MovieChat Forums > Unsolved Mysteries (1987) Discussion > Who else is re-watching on Amazon Prime?

Who else is re-watching on Amazon Prime?

posted 8 years ago by Isthisyourhomework (283)
23 replies | jump to latest

It's been such a long wait to be able to watch these legally on demand. Glad Amazon stepped up and thank God for Film Rise, they distribute so much good old TV. I forgot that they used to use the real people in the reenactments....I saw my local sheriff from the 80s and 90s playing himself in the Rising Daughter Church murder segment. That was a trip. I'm trying not to binge these all at once, so I've been working my way through for a month, and am now on episode 2 of season 2.

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[–] earl237 (1106) 8 years ago


Don't have Amazon prime but loved this show when it was originally on, Robert Stack was a great host and the cases were very interesting. They brought it back with Dennis Farina in 2008 but it only lasted about 2 years.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 8 years ago

The Farina eps suck. He's nowhere near as good as Stack as the host, the "command center" set is all wrong, and the editing of the episodes kills the spooky feel of the original series.

If the Farina eps were all there were to watch, I'd just avoid the show. Especially since they just repackaged the original stories and didn't even cover new events.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 8 years ago

Ha, damn, we keep running into each other!

I actually just started a Prime trial a few days ago and Unsolved Mysteries is one of the main reasons I did so. It's absolutely ridiculous that the series has never been released in its entirety on home video, and that the DVDs that were released have been long out of print.

I am definitely looking forward to diving into this show. How nostalgic! I remember watching them with my grandmother when I was a kid.

What I don't understand though is why there are like six Dennis Farina seasons uploaded but only two Robert Stack seasons. That's backwards! Everyone wants the stack eps!

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[–] kaleidoscope0_0 (483) 8 years ago

I used to watch this with my grandmother as well.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 8 years ago

You know, it's funny, someone else said the same thing to me a few weeks ago. It seems like it was a tradition for a lot of kids to sit down with their grandmothers and watch Unsolved Mysteries every week.

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[–] kaleidoscope0_0 (483) 8 years ago

Grandmothers must have been pretty fond of Robert Stack. :)

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[–] Isthisyourhomework (283) 8 years ago

Hey again, we must have similar taste! They started with only one season of Stack, and now there are two, so I'm hoping for more.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 8 years ago

I wonder what the reason is specifically for why they uploaded so much Farina stuff but so little Stack seasons. They have to know that the Farina eps are NOT what people want. And the reason can't be that there are more Farina seasons, because Stack was the host for FAR longer.

The plan better be to get ALL the Stack seasons on there and to do it within a reasonable timeframe.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 6 years ago

Damn, can't believe it's been two years since we had this discussion.

It looks like all of the Robert Stack seasons are indeed up on Amazon now, though! Hooray!

I have been slowly making my way through the series, just watching an episode here and an episode there as the impulse hits. With 12 Stack seasons in total, it's going to take quite a while for me to get through everything, which is good!

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[–] BourbonKing (5778) 6 years ago

The Queen Mary episode seems to be a hoax created by the producers to create an itch with newer audiences. I met with an old supervisor who worked in Guest Relations back in the 80s and he was there when they filmed the "haunting" scenes with the cafe woman and the man in blue overalls. Also, the noises in the ship's hull were created by staff members. You can easily transport sound in that area of the ship using a simple set of speakers stuffed into an air duct and rubber mallets to pound the steel walls.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 6 years ago

Hmm, I think I would need a little more evidence to believe it's a hoax, especially in regard to the producers being in on it.

I could believe that the Queen Mary ownership/management/staff would lie about their experiences in order to drum up new interest, but I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the UM producers were in on the lie.

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[–] BourbonKing (5778) 6 years ago

The stories about the ghosts did come from the staff, but they were in the end just stories. There wasn't any film or video evidence of their experiences so the recreations were just based on that.

