Without a Trace | |
---|---|
Intertitle
|
|
Created by | Hank Steinberg |
Starring |
Anthony LaPaglia Poppy Montgomery Marianne Jean-Baptiste Enrique Murciano Eric Close Roselyn Sánchez |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of seasons | 7 |
No. of episodes | 160 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Location(s) | New York City, New York, U.S. |
Running time | 43 minutes |
Production company(s) |
Jerry Bruckheimer Television Grossman Productions Jumbolaya Productions CBS Productions (2002-2006) (seasons 1-4) CBS Paramount Network Television (2006-2009) (seasons 5-7) Warner Bros. Television |
Distributor | Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
Release | |
Original network | CBS |
Picture format |
480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
Original release | September 26, 2002 | – May 19, 2009
Without a Trace is an American police procedural television drama series that originally aired on CBS from September 26, 2002, to May 19, 2009. The series follows the cases of a Missing Persons Unit of the FBI in New York City.
On May 19, 2009, CBS announced the cancellation of the series after seven seasons.
Each episode typically followed the search for one individual under tight time constraints. The stories also focused on the personal lives of the team members and illustrated how their experiences gave them insight into cases.
The team consisted of Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia), Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery), Vivian Johnson (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano), Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close), and Elena Delgado (Roselyn Sánchez), the last of whom joined the cast in the fourth season.
The real FBI does investigate missing persons; specifically, they have the authority to help in any "mysterious" disappearances of children abducted by nonfamily members. The groups that investigate these crimes are called Child Abduction Rapid Deployment teams. They get involved in other missing persons cases as needed but do not have a dedicated unit.
One element that set the series apart from other TV police dramas was the display of information about real-life missing persons at the end of most episodes. This resulted in a kidnapped brother and sister being found on July 25, 2005. At least five people have been found as a result of those announcements. Occasionally, such information was replaced with other public-service announcements, such as an episode about an attempted suicide which presented information on a suicide help line. Showings outside the United States tend to omit missing persons information; however, Australia's Nine Network usually showed Australian cases, and in Hong Kong, the TVB Pearl showed information about local missing persons during the first two seasons.