If the show were to come back, what changes would you want? Aside from resurrecting Robert Stack (tough shoes to fill!), what would you change? Me personally:

1. Less "Lost Loves" segments. I found some of these nice (the enemy soldiers who held an armistice in order to spend a peaceful Christmas together), but in general, these I found the most boring.

:violin:

2. Less "Unexplained" segments. I'm not averse to UFO stories, but please have some interesting footage or a credible witness. No more Loch Ness Monsters please!

:ufo:

3. Could do without the "call center" shots. Always seemed kind of cheesy to me--Like a star trek scene where it's just a bunch of flashing lights that did nothing (you can't fool me!). Could probably save some money here, though I know they shot a lot of scenes at the same time. P.S. I know they had an FBI agent standing by every night it would air, and this resulted in a few fugitives being caught immediately. Nice!)

phone:

4. Always loved the host and the music. Host's voice would have to have as much Gravitas as Robert's for sure! And a re-vamping of the music.

:guitar:

You hit on a lot of good points. I like your list so far. I would add:

- Segments of the original length (10-20 minutes, depending on the case)
- No jumpy, cheesy graphics or camera angles
- Good cinematography with accurate details and props
- Mostly true crime segments, especially bizarre murder or missing cases
- No fluff stories at all (magic rock, haunting, etc.)

I think you still need the supernatural stories to distinguish it from the plethora of cheesy true crime shows pumped out by ID.

Lost Loves would seem mostly irrelevant in the social media era. I found a lot of these segments stalkerish, like the single man seeking the married nurse who cared for him. They would really need to limit these, if they do them at all.


No rock music, no fake command centers, no google maps.

Magic Rock
Google Maps

LOL! Agreed. I was also thinking how it would differentiate itself from the current shows out there. There are some pretty bad ones, from what I remember. I stopped watching most but 48 Hours Mysteries and Datelines.

The ideal UM to me today would also include bonus episodes with segments of interviews that were never aired. So if you interviewed Jo Blow, but only used two minutes of his interview on air, it would be nice to see the remainder of the interview unaired somewhere else.

Can you imagine, somewhere, there has to be hours long interviews from various seasons with suspects/ families/ law enforcement, that were never aired on television due to the timing or content? That's what I want to see!

No rock music, no fake command centers, no google maps.

I agree. Showing the actual call center is fine, but the fake command center watered down the show, as did the rock music and google maps. The google maps were okay for America's Most Wanted, but not for Unsolved Mysteries. It's sad when people feel they need to revamp something just so that it wouldn't be rejected as antiquated. In my humble opinion, they stand on the same level as those who refuse to say or do something because they fear they might "offend" someone.

Unexplained Death
Missing Persons
Final Appeal
Wanted

(with me eating a meat lovers pizza throughout the whole thing.)

Resurrection Mary. At least once per episode. Anything less than once per episode will be a total failure.

Resurrection Mary. At least once per episode. Anything less than once per episode will be a total failure.

Haha, total FLUFF!

Easy cases

1. Cases that can actually be solved. So no Lost Loves or Unexplained cases. Unexplained were always hit or miss (there are some that I like, and several that are classics), but even when I was a kid and UM was brand new, I hated Lost Loves. To this day, I skip 95 percent of them. I think the Lost Loves segments are very much something of a pre-internet era thing. Just imagine how fast some of the those cases would be solved now with a 30 second internet search.

One other type of segment that I don't think bodes well for a future UM are the unexplained deaths. There were several cases that were excluded from the Amazon sets due to UM accusing someone of an unproven serious crime (Aimee Willard, John James Irwin, several others).

I also think they should avoid parental kidnapping cases. Those have been the number one causality of the Amazon sets...I dont think even one made it on them.

Unexplained Death
Missing Persons
Final Appeal
Wanted

(with me eating a meat lovers pizza throughout the whole thing.)

Plus 1. Except maybe a veggie lovers pizza instead.

