Updated list of 'Never aired on Lifetime' segments, longer than you might think!

[wiseguy182]

I have compiled a list of segments that, to the best of everyone's knowledge, have never aired on Lifetime. Initially, I thought this list was going to be a about a couple dozen segments, but as you can see, it is much longer. It is fun to speculate as to why Lifetime never aired these, although I think there are different reasons to different segments. Segments with a * are 'lost segments' that nobody currently posting here has to the best of our knowledge. (but we're working on it)

This list is probably not complete, so feel free to add anything you've noticed I missed, and I can edit this post to include it. thanks.

Prestack Specials

Wanda Jean Mays
Donald Kemp
Roger Wheeler/Jai Alai murder
John Burns
Pat Mealbach
Terry Conner & Joseph Daughetery
Kyra Cook
Rolex Robbers
Robert Weeks (both segment & update)
Unabomber
Jack Lutter
George Marsh
Glen Consagra

Tony Alamo
Billy Hargrove & Mike Carmichael
Eric & Pam Ellender
Roxanne Jeeves
"Debby"
Rogest Cain
Doyle Wheeler
Missy Munday & Jerry Strickland
Lester Garnier
*John Purvis (full segment)
Melvine Aprille
Grocery robbers
Poloma Martin
Charles Horvath
Home Improvement scam
Live from the telecenter (a few segments made it to lifetime, but most of the show did not)
Alcatraz special (full segment)
Gulf Breeze UFO's
Robert Leeds
Noreen Renier
John Roubas
Grandpa bandit/Milk carton bandit
Rohrey Wychgel
Mario Armado
Robert Stack profiles 10 missing person cases
Michael Fagen
Bo Tanner
*Tony Miller (both full segment & update)
Scott Hill
Walter Wenke & Ronald Enzlo
Drug traffickers that used a cellphone shop as a front
cyberstalkers
CW Roddy
Nevada wild horses update
Dr. Browning earthquake predictions
*Todd Mcaffee
*Marilu Geri
*Dr. David Rhodes
*JonBenet Ramsey
*the Bird Road Rapist
*Ed Barbera (may be acquired soon)
*3 ladies scam the elderly
*reverse sting operation
*Leticia Hernandez
*Marlena Childress
Lancaster exortion letters
Dorothy Allison (full segment)
UM 3rd anniversary special (portions made it to Lifetime)
Travis Wade Duncan
*Jackie Cooper
Kari Lynn Nixon update: speculated sighting at NKOTB concert.
*shopping bag bandits
*Susan Kennedy/Texas amnesia
*Jane Doe hit and run victim (aired as part of 5th season premiere along with man who fell from wing of an airplane)
*quick profiles of child molestors that aired at end of David McLeod segment
*lost love story about a German man looking for his sister
*quickie profiles of bank robbers including one that shoots out security cameras
James Vernon
*Fontes child abduction
*Avery James Norris
various FBI alerts

the following segments are only known to have aired once in the 2 a.m. overnight half hour episodes around 1996

Tara Calico
Keith Reinhard

The following segments are believed to have aired early in Lifetime's run, but seemed to have disappeared in subsequent years

Bonnie Wilder
Eva Schoen
Victor Manuel Gerena

[DarkDante]

Cool idea wiseguy - A few things:

- One segment that has not made it onto "Lifetime" which you have not listed is the case of the extortion letters in Lancaster, California.

- One segment in special 6 that was cut down significantly for "Lifetime" was Dorothy Alison - the psychic who was trying to solve the Lori Zimmerman murder case.

- Lesa Lee's segment was aired as late as 2005 - I know because thats when I grabbed it for my collection of videotapes.

[Todd Mueller]

Wow! Great stuff, wiseguy.

Couple of questions/comments:

1) Did Lifetime ever explain why they didn't show certain segments? Did the people protest or was there a specific reason? Just seems weird they seemed to purposely omit certain segments.

2) It was great having UM on Lifetime, but being an original UM fan, it bugged me how they wacked down some of the segments and cut out parts that were really cool. I realize that's part of syndication but it sucks to see some segments become a shell of their former selves.

3) Any thoughts on whether or not Spike will show cases Lifetime didn't?

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

I have compiled a list of segments that, to the best of everyone's knowledge, have never aired on Lifetime.

Impressive list wiseguy. Here we go...uh oh...

