The cameos

host. It was sensationalistic, it had low-budget aesthetic, and the dramatizations could be downright sleazy and laughable. But it was often a lot of fun.

After nine seasons on NBC, “Unsolved Mysteries” was canceled and picked up by CBS, which tried to resurrect the program with shortened seasons and, briefly, a co-host in Virginia Madsen. But it didn’t last. “Unsolved Mysteries” was claimed by Lifetime, which had already been airing reruns of the show, and Stack returned until prostate cancer sidelined him and the show again in 2002. (He died in 2003.)

In 2008, Spike TV launched the first real reboot of the show, but it merely repackaged old segments instead of producing new ones. Hosted by Dennis Farina, it often confused viewers by presenting cases that were no longer unsolved. It was canceled in 2010. had played Perry Mason and Stack had played Eliot Ness. These were famous crime solvers, further blurring the line between news and fiction in a way that continued on TV in the years to come.

As the show rose in popularity, the way television covered true crime changed. Viewers became amateur crime solvers as “Unsolved Mysteries” and its partner in prime-time crime, Fox’s “America’s Most Wanted,” became ratings hits. Episodes of “Unsolved Mysteries” encouraged viewers to send in tips, and it often worked — more than 260 cases resolved, or about 34%. Updates often offered de

A hallmark of “Unsolved Mysteries” became the re-creations of horrific crimes and unexplainable events. Most of the performances in these dramatizations wouldn’t make an actor’s highlight reel, but familiar faces pop up throughout the run of the series. Matthew McConaughey appeared in a Season 5 episode as the murder victim of Edward Bell, who was arrested with the help of viewer tips shortly after the episode aired. In the next season, the future “Hawaii Five-0” star Daniel Dae Kim appeared briefly as the brother-in-law of Su Ya Kim, whose murder remains unsolved.

A young Taran Killam (“Saturday Night Live”), Stack’s great-nephew, appeared in Season 7. And Jim Beaver (“Supernatural,” “Deadwood”) appeared as an expert on the history of the “Superman” star George Reeves, convincingly argu

NETFLIX The first episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” on Netflix looks at the circumstances surrounding the death of Rey Rivera, shown here with his wife, Allison.