Jerry Springer died today.

13 comments

• motorhead

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  a year ago

  Late in his life he apologized for his show and admitted it in ruined culture
• wallanon

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  a year ago

  Social Media and providing global reach to idiots at the click of a button has done far more time to ruin culture than a show that peaked in the 1990s did.
  
  Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
• Papi_Chulo

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  a year ago

  The few interviews I briefly saw with him he seemed like a pretty-smart-guy - w.r.t. the show I guess the money was too good and too easy to turn down.
• shailynn

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  a year ago

  I know a girl that had two friends (1 male, 1 female) that were on the show. They made up some crazy bitter love store premise and submitted it and it got them on the show. They were way over the top (drama) and were encouraged by the producers to be as crazy as they could imagine. All these people lived in the Chicago.
• nicespice

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  a year ago

  Wasn’t there a dancer who has posted on this site that was on the Jerry Springer show? I could have sworn somebody told me that once.
• whodey

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  a year ago

  It was Phoenix133 that posted about being on Jerry Springer. https://tuscl.net/article/39182
  
  Here in Cincinnati Jerry will always be remembered as the council member who was dumb enough to pay multiple hookers with checks. He paid one of them with a $25 check and one with a $50 check. I wasn't around in 1973/74 so I don't know if that was a good price at the time or not. He avoided a criminal charge by testifying against the brothel owners and getting them shut down.
• docsavage

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  a year ago

  I hadn't thought of him for years. That often happens with me when formerly well-known people pass away. Many people become famous but then die decades after the peak of their fame when they are half forgotten. I felt the same about Harry Belafonte who just passed away.
• motorhead

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  a year ago

  Many articles I read referred to Springer as the “Godfather of Reality TV”
  
  I never though of his show as reality TV, just a talk show on steroids and never believed for a minute that the fights were real. To me the first reality shows were either Survivor or some of the MTV stuff
  
  His show began as a political commentary show with guests such as Jesse Jackson but things changed in the second season to boost ratings.
  
  One of the most interesting things that came about was the security guard / fight-breaker-up guy Steve Willkos got his own show and it’s still running today after 17 years. I’ve never watched it but figured he was just a roided up big lug
• twentyfive

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  a year ago

  His show was highly scripted
  The one that was really fun to watch was The Morton Downey Jr. Show.
• crosscheck

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  a year ago

  Him paying hookers with checks has been a long time favorite of mine. You just can't make something like that up.
• shailynn

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  a year ago

  ^ probably demanded a receipt too.
• Muddy

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  a year ago

  I had an uncle who was like a serious dude. Old school didn’t take shit kind of dude. But he would watch all those crazy daytime shows. Jerry, Maury, Tyra, Dr. Phil, He loved Steve Wilkos all that shit it was very odd.
• gammanu95

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  a year ago

  He practically invented reality TV with his half-scripted shows. He really did owe society an apology for lowering the quality of societal debate to spectacle. It is true that the internet is the major driving force behind our cultural rot, but his show definitely poured fuel on the fire by broadcasting these idiots nationally. It may have even created the appetite and showed the marketing potential of public degeneracy.