Unsolved Mysteries The TV Show

Unsolved Mysteries is an American television program, hosted by Robert Stack from 1987 to 2002 and later by Dennis Farina from 2008 to 2010. The show began as a series of specials, presented by Raymond Burr, Karl Malden, and Robert Stack, on NBC on January 20, 1987, becoming a full-fledged television series on October 5, 1988, hosted by Stack. After nine seasons on NBC, the series moved to CBS for its 10th season on November 13, 1997. After adding Virginia Madsen as a co-host failed to boost slipping ratings, CBS canceled the series after only a 12-episode run on June 11, 1999. The series was revived by Lifetime in 2000, with season 12 beginning on July 2, 2001. The series aired 103 episodes on Lifetime, before ending on September 20, 2002, an end that coincided with Stack's illness and eventual death.

After a six-year absence, the series was resurrected by Spike in 2007, to begin airing October 13, 2008. This new, revived-version was hosted by veteran actor Dennis Farina, who mainly tied together repackaged segments from the original series. Farina hosted 175 episodes before the series ended again on April 27, 2010. Lifetime currently airs the Farina episodes in reruns.

Cosgrove-Meurer Productions maintains a website for the show, featuring popular accounts and ongoing cold cases (murder or missing persons), with a link to an online form should a viewer have information on an unsolved crime.

As of 2017, the show maintains a YouTube page where viewers can submit their own mysteries. If accepted, Unsolved Mysteries posts a video of the viewer describing the mystery.

FilmRise acquired worldwide digital distribution rights to the series and announced its intent to release updated versions of its episodes in 2017. These shows are currently streaming on Amazon Prime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Since February 2017, the Spike series has been officially posted on YouTube, split into eight seasons. In July 2017, the show began streaming on Hulu in the United States.

Creators Cosgrove and Meurer are looking into reviving the series for television, or possibly Netflix.

Unsolved Mysteries used a documentary format to profile real-life mysteries and featured re-enactments of unsolved crimes, missing person cases, conspiracy theories and unexplained paranormal phenomena (alien abductions, ghosts, UFOs, and "secret history" theories).

The concept was created in a series of three specials produced by John Cosgrove and Terry-Dunn Meurer, which were pitched to NBC in 1985 and shown in 1986 with the title, "Missing... Have You Seen This Person?" The success of the specials led Cosgrove and Meurer to broaden the program to include mysteries of all kinds.

The pilot of what eventually became Unsolved Mysteries was a special that aired on NBC on January 20, 1987, with Raymond Burr as host/narrator. Throughout the 1987-1988 television season, six more specials aired, the first two hosted by Karl Malden and the final four by Robert Stack.

In 1988, the show debuted as a weekly series on NBC. It declined in popularity after the 1993–1994 season. Until 2002, it was hosted by Stack. In its second season on CBS in 1999, Stack was joined by co-host Virginia Madsen. Episodes from 1994–1997 featured journalist Keely Shaye Smith and television host Lu Hanessian as correspondents in the show's "telecenter", where they provided updates on previous stories. A March 14, 1997, episode featured journalist Cathy Scott in the reenactment of rapper Tupac Shakur's 1996 unsolved murder. The last original segment aired on September 20, 2002. Eight months later, on May 14, 2003, Robert Stack died of heart failure. In 2008, television network Spike revived the series with Dennis Farina as its host. Farina died from a pulmonary embolism in 2013.

The show was known for its eerie theme song composed by Michael Boyd and Gary Remal Malkin, and for Stack's grim presence and ominous narration. The theme song was changed four times, in 1993, 1995, 1997, and 2001. When it was revived in 2008, the theme and incidental music used were changed to upbeat rock music.

CBS had aired a similar half-hour crime documentary series during the 1955–1956 season entitled Wanted, hosted by Walter McGraw. It was not successful.

