Hey, I just saw a post from the official Unsolved Mysteries Facebook page. Original Robert Stack episodes are now available on YouTube!!!

Nice!

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCzirOgADPOz0eapgwBcX9Gw

Are they going to stay up? Or are Cosgrove and Maurer going to jump us and then throw us in jail for watching?

Are they going to stay up? Or are Cosgrove and Maurer going to jump us and then throw us in jail for watching?

That’s the real mystery 🤪

I’m sure they are there to stay. It wouldn’t be a bad move by CM/FilmRise to try to introduce younger audiences to the show, seeing that Netflix will be hosting the new version of the show very soon.

Sure that will please the people who paid a fortune to download the entire season sets on Amazon.

Exactly. Enjoy them while you can.

I love Dennis Farina as an actor, but nobody can host UM as good as Robert Stack.

just a couple of years ago I would have jumped out of bed and danced a happy dance if I read this. I'm so glad we can watch the original segments!

Most excellent news!

Now if only CM would digitally release a comprehensive original score spanning the entire series run, I would be in heaven.

I always think with these programmes that there's not enough detail included in each case and they move onto another too quickly. I suppose they're sufficient to get a smattering of the case.

Sure that will please the people who paid a fortune to download the entire season sets on Amazon.

They survived on a semi-obscure streaming site (Tubi TV) long enough. Given YouTube's reach though, this has to piss off someone at Amazon, not to mention however many buyers there were.

They survived on a semi-obscure streaming site (Tubi TV) long enough. Given YouTube's reach though, this has to piss off someone at Amazon, not to mention however many buyers there were.

There is no way Amazon cares at all. Filmrise has lots of stuff that's on as many streaming platforms as will license it, for something like this I don't think there's any big premium on exclusivity. Seeing the trail of where their shows end up I've been expecting the YT drop for a while.

I briefly skimmed the first episode and it's got some video interlacing issues. I don't remember the Amazon streams having interlacing this bad. Also, 480p so no change there.

Not sure if a Gaussian Blur is worse than interlacing issues, but I don't see me trashing my VHS rips any time soon...

Sure that will please the people who paid a fortune to download the entire season sets on Amazon.

The Film Rise segments are included free-of-charge with Amazon Prime membership. Regardless, Amazon doesn't have a genuine "download" offering. They can remove the kindle books and videos from your devices whenever they want. If it isn't physical, it does not exist, for collection intents and purposes.

Also, the Film Rise segments have been available on someone's Google Drive for years now. The UM Reddit freely posted the links to it forever with no blowback from CM...so YT uploads make no difference at this point.

I bet Filmrise purchased the rights, or has permission, and they won't be taken down.

Question though -I never watched the episodes on prime, but did they shift segments around completely? I know there was talk of missing segments, but the YT first episode is definitely not the S1 E1 that originally aired. I have that episode. Looks like the same is true for E2 and so on....

I may have answered my own question....it looks like the YT episodes are calling "special #4" as S1 E1, "special #5" as S1 E2, and so on.

Which brings me to my next question: there were 4 Stack hosted specials and then 24 episodes in the first season, meaning there should be 28 in total. YT's first season only has 24, so where are the missing 4? Or are these just cut-and-paste jobs of various segments and the segments left out is what shaved it down from 28 episodes to 24?

The Film Rise episodes and missing segments are stickied if you want to see the specific changes, though the lists are not 100% accurate.

Film Rise omitted many segments and cut-and-pasted things together to fit them in (based on their own mad methods...). The Film Rise episodes are not as bad as the Lifetime edits, though, and there are many OG broadcasts.

The Film Rise episodes and missing segments are stickied if you want to see the specific changes, though the lists are not 100% accurate.

Film Rise omitted many segments and cut-and-pasted things together to fit them in (based on their own mad methods...). The Film Rise episodes are not as bad as the Lifetime edits, though, and there are many OG broadcasts.


Exactly. The episodes on YouTube are the same as on Amazon but as Chichester Crowe notes, the Amazon episodes are chopped up and switched around. But still, it is better than nothing to finally have these. Much better than the Farina episodes

Is it just the first two seasons so far?

Still awaiting those Raymond Burr and Karl Malden episodes....

Check out the third season episodes they uploaded yesterday and compare them to the first two seasons. They mangled it with an incorrect aspect ratio, it looks like garbage. Pretty dumb.

Check out the third season episodes they uploaded yesterday and compare them to the first two seasons. They mangled it with an incorrect aspect ratio, it looks like garbage. Pretty dumb.

The first two seasons looked ok. At least the ones I watched. Maybe they will fix them given time. If nothing else, the cases are getting exposure and free to watch

The first two seasons looked ok. At least the ones I watched. Maybe they will fix them given time. If nothing else, the cases are getting exposure and free to watch

I have been ill and being able to binge watch these has been a massive blessing, I'm glad CM came to their senses. Of course I'm $ure there are lots of reasons they did so but it sure has been fantastic to catch up with old, cheesy segments I had totally forgotten about. The updates have been hilarious. And Stack, never get sick of him.

I'm glad it's free to watch on Youtube now. I didn't renew my Amazon Prime because it's not worth it, and I really only had it for UM anyway.

