Bonus: Snapped Executive Producer Brian O’Conner

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Hey, it's Stephanie Gomolco with Oxygen.com.

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Hey, Snapped fans, this is John Thrasher from Oxygen's other true crime podcast, Martinis and Murder.

On my show, I recently had the chance to sit down and interview Brian O'Connor, a longtime executive producer on Snapped.

We thought the conversation was so interesting that we'd bring it to you here as a bonus episode on the Snapped podcast feed.

We hope you enjoy the conversation, and of course, don't forget that Snapp's 500th episode, that's right, 500, premieres this Sunday, November 22nd, as a special 90-minute episode only on oxygen.

Hey, everybody, it is Just John today on another shot, and we're doing a different episode this week.

In that I recently got the chance to sit down with Brian O'Connor.

He is an executive producer, he has many roles, but an executive producer on the OG true crime show, Snapped on Oxygen.

And it was such an honor and so much fun to chat with him.

So without further ado, let's get right into my interview with Brian.

As head writer, what exactly can you tell our listeners goes into sort of the decision-making process for an episode?

And has that changed over the years?

I mean, we're on what season now, 27 or 28 of Snapped?

2804 aired last Sunday.

Yeah, there you go.

So the 500th episode is 2808.

It's coming up pretty soon.

So the show has changed a lot in its 16 years.

When we started, it was always about, it always profiled cases of wealthy women, generally attractive.

That has changed a lot over the years.

We cover a lot more cases.

We're not limiting ourselves to one profile, if you will.

So now we have a full-time, we have a full-time group of researchers whose sole job is to look for cases.

Cases come from everywhere.

Totally.

We have a spreadsheet, an Excel spreadsheet, that is constantly moving up and down.

We have

I was sent a case just like a couple days ago from another producer of a woman who was arrested for allegedly poisoning her husband with mushrooms.

So

that was a new one.

I have not seen that before.

So these cases come from everywhere.

They come from the police officers, we interview.

But

generally speaking, we have about 200 potential episodes

at the beginning of any given season, and maybe 50 to 60 of those are actually produced.

The criteria is it always has to have a woman who is convicted of a crime.

You know, sometimes she works alone.

Sometimes she has a partner.

Sometimes she...

Exactly.

Sometimes she swings the axe.

Sometimes her buddy does.

So it really varies.

But there always needs to be a good mystery.

Everybody loves a good mystery.

Absolutely.

It goes back to like childhood, right?

I mean, like,

we're all been told stories, ghost stories, our whole lives.

So these are like modern ghost stories, if you will.

That's a really good way to put it.

And I love that you were just talking about getting suggestions because as a true crime podcaster myself,

we we are Darren, my co-host and I, who isn't on the show for today's interview, but we are inundated on a daily basis in our DMs and on our at mentions about people wanting to suggest cases to us.

We've spent time at CrimeCon where we're surrounded by, you know, not only just fans, but you know, victims' families and people who are out there trying to get some of these cold cases solved.

How do you handle getting those kind of suggestions?

Like, do you have a filter for kind of like what ends up on that big Excel sheet and what doesn't?

Like, how do you kind of handle all that?

Because I'm sure it's a lot of pressure, right?

Because we feel pressure on our end, at least.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, like you said, we're constantly getting somebody has always got a case that they're pitching to us.

You know, but again, there's, there is certain criteria.

So if you're,

if, well, if one, if you don't have a woman involved.

Well, there you go.

That's one way.

Yeah.

That's not going to work out.

You know, over the years, you know, audiences have changed a little bit.

I think there's an expectation to tell a good story and to tell a mystery.

And when you have a story where, you know,

where the wife picks up the phone, you know, in the 911 call and says, I just stabbed my husband.

Well,

it's going to be hard to fill out 43 minutes of telemyster.

That's interesting.

Are there many cases?

I mean, you just kind of alluded to this, so maybe this is a double question here, but are there cases that you've researched, maybe you've gotten all the way to maybe the production part of this and then realized, actually, you know, we put so much time into it, it, but it might not make out to be such a great episode.

How often does that happen, if ever?

It does happen.

It happens more than you think.

That's what I was wondering.

I was thinking that, actually.

Yeah, so

I'm part of a large team of people.

We meet every week and we talk about the status of the cases.

There's a pre-production meeting.

There's also a post-production meeting.

But we're constantly discussing these cases.

And again,

we have some Google Docs that we use where

we're constantly uploading like who's a yay or a nay.

You need to reach

these stories are so much better when you have the access of people from both sides of these cases.

I mean, if you're limited to one side, I don't think you're getting the full picture.

The same is true with police officers and defense attorneys.

So a lot of times stories will fail if

a lot of times people will say yes initially, and then they might have a change of heart.

