In the '80s and '90s you had pictures of Missing Children or Runaways on Milk Cartons to alert the public and try to aid in their rescue; You had UM which mixed a creepy sort of entertainment with informing the public on (then) recent cases, and on several occasions, UM's broadcasts actually led to the arrest of a wanted murderer or to the solving of some of the mysteries shown.

Nowadays it seems murders or cases of Missing or Runaway Kids are just a flicker on the nightly news--Treated as basically "just another sad story." Not really given any attention outside of a little flash amidst more pressing news. Missing Persons or Unsolved Murder cases don't really seem to catch the public at large's attention unless the case involves a (cute or attractive) young girl/young woman whose family has money and/or influence (Jon Benet, Natalee Holloway, Elizabeth Smart).

UM and the Milk Cartons on the other hand turned what might've been a local really not heard of case into a national thing. The missing person or unsolved murder victim profiled on UM or pictured on the Milk Carton might have lived and died in some small town far far away from you, but you'd be seeing it on your Milk Carton or on UM in a big city hundreds of miles away

What changed? Was the public's interest and care in these sorts of cases illusory--It never really existed? Was it a passing 'fad', an interest in creepy unsolved cases? I ask because having been born in 1990 I was never truly around for the UM era.

Did people care more back then about these cases? What happened?

Well, in my opinion, some of the problem may lie with what people demand to see on the news. Missing persons and unsolved murders have become such a part of our daily lives that we've become somewhat desensitized. The stories of missing persons and murders that do tend to get more attention are the ones with the craziest, most shocking details, or, like you said, the ones with attractive victims. People demand trashy stories and television definitely delivers in the form of reality shows, talk shows and incredible (even trumped-up) news stories.

Your question reminds me of the time in the 90s when school shootings were shocking. I was at Springfield High when Kinkel shot up Thurston, and I knew his mother (she was one of my teachers) as well as several people who were shot. Columbine occurred almost one year later to the day. Back then, those stories were shocking and very sad. These days, when a kid walks into a school with a gun, it's almost normal. Still sad, but we've become desensitized to the stories and they don't stop us in our tracks like they used to.

The UM era you speak of represented the early turn of the tide, so the speak. Shows like UM were creepy and even a little shocking so people wanted to watch them. At the same time, viewers still seem to care about the victims and many kept their stories in the backs of their minds for years. These days we are bombarded with so much information. We have so much going on and so much to keep up with that when a story we hear or details we are given are pushed out of our minds, that's it. We typically don't remember or care about them. Out of sight, out of mind. We keep to ourselves and ignore others. We just have too much going on within ourselves to pay attention to the outside world unless a story we hear is truly shocking, and that is what gets our attention. Commercials are short because we no longer have the attention span to take in as much information as we used to.

On a side note, my husband has worked in television for 18 years. He has told me several times about 9-11 and how many times he had to watch footage of those planes flying into the towers....every channel showed that footage over and over and over and over again. It was for shock value, pure and simple. When a crime seems dull to what we're used to, we tend to ignore it. I'm not saying this to be mean at all, because obviously we around here care tend to care about pretty much all cases. Obviously my opinion doesn't pertain to all people. Many still do care, but we're in the minority. I'm just being honest in my view of it.

Well, in my opinion, some of the problem may lie with what people demand to see on the news. Missing persons and unsolved murders have become such a part of our daily lives that we've become somewhat desensitized. The stories of missing persons and murders that do tend to get more attention are the ones with the craziest, most shocking details, or, like you said, the ones with attractive victims. People demand trashy stories and television definitely delivers in the form of reality shows, talk shows and incredible (even trumped-up) news stories.

Your question reminds me of the time in the 90s when school shootings were shocking. I was at Springfield High when Kinkel shot up Thurston, and I knew his mother (she was one of my teachers) as well as several people who were shot. Columbine occurred almost one year later to the day. Back then, those stories were shocking and very sad. These days, when a kid walks into a school with a gun, it's almost normal. Still sad, but we've become desensitized to the stories and they don't stop us in our tracks like they used to.

