The scenery in early UM episodes

[LiveByTheSea]

I always get creeped out when they would show grass or trees especially when the story is about a murder because I think someone will pop up out of nowhere and say, "hey!"

I noticed in the Aileen Conway case, there would be shots of the fields. man, that's scary!

[joshypiano]

I know what you mean. It's something i miss in alot of TV/movies. Taking time to immerse yourself in the scenery. Use some establshing shots of the surroundings....and linger there a bit. It really helps to bring you into the story. I find this lacking too much in today's "MTV/music-video" world of cheap effects and quick splicing in editing. The art of pacing has been lost.

[robbieasbury]

I've always wanted to know where that boat dock is located where Karl Malden is standing hosting his second special with the foot bridge with the lights across it, I noticed that Robert Stack hosted the Dorothy Allison special from the same location.

[hostedbyrobertstack]

that's funny because that is one of the many things that always appealed to me about this show. The scenery, especially with the "hazy" camera effects, and the music at the same time. Or when they would show scenery and talk about a person before you have any idea what it's about. The good things I miss.

[cuba_libre]

There was something very endearing (not the correct word, but close) about the ol' skool UM episodes. There was a scarier and more intense feel to the show then.

[synthisislab]

The one case where the scenery creeps me out is during the update of the Matthew Chase case. This is because on my 21st birthday I went up in the mountains above Pasadena to party. On the next afternoon we were driving down the narrow road to get down the mountain and my friend that was driving was driving crazy and I told him to pull over since I was feeling sick. When I was looking down the interior cliffs and trees, I remembered the scenery in that update where they found Matthew Chase's body and I got chills to know that he was possibly killed and dumped in a nearby area.

[CanadianUMFan]

The scenery and how everything was shot added the eerieness to this series that was so present in the first few seasons especially. It was still there to a degree in the later seasons but not quite at the level of the early seasons. Some of those older segments like "Boys on the TracK" can scare the pants off of anyone.

Unfortunately, I don't hold out much hope that the new UM on Spike TV will recapture this eerieness. I would love to be proven wrong but the fact that it will be on Spike TV leads me to believe that what we will see will be more like America's Most Wanted rather than the classic UM.

[HyeTev]

UM made effective use of scenery and music, especially during the earlier episodes. The 'field' scenes in the Kova Sova episode and the wide cemetery shot in the Kurt McFall case were good and some of the aerial shots were effective as well, such as those in the Beverly McGowan and Keith Reinhart eps. The one about the Pittsburgh man who vanished, I believe his name was Michael Rosenthal, was also very good in the scenery dept.

Another case with good camera work was the Kathy Bonderson case with the slow walk up to her headstone... scary stuff indeed.

Good eps with scary music were Joe Shepard during the scene in the woods with the cops searching for a body, the opening music in the Wackers case, and the granddaddy of them all... the Richard Church case during the murder scene. UM was basically a horror film then.

Listen for RS's delivery during the Ayleen Conway and Shannon Davis episodes... his voice was very effective in those as it captured my attention easily. If fact, I'd say the Ayleen Conway and Harold/Thelma Swain eps were among the best-produced and executed overall in my opinion...

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

They need to study every episode and learn from the best AND the worst ones.