Unsolved Mysteries - Overview

Overview

Unsolved Mysteries used a documentary format profiling real-life mysteries and featured reenactments of unsolved crimes, missing persons, conspiracy theories and unexplained paranormal phenomena (alien abductions, ghosts, UFOs, and "secret history" theories).

The concept was created upon 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 three programs 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 to a rousing success. Throughout the 1987/1988 season, six more specials aired with the next two being hosted by Karl Malden and the final four by it's eventual host, Robert Stack.

In 1988, the show became a weekly run series on NBC, although it lost some of its popularity after the 1993–1994 season. Until 1998, it was hosted by Stack, and during its brief 2-year run on CBS, co-hosted by Virginia Madsen in 1999. Later episodes from 1994-1997 featured journalist Keely Shaye Smith and television host Lu Hanessian as correspondents in the show's telecenter, from where they provided information on updated stories. The last original segment aired on September 20, 2002, and eight months later, on May 14, 2003, Robert Stack died of heart failure. In 2008, Spike revived the series with Dennis Farina as its host.

The show was well-known for its eerie theme song composed by Michael Boyd and Gary Remal Malkin, as well as Stack's unmistakable voice and presence, both of which became synonymous with it. The theme song was later changed four times in 1993, 1996, 1997, and 2001 until the show ended in 2002. When it was revived in 2008, the theme and music used were changed to up-beat rock music much to dismay of loyal fans.

Much earlier, CBS had aired an unsuccessful similar half-hour crime documentary series entitled Wanted during the 1955–1956 season, hosted by Walter McGraw.