The UM era you speak of represented the early turn of the tide, so the speak. Shows like UM were creepy and even a little shocking so people wanted to watch them. At the same time, viewers still seem to care about the victims and many kept their stories in the backs of their minds for years. These days we are bombarded with so much information. We have so much going on and so much to keep up with that when a story we hear or details we are given are pushed out of our minds, that's it. We typically don't remember or care about them. Out of sight, out of mind. We keep to ourselves and ignore others. We just have too much going on within ourselves to pay attention to the outside world unless a story we hear is truly shocking, and that is what gets our attention. Commercials are short because we no longer have the attention span to take in as much information as we used to.

On a side note, my husband has worked in television for 18 years. He has told me several times about 9-11 and how many times he had to watch footage of those planes flying into the towers....every channel showed that footage over and over and over and over again. It was for shock value, pure and simple. When a crime seems dull to what we're used to, we tend to ignore it. I'm not saying this to be mean at all, because obviously we around here care tend to care about pretty much all cases. Obviously my opinion doesn't pertain to all people. Many still do care, but we're in the minority. I'm just being honest in my view of it.

The above is one of the best posts I have read on this site. We just don't seem to have any sense of community anymore in Great Britain,and it must be worse in America with your huge and diverse country and its competing interests for air time. The only places where they do seem to have kept their community spirit is Scandinavia,though even there immigration is causing problems in certain quarters. However incarceration rates are considerably lower than in my country and yours.

Nowadays we can actually get Amber Alerts sent to our cell phones when a child goes missing, which I think can be very helpful. They also program the road signs to give out that info so drivers see it while they are out in the city. We do have Charley Project and DoeNetwork websites, which seem to have a lot of traffic.

I have noticed that instead of putting the missing kids photos prominently on milk cartons or other items, they've sort of been relegated to junk mail. We get advertising circulars every week that have coupons and stuff in them and on the back of the last page are very tiny photos of the missing child and maybe an age progression or photo of the person last seen with the missing kid. I always make a point to look at these carefully because it seems like there's really not much of an effort to get the info out to the public, like there used to be.

Another thing I've noticed is that some kids will be missing for weeks before the info gets to the media. Right now there's a 14 year old girl who's been missing for about 3 weeks. She once ran away for 3 days last year, it's feared she's in the company of an older man, yet likely because of her history, her story wasn't published in the primary news until 3 weeks after she'd been gone. People who may have seen her or the man she's with 3 weeks ago probably forgot all about it and don't even realize that what they were witnessing was a vulnerable kid in the company of a dangerous adult.

I also don't like some of the excuses people who are responsible for issuing Amber Alerts are using. They keep saying that they're not issuing alerts because the case doesn't meet all the requirements for issuing an alert but that's a bunch of BS. I've read the guidelines multiple times and they are just that, Guidelines, not requirements.

For example, within the last year, there was a certain child who was abducted but the authorities did not issue an Amber Alert because they didn't have a description of a car that may or may not have been used in the abduction. The idiots don't realize that some kids are abducted without the use of a vehicle, but because the AA guidelines suggest issuing a description of the abductors vehicle, and they don't have that info, they think they aren't allowed to issue the alert. They're wrong. You issue the alert anyway, with as much identifying info as possible. Who cares that the abductor didn't use a car. The child's life is in danger!

Nowadays we can actually get Amber Alerts sent to our cell phones when a child goes missing, which I think can be very helpful. They also program the road signs to give out that info so drivers see it while they are out in the city. We do have Charley Project and DoeNetwork websites, which seem to have a lot of traffic.

I have noticed that instead of putting the missing kids photos prominently on milk cartons or other items, they've sort of been relegated to junk mail. We get advertising circulars every week that have coupons and stuff in them and on the back of the last page are very tiny photos of the missing child and maybe an age progression or photo of the person last seen with the missing kid. I always make a point to look at these carefully because it seems like there's really not much of an effort to get the info out to the public, like there used to be.

