Debuting exclusively on Pluto TV on October 5, Unsolved Mysteries: Behind the Legacy is now available to watch on major streaming platforms. The documentary features interviews with the crew of the original 1987 show and highlights its most impactful cases. Including never-before-seen footage of the late Robert Stack, Behind the Legacy takes a look back at everything Unsolved Mysteries has achieved with the help of its loyal fan base.
Alongside John Cosgrove, Terry Dunn Meurer is the co-creator of Unsolved Mysteries. She serves as both the director and executive producer for Unsolved Mysteries: Behind the Legacy. Dunn Meurer has worked on several projects including titles such as The Family That Slays Together, Caffeine, and Buffalo Dreams.
Screen Rant exclusively interviewed Terry Dunn Meurer about the show’s longevity, host Robert Stack’s impact, and how fans have helped law enforcement close hundreds of cases.
Terry Dunn Meurer Talks Unsolved Mysteries: Behind the Legacy
Screen Rant: What was it like to bring the crew together and reflect on everything the team has accomplished?
Terry Dunn Meurer: It was really fun. I did the interviews with everyone. There are people I’ve known for 35 years, but I heard stories in those interviews that I had never heard before with all the questions that we asked. I wasn’t out on the sets on all the locations when John and I were in the office and steering the ship from there. It was really fun to talk to everyone and get everyone together. Over the years, we really created a family of people who worked on the show. There are so many people I wish we could have interviewed, but there are only so many you can include in the show like that.
Behind the Legacy mentions that Unsolved Mysteries was inspired by Missing: Have You Seen This Person? What initially led you to that project?
Terry Dunn Meurer: I had been producing documentaries for HBO’s America Undercover series. It was a documentary series back in the day. I did one about missing children kind of around the milk carton era. Then, I did one about missing adults. During the missing adults case, I actually found someone. This guy had set up his disappearance and had left his wife and moved to Florida. That special found someone, and everyone went, “Oh, maybe we can use the media to find missing people and solve these cases.”
So that led to Missing: Have You Seen This Person? We did three specials on NBC. Those specials found a couple of people, and then we said, “Let’s see if we can broaden it out to all different kinds of mystery.” We created a wheel of mysteries with everything—crime, ghosts, paranormal, science and medical stories—they took off from there. I think the variety of the mysteries is one of the things that’s made the show a success over the years.
The crew mentions that they were surprised by the longevity of the series. At what point when you were making this did you realize, “Wow this could go on for a really long time?“
Terry Dunn Meurer: I think toward the end of season 1 because we had started solving some cases. The numbers were good, and the ratings were good on NBC, and it just seemed to be picking up and gaining momentum. Back then, there were only four networks, and they were the broadcast networks, so you’ve got a much bigger share of the audience. Now the audience is so splintered between broadcast and cable and streaming that you don’t get that appointment television that we had back in the day. We were getting a very large share of the audience and word of mouth spread, and it became popular. We did season 1, and then we’d hope we’d get another season. We just kept solving cases. It was kind of surreal. When I look back on it, it just seems like one big adrenaline rush for 15 years of producing the series.
Technology has evolved since the show first started airing, but what are some of the biggest differences between the pilot and the episodes from the 2020s?
Terry Dunn Meurer: We didn’t have internet, so we couldn’t search the internet and find stories. We had to go off of cold calling police departments or viewer mail. People started submitting stories. That was a big one. Now, there’s social media and the viewers can talk about the stories. Back then, you watched it at, say, eight o’clock on Wednesday night, and you can talk to your family and talk to your co-workers the next day. It was a kind of water cooler conversation.
That’s changed quite a bit—just the way production is so much easier now. We have cell phones, and we have computers, and I remember being on location and going down to the hotel to the front desk and printing out the schedules for the next day shoot and slipping them under everyone’s door because all you had was paper. It’s really changed. When we started we were shooting film. We weren’t shooting tape. That was its own challenge.
What do you feel Robert Stack’s narration added to Unsolved Mysteries?
Terry Dunn Meurer: We think that the success of the show has to do so much with Bob and his gravitas and his credibility. He’s very, very believable, and he has that wonderful voice. So many people will say, “Oh, that music,” or “When I heard Bob Stack’s voice, I just ran and hid.” I think Bob had a lot to do with it. He was such a great guy to work with. He was with us for so many years on the series and just loved doing it.
Looking back, how does it feel to know that this show you created has helped solve so many cases, and still continues to do so to this day?
Terry Dunn Meurer: We’re so proud. I think proud is the best word that I can use. Even after all these years, we have a good reputation with law enforcement, and we’ve maintained that. I think that viewers look at us as a credible television program. I’m really proud of the way we work with people. Of course, I’m proud of the show, but I’m proud of the letters that we receive saying, “Thank you so much for doing our story,” or from law enforcement saying, “I was really nervous about doing this because you’re the media,” but then they’re very proud of it. I’m proud of the way we handled the show. I’m proud of all the people that worked on it and poured their hearts and souls into this series. And then, the success of the show and the solved cases, and bringing closure to so many families. I never had any idea that I’d be sitting here 35 years later talking to you about Unsolved Mysteries.
