Conversations with Cosgrove Meurer Productions

[treeman]

A friend of mine who is a big fan of the show (as we all are) has been sending some emails off to the CMP team. Thought you might be interested in some of their responses:

Response 1

Dear Jordan,

Thank you for contacting UNSOLVED MYSTERIES. An internet channel, like
Netflix or Hulu, would have to want to order the series. Regarding
Australia, similarly a television network there would have to order the
older series as well.

Sincerely,

The UNSOLVED MYSTERIES Staff

Response 2

Dear Jordan,

Thank you for contacting UNSOLVED MYSTERIES. Unfortunately there are no
plans in the works for any new episodes or DVDs.

Sincerely,

The UNSOLVED MYSTERIES Staff

Response 3

Dear Jordan,

Thank you for contacting UNSOLVED MYSTERIES. Unfortunately the show
cannot air on YouTube due to the contracts with the guilds (WGA, DGA &
SAG). Hopefully someday the show will get picked up again by a
television network and new episodes can be shown, or a service like Hulu
or Netflix will want to the older episodes.
Dear Jordan,

Thank you for contacting UNSOLVED MYSTERIES. In response to your
request for a copy of our show, many of our segments are now available
on DVD through Amazon, Best Buy, and other major retailers. We do not
sell copies directly at this time. There are no plans to release any
additional stories.

Sincerely,

The UNSOLVED MYSTERIES Staff

Thought you guys might be interested.

-Ben

[TheCars1986]

Wow, I'm surprised they actually responded to him. At least they did acknowledge the possibility of Hulu or Netflix. Guess all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.

[mikewho]

Hopefully the previous episodes will get released and also hope they will one day do new episodes.

[ScaryFog]

Thanks for the update. 3 responses from them seems like a lot. I think they might be getting annoyed with your friend Jordan.

[compulsive dvd]

Originally Posted by mikewho

Hopefully the previous episodes will get released and also hope they will one day do new episodes.

This would be awesome, but they're still airing the repackaged episodes with Farina overseas on a channel called CBS Reality, so the production company is still banking off them. I wish they'd just release the old episodes somewhere.....anywhere, since they've been removed from other places.

[sdb4884]

Maybe if we keep annoying them enough, they'll relent.

[Kane]

Originally Posted by sdb4884

Maybe if we keep annoying them enough, they'll relent.

In that case, I strongly suggest flooding their office with physical letters. They carry more weight than emails.

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by treeman

Unfortunately the show cannot air on YouTube due to the contracts with the guilds (WGA, DGA & SAG).

Forgive my ignorance but why would such a thing be written into ANY contract? Is this an old issue or a new one? Because the cases were on the forbidden site for years and years with no problem. I wish this person could elaborate a little more.

Having the cases on the forbidden site does not hurt them in any way. They know and we know the rest of the series is never going to be released on DVD so they're not going to lose a dime.

[elg0rd0]

Originally Posted by dynoguy88

Forgive my ignorance but why would such a thing be written into ANY contract? Is this an old issue or a new one? Because the cases were on the forbidden site for years and years with no problem. I wish this person could elaborate a little more.

Having the cases on the forbidden site does not hurt them in any way. They know and we know the rest of the series is never going to be released on DVD so they're not going to lose a dime.

It is 100000000% a new one. This all came about after the previous writers strike in Hollywood and how writers get their residuals. After the new deal was put in place there was a massive deletion of copyright material that had been uploaded by private users. The forbidden site itself has changed, wanting a larger slice of ad share revenue. There are ways around this problem. Anyone can make and program their own VOD of an UM episode and put it up themselves through a server or use a 3rd party. There are enough sites that have a VOD service that people upload copyright stuff on. But yeah the last writers strike is the culprit as the writers wanted a larger share of the residuals from material on social media sites.

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by elg0rd0

It is 100000000% a new one. This all came about after the previous writers strike in Hollywood and how writers get their residuals. After the new deal was put in place there was a massive deletion of copyright material that had been uploaded by private users. The forbidden site itself has changed, wanting a larger slice of ad share revenue. There are ways around this problem. Anyone can make and program their own VOD of an UM episode and put it up themselves through a server or use a 3rd party. There are enough sites that have a VOD service that people upload copyright stuff on. But yeah the last writers strike is the culprit as the writers wanted a larger share of the residuals from material on social media sites.

That writers strike happened in 2008. Amazing how 5 years later this suddenly happens.

Unsolved Mysteries had writers but they weren't your typical script writers used for your comedy and drama shows. They just wrote summaries of real life cases and Robert Stack read them.

It just kills me that a show like this, where still unsolved cases being out on the internet can help families and friends of victims is being restricted.

[elg0rd0]

Originally Posted by dynoguy88

That writers strike happened in 2008. Amazing how 5 years later this suddenly happens.

Unsolved Mysteries had writers but they weren't your typical script writers used for your comedy and drama shows. They just wrote summaries of real life cases and Robert Stack read them.

It just kills me that a show like this, where still unsolved cases being out on the internet can help families and friends of victims is being restricted.

Writers and other unions in Hollywood have all had their contracts restructured to keep up with how movies and television shows are accessed on the internet. This has been going on for a few years now. You also have a lot of actors in the re-enactment scenes that were or are still part of SAG. I have a feeling HULU might pick this up. My only hope is that they air the originals not the updated bells and whistles version on Spike. What would be great is if C&M went and made an official UM website with a full data base on the cases to go along with the show being on HULU. If it in fact HULU does order episodes.

[ScaryFog]

Originally Posted by elg0rd0

Writers and other unions in Hollywood have all had their contracts restructured to keep up with how movies and television shows are accessed on the internet. This has been going on for a few years now. You also have a lot of actors in the re-enactment scenes that were or are still part of SAG. I have a feeling HULU might pick this up. My only hope is that they air the originals not the updated bells and whistles version on Spike. What would be great is if C&M went and made an official UM website with a full data base on the cases to go along with the show being on HULU. If it in fact HULU does order episodes.

This is the closest you'll ever get to a database of the episodes. Great site and updated frequently.

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Casefiles

[elg0rd0]

Originally Posted by ScaryFog

This is the closest you'll ever get to a database of the episodes. Great site and updated frequently.

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Casefiles

I frequent this at home. My smart phone for some reason really hates it. But you're right it's great for referencing old cases that I long forgot about.

[sdb4884]

Yeah it's amazing, pictures and detailed information about cases.

[elg0rd0]

I can honestly see Hulu picking UM up. I mean they picked up the 7 episodes of My So Called Life.