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Is Keith Morrison Cast As Narrator In ‘The Thing About Pam?’
Keith Morrison first reported on the case of Pamela Hupp in Dateline reports and a hit true crime podcast.
Keith Morrison, whose voice is synonymous with true crime for his legion of fans, weaves together NBC’s new drama with his iconic narration. The Dateline NBC correspondent is no stranger to the case.
“The Thing About Pam,” starring Academy Award winner Renée Zellweger, Judy Greer, Josh Duhamel, and Glenn Fleshler, is based on the murder of Betsy Faria and her husband Russ’ wrongful conviction. Dateline NBC covered the case extensively with several episodes on the true crime newsmagazine show and a six-part podcast downloaded more than 20 million times, both with Morrison at the helm.
Showrunner and executive producer of NBC’s limited series, Jenny Klein, spoke with Oxygen.com about collaborating with Morrison on the narration for the scripted show.
“It was a dream,” Klein said. “I am such a fan of Dateline and Keith is such an iconic voice and also he originally covered this case as a Dateline correspondent so we had an expert here and a wonderful resource.”
In the real case, Faria, who had terminal breast cancer, was stabbed to death her home in 2011. Her husband Russ was wrongly prosecuted and convicted for her murder. Prosecutors now believe Betsy’s friend, Pamela Hupp, killed her shortly after becoming the primary beneficiary on her life insurance policy, KSDK reports.
Hupp is portrayed by Zellweger on the scripted show.
“Writing this voiceover for our show, we wanted to tilt it a bit from the way it’s presented straightforward on Dateline, where he’s more of a philosophical-like omniscient narrator, where it lends a bit of a meta-aspect to our storytelling,” Klein said. “It’s familiar cause it’s from Dateline and ... his voice has a way, of bringing our viewer in closer to the story.”
Writing and collaborating on Morrison’s voiceover was one of Klein’s favorite parts of the show.
“He has a voice that you just can’t stop listening to,” Klein said. “If he wanted to tweak it, he was so respectful and would like ask, and ... it’s like of course, you’re Keith Morrison. No one knows how to speak Keith more than you so go for it and whenever he would change it, it was always an improvement.”
Hupp was charged with first-degree murder for Betsy’s murder in July 2021. She is already behind bars and serving a life sentence for the murder of Louis Gumpenberger. Investigators believe Hupp pretended to be a Dateline producer and fatally shot Gumpenberger in a plot to further implicate Russ Faria in Betsy’s murder, NBC News reported. Hupp pleaded not guilty in Faria’s case and maintains she’s innocent.
With a total of six episodes, “The Thing About Pam” airs Tuesdays on NBC at 10/9 central.
“The Thing About Pam” is produced by NBC News studios, Blumhouse Television, and Big Picture Co. Oxygen’s parent company is NBCUniversal.