Do you have a ballpark figure of how many cases the show has helped close?
Terry Dunn Meurer: There are solvable cases, which are mostly the crime cases or the lost love cases. Some of the cases that we profile, like the ghosts and UFOs and paranormal cases, aren’t solvable. So of all the solvable cases, viewers have solved about 260. Most of those would be lost loves reuniting families and friends, which now, that’s another way technology has changed, because now people find each other on the internet. We wouldn’t have as many of those stories to do now. We didn’t solve all those cases. Some of them have been solved since we finished production on the series.
DNA didn’t exist. That’s another technology that didn’t exist back then. Now, so many cases are getting solved because of the DNA hit. But cases continue to get solved all the time. We profiled The Golden State Killer case years ago, and that recently got solved. It wasn’t the result of a tip of ours, although thousands of tips came in about that case, and law enforcement sorted through them. But cases get solved, not necessarily as a result of a tip from our show, but they still get solved, and that’s what’s most important. We don’t care if it’s one of our tips that solved a case, we just like to see the cases get solved.
Can you talk a bit about the passion you’ve seen from viewers and what their involvement has meant to you?
Terry Dunn Meurer: I think Unsolved Mysteries must have the best fans ever. They keep coming back and watching the shows. Every year, we add updates to the end of the stories because some of them have been solved, and they come back, and they want to know if there’s been an update on a case. Sometimes, if we don’t update it quite quickly enough, they’ll send us an email and say, “Hey, this case got solved. You need to update this.” It’s become multi-generational. People watched it with their grandparents or their parents. Now we see 20-year-olds who watch the old shows and who know the brand. It’s just amazing that it’s held up for literally decades. The viewers just keep coming back. The fans just keep coming back. It’s hard to find someone, when you mention Unsolved Mysteries, who hasn’t heard of the show. There are people who haven’t watched it, but they’ve heard of it.
How has it been watching Matthew McConaughey’s career growth since he first appeared in the series? Behind the Legacy mentions that McConaughey saw Unsolved Mysteries as his big break.
Terry Dunn Meurer: That’s been fun. When he makes a comment about having been on Unsolved Mysteries, we always get a kick out of that. It’s great. I don’t know that we launched his career, but if we helped in any way, that’s great. He’s a good guy.
How do you feel Unsolved Mysteries really helped shape the true crime genre into what it is today?
Terry Dunn Meurer: I think Unsolved was one of the first series to engage the audience in trying to help solve cases, as opposed to just telling the stories of the crime. We really engaged the audience—perhaps you can help solve a mystery, or maybe you know what happened—all those closing Bob Stack lines. So I really think we were the first to engage the audience. We think of ourselves as a mystery show more than a true crime show, I would say, because we profiled different kinds of mysteries.
I do feel that we’ve had an impact on crime-solving. Some fugitives have been found in different countries like American Samoa. There was one in Sweden that was found. Small towns have local Crime Stoppers. They put the fugitive’s case up or a case up that needs to be solved, but it’s only local. I think what we did is we expanded that to show that if a fugitive committed a crime in a small town, he might get caught in another state or another country. We caused a lot of people to look over their shoulder a little bit more.
Is there a case you have a particular emotional investment in that you’re still holding out hope will be solved?
Terry Dunn Meurer: There isn’t really one case. It would do a disservice to the other cases to single one out. I want all of the cases to get solved, and we get just as excited now as we did 20 years ago when a case gets solved. Natalee Holloway was in the news this morning. That’s a 20-year-old case. We didn’t do it on Unsolved, but that family needs closure. They need to know where her body is located. So even if it’s a case that we haven’t done, I want closure for all those cases and for all those families who don’t have the answers. Now, people who appeared on Unsolved, some of them are passing away, and they’re passing away without that closure that we had hoped we could provide. So there isn’t one. I guess the answer is that there isn’t one case. I just hope that all the cases can get solved, and DNA is helping a lot with that. Hopefully, more cases will continue to get solved.
What do you hope the show’s legacy will continue to be in years to come?
Terry Dunn Meurer: I hope that the fans will continue to watch and continue to engage, and maybe more cases can be solved. I hope that we can continue producing Unsolved Mysteries episodes. There are still, unfortunately, so many crimes that are committed, and so many mysteries that need to be solved, that there is a place for a show like ours that has the reach that it does to try and solve more cases. The more cases we can solve, the better that would be. That has always been the goal, and that continues to be the goal.
About Unsolved Mysteries: Behind the Legacy
“Unsolved Mysteries: Behind the Legacy” features original interviews with co-creators Terry Dunn Meurer and John Cosgrove, along with long-time producers, and directors of the show, pulling back the curtain and allowing fans to experience their favorite cases in a whole new light. The crew divulges behind-the-scenes stories and covers all aspects of the show from research and casting to solving mysteries soon after episodes aired.
With never-before-seen outtakes of beloved host Robert Stack and a look into some fan-favorite moments, “Unsolved Mysteries: Behind the Legacy” honors one of television’s most enduring and recognizable shows as well as the fans who were integral to its success.
Unsolved Mysteries: Behind the Legacy is currently available to watch on Amazon Freevee, Tubi, The Roku Channel, and other major streaming platforms.
