This thread is to freely whine and complain about anything that irks you and is also UM related.

I'll go first: The new UM music sucks! I would not mind Dennis Farina episodes so much if they had the good old music with them. I mean, the audio levels of the old dialogue in the interviews and the new music don't even match! It's like they didn't even try.

About the new UM, they have shown many cases that have long since already been solved, they just re-did them with the new background/music, etc! Really, what's the point of that? That's one of the many reasons I have watched no more than one or two episodes of the new UM.

About certain cases:
Andolina Gonzalez-they let her off the hook because they judge passed away? For all we know, he passed away when he did because he didn't have the funds she stole from him. They might as well have let her gotten away with murder!

Christi Nichols-why exactly are they unable to put away that pathetic excuse for a husband/human being called Mark away?

Dale Kerstetter-the company executive just blamed Dale for being in on the heist. I bet he was the one in on it (if it was an inside job) but just wanted to blame others to shift the attention away from him.

James Donald King-it's absolutely insane how a convicted murderer would go free after serving 4 years, being a fugitive for 9 years, then get's out after 2. Really, why would a parole board even be assembled for him after he escaped? They are almost as responsible for his rampage as he is.

Fortune Takers...sorry, tellers-'nough said.

I know it's almost beating a dead horse to complain about how the way that the new UM has redone the old cases, but I just watched their version of the Blind River Rest Stop Murders and thought it was an absolute travesty :mad: .

Needless to say, this is one story does not benefit AT ALL by the faster pace, flashy editing, fancy graphics and techno-sounding music. The original re-enactment is one of the most terrifying things ever seen on television because it feels like you're witnessing a real murder and truly conveys the true terror of the situation. The "modernized" version of these scenes are cheapened considerably when you're flashing back and forth between colour and black-and-white, and you have text graphics like "20 gauge shotgun" popping up on the screen with those cheesy sound effects. Quite frankly, it's almost flat-out disrespectful to try and turn a real tragedy like that into an exercise in style.

At this point, I think that it is safe to say that UM is pretty much a niche TV show. Only certain folks are going to watch it, and it's not exactly going to be the new "All in the Family" when it comes to ratings (not a knock, as I am a huge fan - just an observation). That being said, why the hell do they have to concentrate on that ridiculous telecenter? What the hell are those folks doing, taking pizza orders?

Also, while I think Dennis Farina is a fine actor, I just cannot get past the fact that he's portrayed a sleazy mobster pretty often. It's kind of hard to take him seriously when he talks about "career criminals" evading justice. Just sayin'.

Another thing that irks me is that as we have had a recent boom in the solving of old mysteries, we learn about parts of the story that UM conveniently left out in order to make the story more scary or mysterious, or what have you.

I don't like how the updates on the new UM are so brief and vague that you hardly know there was even an update at all. Like on the Debra Poe segment, they update it to say something to the effect that one of Debra's friends is now the main suspect and that the "Megadeth guy" was merely a customer. They fail to elaborate if the friend was the one who was shown in the segment, or just how LE came to the conclusion that Megadeth wasn't involved. And the whole "telecenter" crap behind Farina is ridiculous, they don't even have a hotline for tips anymore so what's the point?

I know it's almost beating a dead horse to complain about how the way that the new UM has redone the old cases, but I just watched their version of the Blind River Rest Stop Murders and thought it was an absolute travesty :mad: .

Needless to say, this is one story does not benefit AT ALL by the faster pace, flashy editing, fancy graphics and techno-sounding music. The original re-enactment is one of the most terrifying things ever seen on television because it feels like you're witnessing a real murder and truly conveys the true terror of the situation. The "modernized" version of these scenes are cheapened considerably when you're flashing back and forth between colour and black-and-white, and you have text graphics like "20 gauge shotgun" popping up on the screen with those cheesy sound effects. Quite frankly, it's almost flat-out disrespectful to try and turn a real tragedy like that into an exercise in style.

They managed to make the Blind River segment terrorless. And even the end composite was made to look like a floating head and it was inexplicably funny. New UM sucks and so does Dennis Farina.

Needless to say, this is one story does not benefit AT ALL by the faster pace, flashy editing, fancy graphics and techno-sounding music. The original re-enactment is one of the most terrifying things ever seen on television because it feels like you're witnessing a real murder and truly conveys the true terror of the situation. The "modernized" version of these scenes are cheapened considerably when you're flashing back and forth between colour and black-and-white, and you have text graphics like "20 gauge shotgun" popping up on the screen with those cheesy sound effects. Quite frankly, it's almost flat-out disrespectful to try and turn a real tragedy like that into an exercise in style.

