The Unsolved Mysteries 'Nostalgia'

[TrueCrimeGuy]

I blogged about this great show and the feelings of nostalgia that the show gives me. Would love to hear comments about the article:
http://truecrimeguy.com/unsolved-mys...-show-started/

[freakbook]

Nice shameless plug

[TrueCrimeGuy]

Originally Posted by freakbook

Nice shameless plug

Not a plug,I'd like to hear from others that fondly remember the show as I do. It was what got me into true crime

[freakbook]

Originally Posted by TrueCrimeGuy

Not a plug,I'd like to hear from others that fondly remember the show as I do. It was what got me into true crime

I'm kidding, and I read the article.

I can relate to what you said. I started watching it when my grandmother would watch the Golden Girls in 2nd-3rd grade. No one else in my age group watched it, or knew what it was, but for some reason I was addicted to it. I used to fake sick from home just to watch Unsolved Mysteries, and Tales from the Darkside. Whenever UM came on, and a case freaked me out, I would run around and check/lock all the windows.

[asmitty]

I started watching UM with my grandmother as well. My mom, sister, and I lived with my grandparents for the first three months of the first season. My dad had moved ahead of us after accepting a job out of state to start the job and find a house, and we stayed behind to sell our old house. After we moved I continued to watch the original broadcasts as well as the reruns on Lifetime when they started. I used to stay up and watch midnight episodes of UM on Lifetime and then be afraid to go up to bed in the darkness of the house. As with you, UM sparked my initial interest in true crime, especially missing persons cases.

[NCRavensFan86]

Back in the Fall of 1995, I was 9 years old and my Dad had just installed a Directv Satellite Dish at our house. I was flipping through the channels one Saturday Afternoon and I found Unsolved Mysteries on Lifetime Channel and I have been hooked ever since!!!

I even remember what episode I was watching!!!!
It was the one with the Kristi Krebs and Dub Wackerhagen cases.

I was also a huge fan of "The Price is Right" growing up but when Lifetime decided to start running UM at 11 AM Eastern I traded Bobs. (Stack for Barker)

[TrueCrimeGuy]

Yeah I was in high school when I watched it, not many kids my age watched it

[Drown Soda]

I was raised watching it in the mid–late nineties too. My mom watched it quite a bit. I'd always catch the episodes on Lifetime on days when I was home sick from school too. There's a definite nostalgia factor.

[Kwuest]

My experience with "Unsolved Mysteries".... 1987 sticks out and is associated with the second special. I missed the first one, but the second one.... by when I was in the North East.