Another thing I've noticed is that some kids will be missing for weeks before the info gets to the media. Right now there's a 14 year old girl who's been missing for about 3 weeks. She once ran away for 3 days last year, it's feared she's in the company of an older man, yet likely because of her history, her story wasn't published in the primary news until 3 weeks after she'd been gone. People who may have seen her or the man she's with 3 weeks ago probably forgot all about it and don't even realize that what they were witnessing was a vulnerable kid in the company of a dangerous adult.

I also don't like some of the excuses people who are responsible for issuing Amber Alerts are using. They keep saying that they're not issuing alerts because the case doesn't meet all the requirements for issuing an alert but that's a bunch of BS. I've read the guidelines multiple times and they are just that, Guidelines, not requirements.

For example, within the last year, a child was abducted. The authorities did not issue an Amber Alert because they didn't have a description of a car that may or may not have been used in the abduction. The idiots don't realize that some kids are abducted without the use of a vehicle, but because the AA guidelines suggest issuing a description of the abductors vehicle, and they don't have that info, they aren't allowed to issue the alert. They're wrong. You issue the alert anyway, with as much identifying info as possible. Who cares that the abductor didn't use a car. The child's life is in danger!

Another good post. It seems that with all our new information technology we have the capacity to track down crime quicker;in my country you can't move anywhere without being caught on CCTV. However Police detection rates remain low,sorry to say as Police do a tough job and do have the respect of the community here.

Another good post. It seems that with all our new information technology we have the capacity to track down crime quicker;in my country you can't move anywhere without being caught on CCTV. However Police detection rates remain low,sorry to say as Police do a tough job and do have the respect of the community here.

I've been reading online newspapers from the UK for several months now. Initially, I was really surprised at how much CCTV coverage there is and it really seems to work. Here in the US, I see the cameras on light posts at street intersections, but I don't know how many stores actually have the cameras right on the street, outside their establishments.

One recent story I read from the UK was about Michael Ayoade, the 34 year old man who ran up behind a 16 year old girl and sucker punched her in an unprovoked attack, knocking her out and injuring her. It was all caught on the CCTV of a local pub, I think, and his photo was published, resulting in an arrest.

My daughter and son in law are in the process of installing CCTV outside their home and when I move in february, I'll be installing it at my house, too. Right now, my neighbors have CCTV that they've been using for years, in addition to their big scary dog, which helps deter prowlers and thieves.

This sounds just like a thread I made, almost word for word.

I try my best to get the word out about cases, whether anyone out there cares or not to see/hear about them. I have gotten some praise from family and friends of missing people for keeping their loved one's stories alive on my UM page on Facebook. That alone makes me feel good but I want to do more someday.

the news has become more enterainment than anything else.but at least we do have things like Amber alerts,megan's law,etc to help.
JMO but I think everyone has their head stuck in whatever the latest gadget is on the market to be bothered w real news anymore..ie-iphone,ipod,ipad,etc.

Sadly, I think there is less interest in unsolved murder/missing cases these days.

I mean, look at friggin Discovery ID. The only show which addresses missing persons cases is Disappeared. Other than that, they only appear to have shows that cover cases that are solved.

BTW, this is just a pet peeve but does anyone notice that some Discovery ID show commercials seem to make light of murder? They add stupid music to some of the commercials. I find it to be in bad taste.

BTW, this is just a pet peeve but does anyone notice that some Discovery ID show commercials seem to make light of murder? They add stupid music to some of the commercials. I find it to be in bad taste.

Not only the commercials, but some of the shows too. Take Deadly Affairs. With the porno sax music, cheesy closeups of the actors and the campy soapy dialogue they make host Susan Lucci say, it's like ID forgot they're covering very tragic crimes. I think it's because they have such a huge female audience they think they have to make it more lighthearted and campy, but the majority of us female crime fans think it's tasteless.

Not only the commercials, but some of the shows too. Take Deadly Affairs. With the porno sax music, cheesy closeups of the actors and the campy soapy dialogue they make host Susan Lucci say, it's like ID forgot they're covering very tragic crimes. I think it's because they have such a huge female audience they think they have to make it more lighthearted and campy, but the majority of us female crime fans think it's tasteless.

