The Clemente brothers went from the FBI to Hollywood murder consultants.
Now theyre rebootingAmericas Most Wanted.
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Her sons had other ideas.
But they both agreed that catching bad guys seemed like a fun thing to do for a living.
Jim wanted to be a detective, Tim told me.
I wanted to be a cop.
The brothers eventually got their way, and by the 1990s, both were working as FBI agents.
Although their career paths were similar, their differences persisted.
The program debuted on Fox in 1988, the year of the Willie Horton ad and rising murder rates.
AlongsideCops,which premiered a year later,AMWbecame a staple of the brash new networks law-enforcement-themed Saturday-night lineup.
The message was clear:AMWwasnt just entertainment; it was a vital tool in the war against crime.
On the surface, 2021 is a volatile time to bring the show back.
Violent-crime rates are half of what they were whenAMWpremiered.
(Is that true?
I dont know how successful its going to be.
I remember going,This is it, Wade told me.
People were sort of catfishing them, pretending to date them and turning them in to the police.
I dont think were going to be usingthosekinds of tactics.
But it created a kind of community movement to solve crime, which is exactly what were aiming at.
Jims account of how he came to join the FBI, in particular, has a fated quality.
Jim reported OHara to the FBI-NYPD Joint Task Force on Sexual Exploitation of Children.
An agent came back to him with an unusual proposition.
On Halloween, Jim sat across from the man who had assaulted him, making small talk over beers.
Later that night, after removing the recording equipment, Jim ran to the bathroom to throw up.
He ultimately recorded hours of conversation with OHara evidence that contributed to his eventual sentencing on child-pornography charges.
Youd take me even though I was a victim?
He ended up working at the Bureau for the next 22 years.
A little bit of a maverick, kind of a rebel.
Jims past left him suspicious of powerful institutions and particularly sensitive to victims.
As a BAU agent, Jim investigated serial murders and abductions.
He also began to speak openly about his own experience of victimization, which his superiors didnt always appreciate.
The FBI didnt want me to talk about it, Jim told me.
They said I would look like a zealot.
Meanwhile, Tim, Jims younger brother, was also building a career in law enforcement.
Over the years, the brothers temperamental and ideological divide became more apparent.
We were both first responders on 9/11.
I became much more of a pacifist as a result of that.
I dont want to see any more death and destruction, Jim told me.
And Tim came away saying, We need to fight violence with overwhelming violence.
The brothers largely avoid talking about their contrasts.
Its almost like we dont even bother, Jim said.
They took him around, and he said, Isnt there anybody with a personality in the FBI?
So they called me, Jim said.
Patinkin, enthralled by his stories, convinced CBS to enlist Jim as a technical adviser.
Back in Quantico, he watched as his old cases were transformed into episodes.
I didnt realize I was giving away millions of dollars, Jim told me.
(Patinkin left the show after two seasons.
Audiences all over the world use this programming as their bedtime story.
This isnt what you’re gonna wanna be dreaming about.)
The FBIs support ofCriminal Mindswas nothing new.
Hollywood and law enforcement have long had a symbiotic relationship.
By the late 1990s, even the publicity-averse CIA had an official Hollywood liaison.
After a career in the field, he found creative work deeply satisfying (and significantly less traumatizing).
One evening,Jim entertained an acquaintance with some of his best FBI anecdotes.
The next day, the guy sent him a treatment for a show based on their conversation.
If he had assumed Jim would be flattered, he badly miscalculated.
In 2008, Jim and Tim founded XG Productions, as in ex-G-men, as in former federal agents.
(They hired their brother Peter as CEO in 2016.)
Not every venture has been a success.
The chance to work with XG reinvigorated him.
Almost three years ago, a delegation from XG went to Fox to pitch a fugitive-hunting show.
I left the room saying, I cant believe we gave them the idea, Bruce said.
They understand the machinations of crime fighting, Foxs Wade told me.
They know how to catch the bad guys.
(According to co-creator Stephen Chao, an early working title forAMWwasElectronic Lynching.)
Still, no one had any idea it would become a national phenomenon.
At the time, Fox was a fledgling connection with only two nights of programming per week.
The pilot ofAmericas Most Wantedwas shown on just seven stations.
It was also the most violent prime-time program of 1989, according to the National Coalition on Television Violence.
The series was known for staging re-creations of crimes, which blurred the line between fact and fiction.
Directors were encouraged to bring their own flair to the re-creations.
And thats how they caught him.
The animating spirit ofAMWwas its craggy, no-nonsense host, John Walsh.
Journalists couldnt call criminal defendants animals or inhuman monsters, but Walsh could.
They prioritized viscerally frightening crimes; bank robberies outranked embezzlements.
If a man brutalizes innocent children, that definitely adds points, Linder said at the time.
They also looked for victims whom viewers would find relatable and sympathetic.
How did it happen?
The show was based in Washington, D.C., so producers would have better access to federal law enforcement.
Soon, though, they bought into the crusade for justice.
Conveniently, ratings and justice aligned.
In 1996, Fox canceled the show.
When they brought the show back, they kind of took the gloves off John, Lerman said.
They said, We want the furious fugitive chaser, the furious father of a murdered child.
Allying with the police meantAMWregularly got the kind of access that traditional journalists wouldnt.
ItsAmericas Most Wanted.They knew we were there to help.
I asked him whether, in his career as a profiler, he had ever been wrong.
The pilot was finally slated to film later that week.
Its been a long time coming, Jim told me.
The pandemic had delayed production, and Floyds death caused complications of a different kind.
A&E stopped production onLive PD.
Cops,which had been on the air for 31 years, was canceled.
Even some members of the originalAMWproduction began to question their role.
To whatever degree anybody who worked in television helped perpetuate that that has to give you pause.
Not surprisingly, the brothers had different reactions to the nationwide protests against police brutality.
Tim and I viewed a live simulcast from a production-company office in Beverly Hills.
By this time, the mood of the country had shifted again.
Support for Black Lives Matter, which had surged over the summer, had retreated to its pre-June levels.
Fox hadnt fully committed to airing the reboot, but XG wasnt worried.
This is an opportunistic business.
Its not a political business, Bruce told me.
People are like, Hollywood is liberal no, no, no.
Im sorry Im smiling too much, Vargas said.
I shouldnt be smiling.
Hed be much more hardened, Jim said.
The second avatar, paunchier and with slicked-back hair, grimaced.
A third avatar popped up wearing a colorful, patterned shirt and tight white pants.
He could be living on her yacht in Jamaica.
Everybody wants to know about process now.
Back in the 90s, nobody cared about process, he said.
Producers have sought out a diverse group of fugitives, racially, geographically, and otherwise.
We have a number of women fugitives, and I think thats great, Vargas said.
The new incarnations creators are hoping its cases will go viral on social media.
The cancel culture that occurs now, we dont want to do that, he said.
But if its the wrong guy, youre going to clear that up very quickly.
Its apples and oranges, she said.
Were dealing more with the FBI and the U.S. We are dealing with cases that are a little bit further up the food chain.
This issue around Black Lives Matter and local jurisdictions isnt quite as applicable to the show.
Still,AMWhasnt changed its basic formula.
Aired between segments on international fugitives are snippets of security-camera footage of muggings and holdups.
You too could be a victim.
Keep an eye on your neighbors.
If something doesnt sit right, call the cops (or the show).
Maybe pastry chefs arent as violent, he said, but theyre not as exciting either.
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