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Cincinnati: Jerry Springer, a former mayor and news anchor, whose eponymous TV show featured a three-ring circus, a group of dysfunctional guests willing to fight and abuse in front of a rowdy audience Expose everything — sometimes literally — died Thursday at the age of 79.
At its peak, “The Jerry Springer Show” was a ratings juggernaut and a pariah of American culture, synonymous with lurid drama. The daytime talk show, known for its chair-slamming and loud bangs, has been America’s favorite guilt show during its 27-year run, at one point surpassing Oprah Winfrey’s show.
Springer called it “escapist entertainment,” while others argued the show contributed to the decline of American social values.
“Whether it’s politics, the radio or just bantering with people on the street who want to pose for a photo or talk, Jerry’s ability to connect with people is at the heart of everything he tries to be successful,” said Jene Galvin, family spokeswoman and friend. ) says Springer’s since 1970 in a statement. “He was irreplaceable and his loss is painful, but the memory of his wit, heart and humor will live on forever.”
Springer passed away peacefully at his suburban Chicago home after a brief illness, the statement said.
On his Twitter profile, Springer jokingly proclaims himself “talk show host, commander of the end of civilization”. He also often jokingly tells people that his wish for them is “May you never appear on my show.”
After more than 4,000 episodes, the show ended in 2018 and never strayed far from its core pornography: Some of its final episodes were titled “Striper Sex Made Me Straight,” “Stop Pimping My Twin Sister,” and “hooked up” my therapist. “
In the “Too Hot For TV” video released in the late 1990s when his daily show was approaching 7 million viewers, Springer defended the antipathy.
“Look, TV doesn’t and can’t create value, it’s just a picture of everything out there — the good, the bad, the ugly,” Springer said, adding: “Trust this: politicians and corporations trying to control What each of us may see is a far greater danger to America and our precious freedoms than any of our guests have ever faced or could face.”
He also argued that the people on his show voluntarily accept whatever ridicule or humiliation awaits them.
Gerald Norman Springer was born on 13 February 1944 in a London Tube station that was used as a bomb shelter. His parents, Richard and Margot, were German Jews who fled to England during the Holocaust, where other relatives died in Nazi gas chambers. They arrived in the United States when their son was 5 years old and settled in Queens, New York City, where Springer got his first piece of Yankees baseball gear and became a lifelong fan.
He studied political science at Tulane University and earned a law degree from Northwestern University. He has been politically active for most of his adult life and did not consider a run for governor of Ohio until 2017.
In 1968, he entered the stage as an aide to Robert F. Kennedy’s ill-fated presidential campaign. Springer, working for a Cincinnati law firm, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970 before being elected to city council in 1971.
In 1974—in a “sudden move that shocked the Cincinnati political community,” according to the Cincinnati Enquirer—Springer resigned. He cited “very personal family considerations”, but he made no mention of the vice investigation involving prostitution. In a subsequent acknowledgment that Springer, who could become the basis for one of his future gigs, said he had paid prostitutes with personal checks.
He was 30 at the time and had married Micki Velton the previous year. The couple had a daughter, Katie, and divorced in 1994.
Springer bounced back quickly politically, winning a council seat in 1975 and serving as mayor in 1977. He later became a political reporter for local television, delivering popular evening commentary. He and co-anchor Norma Rashid ultimately helped make NBC affiliate WLWT-TV’s broadcast the most-watched news program in the Cincinnati market.
Springer started his talk show in a more traditional format in 1991, but after he left WLWT in 1993, it got a sleazy makeover.
TV Guide ranked it #1 on its “Worst Shows in TV History” list, but it was gold in the ratings. It made Springer a celebrity, and he would go on to host the freelance talk show and “America’s Got Talent,” star in the movie “Lord of the Rings” and compete on “Dancing With the Stars.”
Springer told Cincinnati Enquirer John Kiesewaite in 2011: “For all the jokes I’ve made about the show, I’m fully aware and thank God every day that this stupid show , my life has taken such an incredible turn.”
Springer considered a 2003 Senate run long before Donald Trump’s rise from reality TV stardom, speculating that it might appeal to “non-traditional voters” who “think most politics is a bull market.” people.
“I have connections with a large group of people who probably have more connections with me now than with traditional politicians,” Springer told The Associated Press at the time. He opposed the Iraq war and supported expanding public health care, but ultimately did not run.
Springer also often speaks of the country he came to when he was 5 years old, calling it a “beacon for the rest of the world”.
“I have no motive other than to say I love this country,” Springer said at a Democratic rally in 2003.
Springer hosted a nationally simulcast “Jerry Judge” in 2019 and continues to speak out on podcasts, but his shock power has waned in the new age of reality TV and scrappy cable talk shows.
“He wasn’t just fascinated by other shows, he was fascinated by real life,” TV historian and Monmouth University professor David Bianculli said in 2018.
Even though Springer’s performance limited his political ambitions, he embraced its legacy. In a 2003 fundraising TV ad ahead of a possible U.S. Senate race in 2003, Springer quoted then-National Review commentator Jonah Goldberg, who warned Springer to bring newcomers to the polls In the survey, including “loose-jawed rednecks, rednecks, weirdos, perverts, etc.”
In a TV ad, Springer references the quote and speaks of wanting to reach “ordinary people . . . they weren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouth.”
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