Much agreed!

I agree with the above about the ID channel's more recent programming and advertising. The excessive and sensationalized focus on sex is also unnecessary and tasteless, imo. If I wanted to watch softcore, I know where to find more than enough of it.

All the soap opera actors promoting this stuff just comes across as patronizing to women. Lately, I've been leaving the TV off or using comcast's On Demand service to watch reruns of The Walking Dead or movies.

TV By the Numbers describes one of ID's shows this way : SCORNED: LOVE KILLS uncovers crimes of passion sparked by a spurned lover’s snap from [I]provocative paramour to predacious threat. The show examines the dark side of love with a voyeuristic peek into the lust and obsession that fueled some of the most senseless, but definitely not emotionless, crimes to make front-page headlines. From dalliances with X-rated dancers to a love triangle born from an underground swingers’ club, the stories featured in SCORNED pair sexual intrigue with bedded betrayal to form a recipe for murder.

ID even describe some of their own programming this way on their official website. Like I said.... I can find porn anywhere. After looking around the web to find out what others are saying about the newer shows, I'm not the only one who's put off by the explicit content and deciding to switch channels. I'd rather see crime shows looking for solutions or programs explaining the techniques officials used to solve crimes.

Oh, and what's with that horribly written poem they are using for one of their ads? Something about the neighbors all being jealous of each other's perfect lives until Jane puts a knife through John's chest, or some such nonsense. Way to be sensitive there, ID doofuses.

Back ON topic:

I just went through this week's junk mail. I guess missingkids.com are doing the best they can on their budget, but the photo of the missing child and the person she was last seen with are located all the way at the bottom of a huge and distracting ad of flashy new cars and the pics are only 3/4 of an inch tall!

"HAVE YOU SEEN ME?" is in big red letters but the photo we are supposed to use to determine if we remember seeing the little girl is not even an inch tall. I've still got good eyesight, only needing reading glasses for small type and sometimes at night when my eyes are tired but I need a magnifying glass to read the pertinent stats accompanying the photos, such as DOB, when the child went missing, and what state she's missing from.

This is just sad.

I do see a distinct lack of interest nowadays, which is sad. Especially when it happens so much more often now.

Not only the commercials, but some of the shows too. Take Deadly Affairs. With the porno sax music, cheesy closeups of the actors and the campy soapy dialogue they make host Susan Lucci say, it's like ID forgot they're covering very tragic crimes. I think it's because they have such a huge female audience they think they have to make it more lighthearted and campy, but the majority of us female crime fans think it's tasteless.It's completely tasteless, I agree. I sat through a whole episode of that stunned at how insulting the whole thing felt to the cases at hand. I'm also not a big fan of that show where the victim narrates the case- it's such a silly gimmick.

Ugh, the more I hear about some of the stupid shows shown on ID, the more annoyed I become. :mad:

Newsflash folks at ID - You can create shows that can SOLVE cases. Shows that can provide closure for families. There's no need for shows that have titles like "My Maid the Murderer."

I wholeheartedly agree!!!

Lots of good posts here. I'm thinking information overload. The amount of info that is heaved out there can quickly overwhelm, and before you know it, the missing person is at the bottom of the heap.

This sounds just like a thread I made, almost word for word.

I try my best to get the word out about cases, whether anyone out there cares or not to see/hear about them. I have gotten some praise from family and friends of missing people for keeping their loved one's stories alive on my UM page on Facebook. That alone makes me feel good but I want to do more someday.

When I saw this thread, I thought someone bumped yours. Then I saw it was new and said aloud "We had a thread just like this recently, I'm pretty sure."

I watch ID and Crime and Investigation network almost exclusively. My head is always thinking about missing people and crimes.

I think there are a lot of factors coming into play - I doubt if you went up to most people and asked them that they'd say that they don't care about missing kids/unsolved murders/etc.