Unsolved Mysteries featured segments in documentary film style, with actors portraying the victims, perpetrators, and witnesses. In most cases, however, victim's family members and police officials were also featured in interview segments interspersed throughout the dramatizations. In contrast to many similarly formatted newsmagazines that air in the 21st century (including NBC's own Dateline NBC), NBC News disowned Unsolved Mysteries and requested a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode stating the show was not a newscast. In the earlier episodes, the following message was related to the audience at the beginning of the program:

This program is about unsolved mysteries. Whenever possible, the actual family members and police officials have participated in recreating the events. What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

In the specials that first aired on NBC, the last sentence of the disclaimer said:

This is not an NBC News Production.

For other special episodes, like Mysteries of the Psychic Mind or Mysteries of the Afterlife, the message was:

This program is about unsolved mysteries. The re-enactments and special effects are actual eyewitness accounts. What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

Each episode of Unsolved Mysteries usually featured three or four segments, each involving a different story. The show's host offered voice-over narration for each segment, and appeared on-screen to begin and end segments and offer segues.

While the show was in production, viewers were invited to telephone, write letters or, in the newer broadcasts, submit tips through their website if they had information that might help solve a case. The segments all involved actual events, and generally fell into one of four categories:

• Criminal cases: Accounts of abductions, suspicious deaths, homicides, robberies, claims of innocence, missing persons and other miscellaneous unsolved cases where the suspects were either unknown or could not be located.
• Lost loves: Accounts of individuals trying to reunite with someone from their past; often involving closed adoption, people separated by circumstances, or an unknown "Good Samaritan" that saved someone's life.
• Unexplained/Alternative history: Alternative theories of history (including the theories that outlaws such as Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy did not die as history recorded, that the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov survived the 1918 regicide that killed her entire family, that the assassination of Louisiana senator Huey Long may have been an accident, that the assassination of Martin Luther King was, in fact, a conspiracy, and that Kurt Cobain may have been murdered).
• Paranormal matters: Accounts of miracles, alleged UFO/alien encounters (including examination of the Roswell UFO Incident and the Phoenix UFO Incident, the UFO incident in Eupen, Belgium observed by NATO fighter jets, or scientific questions about life on Mars), ghosts, Bigfoot, or other inexplicable phenomena.

Viewers were given updates on success stories, where suspects were brought to justice and loved ones reunited.
 

Broadcast History

NBC (1987–97)

The show first aired on NBC from 1987 to 1997, hosted by actor Raymond Burr as a television special. Karl Malden also hosted the show before Robert Stack took over full-time. Unsolved Mysteries was also one of the few prime-time shows of its era to appeal to fans of the supernatural and used effective special effects to enhance tales of the unexplained.

In 1992, NBC aired a short-lived dramatized court show spin-off series called Final Appeal: From the Files of Unsolved Mysteries, with Robert Stack as host also. The premise of this series was to try to give the unjustly accused a final appeal for help, with the debut episode taking an in-depth look at the Jeffrey MacDonald case. The series was canceled after only a few episodes due to poor ratings.

CBS (1997–99) 

Unsolved Mysteries' ratings had been declining ever since it was moved from its original Wednesday evening to Friday evening in the fall of 1994. At the end of the 1996–1997 season and the show's ninth season as a series, it was canceled by NBC. Upon the cancellation from NBC, CBS picked up the series for a tenth season. When CBS canceled its Block Party line-up with shows such as Family Matters, and Step By Step, the network moved the show to its 9:00 p.m timeslot. During the show's run on CBS, the series was limited to only six-episode seasons and airing on a sporadic schedule.

In early 1999, Stack was joined by actress Virginia Madsen for hosting duties in an attempt to boost its female audience. But the effort failed, and CBS canceled the show soon afterward after season 11. Later cable reruns of segments originally narrated by Madsen were re-dubbed with Stack's voice.

Lifetime (2001–02)

Lifetime Television, which had been airing re-runs of NBC episodes since the early 1990s, began airing new episodes in 2001. Consisting of a mixture of new and old cases, these episodes were produced between that year and 2002 and usually aired on weekdays between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The series ceased producing new episodes when Stack was diagnosed with prostate cancer in late 2002; the series would not resume production before he died of an unrelated heart attack in May 2003.

After Stack's death, old episodes continued to run in syndication on several television networks (notably Lifetime) in the U.S., Canada, and Australia; but as of August 14, 2006, Unsolved Mysteries switched to airing on Lifetime Real Women, which is mostly on digital cable. In 2007, the show was removed from the schedule.