Or somebody might get to them and be like, you know, I don't think it's such a good idea that you do this or, you know, for whatever reason.

You know, it could be.

Yeah.

I personally think, you know, once these shows are in motion, you get a much more well-rounded picture of what happened and who these people were when everybody participates.

Yeah, no, totally.

I mean, we've seen that on our end, I think, as well, in a lot of this stuff.

I wanted to ask you about True Crime Podcasts in particular because, like you said, how many years has it been?

16 years of Snapped?

Yeah, so Snapped first aired in 2004,

August 2004.

And

I was an associate producer.

I was a youngling, you know,

still getting my feet wet in the world of television.

But it's, yeah, so I worked on probably the first five or six seasons of the show, and some other projects came up.

But then season 22, and now we're in season 28.

So season 22, I came back to the show.

Got it.

And

yeah, I mean, it's been great.

That's amazing.

I mean, in 2004, when you started, I don't even think iTunes was a thing yet, and certainly not podcasts.

So now, here we are in 2020, true crime podcasts have become...

such a force in the true crime genre overall.

How do you feel about them as a visual storyteller yourself?

Because obviously they have they're contributing to, I guess you could say the rise in

interest in true crime as a whole.

I'm curious if you find them detrimental because you're like, no, you have to see the recreations.

You have to see the police footage.

How do you sort of see them fitting into what you do on a daily basis?

I think podcasts are amazing.

I listen to a lot of podcasts myself.

And you love martinis and murder, right?

Absolutely.

My favorite.

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So I think these

podcasts and television shows, they complement each other really well.

You know, I was thinking, I guess really the first true crime podcast I really listened to was serial.

So I think what I found so interesting about that show is

there's a certain non-linear storytelling taking place.

Right.

So that's a trend you see now in television, which I think is fascinating.

So as a storyteller, I'm always trying to find a new way to tell the same story.

Sure.

We might not always be the first person to have profiled this case.

Sure.

But there's always more than one way to skin a cat, like in terms of telling the story.

So I think that's what I find so fascinating about those podcasts in particular.

That's amazing.

And you have so much experience with storytelling, too.

You've interviewed people for Snapped from Prison, right?

Yeah.

You know, anytime that there's a potential of interviewing somebody in prison, we do it.

I mean, one of the first things we do is, you know,

you can't pick up a phone and call a person behind bars.

So you do it the old-fashioned way.

You just start, you write a letter, you explain what you're doing.

Oh, wow.

And yeah, I've had some pen pal relationships in the past with

some ladies behind bars.

Interesting.

Okay.

Yeah, but

it's fascinating to interview people behind bars.

I mean, I always go in there and I'm like, ah, I'm going to figure this out.

You know, like, I'm the armchair detective.

You know, did they do it or did they not do it?

Right, right.

You know, but the fact of the matter, it's hard to tell if somebody's telling the truth or not.

You can talk to investigators that have been doing this line of work for a long time.

They're like, there's always a tell, you know, but I have a hard time.

I guess I want to believe what people say naturally.

Sure.

You know, and I've found that talking to women behind bars or hit men or whoever,

they tend to be pretty open about their life and background and sort of the circumstances leading up to the crime.

You know, but when you get to the crime itself, you know, like they say, there's not a lot of guilty people in jail.

That's true.

They have a whole different maybe set set of interests, if you will, some conflicts of interest with what they're interested in behind bars versus what you're doing.

Why do you think?

Because you're talking about women and obviously, like, the true crime genre in general, but especially Snapped, is so female-based.

Like, our listeners or our viewers are overwhelmingly female.

Why do you feel that women love Snapped in particular so much?

Do you have an opinion on that?

I'm curious.

Well, as a guy,

I think there's a relatability, you know, that snap has.

I mean, a lot of times, I mean, I was thinking about this.

I mean,

the people we profile, I mean, they could be pushing a cart next to you in Costco.

You know, the next day they're swinging a bat, you know, at the back of their head.

Right, exactly.

Yeah, they could.

So there's a relatability to it.

Yeah.

You know, I don't know if it goes back to that sort of everybody likes a good

a good mystery.

You know, I think there's a curiosity about, you know, what made this person snap, if you will.

You know, what are they?

Yeah, right.

You know, there's always a motive.

I think that's,

I think people are curious why people do what they do.

I think there's also the sense, like, you know, am I capable of doing the same thing?

You know, if I, especially if I spend another three months in my house with my husband during the pandemic.

It's so funny, yeah, because you and I are storytellers of this genre, and I've had the same thing.

I'm like, sometimes it's people with all these crazy, disturbing childhoods that grow into these monsters.

But then it's also like the preacher next door who had an affair with the other guy's wife.

It's just like it really does run the gamut of it really could be anyone.

