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Post by pakman on Aug 23, 2022 12:52:49 GMT -5
Thanks for the uploads! Most of those are clips from the actual AMW's old YouTube channel. Around Season 23 they started uploading behind the scenes clips, hosted by AMW's publicist Avery Mann. That last full episode is the Dec. 19, 2009 episode.
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Post by pakman on Aug 21, 2022 23:23:34 GMT -5
Thank you so much for this! I think the Sept. 7 episode is actually from 1993. Robert Black was captured on Aug. 30, 1993, which would mean this episode aired eight days after the arrest.
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Post by pakman on Aug 15, 2022 12:07:01 GMT -5
Hazel Head is one of those fugitives who always baffled me as to how she stayed one step ahead of the law. I get that she was most likely hitching rides with truckers and staying ahead of the law that way, but it's still frustrating. From what I could tell, AMW got a bunch of good tips on her in 1999 when they first aired her, but those seemed to dwindle over the years.
Prior to AMW ending in 2012, she actually hadn't been profiled since early 2007 - and unlike her previous airings, this was actually a full profile (most of her profiles had been APB length). I always suspected they were giving her one final profile before moving on to other cases. It's kind of telling that they never profiled her in 2008, even though a ton of old cases were being profiled that year.
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Post by pakman on Aug 6, 2022 22:28:36 GMT -5
Ugh, I've been trying to resist getting Discovery+ but this might actually be the one that makes me finally bite the bullet. There's a show on Travel Channel called Destination Fear that I like and they have a movie exclusively on D+ that has been tempting me.
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Post by pakman on May 26, 2022 12:31:04 GMT -5
Another full episode of AMW has surfaced! This one is from 1995, and while there's no date listed, I believe it's the April 8, 1995 episode. (A previous summary of that episode described "Fishermen find woman's submerged body," which seems to be Daisy Jane Doe).
Interesting to note this episode has both a Final Justice segment (Joseph Harper, a former cop who pleaded guilty to setting off bombs but fled before sentencing) and a capture report (accused sex offender/killer Byron Johnson, not to be confused with the later capture Byron "BJ" Johnson).
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Post by pakman on May 23, 2022 21:27:40 GMT -5
^ Weber was one of the first cases I ever saw profiled on AMW, and it was a case I got really emotionally attached to (Kim Gautier's daughter was just a year older than me, which struck a cord with 13-year-old me). I remember being so excited when he got caught, and he was the first "live" capture I ever remember from the show (I visited amw.com for the first time shortly before his capture and kept going until I saw he'd been caught). I'd be curious to find out why, at only 48 years old, he died, but I can't say I'm at all saddened. Good riddance.
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Post by pakman on Apr 15, 2022 22:25:40 GMT -5
I remember back in 2004 or so there was a missing child case where the kid had been abducted by an older man she knew, but he was only 2-3 years older than her, and AMW didn't air the case because they didn't feel she was in any immediate danger. Sure enough she was recovered safe and sound with the guy. If AMW passed on a missing child case, then they would have no reason to air some of those caught on tape segments they aired in 2021.
Looking back, it's really clear that AMW was trying to emulate Live PD, but it just didn't work. On an unrelated note, allegedly CBS wanted to bring back William Shatner to do a reboot of Rescue 911 but he dropped out because the reboot was going to do the same thing; basically be live segments of emergencies going on at that moment. If a formula isn't broken, don't fix it.
One other thing that hasn't been mentioned but I think is a big deal; moving production from D.C. to L.A. To me, D.C. felt a little more...homey? I don't know what word I'm looking for, but L.A. is so much more flashy, and it just was a bad move, if you ask me. Logistically it made sense, but I wish they would have kept it in D.C.
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Post by pakman on Apr 15, 2022 11:15:21 GMT -5
But even so, I feel like the contract could have allowed for just a brief appearance for him to make that statement. He's not hosting the show, he's only appearing. Or surely they could have negotiated for just a brief appearance.
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Post by pakman on Apr 10, 2022 17:39:07 GMT -5
I said it before and I'll say it again - I wish they would have had John Walsh record a message that they played on that first episode. Surely everybody would have been fine with him doing that. Have him say something like this:
"Good evening. I'm John Walsh. For 25 years, we teamed up to put away more than 1,200 dangerous fugitives and bring home more than 50 missing children, all while fighting for victims' rights. We had a great partnership, and I am so proud of all the work that we did together. Now, America's Most Wanted is back, but unfortunately, I won't be able to join you this time around. But while I can't be with you, my good friend Elizabeth Vargas has stepped up to the plate and will be leading the new manhunt. I trust Elizabeth and know that she will do a fantastic job with the manhunt. I hope you all welcome Elizabeth with open arms. Thank you all so much for what you've done and what you will continue to do. And remember, you can make a difference."
