Issue 12: The History of Unsolved Mysteries

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Being in the middle of another season of Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix, I thought it would be interesting to tell you the history of one of the most popular crime shows.

The show was created by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer.

Over the years there have been multiple presenters including Raymond Burr, Karl Malden, Virginia Madsen, Dennis Farina and most notably Robert Stack.

The format of the show was about 4 - 5 segments. Each segment was introduced by the host, usually posing a question about the subject matter to the audience. The segment didn’t just cover cold cases, it also covered paranormal experiences, conspiracy theories and missing persons. It was usually accompanied by interviews and reenactments.

Though it began on 20 January 1987, it became a full-fledged series on 5 October 1988. The show was first hosted by Stack and ran on NBC for 9 seasons. For its 10th season it moved to CBS, in the 11th season hoping to boost ratings the show added Maadsen as a co-host. Only after 2 seasons the show was canceled by CBS. 

This was not the last we would see of the show, as it was revived in 2000 by Lifetime. There were 103 episodes that aired between 2 July 2001 to 20 September 2002. The end of the show was due to Stack’s illness and eventual death.

Once more, Unsolved Mysteries went to sleep for 6 years.

Once more in 2007 it was resurrected by Spike. The show began airing on 13 October 2008 and was hosted by Dennis Farina. There was also a new format to the show as his job as host was mainly to tie together repackaged segments from the original series. He hosted 175 episodes before the show once more ended on 27 April 2010.

On 18 January 2018 Netflix picked up the reboot of the series. The premiere was on 1 July 2022. There were some notable changes made. Firstly there is no specific host introducing the stories, as they take a more documentary style that we have been used to by today’s standards. It also did away with the reenactments. Also, instead of smaller segments in one episode, it is one case per episode. The series was split into volumes, each containing 6 episodes each. Currently it is in its third volume.

One of the most famous segments is when the show highlighted a burglar and rapist. This person ended up being Joseph James DeAngelo, better known as the Golden State Killer. At the time of the segment airing, DeAngelo had not graduated to committing murders.

Have you ever wondered whether any of those old cases from the original series were solved? Even though the original series covered some, sometimes it can take years for a break in the case. There luckily is an answer, may I introduce you to Resolved Mysteries. Alison, Eliza and Karlin are three ladies who rewatch the old episodes and then give updates to their cases.