(In)complete AMW Episode Guide - 2002

Well, I got this done tonight, so I figured I should post it. Here is my list of my 10 favorite and least-favorite AMW episode from 2002!

My Top 10 AMW Episodes:
March 30, 2002
The Strange But True Special Edition. Not only was this the first AMW episode I saw as a regular viewer, but it’s also such a unique concept; a collection of fugitives either wanted for strange crimes or who have a strange characteristic. Barring the repeat of this exact episode a few months later, AMW never did a show like this again, which is a shame because how hard would it to be find strange fugitive cases?

April 13, 2002
Now THIS is how you do an episode when you travel! AMW was in New York City this episode, and out of the 13 fugitives profiled on this episode, four were wanted out of either New York or the New York area. They also featured the capture report of a fugitive wanted for killing a New York City police officer. Plus, they managed to fit in all those cases without feeling rushed. That’s not easy to do, and this episode pulled it off!

May 4, 2002
The 700th Capture Special Edition. This was my first time seeing a “milestone capture” episode, and this one did not disappoint! They started off with both a breaking news capture (TJ Weber) followed by the 700th capture. The second act started off with an update on a longtime fugitive, featuring a new interview with the victim’s family (James Sullivan), as well as the hunt for another violent criminal (DeAndre Wilson). The second half of the episode was great as well; it featured a behind-the-scenes look at a capture, as well as a look at the people who AMW has affected during its time on the air. The Tom Ridge interview is the only flaw I can think of in an otherwise great episode.

June 1, 2002
Honestly, I can’t really think of a good reason as to why I like this episode; I just do! This is the one that went inside the Chandra Levy murder investigation and talked about what could be done to solve the case. It also featured an update on the Allen Adams murder (one of the most fascinating unsolved cases AMW has ever profiled) and even a look at how AMW films their reenactments. Like I said, there’s nothing particularly special about this episode, but I still love it.

September 7, 2002
September had a lot of great AMW episodes, starting off with the 9/11 anniversary special edition. I feel like this was the best of all the show’s 9/11 anniversaries; it started off with a look at what’s happened in the year since, and asked to look for two suspected terrorists, both of whom were caught relatively quickly. Besides doing 9/11-related work, AMW also went after fugitives not connected to the terrorist attack, which I feel was a good way of showing that they weren’t forgetting the tragedy, but also moving on.

September 14, 2002
The 16th Season Premiere, and one that remains in my top five season premieres. It set the bar high with a very unique concept (fugitives who use cars to kill) that AMW tried to replicate in 2008 with the “speeders” special edition, but it didn’t come anywhere close to this episode. The scrapyard setting was also a unique filming location, but I think it worked out in the show’s favor. Plus, AMW featured both Michele Comstock and Sarkis Peltekian, fugitives they hadn’t aired in a number of years (Comstock I think had last been profiled in the mid-90s). AMW struck gold with this episode, if you ask me.

October 17, 2002
The DC Sniper Special Edition. I normally don’t like episodes where the whole show is dedicated to one case, but this is one they did right. The first segment simply told the story of the sniper and what he had done up to that point. The second segment gave a ton of clues that could help find the sniper. The third (and my personal favorite) segment detailed some of AMW’s closed cases and what the sniper investigation could learn from them. This was also the episode that introduced me to Ray Farkas, who, admittedly, I wasn’t a huge fan of at first, but he really grew on me as the years went by (his best piece, in my opinion, was on the Helen Hill murder, which sadly was his last segment before he died of cancer).

November 2, 2002
If I had to give a reason as to why this is one of my favorites, I’ll tell you this; it was AMW’s most successful episode at the time. AMW profiled 10 fugitives on this episode and three missing children. Six of those fugitives were caught before 2002 had even ended (all but one, Thomas Deering, were direct, and he probably would have been direct if he hadn’t fled to California), one of them was caught a year and a half later, and another was directly caught more than two years after this profile. To this day, there’s only one case, that of Marcelo Sanchez-Rubio, that has yet to be solved from this episode.

November 9, 2002
To my knowledge, this is the only time AMW teamed up with the ATF to film an episode. I wish they’d done it more, because this was such a great show, starting with the crew blowing up a car at the top of the broadcast. Four of the fugitives profiled were wanted for bombings themselves, and one of them surrendered because of this broadcast. It was such a unique concept, and one that AMW sadly never did ever again.

December 14, 2002
And finally, we have the 700th episode! Of all the episode milestones, this is by far my favorite. It had a unique concept where they went through the show’s past and aired longtime fugitives that hadn’t been profiled in a number of years to generate new leads. I love the little graphic that said what episode the fugitive was first profiled on, because it really showed AMW’s dedication to finding these fugitives. I’ve actually seen this episode so many times, I have John Walsh’s profile of Glen Godwin during the COPS credits memorized (I’m not even kidding; I won’t recite it here, but if you want me to I will).

