Wanted segments from 1994-1997 were just as intense!

[Oldschooler81]

I know the mid 90s middle UM period (like when Keely was there) isn't nearly as universally loved as the early 88-93 years, with the admittedly most famous and talked about segments.

However, I think the re-enactments from the Wanted and some Missing Persons segments from this period are underrated, and often just as scary and intense as the early years (i.e. Albert Leon Fletcher, Rochelle Robinson, Adam Emery and many more).

Sure, the phone center and graphics looked much newer and more modern (still old school relative to now, but not nearly as much as the very 80s looking white letter graphics and grainier film quality), and that probably gave off the impression that it wasn't quite as dark or mysterious.

And yes, that was the very beginning of UM showing signs of jumping the shark, with more ghost stories and stuff like Resurrection Mary and the Cokeville school bombing. However, the good segments themselves might've even been scarier and darker, especially because by then, UM was a majorly successful show in the ratings, so they were able to get away with more.

[ILikeTurtles]

It's pretty obvious 1987 to 1993/94 was UM in its' glory...it's arguably my favorite TV show of all-time.

Around 1992 was when the show started to change and by 1994 it had gone down a different route that eventually lost its magic.

However, there's some gems between 1994/95 and 2002. Blair Adams, Adam Emery, Mike Emert, Sneha Phillips, John Cheek, Devin Williams, Justin Burgwinkel, and Dick Hansen...just to name a few. A lot of that time period, especially the CBS years, were bad. By the time Lifetime started airing original cases, the show had jumped the shark and the interest was in reruns of cases from the glory years. And clearly, that interest still exists today with this board and the UnNamed video site.

However, I'll take any UM 1987-2002 over 2008. I don't even count the revamp as UM anymore.

[Oldschooler81]

^ Oh yeah dude, that reboot doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. Even the later years occasionally had some disturbing segments, and anything that Stack hosted still counts as true UM in my book.

I wonder too, let's say he was still alive/in good health and hosting the show to this day, you have to wonder how much they would've still had to adapt it to fit the changing times. The mid 90s period was already so much more modern than the 88-93 one, I can't imagine how the 2010s would be.

And I'd get a kick out of the Stack man saying "If you have any information about this case, tweet us at dubba-ya dubba-ya dubba-ya dot Twitter did Unsolved Official dot com."

[ILikeTurtles]

I think some of the appeal to the 87-94 years is because it's like watching a time capsule. The show just reeked of the 1980s...and it's great. They still used original film to do the cases and now everything is HD & Digital. It was more simple. The narration, the storytelling, the campy acting, the lack of technology compared to now, the incredible music...the perfect package to create appealing TV.

There's no way that it can be recreated today. It failed miserably in 2008 when the show was modernized. There's no way you can have the show without Stack. The show died when he did.

[Oldschooler81]

Originally Posted by ILikeTurtles

I think some of the appeal to the 87-94 years is because it's like watching a time capsule. The show just reeked of the 1980s...and it's great. They still used original film to do the cases and now everything is HD & Digital. It was more simple. The narration, the storytelling, the campy acting, the lack of technology compared to now, the incredible music...the perfect package to create appealing TV.

There's no way that it can be recreated today. It failed miserably in 2008 when the show was modernized. There's no way you can have the show without Stack. The show died when he did.

Absolutely. The man was irreplaceable, and I think in all seriousness, what made him such a good host was his storytelling and empathy for the families/friends of crime victims and loved ones.

Yeah, I think as film and ways to film gets better and easier, there's less perceived difference between "the real world" and "the media world" if that makes sense? Even 80s music videos were like movies. We didn't really perfect filming until about 2010, and now anyone can shoot from their smartphone and have it be movie quality.

Back in the 80s and even most of the 90s, the only things that looked real like that were home movies, and even those had to be shot on a bulky full sized VHS camcorder. The smaller camcorders in the late 90s and flip phone cameraphones in the 00s started paving the way for what we have now.

But back to UM, I definitely agree it took you into another world, which is the very thing that made the segments seem scarier/sadder. The 80s atmosphere lasted into 1993 overall anyway, and when they modernized UM for the first time, with the newer, slicker 90s graphics, that feeling started going away.

[flytrapp]

I, honestly, didn't really notice a decline Maybe because I watched them over and over online, and the episodes were out of order, so I never really noticed. Also, I don't pay attention to ghost or lost loves, so if any of those segments went downhill over the years, I wouldn't know.

I will say that I thought UM was at it's most frightening when it was about a case I'd never heard of before...you know, some obscure case that could literally happen to anyone, but other than their respective small communities, no one really heard of the cases. I like cases like the Arson on Tape, Bonnie Wilder, Judith Himes, Elizabeth Campbell. The scarier, the better. The EAR still freaks me out the most, I think, though.

I'll also agree that the Farina reboot just plain sucks. Anything with Stack (or even the pre-Stack specials) I can watch over and over.

[Oldschooler81]

Originally Posted by flytrapp

I, honestly, didn't really notice a decline Maybe because I watched them over and over online, and the episodes were out of order, so I never really noticed. Also, I don't pay attention to ghost or lost loves, so if any of those segments went downhill over the years, I wouldn't know.

I will say that I thought UM was at it's most frightening when it was about a case I'd never heard of before...you know, some obscure case that could literally happen to anyone, but other than their respective small communities, no one really heard of the cases. I like cases like the Arson on Tape, Bonnie Wilder, Judith Himes, Elizabeth Campbell. The scarier, the better. The EAR still freaks me out the most, I think, though.

I'll also agree that the Farina reboot just plain sucks. Anything with Stack (or even the pre-Stack specials) I can watch over and over.

Yeah, I could care less about most of the UFOs/ghosts. I agree, truthfully UM could be scarier than any monster movie, because it was real/average people who just had something sad or terrifying happen to them by chance. I'm sure if it wasn't for UM, most of these cases would've never been known to anybody outside the area too.

[Corkys-Place]

I believe the correct expression is "I COULDN'T care less" - Just saying