Jerry Springer (1944-2023)

*Watch on YouTube* ... A biographical eulogy to the legendary TV icon and an examination of his legacy. Born in a London bomb shelter as World War 2 raged on, future politician and broadcasting legend led a life worth looking back on. Before there were chants of "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!", there was man of serious intellect and political aspirations. Lawyer, councilman, mayor, newscaster, ringmaster: what was Jerry Springer? And more importantly, what does his meteoric trajectory say about American culture?

Works cited:
1. A&E Biography (2006)
2. New York Times Obituary (2023)
3. The Jerry Springer Show YouTube channel

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Transcript

What’s up everybody? 

Today is Friday, April 28th, 2023. 

This is A TALK IN THE ATTIC, and I’m your host Kirk Ross. 

The world lost a legend yesterday when Jerry Springer died at the age of 79. 

So let’s dive into this truly unique story back where it all began: London, England, 1944. 

Gerald Newman Springer was born in February of 1944 in war-town London, England. His Jewish-German parents had fled Prussia for the UK 5 years prior. And while it was safer there than where they had been in modern-day Poland, Little Jerry was born in an impromptu maternity ward that had been set up in an abandoned train station turned bomb shelter. As bombs exploded above the shelter, Jerry Springer was born. And holy smoke would that little guy shake things up before it was all said and done. 

When Jerry was 5, in 1949, his family moved to the Big Apple; specifically, to Queens. Some 140,000 holocaust survivors settled in the US in that time period after the War, about half of whom ultimately stayed in NYC. And this, folks, is why New York has the best delis in the world. 

Jerry’s parents worked hard to assimilate and to provide for the he and his sister. One story from Jerry’s childhood that continued to pop up in my research was from 1956, when he watched the 1956 Democratic National Convention on a little black-and-white tube TV. He was especially enamored with senator John F. Kennedy. And at the wee little age of 12, a politician was born. 

He was a funny kid - well-liked and smart - and he figured his best path to politics was through law school. So after graduating with a degree in political science from Tulane in 1965, he headed north to attend law school at Northwestern University just north of Chicago.  

His first gig after law school was advising the campaign of Bobby Kennedy - a huge opportunity - but after his assassination, Jerry took a job at a conservative law firm in Cincinnati. But Jerry was a liberal. He was vehemently anti-Vietnam - I imagine it’d be hard not to be against such an idea having lost 27 family members in WW2 - so he felt like he had no choice but fight for his beliefs by running for Congress in 1970, an election he ultimately lost. Instead, he put his energy into his local Cincinnati political scene, where in 1971 he won a seat in the City Council. 

Fun fact, on his first day in office, he submitted a measure that would have created a Cincinnati city ordinance to make it illegal for residents to be drafted to an undeclared war. Love the gumption, but not exactly typical city politics. The measure was rejected, naturally. After a successful tenure on the City Council, Jerry ran for mayor of Cincinnati, and won! 

Up to this point, an incredible story, right? This is a serious young man who came from the rubble of the holocaust and had a bright career in high-level politics. He was staunchly against unnecessary violence - not exactly the image he’s taking to the grave - but these were his beginnings, nonetheless. 

As mayor, Jerry’s flare for the outlandish started peeking through. He became very adept at using media in his favor, creating political stunts to get attention on his issues. There are stories of Jerry hijacked a bus after the city took control of local bus service. In one case, he spent a night in jail with a camera crew. He would drive around in a camper van to different parts of the city on weekends to hear direct feedback from real people. He had an innate ability to relate to regular people, something he prided himself on…and that would eventually become a hallmark of his wildly successful TV career. 

And I know you want me to fast forward The Jerry Springer Show. I’m excited to get there too, but we’re not quite there yet. 

But in 1975, a storyline that sounds like something from The Jerry Springer Show, Jerry decided to resign his mayoral post after a sex scandal was uncovered in which he wrote multiple personal checks to a Kentucky massage parlor. An old rub-and-tug type of parlor, if you catch my drift. Jerry bit the bullet, admitted his mistake, and resigned. 

But this Cincinnati in the 70’s, and this was Jerry Springer, so OF COURSE he got re-elected in both 1977 and 1979. Then he ran for Governor of Ohio and lost, prompting a career change at 36, when he was hired as a news anchor on the lowest-rated news outlet in Cincinnati, NBC affiliate WLWT. He struggled at first but eventually learned his craft, pulling his station to the top of the rankings within two years. He developed a catchphrase that would stick with him for the rest of his career: “Take care of yourself, and each other.” He was voted Cincy’s favorite news anchor 5 years in a row. 

And that brings us to…JERRY JERRY JERRY JERRY!