Well put. I'll just add that it's an exercise in bad, inexplicable style. It seems like every editing and directing choice made hurts the actual stories instead of serving them. It's like the editor is forcing in as many edits and effects as possible with complete disregard for the actual case they are presenting.

Keep in mind that I'm a curmudgeon when it comes to this kind of flashy stuff. :)

Segments are shorter for commercial time. I get pissed off about them using the same exact interview footage. Um yeah you definitely didn't have your producers interviewing these people. They've been dead for years.

And I saw the Mafusz Huq clip and was like what the **** kind of update is this? All the info provided was that American officals requested him to be extradited from Bangladesh

I know it's almost beating a dead horse to complain about how the way that the new UM has redone the old cases, but I just watched their version of the Blind River Rest Stop Murders and thought it was an absolute travesty :mad: .

Needless to say, this is one story does not benefit AT ALL by the faster pace, flashy editing, fancy graphics and techno-sounding music. The original re-enactment is one of the most terrifying things ever seen on television because it feels like you're witnessing a real murder and truly conveys the true terror of the situation. The "modernized" version of these scenes are cheapened considerably when you're flashing back and forth between colour and black-and-white, and you have text graphics like "20 gauge shotgun" popping up on the screen with those cheesy sound effects. Quite frankly, it's almost flat-out disrespectful to try and turn a real tragedy like that into an exercise in style.
Exactly, and that's how I felt when they re-edited the Dennis Depue segment. The cheesy heavy metal music and 2005 era horror movie SFX is too distracting. The reason classic UM worked is because of the frightening music, the slow unfolding of the cases, and the dramatic and scary re-enactments. Not everything on TV needs layer after layer of graphics piled up on top of them.

Also, leaving off the dates of when these crimes and occurrences took place in order to cover up the fact that it happened in the 80's or early 90's insults our intelligence. We're going to know that it happened a long time ago by the hairstyles and the clothing, so just give us the dates. There's nothing wrong about showing cases that are still unsolved from twenty or thirty years ago. The majority of the viewing public is fascinated by that stuff.

I also hate sitting through commercials for that STUPID Dance Moms show. When did it become vogue to have shows that focus strictly on difficult pains in the ass? I try to avoid people like this in real life; I don't want them on my TV. One or two of them on a show provides variety and conflict, but a whole cast o' douchenozzles is flat-out nauseating.

My vent is from the OLD UM. It always bothered me that in the opening credits under the "Solved" section they'd have parts from cases that weren't solved or were from "The Unexplained" segments or something. I remember Mabel Woods on there, the Rolex Robbers, Salvatore Caruana.....I don't think any of those are solved as of this day.....and how the heck are you going to solve a 'life after life' story?!?

My vent is from the OLD UM. It always bothered me that in the opening credits under the "Solved" section they'd have parts from cases that weren't solved or were from "The Unexplained" segments or something. I remember Mabel Woods on there, the Rolex Robbers, Salvatore Caruana.....I don't think any of those are solved as of this day.....and how the heck are you going to solve a 'life after life' story?!?


I remember that. They showed the "SOLVED" bit and they would show that afterlife scene with the shadow in the light. Good call; I remember thinking to myself "they solved that?" when I was younger. :D

I'll be "that guy"... it kinda pisses me off how someone keeps starting up new threads on a case. even though there have to be a million of them!! I admit I've done it once or twice. before I figured out the Search bar. I rarely scroll through the other threads anymore as it's mostly just Repeated threads over and over.

My vent is from the OLD UM. It always bothered me that in the opening credits under the "Solved" section they'd have parts from cases that weren't solved or were from "The Unexplained" segments or something. I remember Mabel Woods on there, the Rolex Robbers, Salvatore Caruana.....I don't think any of those are solved as of this day.....and how the heck are you going to solve a 'life after life' story?!?

Don't forget about "Carol" and the 4 black men run off the road. Neither of those were solved but were shown as part of the solved sequence. I think it was more because of the visual effect

In the Rachel Timmerman case, in the update, they switch Rachel and her child's names!!! It's pretty irking.

Yeah the new music sucks and I think Farina is a weak choice as host. Still it keeps us updated with cases.

I'll be "that guy"... it kinda pisses me off how someone keeps starting up new threads on a case. even though there have to be a million of them!! I admit I've done it once or twice. before I figured out the Search bar. I rarely scroll through the other threads anymore as it's mostly just Repeated threads over and over.

Oh, I'm with you on this one. Even worse is when the one person who starts a new thread USES the search function, and then updates every other thread pertaining to that case with their one post.

