FOX cancels America's Most Wanted

[Max]

AMC & OLTL are not the only long-running shows that are being canceled this year: after 23 years on the air (and over 1,150 fugutive captures) FOX is pulling the plug on America's Most Wanted. As you would suspect, this decision is all about saving money, as AMW will be replaced by--of all things--reruns of other FOX programs. (Though, the fact that reruns will serve as AMW's replacement is hardly surprising when you consider that ABC, CBS, & NBC fill their Saturday Night line-ups exclusively with reruns.)

Personally, I feel that AMW's cancellation is a far bigger loss than any soap cancellation could ever be. For one thing, AMW never "jumped the shark" (or experienced any sort of decline in quality) the way every daytime soap has. Much more importantly, the loss of this program is such a blow because AMW is a national resource that crime victims can use when all other outlets have failed them. Some of AMW biggest accomplishments include capturing John List (a man who had murdered his entire family and had been on the run for 18 years), rescuing Elizabeth Smart, and capturing the BTK serial killer.

AMW was actually canceled once before, in 1996. However, due to massive protests from law enforcement and politicians, FOX "un-canceled" the show after about two months. (Because of this experience, I was very surprised that FOX would ever chose to axe AMW again. Besides, despite poor ratings, the Cops/AMW combo results in FOX still being the most-watched network on Saturday nights.) Unfortunately, the chances don't look good for such a scenario to be repeated; unlike in 1996, FOX will now anticipate a firestorm over the cancellation and yet will still decide to be firm when it comes to sticking to its guns.

As a "consolation," FOX has stated that AMW will still air four times a year. However, this concession really amounts to nothing more than bread crumbs given that the jobs AMW has set out to do--capturing fugutives and rescuing kidnapping victims--cannot be adquately performed by airing a television program only once every quarter.

[DRW50]

I used to watch this every week, along with shows like Rescue 911. I didn't know it was still on. I'm sorry that FOX is canceling it, as I can't imagine the show cost very much and was clearly a successful program against crime. And this at a time when so many states are firing cops.

[Scotty]

Awww...I remember Rescue 911 with William Shatner as host. I used to love that show, along with Unsolved Mysteries. Nothing more spooky to a kid than Robert Stack talking in a low voice while wearing a trench coat, standing in some dark, foggy location, while the show's eerie theme music played in the background....

[SFK]

I will really miss it and it is sad to lose a show that really tried to do a good service, and achieved that. Meanwhile, I am always disappointed when COPS and AMW are preempted for Nascar. I guess we will get something like Fringe reruns.

Personal story, I auditioned for an AMW reenactment once. Weird audition, in and out in and out the room, the director was all over the place. So much so that the casting director called me afterward to tell me that I did a nice job but this guy didn't know what the hell he was looking for.

[SFK]

I could not watch this show unless all the lights were on and my parents were wide awake watching TV in their room with the door open. The freaking teaser scared the living daylights out of me! I would sometimes flip past it during the day when it aired on Lifetime and I could not flip the channel fast enough.

[DRW50]

Unsolved Mysteries was a fascinating show. I wish it was still around - the reruns at least. They covered so much. They would go from a piece on the slaughter of horses, to the Mary Celeste, to poltergeists, to heartwarming stories like the elderly, poor couple who gave a homeless man their change and some lemonade, only for him to send them checks each year, to stuff that traumatized me like the couple who went to a hotel because of a want ad selling a computer, and the man who placed the ad beat them with a hammer, killing the wife. Needless to say I never bought a computer from a want ad after that.

My favorite part was always "Update..."

Robert Stack was just the right kind of cheesy.

I miss that type of TV. Now it's all swallowed up by cable channels and they are so faux-"hip" that it is unwatchable.

[Scotty]

Same here....I was same way while watching UFO shows as a kid too. lol

[Scotty]

I assume this is the clip you are referring to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR43KZI_Xq8&feature=related

[Cheap21]

Unsolved Mysteries scared the sh-t out of me as a kid! I used to love watching it though

[beebs]

JEEZ! Just found out the Jeremy guy in that clip supposedly died in '97 in a car crash in S. Africa. Apparently, according to that wiki entry, he got hit by an oncoming car. Driver fell asleep at the wheel.

[Eric83]

I love this show.

[DRW50]

That's creepy all around.

[lovely_m]

It still shows on Lifetime. I don't know if they're repeat or not. I'm assuming they are.

[DRW50]

Oh. I haven't watched Lifetime since they stopped showing The Nanny. Thanks.

[beebs]

Yea it's repeats. New eps stopped in 2005. I always assumed new episodes stopped earlier due to Robert Stack's death but once I turned on the TV and there was a new guy voicing it over. Was absolutely NOT the same without him