From the Reno Gazette Journal: There are stories behind those corpses — untold drama in the discovery of how the person met his or her end and the search for next-of-kin. For some, the name is the final mystery.
All of which prompted a cable television network to approach Coroner Michael Murphy to tell what his team of five medical examiners and 12 forensic technicians have learned about life and death in Sin City. The county recently inked a deal with Discovery Studios to make the medical examiner’s office the subject of a series of TV episodes.
Murphy said he hopes to teach people about dangerous lifestyles while also putting a name to an unidentified body or two to bring closure to families that don’t know what happened to missing loved one.
“The vast majority of people don’t die from violent acts,” Murphy said, putting diabetes, heart disease and prescription drug abuse atop the list of causes of death in this Nevada county home to almost 2 million residents and a neon-lit city that draws 40 million visitors a year.
“Hopefully it’ll be a good way for people to think about health risks,” he said. “We don’t want clients.”
Michael Masland, the Discovery Studios development official who worked for two years to reach a production deal with Murphy and Clark County, said he expects filming to begin soon and a pilot to air sometime in 2012, with at least several segments to follow.
“They know somebody’s life is going to be changed by what they find,” Masland said. “It’s real human drama. But it’s not reality television.”
The Clark County Commission unanimously approved the production deal in September with a promise that the county will get $5,000 per episode and Discovery Studios LLC of Silver Spring, Md., won’t show personally identifiable characteristics. Clark County officials get to see rough cuts before the shows air. http://www.rgj.com/article/20111029/NEWS07/111029005/Las-Vegas-coroner-inks-deal-Discovery-episodes-?odyssey=tabtopnewstextFRONTPAGE
$5000 per episode seems pretty low but then, I'm not sure what the going rate is for reality TV shows.
I know a lot of people love getting their 15 minutes of fame, especially in Las Vegas, but this is a show you probably don't want to appear on.
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