However, given the state of the economy for instance, I doubt the average person wants to dwell on negativity when there is likely already lots of negativity in their daily lives. Spending your destress time looking at missing persons or unsolved murders or the doenetwork isn't exactly going to destress the average person. (I use the term 'average person' to mean someone who isn't likely to research missing persons/unsolved murders on there own.)

Another factor is simply that the average person isn't going to know about sites like Charley Project or Doe Network nor are they likely to seek them out. There is also simply quite a lot of information to digest on both sites so, again, the average person is far more likely to be overwhelmed by the sites and file them away for later (never to visit again).

Likewise, (with the economy again being a factor) companies likely think their prospective customers wouldn't want to be "bummed out" to see a missing person on their product and might buy a competitor's product instead.

And, of course, families have to want the publicity - as we've seen, some families don't for various reasons.

Without a Trace used to show a missing child every episode, but with everyone fast fowarding through commercials these days, I don't think that's a viable solution any longer - and probably wasn't effective then, either.

It's a really difficult balancing game to attract the attention of the average person without overwhelming them with information to the point of desensitization.

And as soon as I post this, I find this article: www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/389232/20120928/missing-children-europe-404-error-page.htm Heh. I really hope this is effective and takes off all over the world.

I think part of what could trigger any 'revival' in the interest in Missing Person/Unsolved Murder cases would be if a show came along that had a perfect blend of genuine creepiness/scaryness, entertainment, and factuality.

UM blended all three. It was genuinely scary and creepy--almost cinematically so. It was bizarre, and in a macabre way, entertaining (similar to the way The Twilight Zone was entertaining) and was also enlightening in that it was based on fact. It was basically horror stories which happened to also be true

UM started dying out when it became more of a cheesy show that focused on the Supernatural, Urban Legends Aliens and Bigfoot and tried to update itself with the not at all frightening techno influenced theme.

A lot of more modern missing person's cases are missing the two vital elements that UM in it's early years had: They aren't creepy--Creepy in the way that you might be afraid to watch them in the dark, creepy in the way that they're so personal yet they relate to events far away, creepy in that you feel like you want to look over your own shoulder afterward; And they're not entertaining--Most TV programs today dealing with missing persons are very dry and grounded in facts.

You need a program that has the darkness of UM and the cinematic quality it had in presenting today's cases. There was a certain formula to UM and it made you both scared and also sympathetic with the people who were profiled. For some of us the victims featured on UM became larger than life in a strange way and we could truly emphatize with them and them and their stories would leave a lasting impression. UM used it's cinematic power to emotionally get you involved...

A dry, fact based show doesn't do that and thus people aren't as connected with the victims and a little nightly news ticker makes us view victims more as "just another sad story" than an individual's tale of terror that could happen to anyone.

I think part of what could trigger any 'revival' in the interest in Missing Person/Unsolved Murder cases would be if a show came along that had a perfect blend of genuine creepiness/scaryness, entertainment, and factuality.

Exactly! The only thing that came close, in its own way, were a few shows on A&E before that network became messed-up with all the reality TV. City Confidential was great, and anything else narrated by Bill Kurtis with that weird videotape recording produced a slightly creepy effect, though not as much as UM did.

No and no

No. Most just fake interest (ie Nancy Grace) and quickly forget about them.

People are too busy playing with themselves to put any attention to others.

I agree that our noses are so deep into a cell phone nowadays that we don't even bother half the time. Plus, let's look at what has captivated much of the nation in the last 20 years - school shootings, or mass shootings. We bond over things like Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora and Newtown. These have become bigger news stories other than abductions. I guess that might have something to do with it

This is exactly why shows like Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted should be on the air. To get cases of missing loved ones out.

Just think of how many cases would/could be solved if only the government and the networks stepped up and funded these shows.

I even have one such case near me for an example. The murder of Tiffany Morrison in Kahnawake, near Montreal in Canada. She was missing beforehand for a few years until they found her body in 2010.