During the new UM in the DeDe Rosenthal update it shows Greg Webb footage of him putting Anna in the trunk of his car, driving to a field and dumping her body

During the new UM in the DeDe Rosenthal update it shows Greg Webb footage of him putting Anna in the trunk of his car, driving to a field and dumping her body

You're kidding me!

In the Alice Viera segment, the scene where they the family is sitting at the dinner table and the husband tells the kid to get him another spoon to me is a bit ridiculous. The scene is basically as follows:

David Viera: (in Portuguese) David, get me another spoon.
David Jr.: Oh, come on, dad.
David Viera: (louder, in Portuguese) David, get me another spoon!

At this point, Alice volunteers to get the spoon and David Sr. snaps at her saying something to the effect "Who's in charge here, you or me?" And that's it.

The abuse Alice and her children suffered at the hands of her husband was totally inexcusable, as was her brutal murder, but that dinner table scene to me is kinda stupid.

They couldn't have found a more shocking example of how David Viera treated his children? Give me a break. He tells his son to get another spoon and his son whines; that scene alone constitutes child abuse? :rolleyes:

I hate that most of the segments are much older and have been solved, but I also love it.

For example, the Don Kemp (early 1980s) case just gives me the goosebumps, plus the fact that it is unsolved just gives me this eerie feeling...

You're kidding me!

I wish. There's actually a clip of it up on the forbidden site

I saw it. Can't believe it. That's from Greg Webb's segment, all right. That's just plain lazy.

In the Curt Borton segment Dianne's cousin that asked for anonymity during the re-enactment the actor that played Brad Bishop confronted him with the gun called him by name but the line sounds off because all it plays him say is "Hey, how you doin? I know what you're doing so stop it". The whole line sounds awful because of it. They didn't even give him a pseudonym

Re-running of old footage isn't too uncommon even in classic UM. I remember in the case of that girl supposedly taken by bikers they re-used footage from the Gus Hoffman case in regards to the mother supposedly visiting biker bars.

Re-running of old footage isn't too uncommon even in classic UM. I remember in the case of that girl supposedly taken by bikers they re-used footage from the Gus Hoffman case in regards to the mother supposedly visiting biker bars.

True. Also, any time someone disappears in a remote, wooded area, you're bound to see the same footage of a search party dressed in orange climbing up a hill. The same crew was involved in the searches for Michael Rosenbloom, Nyleen Kay Marshall, Keith Reinhard, Tommy Gibson, and possibly some others.

There is also some repeated footage of a nondescript man using a pay phone that typically gets used in cases involving information relayed by an anonymous phone call. The Nyleen Kay Marshall and Judy Hyams stories are examples of this.

Re-running of old footage isn't too uncommon even in classic UM. I remember in the case of that girl supposedly taken by bikers they re-used footage from the Gus Hoffman case in regards to the mother supposedly visiting biker bars.

That's true. In the Boston Strangler segment, they reuse a shot from the Shannon Mohr segment where her coffin is exhumed from the grave, even though the Strangler segment was shot on video and the insert of the coffin was shot on their old-school grainy film stock.

Rewatched the Thomas Drake case last night and there is a very obvious shot inserted in there from the Susan Laferte segment.

The new unsolved mysteries doesn't bother me. they had to move on if they are going to keep it going on television. I just wish they would have made more of the original unsolved mysteries available on dvd.

cases that frustrate me:

Bordello murders....seems like they covered up the murder and let the killer walk.

danny cassalero/chuck morgan/CIA/Secret Service cover up cases. Wish we could have find out more info about what was going on behind the scenes.

They also re-used footage of the guy who worked at the pet store who murdered that young girl he befriended escaping jail (running up a hill) numerous times.

It irritates me that the Mexican authorities won't help Patrick Kelly's mother find out the truth. Their lame excuse for the use of his ATM card while he was in a coma was such a load of BS!

Among those that angered me the most:

1. Those crummy morons who wouldn't call the cops when Crystal Spencer was screaming. At least they did seem to feel pretty bad about it, thats something I guess.

2. Almost every instance of police corruption and sorriness leading to people getting away with murder, God if they are right suicide is at an all time high in this country. I can't think of all the names but Keith Warren, Tony Lombardi, Rae Ann Mosser, Jeffery Digman and several others stick out.

3. Jerry Gervasoni and Greg Webb getting absurdly short sentences for cold blooded murder was disgusting.

4. Wayne Hecker and his infamous "I don't owe anyone any explanation but the Lord" Please. I'm a Christian and I think this is hogwash and contradictory to his character.

