Snapped Marks 20th Anniversary on Oxygen True Crime

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Hi, Snap listeners.

I'm Stephanie Gomolko with Oxygen.com.

We are bringing you a very special bonus episode today to mark the 20th anniversary of Snapped.

By the end of season 33, Snapped will have produced more than 646 episodes.

To commemorate the anniversary, we spoke with executive producer and showrunner Madeline Griffey and director of Recreations Dave Lane about the show's cultural impact and staying power with audiences over the years.

Plus, could you be part of a snapped recreation one day?

We'll tell you how.

Take a listen.

Tell me about the case that your team has selected for this anniversary special.

So the Cherie Miller case was originally a snapped season two case, and it's a wild story.

They call it the internet's first murder because this woman was in chat rooms in the 90s, like planning and scheming.

And this is a really unique case because since it aired on Snapped, her case has continued.

And

you get to see in this episode how the airing of the original episode has affected her life.

And there's, I don't want to give away too much because I want viewers to be able to experience it, but it's a really unique situation where the airing of the original Snapped episode affected this woman's life, and you get to see how things changed, and more has happened since then.

So, I think it's a really exciting revisit of one of Snapped's original cases.

For those who haven't watched the two-hour special yet, here's a quick sneak peek

in 2005.

A twisted case was featured on the second season of Snapped.

This was the first internet murder case.

Back in 1999, our department was in the infancy stage of learning about the internet.

This captured the nation's attention.

It begins with a mysterious shooting.

My brother-in-law is waiting on the floor and blood.

The money was missing.

His wallet was missing.

But the investigation unearths a sinister plot, orchestrated by a master manipulator using the internet to lure in victims.

The first chats that they had were pretty mundane, but they quickly turned sexual.

Her screen names included, just hot to see you, Horny7249,

it blindside of this, Markon.

Oh, where did this come from?

That was part of her game, playing on his emotions.

Now, nearly 20 years later, there is more to the fascinating story of the internet's first murder case, an investigation that helped usher in the modern age of true crime.

I watched a lot of snap.

There was something in her eyes.

I thought she was innocent.

Her conviction was appealed.

The court ruled she should get a new trial.

She had a bookline and sinker and she just kept on getting away with it.

She's diabetical.

She's probably the most evil person I ever met.

I saw some of the number breakdowns to just about snapped as we approached this 20th year anniversary, and it's more than 600 episodes.

So talk to me about that.

What is it like to reach that milestone for this show?

It really feels like an accomplishment, especially because like when Snapped started, true crime was not as much of a thing as it is today.

And so I think, you know, when Snapped first started, it was really unique.

There weren't as many competitors, but it was also

like, it was just a totally different landscape.

We are really just making sure that we're telling these stories the best way possible and that it's only improved over the years and that our viewership continues to be great and increase and that we have these really dedicated fans who have been with us for 20 years.

Let's talk about when it comes to the recreations and also just the process of pitch to screen for Snapped.

Where does the pitch process start?

And talk to me about the research that goes into an episode and then finally getting into the shooting of an episode yeah we have a whole team of really excellent excellent pre-production bookers and so they are we are constantly watching courts and just keeping an eye out on the news for anything that comes up and as soon as a woman's name comes up we flagged it and we are tracking it as it goes through the judicial process and generally we have to wait until a case is fully adjudicated because we want to make sure that our viewers really want to see the justice.

They want to see this full resolution of the case.

So we wait until it's fully adjudicated, but we're tracking it and we're gathering archives and keeping track of who the big voices are in cases from day one.

And then as soon as we can, our bookers make sure that we're getting the voices that we need to tell these stories and do these stories justice.

And so a lot of SNAPT is making sure that we are telling the victim's story, that this is, we're keeping in mind, this is someone's life and this has really affected everyone that is involved.

And so, we want to make sure we have the investigators who are walking us through their process.

We want to make sure we have the prosecutors who are talking us through the intricacies of the court case.

We need the victim's family to talk to us about how, like, who this person was and how this has affected so many people.

We need someone who can speak to the perk.

We want to know, like, what was the situation?

How did this arise?

What are her like quirks, her details?

How do we think this happened?

And so it's just really Snapped is,

I feel like there are a lot of true crime shows out there, but Snapped is really strong because we make sure we have all these firsthand voices who are walking us through and we are learning about the case with them through their eyes as it progresses.

And so I think that's what makes it such a cool and unique show.

It just continues from there.

So we get all of these voices on board.

And of course, we go to Oxygen and we are only presenting them the best cases that we can find.

It's tough because after 2020, there was a big delay and sort of cases going through the court process.

And so there are only so many cases that have the mystery that are intriguing enough to be a great episode of Snapped.

So we're only presenting the best possible cases and we share them with our wonderful network executives.

And we talk about like, hey, how can we best tell this story?

And from there, we involve our field producers, formerly like Dave lane who really dive into this story and we write an outline to make sure we're hitting all these points that we have to hit to make sure that we're really getting everything we need in the field they go in the field comes back we have script writers goes to the editors we have a full post team that's making sure we have all the photos any news

video anything that we can to make sure that we're really visually telling this compelling story as strongly as possible and then of course we have the recree teams and we shoot all of our we send our field producers out to where the crime happened, but all of our recreations are produced and shot here in Knoxville.

