I remember as a kid this show petrified me to the point where I HATED it and could not watch it lol! I am being very serious about this!
But as years rolled by and I became a teenager, I started watching it again and decided that it would not frighten me anymore, and in fact I began to LOVE the show!
By the way, I was so scared of the music when I was young I would run into the bathroom and try to turn the water all the way up to drown out the voice!

My parents watched it so I kind of just was adapted to it at an early age. Really didn't start watching it religiously until I was in high school and they had the reruns on Lifetime.

In late 1988/early 1989 aged 12. It aired on Sky Channel-later Sky One. My aunt used to tape it & wrestling for us as we didn't have satellite telly until 1990.

I remember being a young child (about 4) and watching it. The music freaked me out, but it didn't stop me.

fall of 89 to about 92 and picked it back up on lifetime in 2003.

1988 - The first full season on NBC when Robert Stack took over the hosting duties. I was 8...and a huge glutton for punishment. I watched every week, Wednesday nights at 8:00 right before Doogie Howser. The show gave me nightmares and sleepless nights of fear off and on from ages 8 though 11. There were times I actually tried to stop watching so I could avoid nightmares but the show was so addicting that I always came back.

First segment I ever saw was the Melvine Aprille segment. I watched the entire segment for the first time in 20 something years yesterday and had flashbacks to my introduction of the show.

I half-watched it when I was younger. I say "half-watched" because it scared the crap out of me.

I don't think I developed a true respect for it until I was in high school and started seeing reruns on Lifetime...

First watched when I was nine. I still remember: It was the Wood family home invasion, Resurrection Mary, and Spontaneous Human Combustion. I spent that night alternating between fearing a robber was in my closet, Resurrection Mary was in my closet, or that I was going to catch on fire randomly. :rotflmao:

Started watching regularly in middle school. Lifetime would play it in two hour blocks every day and my mom would tape it for me on a VHS :D

I don't know which was my first segment. I stumbled onto as a kid, flipping through channels looking for something to watch. Thing is, I loved and hated the show. It scared the crap out of me, yet it fascinated me and I couldn't stop watching. Nowadays, while some segments still scare me, sometimes I laugh like when I think about how the Alan Mann haunting scared the crap out of me as a kid. That Alan Mann haunting makes me wonder if I wasn't the wussiest kid ever.

But I'm still scared of the EAR-ONS segment. That's one I just flat-out can't handle.

If I were to guess I'd guess 5 or 6 years old. My dad would watch it all the time. I'd watch the hour long shows at night but as soon as the ending theme music came on I had to mute it or cover my ears cuz it scared the crap out of me. When I got a bit older (8 or 9) I'd sometimes get to watch the half hour segments when I pretended to be sick at school and got to come home early. hehe.

Couldn't watch the UFO segments at all. Freaked me the hell out. The ghost stories were not really scary to me, except for that one segment where the kids would levitate off of their beds (I forgot the name of the family). I used to like the "blue lady" ghost segment.

I am very late to this show. I started by watching videos on them on the internet in 2011. I first started off with the Kurt Cobain segment as being a huge Nirvana fan then i started watching other segments and i became addicted! I bought some DVDs and watched them for a while and got sick of them after a while so i just recently started watching them again and just addicted again! Most people my age would see it as a very old show and very outdated because it is pre-mobile (cell) phones and stuff but it is still very interesting because Robert Stack is a great host and is just really interesting because most cases don't even have updates throughout the years.

I remember seeing TV commercials and promos for the series on NBC. I would guess this was in 1988 or 1989, and I would have been 7 or 8 years old at the time.

As corny as this may sound, I think I have been drawn to the show from the very beginning. I remember liking those ads and wanting to know what the show was all about. I just had a feeling there was something special and different about it.

I remember seeing the segment about Roger Wheeler around 1987 (don't remember much else of the episode). I started watching more seriously when Karl Malden and Stack hosted and I agree, there was an intriguing quality to the series that set it apart even early on.

Shortly after posting in this thread, started thinking about how everyone keeps saying that they got into UM as a kid and how even though it scared them, they kept watching. Started wondering, just what audience were they marketing this show towards? I really don't think they expected so many kids to stumble onto it and become fans, but I kind of wonder how they felt about that. But I suppose it's not too weird that kids would get into it; I was and am still fascinated by true-crime stuff.

Shortly after posting in this thread, started thinking about how everyone keeps saying that they got into UM as a kid and how even though it scared them, they kept watching. Started wondering, just what audience were they marketing this show towards? I really don't think they expected so many kids to stumble onto it and become fans, but I kind of wonder how they felt about that. But I suppose it's not too weird that kids would get into it; I was and am still fascinated by true-crime stuff.

I'm sure they were marketing it towards anyone in the public who would hopefully know something related to a specific case and call in with information.

As little kids, I think we were drawn to the show because the cases were presented in a story format instead of it quickly stating little random facts in a 2 minute piece and then leaving the call in number. And it didn't matter if it was a murder, missing person, lost love, bank robber, history segment, etc. With UM presenting the cases the way they did, the people involved truly stuck with you.

They obviously did a good job. I never forgot these people. Their stories fascinated me as a 9 year old and I still think of them today at 34.

