History Series / AmericasMostWanted

''America's Most Wanted'' was an American TV show produced by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox[='=]s syndication division, and is the longest-running program of any kind in the history of {{Fox}}.

''America's Most Wanted'' was an American TV show produced by TwentiethCenturyFox[='=]s syndication division, and is the longest-running program of any kind in the history of {{Fox}}.

* PaterFamilicide: John List murdered his entire family rather than admit to them that he lost his job and that the family was in dire financial trouble. He went into hiding and adopted an alias and remarried and would probably have gotten away with his crime if not for ''AMW'' doing a special on him. What helped matters considerably was the fact that the show chose to use the talents of the late Frank Bender, a forensic sculptor who created a bust of what List would've looked like at the time of the episode's airing. When compared to the real, then-contemporary List upon his capture, Bender's sculpture looked almost exactly like his subject-- right down to the style of glasses he wore. Bender studied personality profiles and pictures of List's aged parents in order to make the bust.

'''''America's Most Wanted''''' was an American TV show produced by TwentiethCenturyFox[='=]s syndication division, and is the longest-running program of any kind in the history of {{Fox}}.

Fox announced the cancellation of ''AMW'' again in 2011; instead of continuing the show as a weekly program -- citing rising unprofitability due to high production costs as the chief culprit behind the decision -- Fox replaced it in the following fall with repeats of other Fox shows such as ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''TheClevelandShow'', but still presented two-hour ''AMW'' specials every quarter up until April 2012. Creator/{{Lifetime}} ended up being the show's savior, with new weekly episodes appearing on the cable channel in the fall of 2012, but they too eventually cancelled the program and dropped it from itself schedule altogether.

Fox announced the cancellation of ''AMW'' again in 2011; instead of continuing the show as a weekly program -- citing rising unprofitability due to high production costs as the chief culprit behind the decision -- Fox replaced it in the following fall with repeats of other Fox shows such as ''FamilyGuy'' and ''TheClevelandShow'', but still presented two-hour ''AMW'' specials every quarter up until April 2012. Creator/{{Lifetime}} ended up being the show's savior, with new weekly episodes appearing on the cable channel in the fall of 2012, but they too eventually cancelled the program and dropped it from itself schedule altogether.

'''''America's Most Wanted''''' is an American TV show produced by TwentiethCenturyFox[='=]s syndication division, and is the longest-running program of any kind in the history of {{Fox}}.

The show's chief purpose is to assist law enforcement in the apprehension of fugitives wanted for major felonies (such as murder, rape, child molestation, white collar crime, armed robbery, gang violence and terrorism). Numerous fugitives profiled on the show are currently on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and ''AMW'' has a separate "Dirty Dozen" list on its web site outlining twelve notorious criminals still at large (some of whom are on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list). On May 2, 2008, the program's web site announced its 1,000th capture; to date, over 1,100 fugitives have been captured as a direct result of tips offered to the show's toll-free and anonymous tipline. Dramatic re-creations of the crimes committed are an important part of the show's arsenal, and the show itself works closely with law enforcement agencies worldwide to help catch fugitives.

* ButIPlayOneOnTV: Apparently a recurring problem is that tipsters will frequently call the police to report seeing the ''actors'' who do the reenactments instead of the actual crooks. Apparently a couple have had to have special cards assigned to show police because it happened so frequently.

* ChannelHop: Fox to Creator/{{Lifetime}}.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: ''Big time'', and screwed is actually putting it lightly. First, FOX canceled the series in 2011, citing various different reasons, ranging from the show being too expensive to produce, to low ratings (though it appears that after its cancelation, they just wanted to use the slot to air even more ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''); FOX continued with quarterly specials up till 2012, when the series was moved to Lifetime to resume broadcast. Lifetime aired the series for only one season from 2012 to 2013, and eventually axed it as well, because of the royalties they were having to pay FOX since they still own the copyright for the show and its related intellectual properties.
* ThrowItIn: Occasionally, they'll be stuck on a case and will have a wild idea they try that actually worked surprisingly well. In one case, they had a body with no obvious means of identifying him. One thing they noticed was that he had several distinct tattoos. So they painted replicas on a model (according to Walsh in a later interview, he was a dancer for Thunder Down Under) which led to a woman calling in and identifying him as her uncle.

* UnCanceled: Twice!

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: ''Big time'', and screwed is actually putting it lightly. First, FOX canceled the series in 2011, citing various different reasons, ranging from the show being too expensive to produce, to low ratings (though it appears that after its cancelation, they just wanted to use the slot to air even more ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''); FOX continued with quarterly specials up till 2012, when the series was moved to Lifetime to resume broadcast. Lifetime aired the series for only one season from 2012 to 2013, and eventually axed it as well, because of the royalties they were having to pay FOX since they still own the copyright for the show and it's related intellectual properties.

Later in 2013, Lifetime aired a one-shot special called ''John Walsh Investigates''. On July 13, 2014, John Walsh returned to television on a regular basis again with an all-new series on Creator/{{CNN}} entitled ''The Hunt with John Walsh'', which is more of an expansion of ''AMW'' in that the program doesn't just showcase wanted American criminals, but more emphasis on criminals all over the world.

Fox announced the cancellation of ''AMW'' again in 2011; instead of continuing the show as a weekly program -- citing rising unprofitability due to high production costs as the chief culprit behind the decision -- Fox replaced it in the following fall with repeats of other Fox shows such as ''FamilyGuy'' and ''TheClevelandShow'', but still presented two-hour ''AMW'' specials every quarter up until April 2012. Creator/{{Lifetime}} ended up being the show's savior, with new weekly episodes appearing on the cable channel in the fall of 2012, but they too eventually cancelled the program and dropped it from itself schedule altogether. Presently, however, Lifetime is supposedly working on an all-new series to be hosted by John Walsh, with a similar premise entitled, ''John Walsh Investigates''.

