The stories on Netflix Unsolved mysteries reboots are new. The feeling of delicious fear you feel when you hear the haunting introductory music … it’s not.
That’s part of the reason why the reboot of the 1980s and 1990s nonfiction series, which makes its debut on streaming service on Wednesday, feels so good about its predecessor. After all, executive producer / co-creator Terry Dunn Meurer tells TVLine, “The premise of the show has always been: someone somewhere knows the truth, and maybe you can help solve a mystery. And that hasn’t changed with the new iteration on Netflix. That has always been the mission. “
But that doesn’t mean the new episodes are a carbon copy of the show that Meurer, along with co-creator John Cosgrove and executive producer Robert Wise, launched decades ago. (Everyone participates in the reboot, as is Strange things‘Shawn Levy.)
“When we initially created the series, we were a little concerned that people would not want to see stories that were not resolved,” recalls Meurer. “But then when we started solving cases through the broadcast, we were very pleased about that, and realized that we could provide closure for families and for the police, and also for viewers.”
Six new Unsolved mysteries premiere on Wednesday; Another six will be available in the future. Here are a few bits of information, in Meurer’s words, you may want to put in your mental archive before watching the new episodes.
PROVEN HISTORY The | “The original series described 1,300 cases in approximately 230 episodes,” says the EP. “Of these, 260 have been resolved.”
Faster Comments The | “Now it is much easier. We have social networks, so we can update very quickly on social networks. In the past, aside from local news coverage or network news coverage, you couldn’t get that news as fast as you can now. So we are excited about the launch of this new technology. It just gives us a huge advantage over when we were producing the original shows. “
LAUNCHING A GLOBAL NETWORK The | “One of the reasons we are excited to premiere on Netflix is because of the international reach. The original episodes caught wanted fugitives in different countries in Africa, American Samoa. There were many, many cases that were resolved, and that scope is very important, ”she says. One episode, “House of Horrors”, details the deaths and disappearances that took place in France. “We hope that if he it is alive, “Meurer says of the alleged murderer,” that the reach of this show, the reach of the Netflix audience will track it. “
A ‘cleaning house’ for slopes The | “We have a team of people who are reviewing each tip and reviewing those tips,” she says. “It is the most specific clues that come in, where someone really does have a name and say ‘I have information’ or ‘I witnessed something’, those are the tips that we immediately get from law enforcement or to whom we send those tips to We are a clearinghouse for those tips. “
IT’S NOT JUST TRUE CRIME The | “We think of Unsolved mysteries like a mystery show, not a real crime, because we have many different categories, “says Meurer.” We have UFOs and ghosts and treasure stories, plus warehouses, disappearances and murders. Unexplained death is one of our categories … Those are cases where there are multiple theories. Was it suicide? Was it an accident? Was it murder? Was it foul play?
Creepy sampling The | The first round of episodes includes the unexplained death of more than a decade of a Maryland man named Rey Rivera, a disappearance in Mississippi that may be an 11-year hate crime, and a UFO sighting in Massachusetts.
THERE IS NO NARRATOR THIS TIME AROUND The | Meurer calls for the option of filming the episodes without a narrator: Robert Stack, who was the voice of the original show for most of his career, died in 2003: “A really difficult decision … The final decision was that it is very hard to fill Robert Stack shoes and his raincoat. He is such an iconic voice. He is a signature of the show. We also wanted the real participants in the stories, family members and the police. [officers], to be more involved in telling the stories. “
That cold-inducing theme song The | “Everyone comments on music!” Meurer says, laughing. “That is probably the most memorable element in the entire series.”