I think that would have gone a really long way towards quieting the critics. And yes, it wouldn't have helped all the other issues with AMW (really bad writing, questionable reenactment choices, overloading the show with cold cases and, let's be frank, many caught on tape segments that really were not worthy of being on AMW in the first place) but at least the "Where's John Walsh?" crowd would either have been silenced or they wouldn't have been as loud.
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Post by pakman on Mar 30, 2022 10:56:03 GMT -5
Today is a very special day for me personally when it comes to my love of America's Most Wanted. Exactly 20 years ago on this date, March 30, 2002, I became a regular viewer* of America's Most Wanted when I caught the Strange But True special edition on that fateful Saturday night. I didn't intend to become a regular viewer, but the following week when I saw a preview for the Bad Girls edition, I couldn't not miss that! Then the following week's preview talked about a guy people were worried would become the next Timothy McVeigh (Stephen Anderson). And then the week after that previewed a church-going couple by day, killers by night (capture of Brenda Andrew & James Pavatt). By then, AMW had reached their 700th capture (Michael Bliss) and I wasn't going to stop watching anytime soon!
I've remained an AMW fan since, eventually tuning in to Final Justice reruns on the Reality TV channel, reading John Walsh's three books, literally rearranging my Saturday nights so that I'd never miss AMW (one night Hillary Clinton came to my college campus on a campaign stop and it ended mere moments before AMW began - I literally ran from the gym to my dorm room with seconds to spare before I hit record on my VCR and started, just cutting off the 30 second intro).
While later on in AMW's FOX run I wasn't as strict with catching episodes (there's more than one episode in my collection that has commercials recorded, something I normally didn't do, because I had plans I'd rather not miss) and one episode I skipped altogether on purpose, something I'd never done (it was the rerun of the Dale Helmig episode, where AMW was trying to get him out of prison), I still loved the show. Even with moments that make me scratch my head, I've always loved AMW. I even watched every Lifetime episode and tuned in for the short-lived reboot in 2021.
Some of my friends ask me why I started watching AMW at such a young age (I had just turned 13 and a half when I started). I was thinking about this recently, and I think the reason is because I felt like, to paraphrase John Walsh, I could make a difference. At the time, I was not going through a good time; my grades were bad, I was being bullied, at times I felt like I had no friends, parents were upset because my principal had come out as transgender, and this was also going on in the aftermath of 9/11. There were times I felt so lonely and hopeless, but I think AMW gave me hope. It made me feel like that, maybe, I could do something. I started keeping an eye out for these fugitives, and I took several cases to heart (notably, I was the same age as Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis when they were abducted, and to me, it felt like something happened to two of my friends; I was heartbroken when their bodies were found). I even created my own Dirty Dozen list! Heck, I joined this forum just so I could talk about AMW with people who understood me.
Also, I don't mean to sound like a hipster, but I think all of us can say we were into true crime before it became the cool thing to talk about.
Over the next year, I'll be celebrating AMW on my blog - I may share the link a bit later - with commemorative posts, reflections, lists of fugitives, and maybe even a few videos (if YouTube cooperates, at least). But for today, I celebrate being an AMW fan for 20 years!
* - while I became a regular viewer of AMW on this date 20 years ago, the Strange But True edition was not the first episode of AMW I ever watched. I'd previously seen two episodes at random; the Dec. 29, 2001 show and the March 16, 2002 episode.
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Post by pakman on Mar 16, 2022 23:43:31 GMT -5
Not surprised. I remember years back when I saw him profiled on 15 Seconds of Shame and they mentioned his kidney issues, my sister said, "He'll die if he doesn't get treatment." Unfortunate he can't be brought in but, again, not a surprising end to this story.
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Post by pakman on Mar 7, 2022 10:40:40 GMT -5
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Post by pakman on Feb 10, 2022 22:38:06 GMT -5
A hip-hop YouTube channel has uploaded the profile of Phillip Nutte, aka "Filthy Phil," AMW Capture #222.
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Post by pakman on Feb 10, 2022 19:00:35 GMT -5
I think there's a 7-day free trial, isn't there? I was going to go with that one.
EDIT: Ugh, nevermind, there isn't. I'll sign up for a month and just cancel as soon as I'm done. Assuming of course I don't get addicted to another show (which is highly likely, mind you).
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Post by pakman on Feb 10, 2022 17:03:30 GMT -5
Well, guess I'll have to sign up for it then. I have 16 episodes on my DVR as well as several others I've digitized, but there are some episodes HLN just doesn't air (I haven't seen the Donna Borup/Mario Lozano episode in years and I've yet to see the episode about the Yiyaras come up). Being captured has nothing to do with it because they've reaired many episodes with captured fugitives.
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