Today I mourn the loss of a controversial yet extremely popular talk show host. Now if you're someone like me who grew up in the 90s to the mid 2010s, you may have tuned to Fox television and heard a very familiar chant:
JERRY JERRY JERRY JERRY!!!
This was the immortal chant of the lowest common denominator. People who find trash entertaining and to this humble musician, this was well worth the watch. Nowadays trashy talk shows are a dime a dozen, but back then this was one of a kind, often imitated but never duplicated. This show covered many topics ranging from sex scandals, politics and even had a hand at both glorifying and battling racism, as the KKK among many supremacy groups was one of Jerry's long time archenemies. To the point where a member on his death bed cussed him out on national television.
The formula goes as shown. Whatever the topic, Jerry interviews one person, they tell their side of the story in a calm, somewhat vulgar passion depending on the topic and story. Then Jerry brings out the other party in this story, whom often always comes out with more than just words:
Which often requires restraint by the security guards. Formally headed by Steve Wilkos, a former member of member of the Chicago Police department. Normally they do their job fine, hold the fighting parties back until they are calm and can resume the show, but as seen above, security isn't that lucky even with Steve on board. Other times if a fight gets extreme like say a husband threatening his wife, Steve or another security guard restrains them again with a not so subtle threat.
Afterwards the audience is asked to participate, mostly to tell people off:
Then after everything is dealt with Jerry ends the show with a final thought:
Which is often summing up the end of the topics at hand and concluding with his memorable catchphrase "Take care of yourself and each other."
The show became a surprise success with a wopping 27 seasons and was one of many to spearhead the trend of talkshow hosts from the 90s to the 2000s. Shows like The Maury Povich Show, Ricky Lake, Jenny Jones, Montel, Oprah (Who came before him) and Sally Jessey Raphael.
Some of these shows actually tried to jump into more serious topics, but got booted because they weren't out there like Jerry. Others have tried to mimic Jerry Springer's success, but they didn't have that touch. The fact that he managed to outdo them 5 years ago, when it cancelled, while others called it quits is an accomplishment on his own.
Eventually over t he years the show got retooled to the point where Steve Wilkos went from head of security to occasional guest host the show in his stead called Steve to The Rescue:
Which got so popular that it eventually became the Steve Wilkos Show:
Which much like the previous show does have fights, but unlike it, Steve takes the topics seriously and even introduced topics close to home such as domestic violence, rape and murder.
That said Jerry was more than just a trashy talk show host.
He was a political adviser to Robert F. Kennedy. Yes THE Robert Kennedy. That was in 1968.
Ran for Congress in 1970, but lost.
Was elected to the Cincinnati City Council, in 1971 and later became mayor of Cincinnati in 1975 and even tried to run for Governor of Ohio, before his political career was put on hold.
In his university, the Univeristy of Tulane in New Orleans Louisana, he was an ungraduated host for WTUL, then while he was still mayor, ran a segment called "The Springer Memorandum" on WEBN-FM. These moments alone back then became the precursor to a long and successful career later on. He later became a political reporter for NBC's affiliate WLWT, in which the origin of his catphrase "Take care of yourself and each other." came to fruition. Now this had a huge accomplishment, because that station was NBC's lowest rating and he brought in said ratings.
It wasn't until September of 1991 where we met the Jerry Springer many know and love. I was but a 5 month old baby at the time, but while I was dealing with baby crap that year and month, Jerry aired his first episode. Now before Jerry Springer became what we know as of now, it did start as a serious show:
No fights, no nude scenes, no overtly stimulated audience, not even need for security. It was a politically oriented Talk Show and as much as others prefer what came after, I believe this is the number one reason to respect Jerry regardless of how far below the show has gotten.
It wasn't until producer Richard Dominick, taking over from former producer Burt Dubrow, that the show got revamped to what we know and love/hate. So ya, if you want someone to really blame if you hate the show that much, blame that guy. Jerry may have continued without him, but it started with him.
Jerry also was one of the hosts for shows like America's Got Talent, replacing Regis Philbin at the time. As well as hosted other events such as Miss World, Miss Universe, WWE Raw and even live hosted an episode of the Price is Right:
Which Adam Sandler is lucky he didn't pick a fight with. If you think Bob Barker is bad, check out what Jerry did to Dr. Evil:
His last work before cancer got him in the end, was on Judge Jerry. Now Jerry has made it no secret, that he hates his old show, he hates his guests, he hates his audience despite the latter loving him so much. So the chance to do some serious television was something he was eager to do. Too bad it was around the time the TV Judge Craze was coming to an end:
Judge Jerry only lasted from 2019 to 2022. Being cancelled last month of last year. Which sucks because when Jerry tones down the comedy and this has happened on his own talk show two, he can get pretty scary when he gets serious.
In light of this specific person I shall not call this a conclusion, but a final thought:
Most people only judge what they see, because behind closed doors, people can be anybody. Case in point Donald Trump. People mock him, rightfully so, because all we have to go on is what he says on TV or on his twitter, yet for all we know, behind closed doors, the man could be a genius level supervillain, using public stupidity as his weapon.
In the case of Jerry Springer, a lot of us growing up watching the show sees nothing but sleaze and violence. But if you all took the time to look into this guy, both faults and all, you'd know he'd lead a very interesting life even well before he became the man we knew, loved and/or today.
Jerry, wherever you are, the world became more cynical without you and unlike that death bed ridden Klan fuck, I don't think I'll see you in Hell. I wish you nothing but the best in the next life.
As for the rest of you, as the man always said, take care of yourself and each other.