Now that Jerry Springer is not of this earth, it’s time to revisit his lasting legacy: The Jerry Springer Show. If you weren’t alive or cognizant in the late ’90s, you might not believe what a cultural phenomenon his utterly trashy TV talk fest was — so large, the former Cincinnati mayor was able to parlay the ratings juggernaut into a feature film, 1998’s Ringmaster, in which he played himself. Suck on that, Oprah!
Springer’s weekday gig was so popular, producers realized they could make a mint selling a series of “UNCENSORED” VHS compilations through direct-response commercials. Following in the footsteps of the monster hit Cops: Too Hot for TV! and its rogue’s gallery of sequels, Jerry Springer: Too Hot for TV! was the first — a near-hour circus of footage that was, well, too hot for TV.
No bleeps, no blurs. Mostly, it’s fists a-flyin’ between family members who share too many chromosomes, but occasionally we get the flashed fake breast or unappetizing crotch shot. Nearly everyone cusses with the regularity of the words “and” and “the,” or pronounces “ask” as “ax.”
Vocabulary shortcomings aside, Springer’s guests threw the best punches for your daytime TV dollar. Springer actually has precious little screen time here, yielding it to topless waitresses, transvestite siblings, dog-faced strippers and a morbidly obese woman who may render you lactose-intolerant by making an ice cream sundae in her cleavage. As the carnage continues, an air of depression casts itself over the proceedings.
The moral? Stay in school, kids. —Rod Lott