Plus 1. Except maybe a veggie lovers pizza instead.

I can dig it!

I think you still need the supernatural stories to distinguish it from the plethora of cheesy true crime shows pumped out by ID.


I agree. The supernatural cases are a must.

Model it closely to the first seasons (probably 1-4) of the Stack era. That’s all I’d really care about in the end.

Agree on the "no Lost Loves."
I could see the use for them before the internet age, but nowadays, it's like..."Have you checked Facebook?"

No more unexplained, conspiracy theory, sci-med, miracles, historical cases. (The History Channel airs plenty of that stuff)

No more Lost Loves, but still find a place to air that cheesy upbeat resolution music. I love that!

I would bring back Fraud cases, identify theft is a huge problem these days, the Carol Anderson case that aired in 1995 was a good foreshadower (sadly a lot of fraud cases are left off of the Amazon episodes) and I would bring back Kidnapping/Parent custody cases.

More Final Appeal segments and of course plenty of Unexplained Death, Wanted, Missing Persons case (the original core of UM)

I would also create two types of new segments one is "Cybercrime" because there are so many hackers and thieves out on the internet.

The other being "Road Rage" because it is a huge and growing problem in the United States.

More fraud cases?!! Seriously? lol

I guess everyone has different tastes. To me those were among the most boring. Those and the old Don Juan guys that would sleep with old ladies so they could steal their money. Not that I condone it, but those segments were typically just boring. I’d take the magic rock and makes-you-horny chocolate any day over those.

Everyone seems to agree on at least the Unexplained Death, Missing and Final Appeal Cases at least.

Personally I enjoy the Unexplained segments too. But if the series returns, I’d almost suggest they do a Halloween special with the ghosts and cryptozoology stuff, then maybe a special each season of alien/UFO stuff. Other than that, the unsolved murders, missing persons, and final appeal stuff should be top of the list.

I guess the robbery ones and even fraud were staples of the series, but unless they are somehow creepy, I never preferred them as much. My favorites are ones where I can speculate on what really happened or who was responsible, etc. but there is of course a need and even a responsibility for a show of this type to do the wanted segments as well. Those are most likely to be solved and it is good to help get the bad guys off the streets.

I think lost loves would still need to be featured, but maybe not as often. Even in this age of social media and internet, lost love cases are not as easily solved as one may think. They help of course, but there can still be a lot of difficulty depending on the situation.

The Fraud cases were interesting, not just about sleeping with old ladies.

The Maria Lapine case or the Ellen Berry cases are great mysteries. Or the Countess of Cleveland. The people who stole from banks, also great. We lost a lot of great segments from the updated version with these being excluded.


I was pretty young during the early 90s, but I feel there was more of a UFO craze back then than there is now. Do people still care about these post-XFiles?

I think lost loves would still need to be featured, but maybe not as often. Even in this age of social media and internet, lost love cases are not as easily solved as one may think. They help of course, but there can still be a lot of difficulty depending on the situation.


I don't know, I also think UM was naïve in its presentation of these cases and their willingness to get involved back then. Stalking laws are still not what they should be, even worse then, I don't really think hunting down people who've voluntarily left is something that should be assisted with.

Like that Nurse Stevens segment, where she very clearly left her position in the army because she got married and then this guy is on TV trying to hunt her down and it's so clear from his interview he wants a lot more of her than "to say thank you" despite knowing she was married.

IMO anyway.

The thing is, even fraud cases are covered extensively these days. CNBC has American Greed hosted by Stacy Keach (also of Missing: Reward & Case Closed). I think they tend to skewer towards solved cases, but the occasional unsolved does pop up.

There's no shortage of murder mysteries shows out there, most devoting an entire hour to one case.

I think Unsolved Mysteries was something that could only exist during the timeframe it did. People were a lot more open to variety then. Honestly, and I think someone may have said this before, but I'm not sure people would have the attention span for a lost love, the unexplained, sci-med and what have you.