My mother was into mysteries, Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock. I got it from her. So seeing ads for a special called "Unsolved Mysteries" with Raymond Burr? I think I missed it. I saw the second special hosted by Karl Malden. We recorded it. It was the one that haunted me. I shared it with the family (children) across the street, and even though I had watched it previously, I was scared crossing the street at night to go home. What really did the trick was the music in the first segment and the beginning of the second one about John Burns (the vocals on that one... indicated something bad was going to happen, and then the slow motion appearance of the man with the shotgun, the narration and then him firing--I remember one of the children watching, who was older than I said that he had to be holding down the trigger to be firing it that way with the rapid pumping).
The first segment about Wanda Jean Mays scared me. That image of the canoe on the water and the camera coming toward it with that music--years later the end credits of "The Blair Witch Project" had similar musical elements (used again during the end credits of the show, with the image of the woman in baggy clothes walking... scary to me). It was the case that stayed with me.... so much so that when I was reading a book on how to be a PI, written by one, and he talked about a blood splatter specialist, I thought they should get that person involved in the Mays case.
When I visited my grandmother down in NJ, there was a singer on tv, and it was hard for me to watch as the singer looked so similar to Mays. I was scared.
The Rolex Robbers and Robert Weeks segments I recall. The Weeks segment seemed frightening. I recall the abandoned car found in the parking lot. Since that time, when I have encountered cases that involved abandoned vehicles, I think I am reminded of this "Unsolved Mysteries" segment.
As a side note, an ad for NBC's showing of "The Terminator" appeared during the show and so that became associated with it.
After that, I had been eager to talk about "Unsolved Mysteries" and a child from my neighborhood told me about the mystery of Don Kemp from the Raymond Burr special. He did not relate all of it, but I felt chilled. I was intrigued. I think I told my father about it.
NBC rebroadcast the Raymond Burr special and we recorded it and I watched it. I liked him, and thought he appeared because of his association with NBC due to his "Perry Mason". I preferred Malden and have since. I liked the first special but favored the second one. I got to see that Don Kemp segment, and though I found the ones in the second special to be better, I thought it was one of the best mysteries of the entire series. For years I wanted to find out what the solution was and I was glad when I finally found out, but sad at the result.
Later, seeing Malden on a show or movie, I associated him with "Unsovled Mysteries"... and I did a similar thing with Robert Stack (such as when rewatching the movie "1941").
The next Malden special was recorded. It was where I first heard about the Unibomber and I was surprised that it was later became such a big thing and even made it into "Good Will Hunting". I was proud that "Unsolved Mysteries" seemed to be one of the first to cover it and how it had got ahold of a story that became large (at least, from what I know).
I did rewatch these specials and the second one many times. Then Robert Stack took over and there was an announcement on "Entertainment Tonight" that it would become a regular series... I was kind of like--"oh no, this is going to be a lot to watch". We recorded all the episodes and I had a collection of VHS tapes with "Unsolved Mysteries" written on them.
I think I went away on a retreat with my father, meaning I would miss the first episode of "Unsolved Mysteries", and I was sad, I think, but my mother recorded it. She said it was not as good as what was previously broadcast. She said, I think, she did not care for it. I think it was a Saturday or a Sunday I was returning and I was eager to watch... I was not much one for tv (I tended to watch it for the movies), but I was a big fan of the show and I watched them to try to solve the mysteries. I was excited when "Entertainment Tonight" mentioned "Unsolved Mysteries" around the time of a writer's strike, saying something to the effect of, "Shows such as 'Unsolved Mysteries' will not be affected." It was great to have a mention of the show, having it be recognized.
I was such a big fan that I watched the premier of "Story Behind the Story" Sunday night on NBC from John Cosgrove. That episode was about the Zapruder film and really gave me an education on that... but I did not like it as much as "Unsolved Mysteries". I remember it being promoted by NBC as something such as, "From the creators of Unsolved Mysteries".
Later, I watched the episodes on Spike TV and did not care for how they altered the old segments (esp. replacing the segment music) but really liked how they gave so many solutions to the old mysteries.
I liked how the show tried to keep the look of the reenactments (slightly different image than what was used for the interviews).
The series was scary. I noticed how they would have maybe 9 mins. to introduce it, present the mystery and close it out. It went counter to how people would say you need to spend time with characters to make something scary. While certain scary movies were not that frightening, "Unsolved Mysteries" was... and looking at it again through Amazon streaming, I have felt unease watching. I find that instead of character, it is the situation that makes something scary.
Years ago I was on this board, and I recall getting scared by the mysteries discussed, and I was impressed by how civil the board was and I am excited to see it still exists.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Welcome! We're excited to see lots of new members pouring in!

[justins5256]

I can't remember for sure how I found out about the show, but I think it was through commercials on NBC in the late 80s. I would have been in first grade - incidentally, my elementary through high school education coincided precisely with the seasons of the series. First grade for me was during season one, second grade was during season two, and so on. When the show ended at season nine, I was in ninth grade. That always made it easy for me to remember what was going on in my life when I saw certain episodes for the first time.

Anyway, I remember seeing the commercials and being intrigued and wanting to watch the show, but I was very young and not allowed. I think it was either because it was on past my bedtime as a first grader, or my parents deemed it inappropriate or both. Somehow though I managed to catch some of the earliest segments (possibly with the neighbors who would watch me when my parents were traveling) like Kurt Sova, the two priest killings, and the postal extortion in Lancaster. Another early one was the episode about "missing time." The latter scared me and I remember asking my mom if aliens were real, and I thought they might come to get me. That might be why I wasn't allowed to watch the show going forward.

In any event, I caught the random odd segments as the years went on. I remember seeing the Alcatraz special and the episode about the Ralph Probst murder.

Then, in the early 90s, my parents got cable and I had a TV and a VCR in my room. I remember watching and recording the episodes about ghosts and UFOs - ironically stuff I don't care for now. I think the first episode I personally recorded on VHS was the one about the ghosts at the St. James and the Florida mansion allegedly haunted by the ghost of murder victim John Harden. Not long after, I discovered the repeats on the Lifetime network and then I saw a lot of the earlier segments I had missed such as D.B. Cooper, Son of Sam, Omar arsonist, etc.

