Blumhouse Television Teams Up With NBC For True Crime Series “The Thing About Pam”

May 20, 2020

Written by Kelli Marchman McNeely

Kelli Marchman McNeely is the owner of HorrorFuel.com. She is an Executive Producer of "13 Slays Till Christmas" which is out on Digital and DVD and now streaming on Tubi. She has several other films in the works. Kelli is an animal lover and a true horror addict since the age of 9 when she saw Friday the 13th. Email: horrorfuelinfo@gmail.com

 

 

Blumhouse Television is teaming up with NBC New Studios on a new scripted true crime series titled “The Thing About Pam,” based on the notorious Pam Hupp case. It will mark the first project of the new partnership announced earlier this year.

Blumhouse Television, an independent studio, will develop and produce the series of new shows based on content featured from the series “Dateline.”

In 2011, Betsy Faria was stabbed 55 times. While he pleaded his innocence, Betsy’s husband Russ Faria was charged and sentenced for the crime in 2013, thanks in part to the testimony of Pamela Hupp. In 2015 he was exonerated after evidence surfaced that he had been set up by Happ. It seems Hupp had taken out a life insurance policy on Betsy in the amount of $150, 000. The case was covered by “Dateline” in five episodes, but the corruption doesn’t stop there. Hupp was investigated for her connection with her own mother’s death. And in 2016 she was charged with the murder of Louis Gumpenberger, a man who was left mentally handicapped after a car accident in 2005. Gumpenberger’s murder was an attempt to set him up for the murder of Mrs. Fara and to draw attention away from her with a staged robbery. Police found $900 and a list of instructions on how to get Faria’s money from Hupp in Gumpenberger’s pockets, but the man did not have the mental capacity to carry out such a crime. In the end, Hupp was sentenced to life without parole for his murder.

Dateline NBC” itself became a character in this saga, and, as the leading source on true-crime storytelling, covered it many times, dating back to 2014, and also created a podcast in 2019, The Thing About Pam, reported by Keith Morrison. It remains a top podcast in the iTunes store.

 

We have covered this story from all angles, including as an unwitting participant,” said Liz Cole, president of NBC News Studios and Executive Producer of Dateline. Having been at the forefront of the true-crime genre for so long, we know better than anyone that truth is often stranger than fiction, and with the twists and turns in this case, we saw a real opportunity to present it in a scripted format. We are so fortunate and pleased to be co-producing it with the brilliant storytellers at Blumhouse Television.”

 

We’ve delved into true crime before with unscripted. We’re not just looking for monsters under the bed, but also the things that keep us up at night so the chance to mine the incredibly rich trove of material from the Dateline archives to develop is a really unique and exciting opportunity for us.” said Marci Wiseman and Jeremy Gold co-presidents Blumhouse Television. “When we first came across The Thing About Pam, like thousands of others who’ve seen the Dateline episode and listened to the podcast, we were riveted. So when NBC presented this to us we jumped at making this our first scripted project with them.”     

 

Liz Cole will executive produce for NBC News Studios. Jason Blum, Marci Wiseman, Jeremy Gold will executive produce for Blumhouse Television. David Corvo is the senior executive producer of “Dateline”.

Check out the trailer for “The Thing About Pam.”

 

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