So we have a really strong group of people who make sure that we can visually tell a story that happened in Florida, but we're shooting in Knoxville, Tennessee, and trying to sell a lake beach as sunny Florida.

So we deal with all those challenges here, but we've got a really strong team.

And then it goes through the post process and gets delivered.

Our recreations department consists of it's a one-stop shop for all things reenactment and all things creative.

We have wardrobe designers, we have set designers,

we of course have photographers and assistant cameras, location scouts.

It runs the gamut on a lot of creative minds coming together to capture the essence of each story that we cover.

A big part of what we do is

trying to

match the visuals.

And that is everything down to the smallest detail that we can in terms of locations, in terms of matching the type of home

that the crime happened in.

If it was a mid-century modern home, we scour

Knoxville, Tennessee, where our company is based, and we find a slew of mid-century modern homes.

And, you know, we work with homeowners to get access to those homes to recreate those stories as best that we can.

And so, we want that to feel as seamless as possible while capturing the essence of the story.

You know, we've covered stories that run multiple decades.

We have a 15,000 square foot studio space that includes about 6,000 square feet dedicated to wardrobe and props.

And

so, wardrobe runs the gamut from the 1920s all the way to 2024.

And so depending on the age of the case, we can also

produce props and wardrobes and other set pieces, furniture pieces that fit that story as well.

It is to us all about doing the story justice and really capturing the essence of that story so that when

Not only viewers see Snapped,

as a field producer and a recreation director,

I do think about the individuals, the folks that we interview who are involved in the actual story, in the actual case as well.

One

standard that I like to try to adhere to is that would they be happy?

Would they be okay with the story that we have presented?

And, you know, so we want our actors to kind of resemble them.

We want the wardrobe to kind of resemble what they wear.

And so we think about those details and we really sweat, we really do sweat the small stuff because

I think that is what has led to Snapped being so trusted for as long as it has.

Had we not had that trust with the people that we interview in a lot of the stories like Snapped Behind Bars, where we revisit cases, we wouldn't have been welcomed back if we didn't have that trust.

I'm curious, what were some of the instances where it was like, we need this really specific, unique prop or room or murder weapon that your team just pulled off and found it and, you know, was able to source something.

We got a case and we were, you know, reading through and thinking ahead to what we're going to need for recreations.

And this woman was identified partially because someone spotted her pink,

bright pink Cadillac.

parked on the side of the road.

And we were like, this is, this is going to be impossible.

Like, how are we going to find this?

And somehow our team was able to track down someone who knew someone, who knew someone who had a bright pink antique Cadillac that worked perfectly for the shot.

And we were like beyond thrilled that we were able to make that happen.

For the, that was the share and her episode.

Wow.

I'm about to ask what episode was it so I can look out for the shots of that Cadillac.

If someone wanted to be in a recreation, you know, what is the process for you guys finding those actors?

We have a casting department and they will often put out casting calls on a Facebook page that we maintain, Jupiter Casting.

And

we will find talent.

You know, we've had talent from,

I mean,

probably most all states, we've had talent work with us, but we do see a lot of talent from,

you know, we're in the Southeast and so we pull from Charlotte, North Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia.

I've had talent travel from Texas.

It is such a legacy show and it has such reach.

You know, for anyone interested in being on Snapped,

we have

an email address, info at jupiter.com.

If anyone wanted to email, you know, a headshot to info at jupiterent.com, we'll always make considerations for anyone who wants to, you know, act in one of the shows for sure.

Over 600 episodes means that we have seen a lot of stories.

We have seen it all.

And like every

bizarre and unique case, it's like you never know what you're going to come up with.

And this season,

I mean, it still continues to surprise you, sort of how these stories can be so different.

And these just going on these journeys with these families and these investigators.

And like this season, we have a killer clown, you know, we have, there are just all of these things that come up that you never never think you're going to see.

And it continues to surprise you no matter how long you've done it.

So.

So would it be accurate to say season 33 still surprises snapped producers?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

100%.

And Stephanie, I remember being at the premiere for episode one.

We had a premiere party.

uh for episode one of snapped they were 30 minutes at that time we used a green screen background um the show looked a a lot different than it does now, and you know, we just kind of joked.

We're like, I wonder how long this one will be around.

And, um,

you know,

we had a lot of high hopes, but you know, we thought, man, if we get it, if we get a season or two out of this series, that's going to be awesome because we just didn't know how people were going to take it.

We're still talking about Snapped, and it's still like so present in our lives.

I mean, we, it has been something that we have lived and breathed for a lot of years.

And I don't know, honestly,

I really, if you sat anybody down who worked on that, who's worked on Snapped and said, did you think it would be around this long?

I don't know that anyone would have said, I was confident it would have, because

the television industry itself, the landscape of the television industry,

the landscape of how tastes change and

media changes,

Snapped has been able to navigate and survive all all that.

And I don't know that anybody ever saw that coming.

I really don't.

Head over to oxygen.com to learn more about the Cherie Miller case and watch the two-hour anniversary special.

You can always watch full episodes of Snapped on Demand on the free oxygen app or on Peacock by clicking the link in our description.

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