I watched the series then on NBC and Lifetime pretty much until the end. My family didn't get the Internet until 1996 and it would be another six years before I found this forum. I have to say I was amazed, as I didn't realize there were others who were also effected by the show and enjoyed it as much as I did. I also remember being impressed by TJ's episode guide because I just figured there were too many episodes and it would be impossible to collate all that information. I also remember not knowing all the detailed information I do now such as victims names and dates. I think one of m earliest posts was asking if anyone remembered that story about the little girl who was murdered and the killer leaving graffiti about it in a public restroom. Turns out it was the Rachel Runyan segment.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by Kwuest

My experience with "Unsolved Mysteries".... 1987 sticks out and is associated with the second special. I missed the first one, but the second one.... by when I was in the North East.

SNIP

Cool story. I enjoyed reading it. By some chance, did you record the fourth special - the first one Stack hosted - from that November 1987 broadcast?

I have almost the entire series recorded, but it burns my ass that I don't have that special from the original airing - just the repeat from December 1988. I was always curios if they cut anything in the repeat though I doubt it.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Originally Posted by justins5256

...but it burns my ass that I don't have that special from the original airing

Please don't elaborate any further...

[Drown Soda]

Originally Posted by Kwuest

The first segment about Wanda Jean Mays scared me. That image of the canoe on the water and the camera coming toward it with that music--years later the end credits of "The Blair Witch Project" had similar musical elements (used again during the end credits of the show, with the image of the woman in baggy clothes walking... scary to me). It was the case that stayed with me.... so much so that when I was reading a book on how to be a PI, written by one, and he talked about a blood splatter specialist, I thought they should get that person involved in the Mays case.
When I visited my grandmother down in NJ, there was a singer on tv, and it was hard for me to watch as the singer looked so similar to Mays. I was scared.

The Wanda Jean Mays case still perplexes/freaks me out. I know they ruled it an accident after they identified her remains years later, but everything about it is just so bizarre to me.

I actually had never seen the segment (or any of the Karl Malden episodes, for that matter) until last year; I got a VHS rip of some old broadcasts, and it was on there. The image of her bloody nightgown lying on the dock, and the empty, bloodied canoe is absolutely chilling.

It's one of the weirdest UM cases of all in my opinion. What is especially strange is that nobody heard her smashing the window out during the night. I wish there were more details about her mental state at the time, as the explanation in the segment that she had "been on diet pills" that affected her mood is extremely vague—I'm not even really sure how to interpret that.

In any case, she had to have been under some sort of extreme mental duress to break the window, take a canoe across the lake, and then aimlessly run through the woods in the middle of the night. Whether merely perceived or real, it seems evident that she felt someone was chasing her.

[Awsi Dooger]

I remember thinking that a series about true crime was long overdue.

When I was 7 years old my family visited Yellowstone. My parents couldn't get me to go on the walking tour because I was fixated on all the flyers on missing people. They were little square placards outside the visitor center. I remember standing there and wanting to read every one, trying to figure out what happened. Finally they had to pull me away. This was two decades before Unsolved Mysteries debuted.

In the '70s there were occasional shows. I knew all about the JFK case from watching CBS specials plus the famous Geraldo Rivera late night show when the Zapruder film was shown publicly for the first time. I had already detected that some cases were simple and others were not but for whatever reason most people weren't very good at weighing variables and how significant they were. Hence the simple cases often were evaluated as complex, and the reverse was true. Nothing has changed in that regard.

The Leonard Nimoy "In Search Of" series was very good. That was a revelation because the DB Cooper case already had far too much legend and aura attached. I had argued with high school friends that it probably was quite simple and that anyone with a parachute had to survive, but I didn't have proper evidence until Leonard Nimoy introduced Richard Floyd McCoy as the perpetrator. No longer a mystery. Thanks Spock.

People loved to discuss true crime. That was glaring no matter where I lived or what type of setting. Then cable became prominent in the early '80s. I still have no idea how it took so long for a producer to come up with something like Unsolved Mysteries, or that it was actually a major network that managed it and not one of the upstart cable networks.

I remember the apartment I had when Unsolved Mysteries debuted. It was just off Koval Lane in Las Vegas. Currently the Wynn hotel and casino uses that area as parking garage. Massive parking garage. I bought a fancy VCR on sale at Service Merchandise because I wanted to tape the 1988 Olympic Games the following year. I set that VCR to tape Unsolved Mysteries while I was still in the sportsbooks at night rootiing in my wagers.

And yes, I taped every one including the specials. I saw the early advertisements and was immediately interested. I still have some of the early episodes on old VCR tapes and come across them occasionally when reviewing those tapes for dubbing to DVD. Nope, I don't have any of the elusive ones. I also got rid of some classic college football games and horse races that are desperately sought on other sites.