Post by Scumhunter on Feb 20, 2017 10:25:15 GMT -5
Perhaps the most frequent question I get as the admin of this forum from registered members and unregistered readers alike is how to obtain old episodes of America's Most Wanted (or on rare occasions old episodes or segments of other true crime shows). The short answer, I'm sorry to say, is you almost certainly WILL NOT be able to, or there is a 90 percent or even greater likelihood that whatever you are looking for you won't be able to obtain. Most likely, the only old AMW segments you will be able to find on the internet is whatever is already available on video sites like YouTube, Vimeo, etc... There a few general guesses of mine that I've surmised as far as reasons for lack of AMW's availability. One is that when AMW ran on Fox, it was as a breaking news crime show, cases expired or became outdated so there was no reason for them to plan for some sort of vhs/dvd compilation like with other tv shows Fox aired in the 80's-00's. The other is Fox's copyrights. Fox still owns the rights to the AMW name, logo, episodes etc... so if anyone were to release episodes or segments officially, they would need Fox's permission and would have to pay a hefty fee.
In my opinion, your best bet although it would still be a longshot would be looking up the AMW segments/episodes, etc... that have been uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo, or similar sites and contacting the users who uploaded those videos since they must have obtained them somehow.
With that being said, there have been so many e-mails or postings about episode requests, I decided I had no choice but to also make a sub-forum where people can post threads like "Looking for segment on..." or "looking for particular episode", so this way if there's a million to one shot someone has the answer you're looking for, they can message you and/or if somehow it gets posted on a site like YouTube in the future, a reply can be made (whenever that reply may be- days, months, or whenever from the time you posted- at least the million the one to shot miracle will have paid off). Anyways, here's some advice:
1. Keep in mind copyright laws. Selling episodes may be a no-no but someone sending you a personal VHS/DVD via mail or online and/or non-monetary trading of episodes or segments where you two would be the only ones to know about would probably be ok.
2. I would advise against posting your personal e-mail address or any personal information on this forum for the public to view, for obvious reasons. (I would probably delete any personal information anyway for obvious reasons). Wait for someone to reply publicly on the forum and/or private message you on the forum.
3. I would also try to verify the authenticity of the poster if they say they can help. Someone may join the forum and tell you they have the episode of the fugitive you're looking for, when really they're a relative or friend of the fugitive just trying to figure out why you're so interested. See if the user has posted elsewhere on the forum, or private message me (Scumhunter). Actually, I would private message me anyway before contacting the user so I can give advice on whether or not to trust them.
Anyway, I really hate to sound negative, but once again I stress, you will likely NOT be able to find what you have been looking for. However, at least there will be an official request on the forum should a miracle happen in the future. Also, please feel free to post about any other true crime show media requests as since AMW has been cancelled since 2012, this has evolved into a general fugitive/unsolved true crime on tv, streaming podcasts etc... fan forum.
EDIT: There seems to be a better chance although I can't promise for episodes from post-2000 epsiodes (DVD-era episodes) lately from what I see people uploading online, but pre-2000s episodes still seem pretty hard if not impossible to find.
Update: In January 2021, it was announced America's Most Wanted would be returning to Fox with Elizabeth Vargas as their new host. However, this doesn't take away that the original AMW on Fox segments or episodes with John Walsh are still very hard to find
Update #2: John Walsh will return to hosting AMW in January 2024, however once again this is about how hard it is to find episodes from his original pre-DVR and streaming era
In my opinion, your best bet although it would still be a longshot would be looking up the AMW segments/episodes, etc... that have been uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo, or similar sites and contacting the users who uploaded those videos since they must have obtained them somehow.
With that being said, there have been so many e-mails or postings about episode requests, I decided I had no choice but to also make a sub-forum where people can post threads like "Looking for segment on..." or "looking for particular episode", so this way if there's a million to one shot someone has the answer you're looking for, they can message you and/or if somehow it gets posted on a site like YouTube in the future, a reply can be made (whenever that reply may be- days, months, or whenever from the time you posted- at least the million the one to shot miracle will have paid off). Anyways, here's some advice:
1. Keep in mind copyright laws. Selling episodes may be a no-no but someone sending you a personal VHS/DVD via mail or online and/or non-monetary trading of episodes or segments where you two would be the only ones to know about would probably be ok.
2. I would advise against posting your personal e-mail address or any personal information on this forum for the public to view, for obvious reasons. (I would probably delete any personal information anyway for obvious reasons). Wait for someone to reply publicly on the forum and/or private message you on the forum.
3. I would also try to verify the authenticity of the poster if they say they can help. Someone may join the forum and tell you they have the episode of the fugitive you're looking for, when really they're a relative or friend of the fugitive just trying to figure out why you're so interested. See if the user has posted elsewhere on the forum, or private message me (Scumhunter). Actually, I would private message me anyway before contacting the user so I can give advice on whether or not to trust them.
Anyway, I really hate to sound negative, but once again I stress, you will likely NOT be able to find what you have been looking for. However, at least there will be an official request on the forum should a miracle happen in the future. Also, please feel free to post about any other true crime show media requests as since AMW has been cancelled since 2012, this has evolved into a general fugitive/unsolved true crime on tv, streaming podcasts etc... fan forum.
EDIT: There seems to be a better chance although I can't promise for episodes from post-2000 epsiodes (DVD-era episodes) lately from what I see people uploading online, but pre-2000s episodes still seem pretty hard if not impossible to find.
Update: In January 2021, it was announced America's Most Wanted would be returning to Fox with Elizabeth Vargas as their new host. However, this doesn't take away that the original AMW on Fox segments or episodes with John Walsh are still very hard to find
Update #2: John Walsh will return to hosting AMW in January 2024, however once again this is about how hard it is to find episodes from his original pre-DVR and streaming era