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Prestack Specials

Wanda Jean Mays
Donald Kemp
Roger Wheeler/Jai Alai murder
John Burns
Pat Mealbach
Terry Conner & Joseph Daughetery
Kyra Cook
Rolex Robbers
Robert Weeks (both segment & update)
Unabomber
Jack Lutter
George Marsh
Glen Consagra

Probably not shown due to royalties that Lifetime didn't feel like paying to Burr and Malden each time these episodes came up.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Tony Alamo

His case was resolved years ago and he has since resumed his ministry so I can understand Lifetime not wanting to show this segment.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Rogest Cain

He was legally declared dead in 1995. Perhaps his family requested that Lifetime not show the segment.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Doyle Wheeler

Donovan Jacobs sued UM because he did not agree with how he was portrayed in the segment. I suspect the lawsuit is why we never got this one.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

*John Purvis (full segment)

To my knowledge, John Purvis was featured on the UM spinoff series "Final Appeal", so there never was a UM segment about him. Although, the update about his release did (strangely) make it to Lifetime.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Melvine Aprille

Melvine Aprile was caught and the children returned. I have long suspected that some of these stories involving parental abduction and custody issues are not repeated out of respect for the families once they have been solved. The Fagan, Fontes, Martin and Rhodes cases fall into this category. None of them have been syndicated to my knowledge.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Live from the telecenter (a few segments made it to lifetime, but most of the show did not)
Alcatraz special (full segment)

Well, I think it's pretty obvious why the "live" broadcast didn't make it.

Also, the original segments were 90 minutes a piece. There are a few other 2 hour and 90 minute installments that never made it to Lifetime in their entirety (5/25/94 for example). These episodes were broken up and edited down to fit the hour format.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Gulf Breeze UFO's

This story revolved around what was most likely a huge hoax orchestrated by "Ray" aka Ed Walters.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Robert Leeds

Leeds was captured and plead "no contest" to the charges against him. He got two years, and his sentence was probably up WAAAY before Lifetime acquired the series. Since Leeds maintained he was innocent, and could have very well continued working in the art field after this was all over, I can understand Lifetime not showing this one.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Robert Stack profiles 10 missing person cases

Probably cut for timing reasons. Also, this would have been a pain in the butt for Lifetime to update.

I also think this is why some of those quickie "FBI Alerts" with William Sessions and Floyd Clark never made it.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Bo Tanner

Wasn't this story on one of the 90 minute installments?

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Special Alert: Joseph Krants, Martha Roberts

I have seen these on Lifetime.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

*Tony Miller (both full segment & update)

This was another "Final Appeal" spinoff story, and never had it's own UM segment to my knowledge.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Drug traffickers that used a cellphone shop as a front

While probably not the reason this wasn't shown on Lifetime, this segment is so out of date it is funny.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

CW Roddy

There was a lengthy update to the Bermuda Triangle story as well as the Heck family story, so I suspect this segment got bumped for timing reasons.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Dr. Browning earthquake predictions

Come on, the man said the sky was falling two weeks from the date of the broadcast. Can you see all the daytime stay at home moms and housewives freaking out and all the scuttlebutt this would generate if shown on Lifetime?

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

*the Bird Road Rapist

Not sure why it wasn't shown but I suppose it is worth mentioning that this guy (I think his name was Luiz Diaz) actually was innocent. He was cleared by DNA around 2005 or 2006ish.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

*Ed Barbera (may be acquired soon)

I emailed Ed Barbara's defense attorney and he told me that Barbara died of cancer while he was on the run. Then Barbara's wife came forward and worked out a plea deal to where she got to spend a few months in county jail in exchange for pleading guilty to some of the charges. Since the man was technically no longer wanted (he probably died before Lifetime acquired the series), this segment becomes obsolete.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

The following segments are believed to have aired early in Lifetime's run, but seemed to have disappeared in subsequent years

Bonnie Wilder

The charges against Bonnie were dropped, yet people were still calling in reports of seeing her. The police asked Lifetime to drop it. I think I read something to that effect in one of Vicki Bosma's postings.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Eva Schoen
Victor Manuel Gerena
Lesa Lee

I have these on tape from various times when they aired on Lifetime. Not sure if they weren't repeated again.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

segments I'm not sure about

Julie Cross

I think Crystaldawn told me that this was shown on Lifetime, with an update in fact. I can't recall ever seeing it, but if CD says she saw it, I have no reason to doubt her.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

UM 3rd anniversary special

Eh, kinda iffy. Parts of it were shown on Lifetime, such as the lengthy update on the gold supposedly removed by the government from Victorio Peak in the sixties and the update about Dave Davis' capture and sentencing, along with comments from Davis and the Mohr family.

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Diabolical minds: case studies
Travis Wade Duncan

Both have been on Lifetime, in fact I think I have tapes of each.