Maybe that's where a lot of the interest comes from.

It literally could.

I mean, there are people who are probably psychopaths, you know, who we have profiled.

And then there's people that just are like,

I'm tired of this pool.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

So it really does it literally is across the board.

Well, it could be me.

It It could be you, Brian.

You know, you just never really know.

That's right.

That's right.

Don't carry large insurance policies.

That's what I'd say.

Yeah, exactly.

This will be interesting evidence in a court of law one day.

Anyway, let me ask you this as we begin wrapping up today's episode.

And thank you so much again for joining us.

Why do you think Snapped in particular has stood the test of time over 500 plus episodes?

Because in television, not just in true crime, but especially television, not a lot of shows get to season 28 and counting.

So what do you think is the sort of recipe or the ingredient that makes it work so well?

That's an interesting question.

It's amazing.

I mean, when you look at how many shows have run 500 episodes.

Exactly.

I mean, like us and The Simpsons.

I don't know.

Maybe Saturday Night Live or something.

Yeah, exactly.

I think there's a timelessness to Snapped.

You know, I was thinking about it.

You know, we, so we produce the show primarily out of Knoxville, Tennessee.

You know, we're all southerners.

I think there's a, I like to think of comfort food.

You know, maybe snapped as a certain comfort foodness level to the series.

Yeah, I like that comfort foodness.

Got it.

Yeah, but it's, you know, the show,

you know, the show hasn't remained like static.

It's changed.

It's evolved over time.

So

we've evolved with the culture, you know, and sort of the cultural expectations of television.

You know, so I work with a lot of talented people.

You know, the series is always, we're always

looking for the, what's the best way to tell a story?

You know, what's the best equipment, the latest equipment?

I mean, the list is really endless, but I think, again, there's a there's a relatability about the show and curiosity that people are just kind of drawn to.

Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

I should ask my brother, he's the psychologist in the family.

So he could answer.

Just bring him in if you have him nearby.

Yeah, but I think you're so right.

And in fact, it kind of goes all the way up to kind of the celebrity angle as well.

So many famous people have gone on record about how much they love Snapped.

Who is someone as somebody so involved from the very beginnings of the show?

Who is someone you were excited to hear was a fan?

And I know you had recently said in another interview that's on oxygen.com that Modern Family did a whole episode about Snapped.

So, you know, they're very well aware of it.

But was there somebody who kind of stood out when you were like, oh, that's cool.

This person likes Snapped.

I like that.

Yeah,

two people.

So

the first person, of course, is Bill Hayter.

Of course.

When he said that, I was like, oh my God.

Everybody was sending that link around in the oxygen offices.

We were so excited about that.

Yeah, I mean, it's amazing.

And you watch Barry, and I think about that.

I'm like, did he get some of these ideas from Snapped?

I mean,

is he profiling the mind of a killer?

The other thing is, I guess it was last year

I got a text from my brother-in-law, and he's like, oh my gosh, have you heard this song that Cardi B and

Little Nath?

Little Nass?

Yeah.

I know rodeo, right?

Yeah, the song's rodeo, but it talks about, you know, Snap being my favorite show.

So, I mean, I was like, wow, the list is endless.

I mean, I get excited.

Like, a lot of times I'm working in a room by myself, and I'm like, you know,

I don't know what the audience thinks about this.

And then when you have some shout-outs from, you know, public figures like that, it's pretty cool.

Definitely.

I mean, what better way to show you're on the...

in the brim of pop culture than those two references, right?

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

You know, but even my aunt, you know,

she loves a good snap marathon.

So, you know, even that's

rewarding as a producer.

Celebs or your aunt, you know, whoever you can take.

It's always nice to hear that stuff.

Brian, thank you so much for taking the time.

By the way, we should mention Brian is on set right now filming some things for Snap's 500th episode.

We really appreciate you taking the time to chat with us.

And good luck.

Hopefully we'll get to maybe 500 more episodes in about, what, 16 more years?

We'll do this again.

How about that?

I'll have a a lot more gray hair than I imagine.

But yeah, thank you.

That was, that was a lot of fun.

Very, very good.

Thanks so much, Brian, and have a great day.

You too.

Thank you.

Well, I hope that you guys enjoyed this week's Another Shot.

That was such an interesting conversation with Brian.

It's so cool to have insight.

You know, even working at Oxygen myself, it's just interesting to hear how these people create true crime television.

And you don't really get to hear that too often.

So hopefully you loved it.

And don't forget to tune into Snapped on Sundays.

This Sunday, if you're listening to this episode, when it drops, is the 500th episode of Snapped, which is insane, if you ask me.

We'll be back this Saturday with a Halloween double feature and back next week with another shot with Darren.

See you guys then.

Bye.

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