Shortly after posting in this thread, started thinking about how everyone keeps saying that they got into UM as a kid and how even though it scared them, they kept watching. Started wondering, just what audience were they marketing this show towards? I really don't think they expected so many kids to stumble onto it and become fans, but I kind of wonder how they felt about that. But I suppose it's not too weird that kids would get into it; I was and am still fascinated by true-crime stuff.

Probably was aimed more at adults but it had an appeal for all ages. I can remember being petrified having to go to the toilet during the ad break on Saturday nights when it aired during winter-thinking there might be murderers, aliens, ghosts etc upstairs.

I'm sure they were marketing it towards anyone in the public who would hopefully know something related to a specific case and call in with information.

As little kids, I think we were drawn to the show because the cases were presented in a story format instead of it quickly stating little random facts in a 2 minute piece and then leaving the call in number. And it didn't matter if it was a murder, missing person, lost love, bank robber, history segment, etc. With UM presenting the cases the way they did, the people involved truly stuck with you.

They obviously did a good job. I never forgot these people. Their stories fascinated me as a 9 year old and I still think of them today at 34.

Very, very well said, Dynoguy88. I'd only change the first age to about 13 (how old I was when I first got hooked) and the second age to my current age of 40.

I think the thing that hooked me in 89 when I was 6 years old was the fact that I was intrigued by the paranormal side. If I watched it as an adult there is no way I would believe it. but as I child you will believe in amost anything(at least i did). but as dyno said it is the way they told the story. they hooked you in. they traveled the country and showed you different places/people and their stories. then eventually they'd get to the scary parts but you just couldn't stop watching because you wanted to see the ending or help solve it. I think finally I reached a point to where being scared at night just wasn't worth it so I stopped watching(after hearing stack say the IH 70 killer was believed to be in my hometown). but even when I came back as an adult when I watched on lifetime I would have strange dreams and it would frighten me a little bit.

I vaguely remember catching glimpses of it when I was really young but didn't follow closer until I was in my early teens. At first, my sister would call me out for watching it only because Lifetime's slogan was "television for women". But later on, after doing a little research and putting together some logic, I cleared that up. I told her it was started by CBS and after a few years, they dropped it and Lifetime picked it up. I also asked her a smart-ass question something like "if they were to show the film Casablanca on that channel, would it automatically make it 'women's television' and thus inappropriate for me to watch ever?"

Midway through my high school years (in 2005), UM was no longer shown and I wasn't reunited with it until I got to college (late 2007) and became hooked on the forbidden site (the one founded by Chad Hurley ;), and stumbled upon old segments posted by various users.

I vaguely remember catching glimpses of it when I was really young but didn't follow closer until I was in my early teens. At first, my sister would call me out for watching it only because Lifetime's slogan was "television for women". But later on, after doing a little research and putting together some logic, I cleared that up. I told her it was started by CBS and after a few years, they dropped it and Lifetime picked it up. I also asked her a smart-ass question something like "if they were to show the film Casablanca on that channel, would it automatically make it 'women's television' and thus inappropriate for me to watch ever?"


The ironic thing is that it has also been on Spike which was generally touted as a "men's channel."

I always thought it was a unisex show-if you like true crime & strange events then you will like the show-like Sherlock Holmes or Mr Moto.

When I first saw it, which was the 'Missing Time' classic UFO episode in 1988. I was 7. At first I wasn't as big on the crime segments but they grew on me.

Normally my parents wanted me in bed at 8 but I was allowed to stay up till 9 after UM was over because it was my favorite show.

But I was thinking the other day; I may have seen it earlier. I have a vague recollection of seeing the Unabomber segment before he was caught, but I can't place the year. It could have been AMW also.

I half-watched it when I was younger. I say "half-watched" because it scared the crap out of me.

I don't think I developed a true respect for it until I was in high school and started seeing reruns on Lifetime...

This was me, too. I was pretty scared of the show as a kid. I do remember almost every single instance where I actively sat down and actually watched at that young age, though.

I didn't start watching regularly until about my freshman year of college, when the last leg of the Lifetime reruns were still going in '04-'05. That was probably when I actually got really engaged.

I first remember watching in the summer of 1989. I was 9 years old and they aired the Son of Sam segment. It scared me to death Those police composites stuck with me for a year or so as did Berkowitz's smirk as he was being led to the police car in the file footage. Then they re-aired the file footage during the Omar arsonist segment. Anyhow, I remember watching the 1989 segment because (if I recall correctly), they repackaged the Dennis Walker segment with that one. I was (and still am ) a huge sports fan and the segment caught my attention. After that, my brothers and I were hooked. The show aired on Wednesday nights and we had prayer meeting/youth group at church and it wasn't over until 8:0. We always missed the first 15-20 minutes on UM. Sometimes, we would think to record it. Loved the show ever since.

The first time I heard Robert Stacks voice I was mesmerized and completely drawn into the segment. He made me feel like I was right there and just how serious it was to see if there was anything you could do to help. He was the perfect person to host that show and I hope they can bring it back and find another Robert Stack. If you have any information on finding another Robert Stack please call our center at, I miss hearing that number at the end.

I was 10 years old when I first watch UM and was hooked right away in the late fall of 1987. The first episode I watched was the one about Glen and Bessie Hyde.

The first time I ever watched it! Way back when it first premiered. I'm pretty sure Karl Maldon was the host the first few eps!