INTERVIEW: Investigation Discovery drills down to find stories of ‘Deadly Dentists’

The title of the newest series on Investigation Discovery is blunt and far from subtle, instantly grabbing the prospective viewer. Deadly Dentists is set to premiere Friday, Nov. 24 at 10 p.m., and as the name suggests, these dark tales uncover murderous stories involving dentists and the ones closest to them personally and professionally.

The premiere episode, dubbed “Local Fracture,” involves a small-town dentist who is mysteriously found dead. Another episode examines whether the wife of a dentist died by suicide or was killed.

At the center of the series — and many other shows on Investigation Discovery — is Tim Baney, executive producer for the network.

“In general, we get pitched things all the time,” Baney said in a recent phone interview. “Sometimes we develop ideas ourselves and send them out to producers to develop. … This is a space that we’ve wanted to do for a while. I’m pretty sure about that because anything that’s unsettling or frightening like the dentist is a great way to take a murder investigation and make it even more anxious and scary.”

The network asked the production company for three episodes (to air Nov. 24, Dec. 1 and Dec. 8) in order to see how this niche type of programming will play with audiences.

“We just wanted to do three because we knew we could be choosy about stories,” he said. “It can’t just be murder mysteries. We have to make sure our audience is emotionally involved in the story. Emotion is sort of the number one ingredient in these stories because these are true stories. These happened to real people, and we never forget that. So if you hear from somebody who is a survivor or somebody [who is] a sister of a victim or the victim’s daughter, that hooks our audience emotionally immediately. Then when you get to solving the murder mystery, the puzzle solving, it’s meaningful. It’s not just Murder on the Orient Express. It becomes something that really matters to our audience.”

Baney has been working in the realm of true crime on TV for more than 10 years, so he is not surprised by the success of Investigation Discovery, which has cornered the market on criminal justice programming.

“The thing about true crime is it works everywhere in the world,” he said. “There are murder mystery stories in every culture. Even countries that really don’t have very many murders can relate to true crime stories. It’s just something that travels everywhere. It’s important to everybody. It’s thou shalt not kill, and that rule is in effect in every society and every religion.”

To keep in touch with what fans want out of ID’s programming, Baney and his team often read what viewers are saying about the show. Besides the fan mail that comes in, he also checks out fan sites and social media. When he scans through the opinions, he realizes that ID audience members take the programs quite seriously.

“The main thing I hear about people who love a particular ID show isn’t ‘Te-he-he, that was titillating,'” he said. “It was, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve learned how to protect myself. Now I know what traits to look for.’ I mean, there’s a lot of takeaway from these in their own lives or people whose lives have been in some way impacted by murder. It’s much more serious than you might imagine from just saying it’s Deadly Dentists. It’s murders by or with dentists involved. That’s the way in, but once you’re in, it’s serious business.”

That “serious business” is what keeps ID successful and focused on the often vital information they provide to audience members. It’s also a response to the sometimes skeptical crowd who are turned off by true crime programming or series with names like Deadly Dentists.

Yes, it’s TV, but it’s thoroughly researched TV. Baney and his team, plus the producers on the show, are making sure everything is quality from a background perspective.

“The producers have to do their due diligence, but we have to backstop them,” he said. “One of the things I’m happiest about is how little complaint push back we get on our stories. The producers get thank you notes, and most of the people who participate in an ID show know what ID is. And if they don’t know, it’s very well explained to them. A lot of people find the process of being interviewed about a murder that happened in their life to be cathartic, and they find that we handle them very well because we hear all the time from people who are our viewers about what their takeaway is. And it’s almost always an emotional catharsis. … It’s just serious business, and the people who participate with us understand that. And the producers have a responsibility to make sure that all the factual i’s are dotted and t’s crossed.”

He added: “We have a first-class professional research department that talks to our audience and measures it all the time, but we also watch the Twitter feed while the show is on. I learn so much from that, of what surprises people or who can call it early. ‘Oh, I knew who did it’ — you don’t want that to happen too early, so you get instant feedback on how the audience is reacting in real time to the show. It’s great. It’s really, really helpful.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Deadly Dentists premieres Friday, Nov. 24 at 10 p.m. on Investigation Discovery. Click here for more information.