It is narrated by Peter Thomas, produced by Medstar Television, and distributed by FilmRise, in association with truTV Original Productions.

[1] On October 1, 2019, HLN announced it had greenlit a revival of the show, titled Forensic Files II, which began airing on February 23, 2020.

Other episodes focus on accidents where consulted experts relied on forensic evidence to explain why the incident occurred, such as the 1987 King's Cross fire and the 1993 Big Bayou Canot train wreck.

Many of the accident investigation episodes were originally broadcast as a separate CourtTV program, Extreme Evidence, but are now rerun under the Forensic Files name and included in the Mystery Detectives rebranding.

Four special hour-long episodes ("Payback", "Eight Men Out", "See No Evil", and "The Buddhist Monk Murders") were narrated by Peter Dean due to a scheduling conflict.

Many of the world's foremost forensic analysts have appeared on the show (often in more than one episode), including Henry Lee, Cyril Wecht, William M. Bass, Alec Jeffreys, Skip Palenik, and Richard Souviron.

For example, "The Southside Strangler" depicted black and white buildings coming down the screen; the buildings were displayed there in order to represent the "southside" of wherever the crime happened in and Season 2's "The Common Thread" displayed the title through a use of small "thread" strands that dangled in full-view and formed the title.

The re-enactment scenes for the first couple of seasons were displayed in black and white and an eerie music score with a tunnel-like echo voice was used in order to provide a more terrifying feel to the show.

6 episodes (The Footpath Murders, Raw Terror, Deadly Neighborhoods, Sealed with a Kiss, Deadly Parasites, and Foreign Body) were never incorporated under the Forensic Files name due to CourtTV's desire to have the show focus on crime-related episodes instead of disease outbreaks or medical mysteries.

These episodes are unavailable on streaming or DVD, and can be seen via secondary copies online only under its original format when they were aired as Medical Detectives.

In Season 7, a new opening sequence was made with an entirely new theme song, providing a more tech-based feel and featuring a new title format.

On October 1, 2019, HLN announced it had acquired the broadcasting rights from Medstar Television to produce a revival of the series, with the first season consisting of 16 half-hour episodes.

The new show is titled Forensic Files II,[2] and the first episode is scheduled to air on February 23, 2020, with Bill Camp serving as the new narrator.

Pathologists, medical examiners, police officers, detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys, friends and families of victims or suspects (if their cooperation is given) are all interviewed about their roles.

Video footage of the lab tests is shot in a modernistic film noir style, in dark, moodily lit settings with odd, glowing colors.

This technique would later be appropriated, in a modified form, by the CBS television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation—essentially a fictionalized big-budget version of Forensic Files.

During the original run of the show as Medical Detectives, eerie vocal music was matched with the recreations in order to create a frightening atmosphere.

For privacy considerations, the names of some victims and their families are changed, and case evidence featured within the show is re-created in order to protect their true identities.

Premiering just as the O. J. Simpson murder trial had focused attention on the world of DNA and forensics, Medical Detectives became a hit.

A few years later, Court TV acquired rights to broadcast the show and it quickly became the cornerstone of its primetime schedule, increasing its annual production run to 42 episodes.

[18] The reruns were repackaged with a shorter intro, and (at the end of some episodes) updates on what became of the suspect(s) or parties involved since the final verdicts.

[19] Reruns of the show also were formerly carried over-the-air on Court TV, sister channel Ion Mystery, AMGTV and currently on True Crime Network and in off-network syndication.

"[24] The Los Angeles Times gave this review in April 2001: "Although Forensic Files ably extends this specialized field to the masses and deploys its slick reenactments effectively, its jarring voice-over is the overcooked antithesis of the meticulous science it depicts.