In summary, I think I finally figured out why I have a special place in my heart for these episodes; they were fun! Yes, they were being serious by hunting fugitives, but that didn’t mean they had to be boring. John Walsh blows up a car to profile bombers, or John Walsh heads to DC Metro Police headquarters to talk about some of the city’s most mysterious murders. Not to mention, John Walsh actually worked with agencies besides the U.S. Marshals (no disrespect to them at all, but has anybody else noticed that in AMW’s later years, all they did was work with the Marshals?)

And now, I have come to my least-favorite episodes of 2002. Unlike 2004, which was actually a pretty easy year to find episodes I disliked, this one was a huge challenge. I honestly don’t dislike any episode that aired in 2002; the worst they got was “average.” But I promised I’d talk about my least-favorite episodes, so here we go!

My 10 Least-Favorite AMW Episodes:
April 20, 2002
This was the first episode of AMW that I watched another TV show over (specifically, the 2002 Kids’ Choice Awards on Nickelodeon). I think it was mostly due to how there were so few cases profiled when compared to the previous weeks’ shows. Even today when I go through my AMW episodes, this is one I generally skip over. But I will say this; because the Kids’ Choice Awards were so boring that year, I never watched them again, and from that day forward always picked AMW over any other show.

May 18, 2002
This is one of a few episodes where an apparent illness by John Walsh made me not enjoy the episode as much. In this case, John was clearly suffering from a cold when this episode was recorded. It doesn’t have a huge impact on the episode, but in the grand scheme of things it’s not one of my favorites. Though I do have to compliment the show on working with U.S. Customs (which not long after this became ICE).

July 13, 2002
I remember the previous week’s episode promised to look at the secrets of the Secret Service. And while John did go through Secret Service training and learned about some of their tactics, I feel like they could have done more. The last segment, which featured the weapons library, I felt was way too short. It also didn’t help that I had to set the timer for this episode because I went to my cousin’s wedding in Minnesota the weekend this episode aired.

July 27, 2002
Quite honestly, I’ve got nothing against this episode at all. But the fact I’ve only seen it once and only remember certain details about it makes me put it on this list. And it’s a shame, because what I do remember about this episode was very good and I have no problem with at all. I just wish I could remember the whole episode.

August 10, 2002
The rerun of the “Strange But True” special edition. Normally reruns don’t bother me too much, but when it’s pretty much an exact repeat of the original episode, then we’ve got a problem. That’s exactly what happened here, with the only major difference being the replacement of the break-four tease. They didn’t even bother editing the part where John Walsh says, “And after nearly 700 captures…” even though AMW had reached 700 by the time the episode was reran.

August 17, 2002
The rerun of the “Toughest Cops, Toughest Cases” special edition. I just remember being really unimpressed with this episode. It was super obvious it was a rerun, with the graphics not even being touched, and something about it just didn’t get my attention. It didn’t help that my recording of this episode cut off during Shane Magan’s profile, so I was in a bad mood for the final 10 minutes of the episode.

August 24, 2002
Okay, I promise I don’t hate the month of August, but back when I was 13 I was disappointed in many of these episodes. This one sticks out because of not only the lack of many fugitives, but also the fact that I feel AMW could have done better. I was happy to see Robert Foster get another profile, but disappointed that it was APB-length and not in an APB. Also, they clearly didn’t edit the Irving Sicherer murder piece to reflect it had been a year since the last profile. Not only that, but Irving’s daughter is called both “Beverly” and “Emily” in the same segment. Poor editing is something I take very seriously, and sadly this is one that disappointed.

September 21, 2002
I remember back when I first saw this episode, it somewhat disappointed me. AMW had just aired several great back-to-back episodes with great themes (9/11 anniversary and the “cars to kill” season premiere) and then we got this episode, which had no theme at all. Plus, this episode didn’t have a fugitive recap, which made me mad for some reason.

November 23, 2002
Once again, the number of fugitives profiled (or not profiled) really disappointed me on this one. It’s sad when you actually enjoy reruns of a specific episode more than the episode it was based upon. The January 2004 rerun corrected a lot of issues with this episode, and the July 2005 rerun didn’t even feel like a rerun. Plus, this episode was recorded off my VCR timer, and I don’t know why. I think my family went to my grandma’s house that night for some reason, but I don’t know why we went over there.

December 28, 2002
While this episode had a good concept, I feel like a lot more could have been done. I don’t know why AMW felt the need to rerun the strangest captures feature, and I have to ask why an APB couldn’t have sufficed in that exact same spot (it could easily have fit in there).

Can you tell that I was really nitpicky when it came to my least-favorite episodes? I’m being honest when I talk about how there really was nothing to dislike about 2002. I don’t even think there’s a mediocre episode from that year; I consider all of them either great, good or average. It was so hard for me to even find five episodes I didn’t like, let alone 10.

But either way, that task is done and I’m happy for that!

I don't mind The Hunt, but I sincerely wish they could find a way to fit more fugitives in. Even if it meant a quick "BOLO" type profile when they came back from commercial, I'd be OK with that. More fugitives means a better likelihood of captures, so I'm all for finding space for more criminals to profile.

This one I know is good. Found out Norman Pineda, the break-four tease from November 16th, 2002 was captured in Guatemala in 2012.

patch.com/california/palmdesert/accused-rapist-of-dhs-woman-jailed