In 1991, NBC gave Jerry his own show called Jerry Springer, and the rest is history. We all know what the lasting legacy of the show looks like, but did you know the first couple seasons centered around important issues like homelessness and gun violence? His early guest were folks like Oliver North and Jesse Jackson and concerned parents and people coping with loss. And the reason why none of us know that is because that show sucked. Nobody watched it. It was criticized as being self-important and boring. 

Then something interesting happened. On a 1993 episode focusing on radical racism, one of the guests got out of his chair and physically assaulted a racist sheriff. Jerry had this to say:

Wise words, Jerry. Wise words. But ratings don’t lie. And guess what? The people love fisticuffs. So as they tend to do, the producers of Jerry Springer starting booking increasingly confrontational and bizarre subjects for each show. 

Let me name a few episode titles from the beginning. See if you can see a changing of the tide. And they quickly found that while violence sells, sex and violence sell even better. 

FIGHT MONTAGE. 

As time went on, the fists continued to fly. And the once classy backdrop - a set that included books on shelves, and house plants, and red brick walls - was slowly transformed into a a motif best described as junkyard chic. Vents were painted a patina copper green. They added a large industrial fan and set it to the lowest rotational setting. “Serial Killer slow”. Every surface behind the guests was dirty and scraped and dented and rusty. 

A few plain-clothes bouncers transformed into a massive security team clad in black t-shirts and bald heads. A choice was made along the way to add a boxing bell to indicate a fight was coming. An audience of bloodthirsty morons would chant things like JERRY JERRY JERRY! And SHOW YOUR TITS! SHOW YOUR TITS! SHOW YOUR TITS! 

At first, guests would come out and sit down to calmly hear the other person out. But soon, guests would run out guns ablazing, with women often kicking off their heels before making it to center stage. Sometimes those shoes would be used as projectile weapons, but mostly, they were removed so better traction could be found during their sprint towards confrontation. 

And even after years and years of this type of programming, some guests would come out to meet their fiancé or their cousin or their cousin-finance, with an optimistic smile on their faces. As if to say, “Hey, I’m walking out onto Jerry Springer right now to meet my lover… I hope this goes well!” 

But it never went well. Your dad had been fucking your mistress, who was pregnant with the ghost of a lesbian. Or your son wanted to marry a chinchilla. Or your dentist was actually a pimp. 

And as the ridiculousness escalated, so too did the rankings, with Jerry Springer topping Oprah for 50 consecutive days in 1998 as the highest-rated program on daytime TV. 

Jerry Springer was tapping into an age-old, deep-down human desire to see hand-to-hand violence unfold safely outside of our own lives. And to feel a little less shitty about themselves. If this dude is in love with a horse, then maybe I’m not so bad after all. Or I might have cheated on my wife, but at least it wasn’t with my wife’s family. Maybe I’m not so bad. 

Springer and his team justified the cultural regression they were accelerating by saying things like, “Hey, isn’t it better if these people come on TV and duke it out with security around rather than beating each other with tire irons in the streets?” But that’s just rationalization. The vast majority of these folks were egged on in order to precipitate the over-the-top trash that made ratings skyrocket. I wonder how many Springer guests ultimately regretted their decision to come on the show? How many job interviews went sideways when an old clip of you bull rushing your stripper mom made its way into the hiring manager’s hands? 

Jerry Springer was the first and still most audacious example of a show that ignored all journalistic integrity and societal norms in favor of seeking the highest possible ratings. Didn’t say a lot about Jerry or his team, but it said even less about America, who tuned in 5 days a week for 28 years to see undereducated, oversexed mouth breathers fight each other over their relationships. And Hollywood recognized an opportunity that they’re still exploiting to this day. 

So what do we make of Jerry Springer? What is his ultimate legacy? Holocaust survivor turned politician turned TV personality? A guy who did what he had to do to stay relevant in a highly competitive industry? A man who was born in rubble and died in a palace? Or maybe he’s the king of tawdry trash. The ringmaster of cultural decay. 

 Sometimes this podcast project gives me the opportunity to research inspiring topics or new technology that I’m excited to learn. And those episodes are so fun and easy to make. But I’ve spent hours over the past few days watching underprivileged morons duke it out as a raucous crowd hooted in the background, and it’s left me feeling pretty down, honestly. And so I don’t know what to make of Jerry Springer myself. 

But this is where I’m at: Jerry Springer wasn’t a violent man. But he was born into a violent world. And in some way, maybe his show helped viewers at hame recognize how fruitless physical confrontation is, sparing them their own bad decisions to resolve a conflict with wild haymakers and high-heel fastballs. Or maybe his show set an example that led to more domestic brouhahas. I really don’t know. 

Today, as Kid Rock picks up his AR-15 and shoots a case of Bud Light to the applause of millions, I can tell you that we’ve got a long way to go. And a big part of me wonders if it’s even possible to get there. 

Rest in peace, Jerry Springer. I hope you’re serving up some of the trashiest shit ever witnessed that side of the Pearly Gates.