During some shows, callers gave tips to the telecenter. When the show was in active production, the number was displayed on the bottom of the screen at the end of each segment. When the show left active production following Stack's death and went into reruns, the number was removed and replaced with a P.O. box address. The telecenter segments were kept in the reruns, despite the fact that this would not make sense to a viewer who hadn't seen the show during its original run.

Spike TV (2008–10)

According to Broadcasting & Cable, in 2007, HBO Distribution announced plans to bring back Unsolved Mysteries when the cable channel Lifetime's contract expired in 2008. The show featured a new set, new logo, new music, and updates on old cases. In addition, actor Dennis Farina became the new host, as Stack had died five years earlier. The show debuted on Spike on October 13, 2008.

This repackaged series run was criticized by fans for its presentation of past cases only, with no new case segments being produced. The existing segments were also edited to be shorter so the show could be expanded to present five cases in an hour rather than the four of the original series. Because the majority of the cases were now between 20 and 40 years old, the re-edited segments usually did not reference the years in which the events presented originally occurred. When updates for solved cases aired, Dennis Farina's voiceover would refer to cases "in a recent broadcast...", when the case may have already been solved during the show's original run or during the series' hiatus from 2003–07.

Initially, Spike's airing schedule for the show was sporadic. Some weeks the channel would air a marathon during the daytime hours (11 am–3 pm), similar to Lifetime's schedule for the show. Unsolved Mysteries ended its run on Spike on April 27, 2010.

Spin-offs

• On September 18, 1992, NBC debuted a short-lived 6-episode spin-off series, hosted by Robert Stack himself, entitled Final Appeal: From the Files of Unsolved Mysteries.
• On January 23, 1995, NBC aired a two-hour primetime movie called Escape from Terror: The Teresa Stamper Story.
• On April 22, 1996, NBC aired a two-hour primetime movie special entitled, From the Files of Unsolved Mysteries: Voice from the Grave.
• On April 28, 1997, NBC aired a new primetime movie called From the Files of Unsolved Mysteries: The Sleepwalker Killing.

Notable Actors and Celebrities

In 1992, Unsolved Mysteries filmed in Texas and cast Matthew McConaughey to play a murder victim. This was one of McConaughey's earliest on-screen roles.  Cheryl Hines, Stephnie Weir, Bill Moseley, Ned Bellamy, Holmes Osborne, Scott Wilkinson, Daniel Dae Kim, Brent Spiner, David Ramsey, and Taran Killam also appeared on the series before receiving more notable work in Hollywood. Hill Harper also appeared in an episode about a woman looking for a childhood friend whom she later discovered was indeed her sister. In 1991, Jennifer G. Roberts appeared in one of her first on-screen roles, in the Phillip Breen episode.

Comedian Blake Clark was interviewed in the "Comedy Store Ghosts" episode. Author James Ellroy appeared in an episode looking for the man who murdered his mother. Football player Reggie White appeared in an episode trying to find the arsonists who set fire to his church. Musician Henry Rollins and actor Dennis Cole both appeared to find the people responsible for the murder of Cole's son, Joe. Musician Ron Bushy appeared in a story about the disappearance of fellow Iron Butterfly bandmate, Philip Taylor Kramer.

U.S. Television Ratings and Awards

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Unsolved Mysteries.

Note: U.S. network television seasons generally start in late September and end in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

The figure reflected starting with the 1988–1989 season and ending with the 1996–1997 season represents the total number of households viewing the program. Starting with the 1997–1998 season, the viewing figure is based on the total number of viewers.

The original NBC telecast was nominated six times for an Emmy Award for outstanding informational series in 1989–1993 and 1995.

DVD Releases

First Look Studios released six theme-based DVD sets in Region 1 in 2004/2005. The sets were re-released on June 21, 2005, with a lower suggested retail price. On March 21, 2006, a compilation set called The Best of Unsolved Mysteries was released, which contained selected segments from each of the earlier DVD sets along with some previously unreleased-on-DVD content. A special boxed set featuring the first six sets along with the new content from the Best of Unsolved Mysteries collection was also produced.