solved.) I remember that night I was so spooked I literally did not get off the couch until someone else came home!
So anyway, now that I've rattled on and on about all this :talk: , I suppose I'll finally start contributing to some discussions around here. :wave: