Forensic Files Season 4 Episode 12
Tinisha
Forensic Files, originally known as Medical Detectives, is an American documentary television program that reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and outbreaks of illness. The show was originally broadcast on TLC. It is narrated by Peter Thomas, produced by Medstar Television, and distributed by FilmRise, in association with truTV Original Productions. It broadcast 406 episodes from its debut on TLC in 1996 until its final episode in 2011. Reruns shown on HLN were initially retitled Mystery Detectives before settling on the main title of the show in 2014.
A version of the program was broadcast on Five in the United Kingdom, under the name Murder Detectives. Most of the 400 episodes are also available on the "Medical Detectives - Full Episodes" channel that is managed by distributor FilmRise.[1]
On October 1, 2019, HLN announced it had greenlit a revival of the show, titled Forensic Files II, which began airing on February 23, 2020.[2] Due to long-time narrator Peter Thomas' death, the show is narrated by Bill Camp.[3][4]
The show helped pioneer documentary-style crime-science shows. Its website says it profiles "puzzling, often baffling cases whose riddles are ultimately solved by forensic detection." The cases and people are real. Scientists and forensic experts in many fields are interviewed.
Not every case is a crime. In some cases, the investigation reveals that the suspects are innocent, and that a death was an accident or suicide. Several episodes profile people who have been jailed for or convicted of a crime and ultimately exonerated by forensic evidence. Other episodes focus on accidents where consulted experts relied on forensic evidence to explain why the incident occurred, such as the 1987 King's Cross fire and the 1993 Big Bayou Canot train wreck. Many of the accident investigation episodes were originally broadcast as a separate CourtTV program, Extreme Evidence, but are now rerun under the Forensic Files name and included in the Mystery Detectives rebranding.
Although Medical Detectives also showed episodes about how outbreaks of mysterious illnesses were tracked (such as Hantavirus and Legionellosis), most of them have been dropped in favor of episodes about criminal cases (and occasionally civil cases).
Not every episode of Forensic Files was narrated by Peter Thomas, a well-known voice-over talent. Four special hour-long episodes ("Payback", "Eight Men Out", "See No Evil", and "The Buddhist Monk Murders") were narrated by Peter Dean due to a scheduling conflict.[5] These episodes were originally broadcast on TLC in 2001 and all except for one ("Eight Men Out") aired for the first time on the HLN Network in 2016.[citation needed]
Each episode includes interviews with witnesses, investigators, and forensic scientists. Many of the world's foremost forensic analysts have appeared on the show (often in more than one episode), including Henry Lee, Cyril Wecht, William M. Bass, Alec Jeffreys, Skip Palenik, and Richard Souviron.[citation needed]
For the dramatic recreations, lookalike actors and models resembling the main figures in the story were found through a casting company in Allentown, Pennsylvania,[6] or through open casting calls in New York and other cities.
Forensic Files II is different in one respect: it does not show the faces of the people who are re-creating the situation. "We don't use dialogue in our recreations and [unlike the original series] we don't shoot faces, like lookalikes or actors," Executive Producer Duffy said.[7]
The program began on the TLC Network in April 1996 as Medical Detectives.[8] Old episodes of Medical Detectives now air on TruTV under the Forensic Files label. Overseas, the show airs under these two titles, and others, on various channels in over 100 countries. It is distributed by CABLEready.
For the first four seasons under the Medical Detectives name, the format of the show was generally the same as it would be in later seasons under its "Forensic Files" name, but there were slight differences. During the opening credits and after the title display of the show, the titles of the episodes appeared and they were each displayed distinctively. For example, "The Disappearance of Helle Crafts" depicted a jigsaw puzzle coming together that displayed a picture of Helle Crafts and this picture lead into the episode (under the Forensic Files name, this picture was replaced with another), and "Raw Terror" depicted the words in big red letters against a black screen. The titles were sometimes featured in a visual representation to accommodate the subject at hand. For example, "The Southside Strangler" depicted black and white buildings coming down the screen; the buildings were displayed there in order to represent the "southside" of wherever the crime happened in and Season 2's "The Common Thread" displayed the title through a use of small "thread" strands that dangled in full-view and formed the title. The re-enactment scenes for the first couple of seasons were displayed in black and white and an eerie music score with a tunnel-like echo voice was used in order to provide a more terrifying feel to the show.
