Victorino Matus, searcher
The Truth Is Out There Every now and then, when I pause to reflect on our ever-changing world, I wonder whatever happened to Big-foot. Weren't we supposed to have found him by now? A television...
...The burden will be on us to understand him...
...Meanwhile, actors are seen firing their rifles at dark, hairy beasts in the woods...
...But not every episode of in Search of...
...From 1976 to 1982, this pseudo-documentary examined the most pressing issues of the day: extraterrestrials, magic and witchcraft, myths and monsters, lost civilizations, and other strange phenomena...
...And long after each episode concluded, I would still be thinking about it: Did aliens really visit Peru thousands of years ago...
...Bigfoot may well be waiting for some sign that we're ready...
...Bigfoot is clearly waiting for in Search of...
...Later shows such as That's Incredible!, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and Unsolved Mysteries would tap into elements of in Search of . . . , such as the casting of quirky hosts like Jack Palance and Robert Stack, the use of vivid dramatizations, and the tackling of strange phenomena...
...I was both obsessed and terrified...
...My friend Pete, now a married lawyer with three kids, still remembers being gripped by the chilling words of Leonard Nimoy as he closed that segment: "If we assume Bigfoot is real and that men are closing in on this seemingly gentle monster, then we must prepare for that first meeting...
...Victorino Matus...
...before doing my homework...
...How will I sleep tonight after learning about the witches of Salem...
...It didn't help that my older sister would yell, "Close your eyes, it's the Amityville Horror...
...Another show speculated on the whereabouts of the "Angel of Death," Dr...
...now, 25 years later, on a computer, it is indeed hard to take most episodes seriously— with the obvious exception of the one about Bigfoot...
...The unsettling sound effects, the haunting music, the reenactments that never used the word "dramatization," and the deadly serious tone of the narrator, Mr...
...Some of them feel they must kill it to prove it exists...
...Coming home from school, I would fit in 30 minutes of in Search of...
...A movie of the Ami-tyville Horror was actually filmed in my hometown of Toms River, New Jersey...
...So maybe they weren't the most vital topics for a grownup...
...The Lutzes recounted how they attempted their own house blessing, which only made matters worse, strongly suggesting to me that these spirits did not like Catholics...
...Leonard Nimoy, all made for compelling television...
...Whenever my family drove past the set, I would stare at the house, thinking it was the real one...
...Then I went back...
...I remember one enlightening episode that dealt with cult leader Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre...
...I switched to Tom and Jerry until my heart rate calmed down...
...To have eluded us for so long, Bigfoot must understand men very well...
...The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily the only ones, to the mysteries we will examine...
...Watching some of the episodes now, you can't help but laugh: "Many people do not believe in Bigfoot, but a lot of people do," says Nimoy in his introduction...
...Watching in Search of...
...to come out on DVD...
...It was only a matter of time...
...Josef Mengele (the camera crew traveled to South America and was chased off private property), not to mention John the Baptist, Jack the Ripper, and the Abominable Snowman...
...Cue the opening credits, during which the catchy and keyboard-heavy theme song plays...
...When will the real Anastasia reclaim the Russian throne...
...Then this voiceover: "This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture...
...But for a nine-year-old, these issues were of utmost importance...
...One particularly creepy episode examined the Amityville Horror, a string of supernatural occurrences that beset the Lutz family after they moved into a house on Long Island where a mass murder had taken place...
...I finally had enough after one segment in which a clairvoyant began scrawling the name of a dead person, calling out each letter of the name, her eyes flickering...
...A television series from the late 1970s claimed that man's continual expansion into the wilderness would eventually bring us face to face with the one and only Sas-quatch...
...Until recently, I had forgotten most of the details, but thanks to the wonders of YouTube, I've been watching episodes of the most riveting show ever produced, in Search of...
...Which to me, at the time, basically meant: "Everything you see on this program is real...
...involved the paranormal...
...But none had the campy charm of the original, even if it did rely on "theory and conjecture...
...After blessing the house, a priest was said to have suffered the stigmata...
...If not, how else to explain those ancient Nazca drawings visible only from the air...
Vol. 13 • October 2007 • No. 4