Just wanted to add that a lot of the "lost" segments were originally packaged with episodes that were prepared for re-broadcast on NBC as repeats and were comprised largely of repeat stories. Lifetime probably didn't waste time purchasing these episodes, but we lost some good stories. Examples include Billy Hargrove & Mike Carmichael, Eric & Pam Ellender, Lester Garnier, Mario Armado, Scott Hill, Walter Wenke & Ronald Enzlo, Nevada wild horses update, Todd Mcaffee and Marlena Childress.

[DarkDante]

Originally Posted by Todd Mueller

Wow! Great stuff, wiseguy.

Couple of questions/comments:

1) Did Lifetime ever explain why they didn't show certain segments? Did the people protest or was there a specific reason? Just seems weird they seemed to purposely omit certain segments.

2) It was great having UM on Lifetime, but being an original UM fan, it bugged me how they wacked down some of the segments and cut out parts that were really cool. I realize that's part of syndication but it sucks to see some segments become a shell of their former selves.

3) Any thoughts on whether or not Spike will show cases Lifetime didn't?

1) See Justin's reply above mine. Other reasons that have been mentioned by fans over the years is that some segments (such as "Tara Calico") may have been flagged as inappropriate for broadcast on "Lifetime" at least during peak hours. In the case of the Calico segment it was only broadcasted late at night and then when "Lifetime" chose to abandon showing UM in that timeslot it the segment disappeared alltogether.

Another reason some fans have given for some segments not making it to "Lifetime" is the fact that when "Lifetime" re-editted the episodes they dropped some segments that were too long to fit into their re-edits (a further explanation of this is found in point #2 below) - "Lifetime" generally re-editted UM at whim in order to conform to time constraints.

2) The thing with the "Lifetime" edits is pretty simple and unfortunatley is not likely to change when the series heads to SPIKE. If you ever watch shows in syndication and compare them to their original broadcasts, you'll notice that in a lot of cases lines of dialog are missing and the episodes are shortened in length. ABC Family is notorious for hacking up the "90s sitcoms" like "Family Matters", "Full House" etc. and fading the show out at whim in order to add more commercial breaks.

The same thing applies here although its a bit more severe as in addition to making room for the commercial, "Lifetime" also had to make room for the updates to the various cases which when the segments were originally broadcasted on NBC were not there. Take the case of Shannon Mohr and David Davis from special #4 for instance. Davis was not found for at least a few years after the original UM segment aired. But on the "Lifetime" version there is an update on Davis' capture. This update runs around two minutes long. Therefore the two minutes that the Davis' update takes up has to be deleted from somewhere else in the broadcast.

In episodes where a lot of the cases are updated, even more time has to be excised from the original segments leading to parts being cut out. In the most severe cases, many fans believe certain episodes were not aired on "Lifetime" due to the fact they couldn't fit them in the hourlong timeslot along with the other segments and the updates. In some cases we still got to see these segments but they were transplanted into other episodes in which they did not originally air.

A good example of this would be the first regular run episode of the series from the fall of 1988 which featured "Gulf Breeze", "Gail DeLano" and "Roxanne Woodson". This episode HAS NEVER been shown in full on LIFETIME. "Gulf Breeze" has never been shown at all while the other two have been transplanted into other episodes: "Roxanne Woodson" is on the "Lifetime" version of special #6 wile "Gail DeLano" airs alongside one of the episodes featuring the S.O.S. murders.

3) Read above, Spike will be considered syndication too. What will probably happen is Spike will do their own "edits" which will deviate from the "Lifetime" edits. Again using ABC FAMILY as an example their edits to their syndicated sitcoms are different from how the shows were/are editted when they air on Nick At Nite. "Full House" is a good example of this as it airs on both networks and the edits on each network are different.

[Todd Mueller]

Dang, guys! Thanks for the AWESOME responses!!!

That was far more info than I thought I would get. Justin, thanks for the case-by-case breakdown and all the info. And Dante, thanks for the syndication explanation.

You really went above and beyond, guys. Well done... and THANKS!

[crystaldawn]

As far as Julie Cross, I initially didn't think it ever aired on Lifetime but did end up acquiring an episode that had a "Lifetime Exclusive Update" on her case. So I can't say for sure if the entire segment ever aired on Lifetime but an update on her case did.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by DarkDante

In episodes where a lot of the cases are updated, even more time has to be excised from the original segments leading to parts being cut out. In the most severe cases, many fans believe certain episodes were not aired on "Lifetime" due to the fact they couldn't fit them in the hourlong timeslot along with the other segments and the updates. In some cases we still got to see these segments but they were transplanted into other episodes in which they did not originally air.

