INTERVIEW: Meet the new voice of ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ the podcast
Image courtesy of Unsolved Mysteries the podcast / Provided by press agent with permission.
So many people have memories of watching Robert Stack host and narrate the beloved true crime series Unsolved Mysteries over its record-breaking run. Netflix has brought audience members new episodes of the iconic show, and now the these criminal tales have jumped mediums and are available in podcast form.
Unsolved Mysteries the podcast recently launched courtesy of Cadence13, co-creator Terry Dunn Meurer and new host Steve French. Each week listeners can tune in to hear the sordid, complex stories of criminality that are still “mysteries” to be solved. The hope is that the TV show and this podcast can shed new light on these cases and help the public somehow remember a clue, leading to a possible arrest or some type of closure for the families involved.
The podcast is certainly aided by its famous name, which should keep it near the top of the competition when it comes to binge-worthy true crime audio shows. It’s a crowded marketplace, for sure, but French has a distinctive voice and a dedication to getting these stories right.
“It’s a real thrill,” the voice actor said in a recent phone interview. “I believe it was September I got an audition, sort of like any other audition, that there was this Unsolved Mysteries podcast that was coming into the world, and they were looking for a narrator. And I instantly said, ‘Oh wow, that would be an amazing job.’ I did my audition and tried to forget it as much as I could. Then, a few weeks passed, I think, as they mulled over the auditions, and then I had a callback. Then a week or two later, I was talking with Terry Dunn Meurer, and I guess the job was mine. We started to work from there, so it’s been about since September. And we didn’t record our first episode until December, so it’s been a long gestation period for me and I’m sure even longer for everybody else.”
French received specific instructions on the exact type of voice they were looking for. Even in the initial audition, before they heard what he could do with his vocal talents, they told him they were hoping to find a voice with range that could work for different types of stories.
“Every episode isn’t a ghost story, or every episode isn’t about a grisly murder or something that happened,” French said. “So that was the biggest challenge was making sure that I could show them I could perform all of those different things. I think I had two or three scripts to read, a few paragraphs the first time around, and then the callback was even more — five, six or seven scripts of varying degrees that they wanted to look at. That was really from the get-go their most important thing.”
It has to be difficult to assume the narration role for an iconic cultural series like Unsolved Mysteries. Stack’s voice must ring in French’s ears, much like it rings in the ears of viewers who remember the show’s multi-decade run. French was aware of the need to make his contributions distinct, but he didn’t dwell on the history of the TV show too much.
“I’m not saying I’ve lost sleep over it, but can I say it keeps me up at night? Yeah,” he said. “Robert Stack is so iconic, right? All you have to do is say Unsolved Mysteries, and people know what they’re getting into. And I think they want that, so my hope is that we sort of honor the legacy of the show and perhaps bring it in a small way to a new generation. The Netflix show doesn’t have a narrator; it doesn’t have a host, so this really feels odd to me to refer to myself as the new voice of Unsolved Mysteries. But I guess in a lot of ways I am, and so my job is to really tell these stories, not to imitate Robert Stack, not to try to do what he did because nobody could do what he did. But, hopefully, I’ll show off a range and show that we really care about these people we’re telling these stories about. That’s my challenge, and I hope we’re successful.”
French counts himself as a true crime fan, and he has been one for a long time. In his own childhood, he was a fan of Unsolved Mysteries, a show that he called appointment television around the French household.
“I could still remember episodes from growing up and remember Robert Stack’s face and his voice and those eyes,” French said. “In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is one of the most extraordinary pieces of American literature that I’ve certainly ever read, so I’m definitely a fan. It’s tough to say you’re a fan because it’s often about such horrific tragedies, but I think what I love about it is the idea that somebody is passing along these stories and hopefully giving some hope to the families of the victims, or the people that knew the victims, or even the victims themselves, and the memories of those victims. That’s what I like about it, and I think there’s something extraordinary about Unsolved Mysteries itself and how long they’ve been doing this. … I’m really, really proud to be a small part of this new chapter with it.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Unsolved Mysteries the podcast, featuring the voice of Steve French, is now available. Click here for more information.
