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Some children are scared of the boogeyman. Others are scared of the monster that lives under the bed or the ghost in the attic. As a child of the 1990s, I was scared of Robert Stack, the host of Unsolved Mysteries and the man who could somehow make a 1980s Ford commercial scary just with that voice…
To be fair, it wasn’t just Robert Stack—it was everything about Unsolved Mysteries, the show that was somehow horror without even trying. It was the opening music, the sound of which made my blood run cold, even if it was the middle of the day.
It was the way Robert Stack unsettlingly walked out of the fog in the alleyway, ready to tell another bone-chilling tale that would ensure that my light stayed on that night.
And of course, it was the realness of the stories—the murders and disappearances, but even the ones that seemed ridiculous, like the Men in Black and the chupacabra (that one fucked me up). Yes, the acting was terrible, and yes, the effects looked low-budget even by 1980s standards. But whether it was a kidnapping victim or a supposed UFO abductee, the show treated every case with the same level of seriousness. Robert Stack taught me that there was potential danger—worldly and maybe even otherworldly—lurking everywhere.
Above all else, though, there was the voice. The voice that made my hair stand on end, and the voice that narrated my nightmares. They tried to do Unsolved Mysteries with another host in the 2000s, but nobody could do what Robert Stack did with just his voice.
I haven’t given much thought to Robert Stack or to Unsolved Mysteries for, well, many years. Occasionally, I would be reminded of an episode I watched as a child and wonder where I could find the old episodes of the show. But surely, I thought, it wouldn’t be nearly as frightening as it was when I was a kid.
Then, I found them, all at once. Not long ago, all of the original Unsolved Mysteries seasons were uploaded to Amazon Prime in full. I was excited. Finally, I would get to relive my childhood and maybe just a bit of that terror I remembered. I pulled up a random episode. That original 1980s intro music started playing, and that was when I realized I needed to turn on the light. Robert Stack stepped onto the screen and opened his mouth to introduce the unsolved mystery, and that was when I realized I was probably going to be sleeping on the couch with every light in the apartment on.
Many of my old childhood fears have lost their power over the years. Ghosts and monsters waiting to snatch my feet under the bed don’t have any hold over me anymore. But Robert Stack continues to terrorize me, long after his death. And I have a feeling that, thanks to this diary I’m writing, he’ll be stepping out of that fog to greet me tonight.
Top Comments (March 16, 2018):
There were no Top Comments nominations tonight. :(
Top Mojo (March 15, 2018):
Top Mojo is courtesy of mik! Click here for more on how Top Mojo works.
Top Pictures (March 15, 2018):
Tonight’s photo quilt is courtesy of jotter!