5. Mabel Woods dog kennel fire. Anyone cruel enough to do that is capable of taking a human life to. Completely senseless and heinous act of cruelty, possibly the worst act of animal cruelty I've ever heard of. Doubt the perp will ever be caught, but I sincerely hope he is in jail for some other crime or has had some sort of misfortune befall him. If they ever do catch him they should throw him in a pit with a bunch of fierce dogs.

Among those that angered me the most:

1. Those crummy morons who wouldn't call the cops when Crystal Spencer was screaming. At least they did seem to feel pretty bad about it, thats something I guess.

2. Almost every instance of police corruption and sorriness leading to people getting away with murder, God if they are right suicide is at an all time high in this country. I can't think of all the names but Keith Warren, Tony Lombardi, Rae Ann Mosser, Jeffery Digman and several others stick out.

3. Jerry Gervasoni and Greg Webb getting absurdly short sentences for cold blooded murder was disgusting.

4. Wayne Hecker and his infamous "I don't owe anyone any explanation but the Lord" Please. I'm a Christian and I think this is hogwash and contradictory to his character.

5. Mabel Woods dog kennel fire. Anyone cruel enough to do that is capable of taking a human life to. Completely senseless and heinous act of cruelty, possibly the worst act of animal cruelty I've ever heard of. Doubt the perp will ever be caught, but I sincerely hope he is in jail for some other crime or has had some sort of misfortune befall him. If they ever do catch him they should throw him in a pit with a bunch of fierce dogs.

Keep in mind Greg Webb was an ex-cop.

It made me sick that James White got such a short sentence for murdering the elderly couple in Florida. The guy had lost his license from instances before the fatalities and at 10AM he's drunk behind the wheel.

Also upset me how much credibility was put into Doyle's eyewittness testimony to incarcerate Michael Scott Martin for 20 years for a crime he didn't commit when people have got off with more evidence

Here is one about the forum. It's really annoying how you used to be able to search or post and then hit the Back button to get back to the forum, and now it gives you a bunch of grief about sending a form to the point where you have to go back to your browser history or bookmarks to get back into the forum.

2. Almost every instance of police corruption and sorriness leading to people getting away with murder, God if they are right suicide is at an all time high in this country. I can't think of all the names but Keith Warren, Tony Lombardi, Rae Ann Mosser, Jeffery Digman and several others stick out.

Those segments always have me screaming at the tv. "Really, suicide is the cause? Wow, even my chinchillas can see that's a bunch of crap!"

:D

The thing that really annoys me is when there is an update to a segment, and Robert Stack says that "we will bring you more information about this update on a future broadcast" and I feel like they never do bring us more information in a future update...or at least I never see them!

This thread is to freely whine and complain about anything that irks you and is also UM related.

I'll go first: The new UM music sucks! I would not mind Dennis Farina episodes so much if they had the good old music with them. I mean, the audio levels of the old dialogue in the interviews and the new music don't even match! It's like they didn't even try.


It Irks me that Robert Stack is dead and can no longer host UM! Farina sucks!!

The thing that really annoys me is when there is an update to a segment, and Robert Stack says that "we will bring you more information about this update on a future broadcast" and I feel like they never do bring us more information in a future update...or at least I never see them!

*nods* When is Robert Stack going to come back from the dead and give us updates?!


Seriously though, that drives me crazy. Half of the time, the internet doesn't even offer more information on the cases.

I just saw the Farina-ized NH serial killer segment. While they did provide an update, they cut out the composite sketch, the killer rambling about "you hurt my girlfriend," and some other nuances that made this segment legendary and terrifying. Farina also stole lines directly from RS, including the "two months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl" line that for some reason creeped me out. He even said it at the exact same time as RS, when the ambulance was rolling down the street. Bad stuff.

Farina also stole lines directly from RS, including the "two months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl" line that for some reason creeped me out. He even said it at the exact same time as RS, when the ambulance was rolling down the street. Bad stuff.

Ugh, I can't believe they'd continue to use that line when Jane's baby was actually born with mild cerebral palsy because of the attack! I mean, it's a miracle that baby survived in the first place and I'm sure she's lead a normal life since then, but they really shouldn't downplay the damage that psycho caused.

I just saw the Farina-ized NH serial killer segment. While they did provide an update, they cut out the composite sketch, the killer rambling about "you hurt my girlfriend," and some other nuances that made this segment legendary and terrifying. Farina also stole lines directly from RS, including the "two months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl" line that for some reason creeped me out. He even said it at the exact same time as RS, when the ambulance was rolling down the street. Bad stuff.