The noises in the hull were created by night staff who knew that the audio recorders were put in place but they waited until the filming crew left the area before pulling their antics. I don't know if UM was in on it, but the staff were.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 6 years ago

Well that much doesn't surprise me. Most of the evidence for ghosts and the like is, and probably always will be, anecdotal. And I could see the owners and operators of the Queen Mary wanting to keep the legend of the ship alive and being willing to lie to do it.

There have certainly been a lot of stories surrounding that ship, though. Certainly far more than were told on that episode. Is it actually haunted? Who knows.

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[–] db20db (17297) 6 years ago

It's on every morning on one of my cable channels and I often watch a little bit of it with my second cup of coffee. I say a little bit because it's usually a story I've seen before.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 6 years ago

Are these the Robert Stack episodes or the Dennis Farina episodes?

I know the Farina episodes, which I despise, have gotten a lot of replay. I don't think I've seen the Stack episodes on TV in years.

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[–] db20db (17297) 6 years ago

The Farina episodes. I also haven't seen a Stack episode in years.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 6 years ago

Amazon Prime has all 12 Stack seasons available right now. I have been slowly making my way through the series on there. They're a lot of fun and very nostalgic.

Fuck the Farina episodes. They are all wrong. #notmyUnsolvedMysteries

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[–] janelsenor (2044) 6 years ago

I could tolerate the Farina era if it had new stories.

They should bring it back with new stories (and any updates on old ones) and get Christopher Lambert to host.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 6 years ago

Ha, Christopher Lambert is an interesting idea! I could maybe go along with that.

The thing about the Farina episodes is that they just didn't have the magic that the Stack episodes did. From the uninspired "control center" set, to the overly-dramatized way the re-enactments were done, to Farina himself, it just didn't feel right to me.

Then on top of that you have the major sin of just re-telling old stories instead of putting the work into gathering up new mysteries.

In August of last year the creators said that new episodes could be on the way:

https://bloody-disgusting.com/tv/3454658/unsolved-mysteries-creators-say-new-episodes-coming-real-soon/

But no more news has come out about this so I'm not sure if it's still in development.

If they DO produce new episodes, then I REALLY hope they make them in a style that is more consistent with the Stack era rather than try to ape the style of modern true crime shows that you see on networks like Investigation Discovery and Oxygen.

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[–] janelsenor (2044) 6 years ago

The thing about the Farina episodes is that they just didn't have the magic that the Stack episodes did. From the uninspired "control center" set, to the overly-dramatized way the re-enactments were done, to Farina himself, it just didn't feel right to me.
The re-enactments weren't new for the Farina episodes. They just re-used the re-enactments from the Stack episodes. Other than that, I agree about the overall aesthetic of the show.

And any new version must include the original theme. It can be a new variation of it, but the theme has to be there.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 6 years ago

Were the re-enactments really not new?

Weird. I remember watching one episode specifically and it looked like it had been recently filmed.

If they were going to use the same stories with the same re-enactments, why even do new bumpers with Farina in a new set? Why not just re-air the Stack episodes?

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[–] janelsenor (2044) 6 years ago

Exactly. That's why the Farina episodes were such a waste. If there were any new re-enactments, I never saw them. All the episodes I saw just had the old footage re-edited with the new crappy music and Farina's narration.

The scary arsonist case ("Look at it, Omar!") was totally ruined in the new series even though the same footage was used.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8757) 6 years ago

Awful. I can't imagine why they even thought the changes they made were good ideas.

Back to the news about a potential revival of the series, I agree with you that they need to keep the original theme, or at least a variation of it. Really, what they need to do is go back to the whole VIBE of the Stack episodes. The show is supposed to create an aura of spooky mystery, so any version that doens't do that fails.

As I mentioned to you earlier, they also should utilize a straightforward, honest, sober-minded documentary approach to each story and avoid the overly-dramatic look and feel of many modern true crime shows.

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