America's Most Wanted: How Television Catches Crooks

By Jack Breslin

Book Overview

Goes behind the scenes of America's Most Wanted, describing how a television programming decision became a crime-fighting phenomenon, involving millions of viewers in weekly manhunts.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061000256
• ISBN13: 9780061000256
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 396 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The story of AMW's roots and initial success

Although not quite up-to-date (this book was released in 1990), `America's Most Wanted: How TV Catches Crooks' gives the average AMW viewer an inside look at the various things that go into making an episode of Fox's legendary crime-busting show. Also discussed is the conception and creation of the show, which was originally a mere half-hour segment, rather than the full 60 minutes seen today. An interesting part of AMW's genesis was the search for a suitable host. One of the candidates was a certain New York prosecutor named Rudolph Giuliani. The Fox folks decided not to go with him, though, because they felt the future New York mayor's political ambitions would cause him to use the show merely as a stepping-stone to get into political office. It was a decision which, in hindsight (at least according to most New Yorkers) eventually turned out to be the right call.Then there's the most important part of putting an AMW segment together: selecting and producing the various criminal profiles that are submitted, as well as the process of casting for the re-enactments. Then there's the scouting of locations to shoot the scenes, as well as the host spots whenever Walsh goes on location. The book also goes into detail about some of their most notable captures in the series' first two seasons, including David James Roberts, the first capture the show was credited with, and John Emil List, who was caught almost 20 years after slaying his family. Although described in much more detail in `Tears of Rage', there's also a section that describes John Walsh's tragedy that led him to crusade for children's & victim's rights, and eventually end up as host of the show. Other bits include an appendix featuring the first 80-some-odd captures credited to AMW, and a brief interview with Walsh and the aforementioned Roberts.Although I found it to be a pretty easy read, this book's almost 400-page length took a while to get through. And even though it's dated by over a decade, it does give the reader a good idea of the genesis and history of AMW.`Late