Check out the third season episodes they uploaded yesterday and compare them to the first two seasons. They mangled it with an incorrect aspect ratio, it looks like garbage. Pretty dumb.

What are you using as a reference?
The OG broadcasts or the Film Rise on Amazon?

I haven't gotten around to all of them yet, but aside from 480p and some bad pixelation, this is likely the best we're ever going to see.

Personally, I have very little respect for this DRM era. If it's not on your shelf, then you don't own it and it doesn't exist. If they released season sets I would buy every single one of them without hesitation, even without the absent material.

Still awaiting those Raymond Burr and Karl Malden episodes....

I need to ask permission from the mods, but this discussion deserves to be brought up again now that they're uploading everything to the "forbidden site". To be honest, we shouldn't have to tiptoe around this anymore. The folks who have come to this forum represent the diehard UM fans. We have been trading and watching VHS rips for nearly two decades. Some of us have shelled out a lot of money to do this. There's little reason to prohibit the private trading of "lost segments" for the members of this community.

As for episodes 0x01 - 0x03? I have them. As well as the rest of the unreleased material from Season 1. If you have been patient this long, then I ask that you remain patient.

What are you using as a reference?
The OG broadcasts or the Film Rise on Amazon?

I haven't gotten around to all of them yet, but aside from 480p and some bad pixelation, this is likely the best we're ever going to see.

Personally, I have very little respect for this DRM era. If it's not on your shelf, then you don't own it and it doesn't exist. If they released season sets I would buy every single one of them without hesitation, even without the absent material.

I was comparing them to the FilmRise uploads on Amazon and the previous two seasons. Luckily, they appear to have fixed this because I just looked again and the aspect ratios are now correct.

I concur, and I would be willing to spend an unreasonable amount of money on a Blu-Ray box set of the series. But I don't think we're ever going to get that, so I'm just going to enjoy these and be happy. :)

I'm still lost. What is the difference between the Prime version and YouTube

Just heads up: Film Rise has re-uploaded a handful of episodes that they previously uploaded. The only difference I have found so far is that the new videos have poorer quality...oh, and they replaced the original uploads, so we're stuck with them. Perhaps new updates? Not sure when I could get to re-checking these episodes, so if anyone has an inkling, have at it.
1x01
1x12
1x15
1x18
1x23
2x05
2x11
3x02
4x08
4x11
4x18
4x19
5x20
6x06

I'm still lost. What is the difference between the Prime version and YouTube

Not a thing.

I'm still lost. What is the difference between the Prime version and YouTube

Nothing other than the potential quality issues already mentioned in the thread. While there has been no official confirmation as to why, my thoughts are that they want to get the old episodes out there as a way to soft promote the reboot series that Netflix is producing.

If I had to guess, and this is only speculation, I’ll bet that Amazon was taking a hard look at producing the reboot, so they made a deal to license the original version that fans have been wanting. Cosgrove-Meurer had been hinting for several years that they were trying to get new shows back on the air, so I can’t believe they weren’t talking when Amazon got the original shows. It also seems possible that they were testing the waters with Hulu, as selected seasons are on there. In the end, Netflix probably saw the response that Amazon got from the old shows and simply made a better offer than any other interested services.

With the old shows on Amazon and new ones coming to Netflix, they realize that not everyone utilizes both, so they put the old shows out on YouTube to make them accessible and to stir up interest with a modern audience. YouTube’s “related video” algorithms are also a great help ingetting the show cheap advertising.

What’s surprising is that YouTube doesn’t seem to be getting the original series. But it’s possible that the contract with Amazon prohibits that but not other services.

Anyway, long winded response I know, but that’s my guess as to what is happening.

This is kind of frustrating because I paid a decent amount of money for Amazon Prime strictly to watch Unsolved Mysteries. However, this makes me wonder if now maybe users can upload some of the segments left out of Amazon Prime (i.e., Wadada). What do you guys think? Will CM still take them down for copyright infringement?

Nothing other than the potential quality issues already mentioned in the thread. While there has been no official confirmation as to why, my thoughts are that they want to get the old episodes out there as a way to soft promote the reboot series that Netflix is producing.

If I had to guess, and this is only speculation, I’ll bet that Amazon was taking a hard look at producing the reboot, so they made a deal to license the original version that fans have been wanting. Cosgrove-Meurer had been hinting for several years that they were trying to get new shows back on the air, so I can’t believe they weren’t talking when Amazon got the original shows. It also seems possible that they were testing the waters with Hulu, as selected seasons are on there. In the end, Netflix probably saw the response that Amazon got from the old shows and simply made a better offer than any other interested services.

With the old shows on Amazon and new ones coming to Netflix, they realize that not everyone utilizes both, so they put the old shows out on YouTube to make them accessible and to stir up interest with a modern audience. YouTube’s “related video” algorithms are also a great help ingetting the show cheap advertising.

What’s surprising is that YouTube doesn’t seem to be getting the original series. But it’s possible that the contract with Amazon prohibits that but not other services.

Anyway, long winded response I know, but that’s my guess as to what is happening.

The UM rerelease is produced by Filmrise, which licenses its stuff to anybody and everybody. I don't think there's any significance to the fact that they were on Amazon first, it was probably just how it shook out.