Here is the most recent story on it. (http://aptn.ca/pages/news/2011/10/06/simple-cross-erected-in-kahnawake-for-murdered-morrison/) There has since been no movement on the case, and no suspects have ever been named. Obviously, it received absolutely no media coverage and the small community is still waiting for some sort of breakthrough in the case.

So as I said earlier in the thread, I agree that people care less nowadays. These cases don't get near the exposure they need.

I was on this fourm the other day thinking " isnt it kind of odd that the majority of cases discussed on this board are/almost 30 years old!" I mean, it's amazing that there are a group of people that still think about these unsolved murder and missing person cases. if it wasnt for this website i believe that they truly would be forgotten about. Shows like UM are just a distant memory and thats sad. People now get there news from there computer or right on there phones on the way to work.. It seems like no body wants to dedicate an entire tv show to solve crimes, people would rather rot their brains with tv shows like "jersey shore" and other stupid "reality shows" then watch something that really IS reality and that could actually save someones life or find a loved one.

I don't think enough is being done about Gordon page jnr. I would like to know what you have done this week about him?

I was on this fourm the other day thinking " isnt it kind of odd that the majority of cases discussed on this board are/almost 30 years old!" I mean, it's amazing that there are a group of people that still think about these unsolved murder and missing person cases. if it wasnt for this website i believe that they truly would be forgotten about.

This web site and the internet in general have definitely played a major role in ensuring that the unsolved cases are not forgotten.

It seems like no body wants to dedicate an entire tv show to solve crimes, people would rather rot their brains with tv shows like "jersey shore" and other stupid "reality shows" then watch something that really IS reality and that could actually save someones life or find a loved one.

In other words, there is a lot of indifference towards the format of a show like UM. If that's what you're suggesting, I could not agree more. In fact, I would say the indifference stems from two factors: cluelessness and snobbishness.

No matter how much good resulted from UM, some people, including television critics, just never got it. Sadly, it was easy for them to dislike or criticize something they didn't understand. Hence the "cluelessness" factor. I cited "snobbishness" as a contributing factor, because I believe in my heart that many in the television industry today (as well some TV viewers) have an elitist attitude against such programs.

Unsolved Mysteries averaged around #16 highest-rated show in its first five seasons. The current #16 show is Elementary, which averages 13 million viewers. Could a new show about unsolved crimes get 13 million viewers/per episode? Or maybe a better question is...Could a show about unsolved cases get enough viewers to make it a second season?

Also, I was born in '92 so I am wondering; If you didn't watch Unsolved Mysteries, would you know about most of the cases featured on the show? Someone posted that the public is more interested in mass shootings nowadays, but unless I misunderstood, isn't that implying that these cases were generating the same media/public interest in the 80s/early 90s that Newtown and Aurora did in 2012? Is it really any different than someone in 2012 who watches Nancy Grace, or checks out Crimesider on CBS.com, or goes on true crime forums? I feel like unless we are talking about cases that get massive amounts of coverage, you really have to seek out these cases to know about them.

This web site and the internet in general have definitely played a major role in ensuring that the unsolved cases are not forgotten.



In other words, there is a lot of indifference towards the format of a show like UM. If that's what you're suggesting, I could not agree more. In fact, I would say the indifference stems from two factors: cluelessness and snobbishness.

No matter how much good resulted from UM, some people, including television critics, just never got it. Sadly, it was easy for them to dislike or criticize something they didn't understand. Hence the "cluelessness" factor. I cited "snobbishness" as a contributing factor, because I believe in my heart that many in the television industry today (as well some TV viewers) have an elitist attitude against such programs.


You helped make my point. thank you.

Unsolved Mysteries averaged around #16 highest-rated show in its first five seasons. The current #16 show is Elementary, which averages 13 million viewers. Could a new show about unsolved crimes get 13 million viewers/per episode? Or maybe a better question is...Could a show about unsolved cases get enough viewers to make it a second season?