The more I think about this whole thing, the more I realize that those late night 30 minute installments of UM probably existed so that Lifetime could show some of these "misfit" segments rather than keeping them off the air entirely. For example, I taped the Keith Reinhardt case from one of these 30 minute broadcasts, and the story was NEVER shown during the standard hour to my knowledge. Same deal with the Tara Calico story (although, I could understand that one possibly getting bumped due to content).

Some other "lost" stories I just now thought of...

- The lost love story about the stand-up comedian who was looking for a crisis hotline counselor named "Libby" who encouraged him to get help for his drug problem.

- Another lost love story about a German man looking for his sister (I forget most of the details here, but it was on a tape I got from TJ).

- Yet another lost love case about a woman named "Jackie Cooper" looking for her nanny.

- The update about Kari Lynn Nixon possibly being at that NKOTB concert.

- The Jane Doe who was a hit and run victim (originally aired as part of the fifth season premiere along with the story about the guy who fell off the wing of a plane).

- A Texas story about an amnesia victim. I want to say she thought her name was "Susan Kennedy", but I'm not sure if that is correct.

- Quick profiles of child molesters shown along with the David McLeod case.

- Quick profiles of unidentified bank robbers shown alongside that one story about an unidentified bank robber who shoots out security cameras.

- The story about the "shopping bag bandits".

[Kane]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

segments I'm not sure about

Julie Cross
UM 3rd anniversary special
Diabolical minds: case studies
Travis Wade Duncan

Lifetime did air the Julie Cross segment, as well as the Diabolical Minds episode. The former had a "Lifetime exclusive" update added to it. In that update, it was mentioned that at least one man was convicted of her murder.

The 3rd anniversary special never aired on Lifetime, but there may have been some mention of it in one of the Lifetime reruns (any mention of the special could have been either direct or indirect).

The full segment on Travis Wade Duncan was seemingly absent from Lifetime. However, Lifetime aired the update.

[justins5256]

I was going through my notes of UM episodes I have taped and here are some more examples of Lifetime mixing up stories as mentioned by Dark. Talk about some Frankenstein creations...

The Lifetime version of "11/23/88" has the following stories
Kurt Sova - originally aired 11/23/88
Lancaster extortion update - aired 5/31/89
Steven Carlucci - from special 7 aired 5/18/88
Steve Cox - aired 11/16/88

Another version of "11/23/88"
Diana Robertson and Mike Riemer - aired 5/10/89
Priest killings - aired 11/23/88
Matthew Chase - aired ????
Dolores Valadez - aired 8/23/89

Lifetime version of 3/15/89
Lisa Kimmel - aired 3/15/89
Near Death Experiences - aired 2/22/89
Lost Dutchman's Mine - aired 3/15/89

[wiseguy182]

thanks for all of the additions/corrections guys. I'll make the necessary changes.

Dante, I had wondered about the Lancaster extortion letters and thought about putting that one down. I had a feeling the update was never shown, but I had figured that the case was shown. I'll add that one to the list. I had never seen Lesa Lee on lifetime, and I asked Crystaldawn about it, and she said it was rarely shown on there, but it sounds like it wasn't all that rare, so I'll take that one off.

Todd Mueller, Lifetime never explained why certain segments weren't shown, or weren't show in their entirety, although Justin did an excellent job of stating why they probably weren't shown. I have no idea if Spike will air remixed versions of the rare segments, but they will probably be kept off for the same reasons they were kept off Lifetime.

Justin, do you have any additional info about the Fontes child case you spoke of? I'm not familiar with this one. Regarding Robert Leeds, your explanation makes sense, but in that segment, Robert Stack profiled about 10 other missing art cases, a few which had updates, so I hope that, if the full segment was put aside, we could have at least got the other quickie profiles. I can see about the 10 missing persons/quickie FBI alerts being edited out of their original episodes, but Lifetime could have and should have put them in other episodes, even if they had to make a misfit episode. I see what you're saying about obsolete segments, and I agree somewhat, but in a way, alot of the cases that have been solved can be considered obsolete, since the intention of airing the case was to solve it, which was accomplished in these cases. James Vernon was the name of the guy who was searching for "Libby", the hotline operator that convinced him to get off drugs.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

thanks for all of the additions/corrections guys. I'll make the necessary changes.

Dante, I had wondered about the Lancaster extortion letters and thought about putting that one down. I had a feeling the update was never shown, but I had figured that the case was shown. I'll add that one to the list. I had never seen Lesa Lee on lifetime, and I asked Crystaldawn about it, and she said it was rarely shown on there, but it sounds like it wasn't all that rare, so I'll take that one off.

