There is a new documentary about the Jerry Springer Show. Springer was a former Cincinnati city council member, mayor, and television news personality. Springer left Cincinnati for Chicago, where he began making the “trash” TV show that made him a household name.
The show, known for its fights, ran 28 seasons from 1991-2018, is explored in the two-part documentary “Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action” on Netflix.
The documentary opens with one of the show’s producers showing a clip from an episode featuring Mark and his wife, Pixel, who he had been with for 10 years and married for 5. His wife was (maybe still is, who knows, with divorce rates being where they are) a Shetland pony. The two kiss as the camera pans to the delightfully disgusted audience members.
The show featured stories like “Stripper Wars,” “I cut off my manhood,” and “My wife’s sleeping with my aunt.”
Initially, The Jerry Springer Show was tame and wholesome. Springer focused on thoughtful conversations about social issues and emotional family reunions. However, the show did not receive the desired ratings.
Enter producer Richard Dominick – whose background was in tabloid journalism – who led the show to its shocking and violent new heights. He got Springer to loosen his on-stage persona, rallied the audience to rise and chant his name as he stepped out, and urged producers to hunt for even wilder stories that would grab viewers’ attention and hold it.
In an interview featured in the documentary, when asked about the show, Springer wouldn’t classify it as a talk show and referred to it as a “circus without the lions.” Dominick and fellow producers would run rehearsals where they would find the points they could exploit to rile up the guests further.
Despite its success, the show’s morality has been a point of contention, and the documentary delves into this debate. The former producers focused on the ratings the wild stories produced but avoided the responsibility of how delivering these stories affected people’s lives.
‘Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action’ leaves the judgment up to the audience. Contributors offer their viewpoints, but we must decide what’s right or wrong – the documentary weaves in clips from the original show and dramatic reenactments of pivotal moments.
In the end, the documentary revisits the chaos of the show, labeled as trash TV – even by those who couldn’t stop watching – was more than just its explosive fights. The show reflected something unsettling: our appetite for society’s most chaotic and problematic parts – and even served as a precursor to parts of today’s internet culture.
Despite the controversy, Jerry’s sign-off still rings true: “Take care of yourselves and each other.”
‘Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action’ is streaming on Netflix.
Nice article