‘Unsolved Mysteries’ on Netflix Reveals the Quickest Way to Get Updates When Cases Are Solved
Netflix delighted mystery lovers everywhere when they brought back the 1990s true crime series, Unsolved Mysteries. Like in the past, the series asks viewers at home to help solve the crimes. This time, the updates will be revealed differently than in the past.
How did the ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ cases get solved and updated in the original series?
Unsolved Mysteries aired on NBC for nine seasons with 292 episodes in that ten-year run. Four cases were explored per episode, so the show detailed over 1300 mysteries. At the end of each episode, host Robert Stack would direct viewers to call a 1-800 hotline with any tips.
Half of the cases featuring wanted fugitives were solved because of viewer tips. Over 100 families were reunited with lost loved ones with the help of fans. Seven innocent people convicted of crimes were exonerated and released. The series helped find missing persons, missing heirs, and solve amnesia cases in its 10 years on the air.
During the original run, the producers would update fans on a case a few weeks later, during another episode.
“But we were broadcasting 22, 24 shows per year, so we could kind of get a cadence going with that,” co-creator Terry Dunn Meurer told RadioTimes.
The new series on Netflix dropped six episodes on July 1, 2020, but won’t air another installment until fall 2020.
“In this case, if we were to put an update at the end of the episode, we would have to ask the audience to go back and re-stream that episode or else fast-forward to the end.”
Where can viewers get updates on ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ Netflix cases?
Meurer explained that the Netflix Unsolved Mysteries case updates would be found on their social media account.
“The news is going to hear about them sooner than anyone,” Meurer added. “Sooner than we could get an update out there.”
Unsolved Mysteries has an active Instagram page where they post details about each case. The latest series of posts also includes the “most talked about moments.”
The account already has several updates posted from old cases from the original run of the series.
How does the ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ team handle the tips that come in?
“There’s a team of about five, six people on different shifts so that we have somebody on the website all the time, going through the tips,” Meurer told Variety. “And we still have tips and leads in cases getting solved from the original shows.”
The team has the most tips from the episode, “No ride home,” about the death of Alonzo Brooks.
“Lots of theories that we had already heard when we were producing the episodes, but there are some new names that have come in and that we forwarded onto the FBI,” the co-creator added.
All tips go through the website unsolved.com, and Meurer reiterates that “the mission of the show is to solve these cases. That’s the goal.”
