NBC's limited series ‘The Thing About Pam’ has officially begun filming today (Sept. 30) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Scott Winant is directing the first two episodes of the NBC News Studios' drama about the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria.
The cast of the show includes Renée Zellweger as Pam Hupp, Gideon Adlon as Mariah Day, Josh Duhamel as Joel Schwartz, Sean Bridgers as Mark Hupp, Mac Brandt as Det. McCarrick, Judy Greer as Leah Askey, Glenn Fleshler as Russ Faria, Katy Mixon as Faria, and Suanne Spoke as Janet.
The six-episode series is based on the murder of Betsy Faria (Mixon), which ended in her husband Russ' conviction despite his insistence that he did not murder her. His conviction was later overturned. The heinous crime set in motion a series of events that would lead to the exposure of a nefarious conspiracy involving Pam Hupp (Zellweger). Hupp is currently serving a life sentence imprisoned at Chillicothe Correctional Center.
Faria had stage 4 cancer when she was murdered in December 2011 at her home. The murders of Betsy Faria and Louis Gumpenberger have received extensive media coverage, including extensive reporting from Fox 2 KTVI in St. Louis and five Dateline NBC episodes airing from 2014 to 2019. The case was also covered by the inaugural Dateline NBC true-crime podcast, which remains one of the most downloaded podcasts on iTunes.
The Thing About Pam is produced by Blumhouse Television, NBC News Studios, and Zellweger’s Big Picture Co.
The Thing About Pam is executive produced by Zellweger, Carmella Casinelli, Jeremy Gold, Jenny Klein (showrunner), Mary Margaret Kunze, Liz Cole, Chris McCumber, Noah Oppenheim, Jason Blum,and Jessika Borsiczky.
The murder of Betsy Faria is also getting a feature film adaptation in "Proof."