* CatchPhrase: "Remember, you can make a difference." And how true that is.

* ThrowItIn: Occasionally, they'll be stuck on a case and will have a wild idea they try that actually worked surprisingly well. In one case, they had a body with no obvious means of identifying him. One thing they noticed was that he had several distinct tattoos. So they painted replicas on a model (according to Walsh in a later interview, he was a dancer for Thunder Down Under,) which led to a woman calling in and identifying him as her uncle.

Fox announced the cancellation of ''AMW'' again in 2011; instead of continuing the show as a weekly program -- citing rising unprofitability due to high production costs as the chief culprit behind the decision -- Fox plans to replace it in the fall with repeats of other Fox shows, while still presenting two-hour ''AMW'' specials every quarter. Campaigns are already underway to convince Fox to change its mind, much like the last time they decided to cancel the show. Creator/{{Lifetime}} ended up being the show's savior, with new weekly episodes appearing on the cable channel.

Fox announced the cancellation of ''AMW'' again in 2011; instead of continuing the show as a weekly program -- citing rising unprofitability due to high production costs as the chief culprit behind the decision -- Fox plans to replace it in the fall with repeats of other Fox shows, while still presenting two-hour ''AMW'' specials every quarter. Campaigns are already underway to convince Fox to change its mind, much like the last time they decided to cancel the show. {{Lifetime}} ended up being the show's savior, with new weekly episodes appearing on the cable channel.

* ChannelHop: Fox to {{Lifetime}}.

* PaterFamilicide: John List murdered his entire family rather than admit to them that he lost his job and that the family was in dire financial trouble. He went into hiding and adopted an alias and remarried and would probably have gotten away with his crime if not for ''AMW'' doing a special on him. What helped matters considerably was the fact that the show chose to use the talents of the late Frank Bender, a forensic sculptor who created a bust of what List would've looked like at the time of the episode's airing. When compared to the real, then-contemporary List upon his capture, Bender's sculpture looked almost exactly like his subject.

* PaterFamilicide: John List murdered his entire family rather than admit to them that he lost his job and that the family was in dire financial trouble. He went into hiding and adopted an alias and remarried and would probably have gotten away with his crime if not for ''AMW'' doing a special on him.

* PhoneNumberJingle: Not really a jingle, but most anyone can recall 1-800-CRIME-TV as the show's call-in tip number. In the first few years "TV" was the year number until enterprising people got "CRIME-92", "CRIME-93", "CRIME-94", etc. (also, it made more sense to keep the same number no matter the year rather than force tippers to remember yet another new number at the turn of the new year).

* PhoneNumberJingle: Not really a jingle, but most anyone can recall 1-800-CRIME-TV as the show's call-in tip number. In the first few years "TV" was the year number until enterprising people got "CRIME-92", "CRIME-93", "CRIME-94" (also, it made more sense to keep the same number no matter the year).

''America's Most Wanted'' is an American TV show produced by TwentiethCenturyFox[='=]s syndication division, and is the longest-running program of any kind in the history of {{Fox}}.

The show's chief purpose is to assist law enforcement in the apprehension of fugitives wanted for major felonies (such as murder, rape, child molestation, white collar crime, armed robbery, gang violence and terrorism). Numerous fugitives profiled on the show are currently on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and ''AMW'' has a separate "Dirty Dozen" list on its Web site outlining twelve notorious criminals still at large (some of whom are on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list). On May 2nd 2008, the program's Web site announced its 1,000th capture; to date, over 1,100 fugitives have been captured as a direct result of tips offered to the show's toll-free and anonymous tipline. Dramatic re-creations of the crimes committed are an important part of the show's arsenal, and the show itself works closely with law enforcement agencies worldwide to help catch fugitives.

The concept for ''America's Most Wanted'' was adapted from the 1960s [[GermanMedia German show]] ''Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst'' (''File Number XY... Unsolved'') and the 1984 British show ''Crimewatch''. ''AMW's'' first episode aired in February 1988, and within four days of the broadcast, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives was captured as a direct result of a tip phoned in to the show; this capture helped to sell the show's premise of "Watch TV, Catch Criminals" to skeptical law enforcement officials.

After the pilot's premiere, Fox eventually hired John Walsh to host the program. Walsh became a public figure after his 6-year-old son, Adam Walsh, was kidnapped and murdered in 1981; John Walsh and others had successfully persuaded Congress to create the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Walsh has been the host of the show ever since, and has sometimes appeared at the arrests of high-profile fugitives who have been captured thanks to the program.

Fox announced the cancellation of ''AMW'' again in 2011; instead of continuing the show as a weekly program -- citing rising unprofitability due to high production costs as the chief culprit behind the decision -- Fox plans to replace it in the fall with repeats of other Fox shows, while still presenting two-hour ''AMW'' specials every quarter. Campaigns are already underway to convince Fox to change its mind, much like the last time they decided to cancel the show. {{Lifetime}} ended up being the show's savior, with new weekly episodes to appear on the cable channel starting December 2.

* CatchPhrase: Remember, you can make a difference. And how true that is.

''America's Most Wanted'' is an American TV show produced by [=~20th Century Fox~=]'s syndication division, and is the longest-running program of any kind in the history of {{Fox}}.

* UnCanceled