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WANTED!
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Though critics often lambast it for its low-rent reenactments and its certain inherent proletarian nature, I always thought that the long-running TV show “America’s Most Wanted” was an effective use of the television medium. If the role is—as the FCC has ruled—that broadcast television is to be used in the interest, convenience and necessity of the American public, what is a more appropriate way to use the medium than to get the bad guys (and girls) off the streets? “America’s Most Wanted” debuted over the Fox network in 1988. It attempted, via what we would now call “crowdsourcing,” to utilize the viewing public in hunting down and capturing real-life wanted criminals. From the day it started, the show was a hit and despite a few extended breaks and switches in networks, it has remained on the air. The first incarnation of the series would air, over Fox and then over Lifetime, from 1988 to 2012. After a period of time where it was dormant, the series was revived by Fox in 2021 and it continues on the air to this day. Since its inception, the program claims it has been directly responsible for the capture of almost 2,000 wanted criminals! If that is surprising, so is the fact that “America’s Most Wanted” (“AMW”) was not the first show of its kind to appear on television. In 1955, CBS aired the program “Wanted.” Like “AMW,” “Wanted’s” purpose was to publicize current criminal cases and enlist viewers in the hunt for these various “wanted” individuals. While “AMW” usually draws its cases from various local police departments, “Wanted’s” cases were drawn, instead, from the files of the FBI. Additionally, while “AMW” is known for its reenactments with actors playing the parts of the perpetrator, victim and witness, “Wanted” actually had the real-life parties (minus the perpetrator, of course) being interviewed about their experiences. Then, sometimes, members of the wanted criminal’s family appeared to “explain” details of the person-of-interest or even appeal to their loved-one(s), via the program, to give themselves up. “Wanted” was created and hosted by Walter McGraw. McGraw was born in Massachusetts and earned a degree in speech from Wayne University. He began his career in radio as a writer, director and producer. “Wanted” actually began on radio in 1950. It ran over the NBC network from July to September of 1950. Though it seems that producing a show such as this over the radio would be impossible, the program reported that, during its first eight weeks, it had successfully brought three different fugitives to justice. (In some parts of the country, area newspapers printed photographs—“mug shots”--within its pages that tied into that week’s broadcast which, no doubt, helped with the show’s success rate.) Before “Wanted,” for radio, McGraw and his wife, Peg (a frequent collaborator of his), produced other programs including the NBC radio show, “Phrase That Pays” and the “Robert Ripley Show,” the latter based on the famous “Believe It or Not” newspaper feature. In 1955, the McGraws brought “Wanted” to TV. The half-hour weekly program showcased one criminal case per week. During the run of the series, episodes focused on a variety of crimes and criminals. The show’s debut episode was about escaped mobster Frederick Tenuto. In November 1955, a “veteran safecracker” was being hunted; in December of 1955, a prolific armed robber was being pursued, and, in January of 1956, a Northern New Jersey attorney turned embezzler was profiled. The show was carried by CBS. McGraw, as he had on radio, acted as host. The show was sponsored by American Home Products. Since the term “reality TV” had not yet been coined, and since the show featured no performers, the newspapers of the era usually described the show as a “documentary series.” Some critics compared it to “Gang Busters,” the hard-hitting radio (and later TV) series that based its organized crime episodes on real-life cases but employed actors and scriptwriters. Others compared it to “Dragnet.” Though, there too, that program was dramatized and did not feature real people. When “Wanted” hit the airwaves, “Billboard” called the series a “winner.” The “Hollywood Reporter” liked the program, too, and wondered if it would usher in other documentary-like programs. “Variety” (who had previously liked the radio version) however was far less enthused. They found the program boring and questioned how effective it would be: what normal citizen would want to endanger themselves by acting as amateur sleuths just because a TV show asked them to? Negative reviews of the program were usually pinned on two factors about the series. One, that the program offered the viewer no real satisfying conclusion--just that these guys were wanted at the start of the episode, they were still wanted by the time the program ended. The second big criticism was that many of the real-life witnesses, family members and other interview subjects who appeared on the show, while sympathetic, honest and earnest, were seldom compelling on-air speakers. One newspaper also questioned the overall Constitutionality of the program: none of these wanted men had yet been tried or convicted of anything, hence, was this series jeopardizing a later fair trial? As mentioned, each week’s episode of “Wanted” focused on another “at large” criminal. For the series, though, being so “timely,” came with its own risks. Sometimes, just as work was winding up on an episode, word would get back that the fugitive they were to feature that week had just gotten caught! That meant that that installment had to be abandoned and all that time and effort was lost. Eventually, the producers of “Wanted” would always already have one episode “banked” in case it was needed at the last minute and they even took out insurance policies (with Lloyds of London for $30K an episode) to recoup their production costs should a show be rendered useless just days—or even hours—before its broadcast. Ten episodes of the series made it to air over the network before the program was pulled by CBS; its last network broadcast was in January of 1956. In November of 1956, “Billboard” reported that “Wanted” was moving into first-run syndication with 20 completed but so far unaired episodes. But, after that, “Wanted” was no more. Despite the end of his series, McGraw would stay busy. In 1956, he was said to be producing a new syndicated, fictional program, “New York Confidential.” In 1960, he worked on NBC’s “World Wide ‘60” program. In 1965, for Group W Radio, he narrated a program titled “The Addicted American.” That same year he was involved in a radio program titled “The Outskirts of Hope” and which dealt with poverty in America. At some point, Walter and Peg divorced. Mr. McGraw also began to dabble in matters of the metaphysical. His book “The World of the Paranormal” was published in 1969. He spent his final years working as a freelance writer. He died in 1978. Episodes of “Wanted” seem to be very rare, if any exist anymore at all. None of the major TV archives in the US—from the Library of Congress to UCLA to the Paley—seem to house any episodes. Yet, the lack of extant examples of the series does not undermine or erase the importance of it as this pioneering effort in true crime television and in the (video) pursuit of justice.
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