Also, I was born in '92 so I am wondering; If you didn't watch Unsolved Mysteries, would you know about most of the cases featured on the show? Someone posted that the public is more interested in mass shootings nowadays, but unless I misunderstood, isn't that implying that these cases were generating the same media/public interest in the 80s/early 90s that Newtown and Aurora did in 2012? Is it really any different than someone in 2012 who watches Nancy Grace, or checks out Crimesider on CBS.com, or goes on true crime forums? I feel like unless we are talking about cases that get massive amounts of coverage, you really have to seek out these cases to know about them.


Yes, its a shame that people have to seek out cases on their own rather than have a show like UM broadcast them into their living room for them. I stopped watching tv a few years ago. If my tv is on, its either on the Discovery channel, History channel or HBO. In my opinion, you can barely turn the channel without seeing garbage anymore. UM and Americas most Wanted are shows of the past and its a shame.These shows put the cases in your face every week, cases that need to be solved. Not talking about them is the worst thing you can do. Ive seen a couple episodes of the "new" UM and im not to excited about it. The show kind of lost its "presence" after RS left and it seems to still be alot of unsolved cases from when RS was hosting. I personally think there should be one or two channels dedicated to UM or AMW.

Yes, its a shame that people have to seek out cases on their own rather than have a show like UM broadcast them into their living room for them. I stopped watching tv a few years ago. If my tv is on, its either on the Discovery channel, History channel or HBO. In my opinion, you can barely turn the channel without seeing garbage anymore. UM and Americas most Wanted are shows of the past and its a shame.These shows put the cases in your face every week, cases that need to be solved. Not talking about them is the worst thing you can do. Ive seen a couple episodes of the "new" UM and im not to excited about it. The show kind of lost its "presence" after RS left and it seems to still be alot of unsolved cases from when RS was hosting. I personally think there should be one or two channels dedicated to UM or AMW.

^^^this

I don't think enough is being done about Gordon page jnr. I would like to know what you have done this week about him?

I see now this poster has been banned. Saw that one coming from a mile down the road. Guy certainly had a lot of chutzpah to post many of the things he did. I do wonder where he got his obsession with Gordon Page and Sharon Stevens.

I think part of what could trigger any 'revival' in the interest in Missing Person/Unsolved Murder cases would be if a show came along that had a perfect blend of genuine creepiness/scaryness, entertainment, and factuality.

UM blended all three. It was genuinely scary and creepy--almost cinematically so. It was bizarre, and in a macabre way, entertaining (similar to the way The Twilight Zone was entertaining) and was also enlightening in that it was based on fact. It was basically horror stories which happened to also be true

UM started dying out when it became more of a cheesy show that focused on the Supernatural, Urban Legends Aliens and Bigfoot and tried to update itself with the not at all frightening techno influenced theme.

A lot of more modern missing person's cases are missing the two vital elements that UM in it's early years had: They aren't creepy--Creepy in the way that you might be afraid to watch them in the dark, creepy in the way that they're so personal yet they relate to events far away, creepy in that you feel like you want to look over your own shoulder afterward; And they're not entertaining--Most TV programs today dealing with missing persons are very dry and grounded in facts.

You need a program that has the darkness of UM and the cinematic quality it had in presenting today's cases. There was a certain formula to UM and it made you both scared and also sympathetic with the people who were profiled. For some of us the victims featured on UM became larger than life in a strange way and we could truly emphatize with them and them and their stories would leave a lasting impression. UM used it's cinematic power to emotionally get you involved...

A dry, fact based show doesn't do that and thus people aren't as connected with the victims and a little nightly news ticker makes us view victims more as "just another sad story" than an individual's tale of terror that could happen to anyone.

This is an excellent post! I so wish that someone would stage a genuine revival of Unsolved Mysteries and do it the way that it was done in its early years. I still believe that there is enough of an audience out there for it but maybe I am delusional. At this point, I would just be happy to have someone here in Canada broadcast the original episodes.

