UM Segments you consider Filler/Fake or Made-Up

[infinityluxe]

I must say there were a lot of cases that made me think..these people just wanted to be on television.

One that comes to mind is among my favorite segments. It was shot beautifully and the cinematography was the best we ever got from UM. Georgia Rudolph was a nurse who believed she was the reincarnation of a woman that died in 1914.

Another was the older gentleman who claims he ran into his exact double at a train station. They exchanged information and the doppleganger elaborated on an old family folklore. Anyhow he lost the slip of paper as soon as he got on the train.

Don't get me started on the segment with the girl who was moving objects with her mind and sweating gold flakes. I don't see how Robert Stack got through that one without laughing it was so over the top. It made the boy who made it rain in his friend's house seem credible.

Now go figure I didn't believe those to be true--but I believed the elderly couple who gave the man sandwiches and got $500 every Christmas for a few years. It was such a cute story and yes it pulled at my heartstrings.

[ghosthouse]

the very first one that comes to mind is the Men in Black segment. Nothing more really needs to be said about that one.

As much as I love the Russell and Jean Johnson segment - it's one of my person top favorites - it was sort of unnecessary.

[freakbook]

Jim Boumgarden

[TheCars1986]

I don't even consider some of the more silly segments (aphrodisiac, fertility statues, message in a bottle) to have been "filler". I think once the internet became more and more prevalent across the country, there were less and less need for the lost loves segments, so they needed a "feel good" category to balance out the show. With that said, the doomsday segments, Kurt Cobain, and a large portion of season 9 on up were what I would consider "filler". Just segments made in an attempt to boost ratings.

[EighthStreet]

New Mexico church spiral staircase. It wasn't even a mystery, but the sisters wanted it to be one.

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by EighthStreet

New Mexico church spiral staircase. It wasn't even a mystery, but the sisters wanted it to be one.

That was one of my favorite segments, but I agree that it wasn't really much of a mystery.

[RedBasket]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

That was one of my favorite segments, but I agree that it wasn't really much of a mystery.

I agree and I need a refresher: The really was a master carpenter who came by to build the staircase but the sisters believed he was an angel or something? Didn't the guy's son or grandson find his toolbox with a drawing of the staircase to further prove it was a real person?

[cordwainer1453]

Originally Posted by freakbook

Jim Boumgarden

If that segment wasn't straight fake, it's pretty obvious the twin didn't want to be found.

[freakbook]

Originally Posted by cordwainer1453

If that segment wasn't straight fake, it's pretty obvious the twin didn't want to be found.

If the twin was real, I don't understand why he didn't just come forward and say he didn't want to be bothered. I also find it odd that no one else in that town could come forward with any sort of information about the twin.

I think Jim was just looking for his quick 15 minutes. I guess back then you didn't have instagram/twitter to make spoof videos so you went on UM for attention

[TheCars1986]

Originally Posted by RedBasket

I agree and I need a refresher: The really was a master carpenter who came by to build the staircase but the sisters believed he was an angel or something? Didn't the guy's son or grandson find his toolbox with a drawing of the staircase to further prove it was a real person?

Yeah there was a German carpenter who had an identical drawing in his possessions of the staircase built, and IIRC, he was in the area at the time the staircase would have been built.

[5thcorps]

I think that guy's Grandfather probably did build it.

[infinityluxe]

Originally Posted by freakbook

If the twin was real, I don't understand why he didn't just come forward and say he didn't want to be bothered. I also find it odd that no one else in that town could come forward with any sort of information about the twin.

I think Jim was just looking for his quick 15 minutes. I guess back then you didn't have instagram/twitter to make spoof videos so you went on UM for attention

I agree not a single soul knew the twin who lived in the same vicinity as Jim? I do recall Jim did finally find out who his mother was and he met his long lost sister too (if I am not mistaken). It should have been a regular Lost Loves segment because Jim had no solid proof a twin existed. They never presented his birth certificate or any concrete proof. I think Jim was playing up his segment for attention as well.

[WishfulDreamer]

The dream walker segment in one of the later seasons.

[MegtheEgg86]

I am in no way insinuating his death wasn't important and that he didn't matter as a human being, but I still have trouble wrapping my mind around how the Kenneth Engie segment ever ended up on the show.

Everybody involved was intoxicated that night and Engie was already in his garage running his vehicle before Heck's arrival. Even if Heck had an additional physical altercation with Engie in that garage, I think it'd take a lot of legal gymnastics to find him responsible for Engie's death. One of our attorneys could probably shed more light on that.

Moreover, I thought Curtis Heck seemed to be one of the more forthright witnesses ever interviewed, a la Joe Jones. He admitted to doing "dumb stuff" that night, and he even admitted to entering Engie's garage and seeing him there, throwing up his hands and leaving him to "spend the night on the garage floor."

I just don't get it.

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I don't even consider some of the more silly segments (aphrodisiac, fertility statues, message in a bottle) to have been "filler". I think once the internet became more and more prevalent across the country, there were less and less need for the lost loves segments, so they needed a "feel good" category to balance out the show. With that said, the doomsday segments, Kurt Cobain, and a large portion of season 9 on up were what I would consider "filler". Just segments made in an attempt to boost ratings.

I don't know. Just because the Internet got going in the 90s doesn't mean there was a ton of information available at your fingertips. (I'm thinking more in terms of lost love.). There was no Google until 1998, which was UM's 11th season. There was no Facebook until 2006 and many of the social networking that followed. I remember first trying to research extra information online about UM cases around 2001 and I could barely find a thing.

I think the lost love segments still had their importance on the show. I would have preferred more of them compared to fertility statues or the chair of death.