When CourtTV acquired the rights to the show for its fifth season, the decision was made to rename the show Forensic Files in order to emphasize the forensic science that was performed on the cases and connect it better with other documentary/reenactment crime shows with a similar title such as The FBI Files and Cold Case Files. A new opening was produced for Seasons 5 and 6 (and a couple in Season 7) and it depicted footage from the first four seasons. The title display "Forensic Files" is depicted in big blue and red letters with a background light beaming across the "Forensic" part. This opening was later used for the Medical Detectives episodes, removing their original openings and distinctive title displays. 6 episodes (The Footpath Murders, Raw Terror, Deadly Neighborhoods, Sealed with a Kiss, Deadly Parasites, and Foreign Body) were never incorporated under the Forensic Files name due to CourtTV's desire to have the show focus on crime-related episodes instead of disease outbreaks or medical mysteries. Several others were also not brought over due to featuring extremely graphic crime scene photos. These episodes are unavailable on streaming or DVD, and can be seen via secondary copies online only under its original format when they were aired as Medical Detectives.
In Season 7, a new opening sequence was made with an entirely new theme song, providing a more tech-based feel and featuring a new title format. The titles of the episodes are quickly scanned underneath the title displays. No footage from actual episodes is used and everything displayed was made exclusively for the opening. This opening was used on a number of rebranded Medical Detectives episodes; replacing the opening for Seasons 5 and 6 that was originally given to them. Episodes such as "The Southside Strangler" and "Legionnaires' Disease" can be seen with all three openings. Season 7's "Reel Danger" can be seen with two.
By Season 12, starting with the twentieth episode, the opening sequence was shortened entirely and as a result, just the title of the show is featured and the title of the episode displayed beneath it. The episodes from here on out now had a faster-paced opening preview of the episode with upbeat music and Peter Thomas starting off saying "Up Next...".
On October 1, 2019, HLN announced it had acquired the broadcasting rights from Medstar Television to produce a revival of the series, with the first season consisting of 16 half-hour episodes. The new show is titled Forensic Files II,[2] and the first episode is scheduled to air on February 23, 2020, with Bill Camp serving as the new narrator.[3]
The show takes a "whodunit" approach, making each case a mystery that needs to be solved. Every half-hour episode follows one case from its initial investigation until the suspect(s) conviction, acquittal, or some other legal resolution. Pathologists, medical examiners, police officers, detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys, friends and families of victims or suspects (if their cooperation is given) are all interviewed about their roles.
For privacy considerations, the names of some victims and their families are changed, and case evidence featured within the show is re-created in order to protect their true identities. That is unless consent is given by the persons who are being spoken to, the show is not allowed to use the family's (or families') real name(s).
Sometimes, another case is mentioned which is similar to the one being aired. For example: "Cold Hearted" on "Freeze Framed" and "Past Lives" on "A Squire's Riches". In another episode that involves DNA evidence, the name of a man shown on an older episode was mentioned again and this time he was revealed to have been the first person put to death in the United States based on DNA evidence.
Premiering just as the O. J. Simpson murder trial had focused attention on the world of DNA and forensics, Medical Detectives became a hit.[10] It was one of the first of the popular forensic science shows. A few years later, Court TV acquired rights to broadcast the show and it quickly became the cornerstone of its primetime schedule, increasing its annual production run to 42 episodes. The show was retained after the network was renamed TruTV in 2008.
The show was so successful that, in 2002, NBC aired it as a summer replacement series, one of the first times in which a program produced for cable television was aired by a broadcast network in prime-time.[9][11]
The vast majority of the shows are in a half-hour format. However, some hour-long specials have been produced. Several of these have re-investigated famous cases such as The Norfolk Four, or even historic murders such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the John F. Kennedy assassination.[13]
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