The Lancaster segment as shown on Lifetime is very odd. It is the updated version, but the segment itself is still identified as "Fraud" and there is some talk from Stack as well as an interview with a detective shown before the "update" portion begins. The entire segment was either prepared this way for broadcast on NBC years ago, or Lifetime did some serious editing on the original Lancaster story (basically cutting it to an almost insignificant "mini-story") and then inserted this update (which was the longest part of the entire segment).

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Justin, do you have any additional info about the Fontes child case you spoke of? I'm not familiar with this one. Regarding Robert Leeds, your explanation makes sense, but in that segment, Robert Stack profiled about 10 other missing art cases, a few which had updates, so I hope that, if the full segment was put aside, we could have at least got the other quickie profiles. I can see about the 10 missing persons/quickie FBI alerts being edited out of their original episodes, but Lifetime could have and should have put them in other episodes, even if they had to make a misfit episode. I see what you're saying about obsolete segments, and I agree somewhat, but in a way, alot of the cases that have been solved can be considered obsolete, since the intention of airing the case was to solve it, which was accomplished in these cases. James Vernon was the name of the guy who was searching for "Libby", the hotline operator that convinced him to get off drugs.

I guess CD didn't put this one on her DVDs.

It has been awhile since I have watched the Jim Fontes story, but from what I remember, Fontes was a police officer from California. He came home one night to find his wife and two sons missing and a tape recorder on a table. He played the tape, and it was a message from his wife saying that she had left with another man and taken the children, and that Fontes would never see them again. I do not remember if anything else was taken, and I do not recall if their marriage had been under any stress at the time. Some time later, the wife turned up in another city with a man and the two missing sons. She was also pregnant (although I don't believe it was Jim's baby). She gave birth at home and the paramedics that brought her to the hospital thought her behavior and demeanor were odd, so they did some checking on her identification and found that it was fraudulent. Unfortunately, she and her male companion had skipped town again before the police got to them. That was the gist of the original story. Then there was an update (it might have been a week or two later) indicating that the wife and her companion had been arrested and the children were returned to Fontes. I never did see any of this on Lifetime.

Well, I don't know for sure that the reason I gave is why the Leads segment was never syndicated. It was just speculation, and the point of my post was to identify some possible reasons that these segments might be "lost", but I never claimed it to be the absolute truth. I still think it's a decent explanation though. Kind of along the lines of the Tony Alamo segment in that if Leeds returned to the art world, I'm sure he wouldn't want that whole experience tarnishing his reputation. I also think that because the segment is outdated, Lifetime could have figured that no one would miss it and so they stuck in another more deserving, and perhaps unsolved, story in it's place. As for the other paintings, yes, some of them were found. I'm a bit of an art fan myself, so I did some Newsbank searching on this story awhile back and I think a couple of the paintings are still missing too. But, this segment was tied to the Leads story originally, and if Lifetime decided they weren't going to show the Leads story, I can't imagine that they would go out of their way to salvage this part of the segment. While it would have been great to show the segment as a "public service" so that some of the missing artwork could potentially be found, I just don't think they cared that much, and they probably needed the time for that extra Huggies commercial.

Edit: Just wanted to expand a little bit on the concept of these "obsolete" segments. While I understand that technically any solved segment becomes obsolete (and Lifetime certainly gave us plenty of these) there are a few cases that while technically solved have some oddball circumstances that I think may preclude them from being rerun.

I think Bonnie Wilder falls into this category. The segment became pointless after the charges against her were dropped, yet viewers who saw the segment were still calling in sighting reports. I think it's safe to say that UM never did film a formal update to the Wilder case, so it would have been better for Lifetime to replace the segment since there technically wasn't an update they could show.

Same deal with Barbara. He died on the run, so technically he was no longer wanted by the time Lifetime got the series. I did some Newsbank research on his case but could find nothing about the resolution. In fact, the information about the resolution came from Barbara's attorney directly, and it was, I'm guessing, not big enough to make the papers. Another case where UM may not have filmed an update. So, what was Lifetime to do?

I know Lifetime does occasionally do their own updates, but I think most fans would agree that Lifetime didn't start getting involved until the shown had been ongoing in syndication for a few years. When Lifetime first acquired the series, their involvement was minimal, and these cases were early enough in the show's run that I doubt Lifetime would have gone out of their way to produce their own brand of "update" segment.

[crystaldawn]

Originally Posted by justins5256

I guess CD didn't put this one on her DVDs.

I forgot all about putting the Fontes case on a dvd. If I make volume 14 I'll put it on there.

[kamy]

This is awesome! Just when I thought I'd seen them all........

[wiseguy182]

I think I just remember another one: Shane Stewart and Sally McNelley, that hasn't aired on Lifetime has it?