''The FBI Files'' is an American television

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...

series that originally ran from 1998 to 2006 on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

and produced by New Dominion Pictures. The show was cancelled in 2006. However,

Court TV Mystery Ion Mystery (formerly Escape and Court TV Mystery, stylized as ESCAPE and MYSTERY; formerly branded on-air as Mystery) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. It focu ...

, Discovery, and its sister network, Investigation Discovery, aired re-runs until October 2012. Investigation Discovery only showed episodes from seasons 5,6, and 7. As of October 2012, the network now airs episodes from the earlier seasons (although not necessarily in chronological order), with updated information about the cases at the end of most episodes. Up to late September 2012, WE tv showed episodes from seasons 1-4, but the network had removed the episode introductions by Jim Kallstrom. In the UK on Quest Red, ''The FBI Files'' airs every weeknight. It has also been shown on TV Denmark, Discovery Australia, and Netflix in Canada. More recently, New Dominion Pictures made all episodes of ''The FBI Files'' available on YouTube.

Synopsis

The show described actual FBI cases, with dramatic reenactments and interviews with agents and forensic scientists who worked in the investigations. The show premiered on October 20, 1998, and 120 episodes were produced by Discovery Channel Producer Tom Golden before the final original episode shown on March 24, 2006. The series covered the

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

Polly Klaas Polly is a given name, most often feminine, which originated as a variant of Molly (a diminutive of Mary). Polly may also be a short form of names such as Polina, Polona, Paula or Paulina. People named or nicknamed Polly Female * Caresse Cros ...

, the investigation and conviction of

John Gotti John Joseph Gotti Jr.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26 (, ; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American gangster and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss ...

, the Unabomber case, the World Trade Center Bombing, the Sara Tokars murder case, the several prison escapes by

Christopher Jeburk Christopher Lawrence Jeburk is a convicted felon who successfully committed a string of bank robberies along the East Coast of the United States. He escaped four times from prison, twice from a regional detention center and twice while in federal ...

John Birges The Harvey's Resort Hotel bombing took place on August 26–27, 1980, when several men masquerading as photocopier deliverers planted an elaborately booby trapped bomb containing of dynamite at Harvey's Resort Hotel (now "Harveys") in Statelin ...

's biggest bomb in history (

Harvey's Casino Harveys Lake Tahoe is a hotel and casino located in Stateline, Nevada, Stateline, Nevada. It has 742 rooms and suites as well as six restaurants and a casino with of space. It also has a video arcade, wedding chapel, Swimming pool, pool, conventi ...

Stateline, Nevada Stateline is a census-designated place (CDP) on the southeastern shore of Lake Tahoe in Douglas County, Nevada, United States. It lies next to the California state line and City of South Lake Tahoe. The population was 842 at the 2010 census. ...

), and many other well-known and less well-known true crime stories. Unlike '' The New Detectives'', a somewhat similar true crime show, ''The FBI Files'' centers on murders,

narcotics The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...

, bank robberies,

s, etc., where the FBI is called in to assist police departments.

Hosts and narrators

James Kallstrom James Keith Kallstrom (May 6, 1943 – July 3, 2021), a.k.a. Jim Kallstrom, was an American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who served as assistant director in charge of its List of FBI field offices, field office in New York. He was ...

, a former head of the FBI's New York City office, hosted the show. Among other high-profile cases, he investigated the crash of TWA Flight 800. Allison Erkelens was head writer for the series' production company, New Dominion Pictures, from 2000 to 2005. Anthony Call, an actor known for roles on the daytime soap operas '' The Guiding Light'' and ''

One Life to Live ''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...

'', co-hosted/narrates all the United States episodes and some international ones.

Susan Rae Susan Scott Rae (born 2 June 1956)Jonathan Rhys-Evan"The Accent's on Success" ''Glasgow Herald'', 18 April 1984 is a Scottish newsreader and continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 Extra. Rae was born and raised in Dund ...

and Stephen Kemble were the narrators on several international versions of the show. Lucy Longhurst narrated the international version of the episodes "Murdering Cowboy" that was about the convicted felon Claude Dallas and "Deadly Paradise" about the "Sea Wind Murders" on Palmyra Atoll. Peter Dickson narrated season 2 of the international version of the show. Among those were the episodes "A Model Killer" that was about the slain serial killer

Christopher Wilder Christopher Bernard Wilder (March 13, 1945 – April 13, 1984), also known as the Beauty Queen Killer, was an Australian-American serial killer who abducted and raped at least twelve young women and girls, torturing some, and killing at ...

(aka- "The Beauty Queen Killer") and "Cat and Mouse" about the 1985 search for South Carolina's convicted serial killer

Larry Gene Bell Larry Gene Bell (October 30, 1949Shuler, Rita Y. (2007). ''Murder in the Midlands: Larry Gene Bell and the 28 Days of Terror That Shook South Carolina''. The History Press. . – October 4, 1996) was an American murderer and suspected serial ki ...

. Among those

did was "Dishonoured" about the 1989 disappearance of USMC Capt. Shirley Russell, and the joint FBI –

NIS Nis, Niš, NiS or NIS may refer to: Places * Niš, a city in Serbia * Nis, Iran, a village * Ness, Lewis ( gd, Nis, links=no), a village in the Outer Hebrides islands Businesses and organizations * Naftna Industrija Srbije, Petroleum Industry of ...

investigation of her husband, former USMC Capt. Robert Russell and "When Seconds Count" about when a 12-year-old girl was abducted from her home in Lodi, California. Among those Stephen Kemble did was "The Price of Greed" about the 1997 Los Angeles

Dunbar Armored robbery On September 12, 1997, six men robbed the Dunbar Armored facility on Mateo St. in Downtown Los Angeles, California of US$18.9 million (equivalent to $ million in ). The robbery was orchestrated by Allen Pace III, of Compton, with childhood fr ...

. Among those international versions Call did was "Omega 7" about the Omega 7 group and "Dangerous Cause" about the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña group. Ben Ando also did some voice overs in the UK.

Episodes

Home media

Timeless Media Group has released the first four seasons of ''The FBI Files'' on DVD in Region 1.

References

External links