According to a statement from his family, Jerry Springer, a broadcaster, novelist, politician, writer, actor, lawyer, and host of a daytime show so obscene that once apologized by stating it “ruined the culture,” passed away today at age 79 in his suburban Chicago home following a brief illness.

Although he held numerous high-profile positions throughout his career, including mayor of Cincinnati, Jerry Springer is best known for his 27-year tenure as host of the syndicated TV program The Jerry Springer Show, which featured contentious debates and clashes between the guests that occasionally turned physical.

In 1991, Springer launched his chat show as a more traditional event. He appeared like a younger version of talk-TV legend Phil Donahue in a suit and tie and glasses, and he similarly questioned guests while roving the audience with a cordless microphone.

But as time went on, Springer’s guests and topics became increasingly scandalous, including openly racists, cheating spouses, and contentious, button-pushing topics.

In a broadcast circus, success

One of the main drivers of the tabloid talk show trend, which also featured hosts like Maury Povich, Sally Jessy Raphael, Jenny Jones, Montel Williams, and Morton Downey Jr., was the success of the program. In contrast to his crazy guests, Springer always came across as a likeable, personable guy with a conventional appearance and a just-asking-questions demeanor.

When I first met Springer in 1997 while working as a critic for the St. Petersburg Times newspaper, he insisted that his program was about igniting conversation. This was at a Florida taping that focused on the case of a white man who was jailed for using threats and racial slurs to evict his African American neighbors.

He said, “When TV is at its best, it’s like a mirror.” If all that accomplishes is to encourage conversation at the dinner table, then something positive has been accomplished.

Sadly, the program also created scandalous debates to increase viewers and ratings, with Springer serving as the amiable, criticism-diffusing ringmaster.

A young career in law and politics

Gerald Norman Springer was born in London, England, and moved to Queens, New York, with his family when he was 4 years old. By the late 1960s, he had graduated from both Tulane University and Northwest University Law School.

He worked as a lawyer in Cincinnati and was eventually elected to the city council in 1971. In 1974, he was forced to retire after it was revealed he had paid a sex worker by check. However, he was then re-elected in 1975. Additionally, he was Cincinnati’s mayor for a year in 1977.

He was hired as a political reporter and pundit by Cincinnati’s NBC station WLWT in the 1980s, though, and was later elevated to the positions of principal news anchor and managing editor.

According to an interview Springer provided to WLWT, when The Jerry Springer Show first debuted, he was still employed as a news anchor and commuted from Cincinnati to Chicago.

Jerry Springer’s popularity opened up many opportunities for the host, who went on to appear on Dancing with the Stars, play a self-referential version of himself in the 1998 film Ringmaster, briefly succeed Regis Philbin as host of America’s Got Talent, and host a courtroom program called Judge Jerry, which ended last year. Even Steve Wilkos, his security guy, got his own talk program, which is still broadcasting.

However, the circus-like atmosphere of the show, where performers occasionally appeared to enter the stage knowing that they were expected to be disruptive and engage in combat, could have detrimental effects. The son of a past guest who was murdered by her ex-husband after the episode she appeared on was broadcast filed a lawsuit against the show in 2002. The family of a guy who committed suicide after appearing on an episode where his fiancée admitted to cheating on him also filed a lawsuit against the show in 2019.

Springer expressed regret for the show’s effects in an interview with the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast from last year, asking, “What have I done? I have destroyed the culture.I simply pray that it’s not too hot in hell because I burn easily.

However, the host’s abrasive sense of humor can also disarm detractors. When I spoke with him once more in 2012 for the Tampa Bay Times, I inquired about viewers’ expectations of violence. He was prepared to respond:

Every day on our show, the good guys triumph over the wicked guys in a morality play. I contend that violent shows or movies where everyone is really attractive and sexy-looking could motivate young people. Nobody has ever watched our show and thought, “Man, I want to be just like that when I grow up.

In a statement, Springer’s family requested that people “make a donation or commit an act of kindness to someone in need” in honor of him, adding that “as he always said, ‘Take care of yourself, and each other.'”

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