New Article about the Life of an Unsolved Mysteries Phone Operator

[RobinW]

I'm sure many of you have always wondered what it was like to work as an operator in the Unsolved Mysteries Telecenter. Well, Cracked.com recently conducted an interview with one of the former operators and released an article about it:
http://www.cracked.com/personal-expe...-operator.html

A pretty fascinating read and the final story about Robert Stack is hilarious!

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

That’s a good read. Thanks for posting. It truly shows that not much has changed. Now those trolls are on social media yucking it up for everyone instead of calling people. My favorite part of the article is the Robert Stack part. Kind of chilling to imagine him sitting in his car like that. I’m sure these stories got to all of them at times. That’s awesome what he did pranking the guy on the phone.

[Todd Mueller]

That was a fun (albeit somewhat disturbing) read. Thanks for posting it, Robin!

I laughed out loud when I read that Stack "was often annoyed by the UFO and ghost segments, with Stack even interrupting filming sometimes with a 'Come on!'" I can hear him saying that, too... I'm happy to know some of us weren't the only ones annoyed by the silly ghost segments.

Stack is one of those guys who I thought was really cool as a kid. As an adult, he's the kind of guy I wish I could have had a beer with and hear his stories.

[James T]

[James T]

Originally Posted by Todd Mueller

That was a fun (albeit somewhat disturbing) read. Thanks for posting it, Robin!

I laughed out loud when I read that Stack "was often annoyed by the UFO and ghost segments, with Stack even interrupting filming sometimes with a 'Come on!'" I can hear him saying that, too... I'm happy to know some of us weren't the only ones annoyed by the silly ghost segments.

Stack is one of those guys who I thought was really cool as a kid. As an adult, he's the kind of guy I wish I could have had a beer with and hear his stories.

His smirk gave away when he thought a segment was just ridiculous. However, no doubt he knew they were the most popular ones to the mass public & kept the show on the air.

[dynoguy88]

That was a fun read.

As an Elementary school kid, I dreamed of coming across a bad guy featured on UM so I could call the telecenter and get him/her arrested...never really thinking how terrifying that would actually be to see a killer in person.

Years later as a teenager, once information about UM cases started to become available online, I remember reading that Charlotte Pollis' mom had kidnapped Charlotte's daughter in order to keep her away from Paul and one of the cities police believed she escaped to was where I live. That started giving me images of being at the store or car wash or gas station and possibly running in to "Ms. I phone my daughter 75 times a day."

That was my last glimmer of hope to ever call the telecenter.

[Mike82]

Originally Posted by dynoguy88

That was a fun read.

As an Elementary school kid, I dreamed of coming across a bad guy featured on UM so I could call the telecenter and get him/her arrested...never really thinking how terrifying that would actually be to see a killer in person.

As a child I was scared *hitless that one of the UM criminals was in my hometown, especially after learning that more than one dangerous criminal was hiding in Canada. Little did I know that years later I very likely walked right by two (Nova Guthrie and Craig Pritchert) and lived to tell the tale although in reality they were not really that dangerous or violent by any stretch.

I knew there were trolls and pranksters calling UM but I had no idea it was so high. Even if I wanted to as a kid, I would have been terrified of Robert Stack and the local police showing up in the middle of the night to arrest me!

[drew790]

Originally Posted by Todd Mueller

That was a fun (albeit somewhat disturbing) read. Thanks for posting it, Robin!

I laughed out loud when I read that Stack "was often annoyed by the UFO and ghost segments, with Stack even interrupting filming sometimes with a 'Come on!'" I can hear him saying that, too... I'm happy to know some of us weren't the only ones annoyed by the silly ghost segments.

Stack is one of those guys who I thought was really cool as a kid. As an adult, he's the kind of guy I wish I could have had a beer with and hear his stories.

He probably popped a vain at Georgia Rudolph's past-life boyfriend.

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

Originally Posted by drew790

He probably popped a vain at Georgia Rudolph's past-life boyfriend.

Id love to hear his jokes.

[Composite Sketch]

One can only imagine how many times Stack said "Come on!" during the filming of the Mann family hauntings segment.

[James T]

Originally Posted by Composite Sketch

One can only imagine how many times Stack said "Come on!" during the filming of the Mann family hauntings segment.

[TheCars1986]

That bit about the caller on the Robert Kennedy segment was creepy! I wonder if that's why they never re-aired that segment on Lifetime, and only did the one about the missing pictures.

[plmkr88]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

That bit about the caller on the Robert Kennedy segment was creepy! I wonder if that's why they never re-aired that segment on Lifetime, and only did the one about the missing pictures.

Agreed! Very creepy.

[SPD Yellow]

I liked this part of the article best.

They actually weren't supposed to talk to Stack (Delilah says he was a little "distant"), but one day, she was on the phone explaining to her son that she couldn't pick him up because work was running late:

"Mr. Stack overheard this, picked up the phone, and asked, 'What's your son's name?' I told him 'Chris,' and he went into his Unsolved Mysteries voice and said, 'Chris, your mother cannot come and get you. Eyewitnesses say that she will need to be here until approximately 11 tonight. But one thing is for certain: She may help us solve a mystery tonight on Unsolved Mysteries,' and gave me back the phone."

Seriously if I was that kid, I’d have been over the moon with joy at something like this.

It is nice to know that even Robert Stack was like, “Seriously?!” about some of this stuff. Though as I’ve said before and will say again until my life is at an end, even when they were doing the ridiculous UFOs/ghosts stories, Robert Stack’s wonderful voice managed to somehow manage to lend these stories a note of gravitas and make them worth watching.

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