We’re bringing in the professionals. Nancy Moscatiello and Scott Eldridge, veteran true crime television producers and hosts of The Slippery and Scamanda, join Live, Laugh, Larceny for a deep dive into the wild world of ’90s crime television, scams, investigations, and the stories that happened behind the scenes.
We skip the Dreadful Dilemmas and get straight into their careers working on iconic crime and reality television shows including Crime Watch Daily, Hard Copy, Real TV, and America’s Most Wanted.
First, Trevin puts their investigative memories to the test with Crime Academy Flashcards, an original game inspired by preschool flashcards. Each object or location sends Nancy and Scott into their archives, recalling bizarre investigations and revealing how crime television actually got made.
A flashcard about a restaurant brings up the infamous Sunset Boulevard Denny’s brawl and the hunt for restaurant surveillance footage. A question about disguises leads to stories about the techniques early news investigators used to get access and information. A Chicago diner sparks memories of Mari Yang during the investigation into the murder of Chicago Bears safety Shaun Gale.
Then the conversation gets stranger. A Patreon suggestion involving Ouija boards leads to the psychic scam known as the “Immaculate Deception,” while a flashcard about phones opens the door to wiretapping, the Andonian Brothers, and a California cartel known as The Mine.
We also explore the history of Hard Copy and the evolution of “caught on tape” television, including how early reality news programs helped create the found-footage and true-crime television formats that dominated the ’90s. Even Entertainment Tonight gets pulled into the story of how the genre evolved.
Other cases include Jose Lantigua, a Florida furniture store owner who faked his own death and claimed to have Mad Cow Disease, and the infamous Wendy’s finger-in-the-chili scandal involving Anna Ayala of San Jose. Nancy and Scott share behind-the-scenes knowledge about the case—including the strange petty crime committed after the original scandal.
And because no episode featuring The Slippery would be complete without talking about scams, Amanda goes one-on-one with Nancy and Scott for her burning questions about Scamanda.
We dig into Amanda Riley, the California blogger who falsely claimed to have Stage 3 Hodgkin lymphoma and collected more than $100,000 in fraudulent donations, as Nancy and Scott offer their perspective on the case, the deception, and the hit true-crime series Scamanda.
It’s ’90s crime TV, investigative journalism, scams, fraud, famous cases, behind-the-scenes television stories, and one very strange deck of flashcards.
Take a break from the heavy and get petty!
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If you have a crime you'd like to hear on our show OR have a personal petty story, email us at livelaughlarceny@gmail.com or send us a DM on any of our socials!
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