I have a confession to make. Even though I'm the kind of guy who likes high art stuff like August Wilson plays, and classic cinema, I also really love talk shows. The trashier, the better.
So, my whole mood nosedived when I heard the news that the talk show legend, Jerry Springer, recently passed away. Because, even though I've spent a lot of my life loving the talk show medium, both late night and day time, The Jerry Springer Show was always my favorite, and I have five reasons why. Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
Everybody I Knew Watched Jerry Springer, So We Always Talked About Our Favorite Episodes
As I mentioned in the intro, I've spent a lot of time watching talk shows. And, as a '90s kid, a lot of that time was watching the likes of Ricki Lake, Richard Bey, Jenny Jones, etc. But, while some of my back-in-the-day friends watched Jones and others, ALL of my friends watched Jerry Springer. And, how could we not?
The Jerry Springer Show was a three ring circus. So-in-so slept with so-in-so's man, and guess what. She's backstage!
Back in school, my friends and I would talk endlessly about certain episodes, especially the ones with love triangles that involved sisters sharing one man, or the episodes where girlfriends would reveal that they were secretly strippers, and would then flash the crowd while going, “Whooooo!”
Should we have been watching any of this at such young, impressionable ages? Probably not. But, we also probably shouldn't have been watching the Attitude Era, and we all did. The point is, everybody I knew watched Jerry, and that's why it was so special. It was a communal thing.
It Was Never Boring
Nowadays, I can respect shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, or The Phil Donahue Show for their choices to take the high road rather than to roll around in the dirt with their tabloid cousins. But, back then, when all I wanted to see was women take off their earrings before they got ready to rumble, I wasn’t watching any of that “garbage” like Donahue, since it was boring, and The Jerry Springer Show was anything but boring.
In fact, I would literally throw a bag of popcorn in the microwave during commercial breaks, only to return with a Surge and a piping hot bag of buttery goodness when the commercials ended. Because, like I said before, his show was a circus, and I was always immensely entertained.
The best part of this, though, was always the juxtaposition of Springer to the madness, as he was either feigning equanimity, or was secretly a Zen master, because he would often just stand there while his security crew would break up the chaos right in front of him. I swear, I’m kicking myself now. I was in Chicago one summer for a journalism fellowship, and I should have gotten tickets for the show when it was still there. But, oh well. I guess I’ll always have reruns.
It Was A Regular "Sick From School" Program
A lot of times, when I was “sick” and couldn’t go to school, I’d have movie marathons where I’d watch Indiana Jones flicks like Raiders, The Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade, or so-bad-they’re-good movies like Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter. But, in-between those movie marathons, I’d also find the time to watch Jerry, since it always just fit in so perfectly with my day playing hooky, er, I mean, my sick day.
The nagging thing about talk shows, especially when I was a kid, was that they were typically on WHILE you were at school (so annoying). Sure, I could watch talk shows all day – and often did – during the summer, in between gaming sessions of Star Fox 64 and Body Harvest. But, it just felt so much better watching the show while my friends were toiling away on some essay at school. Ah, memories.
Jerry Actually Had Earnest And Important Life Lessons At The End In His Final Thoughts Segment
In all seriousness, even though we all came for the brawls, bastard husbands, and baby mamas, I think what I might have loved most of all about The Jerry Springer Show was that it didn’t just end in some explosion of fists and feet, but rather, on a quiet note, as Jerry would always go over the madness we had all just seen, and then discuss why we should all still just get along.
Yes, it was always a bit comical at the end of each episode, because, like, you know, he didn’t HAVE to have such guests on his show. But, at the same time, his final thought was always earnest, and you never got a sense that he was actually making fun of his guests. You definitely get a sense of this when Springer gave a Final Thought after being on the air for 25 seasons of his show.
Honestly, when I think back to his talk show from now on, it’s not going to be the fights that I remember most, but rather, Jerry’s Final Thought, which brings me to my last point about why Jerry was, and likely always will be, my favorite talk show.
Jerry Just Seemed Like A Really Nice And Caring Guy
Sure, I know everybody likes to mimic Oprah and go, “You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! You get a car!” and so on. But, while I’m sure Oprah is probably a really caring and empathetic person, she’s always just kind of felt a little fake to me. I know, I know. Heresy, right? How DARE I criticize Oprah? That said, I think my assumption about Oprah says a lot more about me than it ever could about her. Again, I never really gave Oprah a shot, because like I said earlier, her show always looked really boring to me when I was younger.
But, I did watch Jerry Springer, and even though his show was insane, I also think that the man himself was always genuine and had his heart in the right place. Studies once came out that showed that many people considered The Jerry Springer Show one of the most offensive TV shows of all time, and yeah, I get that. At the same time, though, I kind of feel like that perspective came from people who weren’t regular watchers of his show and just saw the fights and heard all of the bleeped cursing. Because at its heart, The Jerry Springer Show was a show about people, and he seemed like somebody who just wanted to give said people a voice.
Not in a malicious way, but as somebody who just let them speak (and often fight), and then offered his own opinion on the matter afterward.
And, with that, all I have left to say is that we’ll all miss you, Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!…rest easy.