Wanted/Missing/Unexplained Death/Treasure/Final Appeal and a few unsolvable mysteries (Noah's Ark, Bigfoot, etc.) sprinkled in here and there.

In terms of production values and visual style, basically like A&E's "The Eleven" series or The Hunt with John Walsh. With some of the old school 80s/early 90s CMP flair, of course. It's much more affordable to have a good looking show of this type these days, so they wouldn't have to resort to the unfortunate video feel of the latter seasons.

I agree that for the most part the Lost Loves are an artifact of a passed time, ditto the telecenter. It'd be hard to have Unsolved Mysteries without the supernatural, though.

I think Unsolved Mysteries was something that could only exist during the timeframe it did. People were a lot more open to variety then. .

Yeah, there's definitely something to this.

A lot of what made the early episodes great was the satanic panic of the 80s and the naivety in forensics.

Lost Loves would seem mostly irrelevant in the social media era. I found a lot of these segments stalkerish, like the single man seeking the married nurse who cared for him.

I hope you're not referring to Karen Stephens or Linda Sharp. Because those nurses gave Jim Meade and Jim Baczkowsk the will to live again after being severely injured in Vietnam.

I love those stories.

I hope you're not referring to Karen Stephens or Linda Sharp. Because those nurses gave Jim Meade and Jim Baczkowsk the will to live again after being severely injured in Vietnam.

I love those stories.

Those are two out of my three favorite LL stories. The third being Duncan Gilmore of course!

I can't remember which Jim it was...but that letter the nurse wrote to his wife about losing his leg...one of the most moving moments in the entire show.

Your point reminds me that UM did more for vets than any other show that I am aware of, so if we ever get a new UM, I would hope it continues that tradition.

I love how the term “stalking” over the years has had its definition broadened. I remember being a little kid (think like 7 or 8) and having a crush. Just out of curiosity, I would be curious where the crush lived. So I’d try to watch on the walk or ride home. Not following or anything, just keeping an eye out. I remember my mother even thinking it was cute. Not like I was gonna just show up at the other kids house or do anything wrong or creepy even. Simply curious about them is all. I wouldn’t do that as an adult or anything either.

But today, a kid doing that would be ridiculed and labeled as stalking. Which IMO kind of trivializes the true stalking cases out there. Stalking is by definition a hunter seeking prey. So intent to do harm is implied. I wouldn’t consider an army vet, with or without an infatuation, looking for the nurse that once treated him as being a stalker. That seems kind of harsh to me. And besides, if the nurse didn’t want to reconnect to at least say hello and see how he was doing, why pick up the phone and allow UM to put them in touch with each other?

Bottom line, whether you like lost love segments or not, and I’ll admit myself they were not generally my favorite segments, I don’t think it’s fair to label them as stalking the person they are looking for.

Just saying...

There's no shortage of murder mysteries shows out there, most devoting an entire hour to one case.

I think Unsolved Mysteries was something that could only exist during the timeframe it did. People were a lot more open to variety then. Honestly, and I think someone may have said this before, but I'm not sure people would have the attention span for a lost love, the unexplained, sci-med and what have you.

Agreed - though I'd also argue UM has a lot more weight/cachet to it that could make a properly-executed revitalization work.

Given advances in DNA and other forensic tech, I'd like to see some more Final Appeals. Unexplained Death, Missing & Wanted cases would also rank high up there for me.

*(Really getting into the show again and browsing these boards has spurred me to get out there and browse other sites like the Doe Network, Charley Project etc.........of the above, there's so much that UM didn't cover way back when, you could go on and on for years)

As far as the Lost Loves - yeah, Google and Facebook have pretty much rendered those irrelevant for the most part. Legends are okay once in a while, UFO stories are hokey though IMO........all the other such stuff I'm pretty indifferent on.

Would be tough to find someone to fill Robert Stack's shoes though