JERRY SPRINGER’S FINAL THOUGHT
The godfather of trash TV turns to compost… Nowadays in America, hosts of mindless TV programmes turn their hand to politics, but Jerry Springer went in the opposite direction. Springer was born in England to Jewish parents who fled Nazi-occupied Poland, and the family relocated to New York City when he was four. JFK’s electrifying presence inspired the teenaged Springer to go into politics, and in his twenties he worked for RFK. After RFK’s assassination, he became a prominent perennial figure in Ohio politics, serving as mayor of Cincinnati for a year and unsuccessfully running for a House seat and the governorship.
Springer’s broadcasting career started with a laid-back, liberal bent, and his eponymous talk show was of a similar flavour. The show lagged in the ratings, and the man whose political career was briefly impeded by a prostitution scandal saw an untapped reservoir in sleaze to draw in the viewers. The show became a full circus with everyday people brawling over everything from adultery to racism. Chairs flew as if Bobby Knight were there, many a word was beeped, and Springer positioned himself as the voice of calm in the middle of the fracases.
It paid off in spades – the new, outrageous format became a ratings juggernaut, the ultimate guilty pleasure for many Americans, and the babysitter for many a sick millennial. He inspired contemporaries like Maury Povich to tack in a trashier direction to similar success, and pretty much birthed reality TV. He and his TV show guest starred on many popular programmes, including Married… with Children, Roseanne, The X-Files, and a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror where he gets killed by an alien Maggie in the trademark brawl. He also appeared on Dancing with the Stars and The Paul O’Grady Show, making this recent necrology a bit Kevin Bacon-y.
Uncharacteristically, Springer kept tight-lipped about a pancreatic cancer diagnosis that has led to his death, aged 79. What could’ve been a Drop 40 lock we were all quarreling over instead is only a deadpool pick by virtue of theme teams The Masked Dier and The Talking Dead. Till next time, take care of yourselves and each other.
Jerry Springer
13 February 1944 – 27 April 2023, aged 79
2 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 7 POINTS)