This is an excellent post! I so wish that someone would stage a genuine revival of Unsolved Mysteries and do it the way that it was done in its early years. I still believe that there is enough of an audience out there for it but maybe I am delusional. At this point, I would just be happy to have someone here in Canada broadcast the original episodes.
I don't know if this has been posted but yet another crime series has been axed. I would agree with the implication of this thread that people are too wrapped up in themselves these days,possibly with the quicker pace of life,to be bothered with the lives of other people and their concerns.http://tvline.com/2013/03/29/americas-most-wanted-cancelled/

My take on this is that, on both sides of the atlantic, there has been a sort of territorial shift in the relationship between law enforcement and the ordinary citizen. The stance taken by LE on issues such as self-defence has changed considerably, and we are now told in no uncertain terms that it is the duty of LE alone to solve crimes and apprehend those who committed them.

I'd expect most if not all of these public info/can you help shows to be phased out over the next few years. LE just does not want ordinary people 'getting in the way' and creating an 'unwelcome diversion' IMO.

My take on this is that, on both sides of the atlantic, there has been a sort of territorial shift in the relationship between law enforcement and the ordinary citizen. The stance taken by LE on issues such as self-defence has changed considerably, and we are now told in no uncertain terms that it is the duty of LE alone to solve crimes and apprehend those who committed them.

I'd expect most if not all of these public info/can you help shows to be phased out over the next few years. LE just does not want ordinary people 'getting in the way' and creating an 'unwelcome diversion' IMO.
There is something in that as society has become far more cliquey over the past thirty years or so. In my country we have the programme Crimewatch UK which is broadcast once a month on the state broadcasting channel BBC1,where to some extent producers can ride out a ratings fall. But every owner of a colour television must pay £145 per annum for the privilege under penalty of fine or imprisonment should they not pay.

This is an excellent post! I so wish that someone would stage a genuine revival of Unsolved Mysteries and do it the way that it was done in its early years. I still believe that there is enough of an audience out there for it but maybe I am delusional.

I don't think you are delusional. It's easy for some people to dismiss shows like UM and America's Most Wanted (recently officially canceled by Lifetime) as - say - "antiquated" or having "run their course". But it's really no different than when the grunge music scene exploded in the early '90s, causing hard rock and heavy metal to be wrongly dismissed as irrelevant.

If anything, I would say that the thought of UM coming back to a primetime network (like NBC) is actually wishful thinking. Besides, even if it did come back to primetime, there's no guarantee that it would be back for long, especially since nowadays primetime networks are quick to cancel a show as soon as they are not completely satisfied with its ratings performance. If UM were to come back as a first-run series, I would argue that it should be shown in syndication, in lieu of a network.

There is something in that as society has become far more cliquey over the past thirty years or so. In my country we have the programme Crimewatch UK which is broadcast once a month on the state broadcasting channel BBC1,where to some extent producers can ride out a ratings fall. But every owner of a colour television must pay £145 per annum for the privilege under penalty of fine or imprisonment should they not pay.

Evening Steve - I'm also a northerner. Hope you're well.

If I'm not mistaken the ratings for Crimewatch have been falling for years and it only really concerns major cases where the cops have found themselves really up against it and are desparate for anything at all.

Yeah, the whole £145 a year at gunpoint thing really sticks in the craw, doesn't it? The BBC should become a subscription channel IMO and live or die by whether or not people watch it, but that's more than a tad off-topic.

Where I was going was - if you look at the way, for instance that LE have handled political protests (think the miner's strike in England) over the last 30 years or so, there has been a gradual move from the Peelian principle of LE being you and I in uniform, to it essentially being on the side of the governement.

I remember all the fuss about 'have a go heroes' when armed robbers used to get stopped by ordinary people in the 1990s. The sensible point about not placing yourself in unnecessary danger is fair enough, but it was also quite apparent that LE was mightily pissed off about someone raining on their parade.

Cases like that of Tony Martin were a quite deliberate attempt by the authorities to state that they, and they alone, solve crimes and catch the perps.

We've even had guys capture someone who broke into their home, ring the cops and be arrested themselves for kidnapping or unlawful imprisonment. The message is quite clear, that us 'little people' have no real role to play in the apprehension of criminals.

Cannot blame people in those circumstances for taking such a passive approach to crime. LE cannot have it both ways.