14 "Dateline" Episodes That Feature Keith Morrison Being So Incredibly Keith Morrison
His lilting cadence, his majestic white bouffant, his poetic monologues, and his aggressively awkward interview questions... No disrespect to Josh Mankiewicz or Andrea Canning, but Keith Morrison is the best Dateline correspondent, and everybody knows it — not just Bill Hader.
So here are 14 moments of Keith Morrison doing the most. Now you don't have to go clicking through the 30 seasons to find the episodes he hosts. You are welcome.
(FYI, after researching and compiling this list, my inner monologue has full-on transformed to Keith Morrison's voice. I'm not mad about it.)
1."Kill Switch"
"Lucky is he, or she, who finds love. Happy, and lasting, and true. A love that deepens as it ages. Love that survives the unknown currents of the long life on the cold, deep void. But nothing lasts forever."
We’re starting off strong. No, I didn't get confused and post part of a Shakespearean soliloquy here. These aren't lines from Hamlet's descent into nihilism. This is all Keith, baby. (I've decided we're on a first-name basis.) He gets deep. Real deep. And this is just in the first two minutes of the episode. God, he's good. Also, this episode is crazy. It involves poisoning, drowning, and pseudocide (I just learned that word).
2."The Secret Keepers"
"Who in heaven's name was Sonya?"
Two classic Keith moves in one: the rhetorical question and the use of the word heaven for emphasis. "Thank heavens," "in heaven's name," "a marriage made in heaven." He mentions it like every episode. Do I need to present any further proof that Keith Morrison descended from the realm of the divine to grace us mortals with his gifts?
3."Strangers on a Train"
"What is it about trains? The ease there in that enclosed space of befriending perfect strangers. Somewhere along the line between a greeting and goodbye, Kate Waring’s invisible fate jumped its tracks, and quite unaware of the dark force descending, she disembarked to a future utterly changed."
Simple black-and-white text, mere binary code cannot do justice to Keith's drawling, melodic delivery in this goosebump-inspiring intro. Just go watch the episode.
4."The Disappearance of Debbie Hawk"
"You mean he would have gained nothing from getting rid of her at that stage? We also have that great, old American saying — if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. But you're saying it's a turkey!"
One of Keith's major strengths is his hard-hitting interview style. He doesn't let anyone pull the curtain over his eyes, no siree.
5."Crossing the Line"
This one needs a bit of dialogue to set it up. Keith is talking to attorneys after they filed a shocking lawsuit against a dead woman's family.
Keith: "But the optics were awful!"
Attorney: "The timing could have been better..."
Keith: Oh, you'd pick up the newspaper, you'd look at the blogs, you'd hear the radio, and what you got was those awful people."
Attorney: "Mm-hm."
Keith: "Those disgusting, terrible people!
LOL.
6."A Story of Poison"
"But it wasn't a dead animal. The leg that was sticking out of the ground was decidedly human."
Something about the way Keith says "decidedly human" in this episode about the murder of successful lawyer Larry McNabney just encompasses everything I love about him. It's classic Keith Morrison delivery and word choice. Look at the way he sets us up. A little at a time. Keeps us in suspense. He doesn't just say, "It was a human leg." No. He's no amateur. He is the greatest true crime storyteller of all time. I said it! Of all time!
7."The Night Before Christmas" Read by Keith Morrison
8."Into the Night"
"Outside, in the dark, watchful, waiting, hidden in its clever disguise, death cruised by looking for one of them at all around the peaceful town, tucked into sleep, no ghost, no soothsayer to warn them that evil had fooled their defenses and slipped inside to snatch its prey."
I mean, hello? Pure poetry. Lord Byron couldn't produce a more moving stanza. This episode features the tragic case of Kaylee Sawyer, who was murdered at 23 after a friend's bachelorette party.
9."The Waiting Car"
10."Tangled"
"Wait, WHAT?? Your mother...and Aaron's father??"
This moment in an episode about a woman murdered by her husband is so Keith. After his interviewee explains that her mother and her boyfriend's father eloped behind the families' backs, Keith reacts as though he genuinely has no clue he was about to hear this news. I mean...Keith, we...know you researched the case before you did the interview. But I love it because it's like he's right there on the ride with us.
11."The Black Candle Confession"
"Built like a sequoia with biceps..."
Keith coming in hot with the similes. Here's Keith describing big hunk of a bartender Corey Wieneke, whose brutal murder went unsolved for decades. A sad but fascinating episode involving a child witness who repressed her disturbing memories for most of her life.
12."While She Was Sleeping"
13."The Man Who Talked to Dogs"
"Big, big, big?"
And then there are these moments. Sometimes he's lyrical and flaunts his erudite vocabulary; other times, Keith interrupts the friends of murder victims to clarify that that big plastic-wrapped package they saw being heaved into a car was indeed big...like, "big, big, big." This episode covers the sad and bizarre murder of beloved dog trainer Mark Stover.
14."Suspicion in Silver City"
"Weird."
Yeah, that's it. Just, "weird." I love when Keith comments on the stories as he's telling them. It really makes me feel like we're both hearing it for the first time. Because even though he undoubtedly wrote, rehearsed, and recorded these lines dozens of times...giving him plenty of time to come up with more articulate reactions, he often opts for moments like this. Because YEAH, IT IS WEIRD. It is weird to find a locked house that's filling with running water. Check out this episode for some truly creepy true crime storytelling.