Farina stole much more lines from RS than just the NH serial killer segment. I only had to watch two episodes of the new UM to determine that. It was also enough for me to completely ignore the UM episodes on TV nowadays. Remakes of performances such as movies or plays are seldom as good as the originals.

The 'updated' music. The solved segments being like 3 minutes long on the new UM, if like me, UM hasnt been shown in your country for years and only came back on two years or so again so you're not familiar with all of the cases, it can be infuriating that you only get like 30 seconds of the segment instead of the full one then the update at the end.

I'll be "that guy"... it kinda pisses me off how someone keeps starting up new threads on a case. even though there have to be a million of them!! I admit I've done it once or twice. before I figured out the Search bar. I rarely scroll through the other threads anymore as it's mostly just Repeated threads over and over.

It would be nifty if we could merge threads. Some of the new threads have only have a few posts in them. Of course, organizing all that would probably be more than a full time job for CD.

I don't like how the updates on the new UM are so brief and vague that you hardly know there was even an update at all. Like on the Debra Poe segment, they update it to say something to the effect that one of Debra's friends is now the main suspect and that the "Megadeth guy" was merely a customer. They fail to elaborate if the friend was the one who was shown in the segment, or just how LE came to the conclusion that Megadeth wasn't involved.

I remember the vague update to the Orange Socks murders in which literally all we were told was that "Jeff Oberholtzer is no longer a suspect in the murder of his wife and Annette Schnee."

It was weird how some of the updates were quite extensive (the Ethel Kidd case comes to mind) while others were not. It seems it might have been related to just how sure LE and the justice system were that a certain suspect was "it"--that is, if you're headed to trial (or have already been sentenced, of course), the update tended to be elaborative, whereas even if authorities had plenty of reason to believe a certain individual was the perpetrator but lacked enough to formally charge him or her (regardless of whether it was pending or not), we didn't get a lot of information.

the "two months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl" line that for some reason creeped me out.

That line has always creeped me out too! I think it's the combination of the music, that ambulance screaming through some very lonely road in the middle of the night, and the inflection in RS's voice.

I really can't stand it when there is a suspect or POI so blatantly guilty (Judy Groezinger, Sam Patel, Chad Noe, etc.), yet LE can't touch them for "lack of evidence".

I'm sure someone is likely to vent about noobs bumping old threads, but I have one that hasn't been mentioned yet.

Even though I credit Lifetime with keeping UM alive, it always really annoyed me that they edited the opening sequence and cut out both the "swooping segment types" and the "solved" sequences. I always thought that was the most powerful part of the opening, because the music was at its climax, and they were showing clips of criminals being caught which always gave me an uplifting feeling.

I also am annoyed that the new show removed the date information from the segments. At first I was thinking something along the lines of "Do they think we're too stupid to notice they're just re-packaging the old stuff?" But now I feel like the producers ignored the existing fan base of the show, perhaps thinking too much time has gone by. They instead are trying to reach a new audience- hence the new style and choice of (gag) SpikeTv as the launch point. The only flaw in that plan, as I see it, is new audiences today get bored very quickly and they've already blown through and repeated to death the redone episodes. And they were working with a decade's worth of material!

Unfortunately, unless they can sell it to a real network (NBC, CBS, ABC, or FOX), I doubt they will ever have the money to properly produce enough new segments to make the show successful again. Maybe the TV networks are looking at this show saying its an old idea, let's stick with new stuff... But have you seen the expletive deleted that is currently on these networks in the reality show genre? Give me a break.

It's so annoying when these noobs keep bumping up old threads! :D

lol Just kidding! I still do that and I've been here 3 years. There's usually good stuff in those discussions and I've often run across info that I hadn't heard about before.

I also wish they hadn't removed the dates from the repackaged UM segments. There were quite a few of UM featured cases that have been solved just this year.

Including the dates in the new UM eppies couldn't have hurt, imo, especially since most viewers are going to recognize the feathered hair, stonewashed jeans, and giant glasses as being from a couple decades ago. There are a lot of folks who are really into the super cold cases. UM might have actually been able to use the time frame to their benefit.

Including the dates in the new UM eppies couldn't have hurt, imo, especially since most viewers are going to recognize the feathered hair, stonewashed jeans, and giant glasses as being from a couple decades ago. There are a lot of folks who are really into the super cold cases. UM might have actually been able to use the time frame to their benefit.

Sadly I think they did this as a way to divert attention away from "dating" the program. But including the old interviews with those coke-bottled glasses didn't help much.