Jerry Springer - NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN (Jerry Springer Show, The)

Member Name: claireislafrazer

Product:	Jerry Springer Show, The
Date:	04/10/08 (226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Makes me laugh when im depressed

Disadvantages: Will offend some people

Im sure everyone knows who Jerry Springer is, the host of the outrageous and controversial american chat show where the guests do more fighting than actually chatting.

I used to watch the show about 9 years ago when it was on itv1 at 2pm on weekdays, I used to have a couple of half days at college and so I came home and ate my lunch watching the show. I remember the most bizzare shows which people screaming and shouting at spouses that had had affairs and security guards having to break up fights every 5 minutes and half of the words they were saying had to be bleeped out. I cant believe they were showing it in the afternoon really now looking back. One episode that stands out was on "adult babies" where all these overweight middle aged men came out on the stage in nappies and we being breast fed by older women. I remember the crowd being particularly confused and disgusted when one "couple" had to go backstage because someone had "had an accident". hmmm..

This week I discovered that Jerry Springer is on Virgin1 at 6-7pm every weekday, It is two shows, one til 6.30 and then another until 7. As the shows are usually an hour long including adverts each show is editied heavily - I wonder who has the job at virgin1 deciding which parts to show. I guess they could have just put on one hour long show but this way you get more variety.

I was amazed when I saw it on the schedule as I literally hadnt watched it since 2000. I think it was/is available on "living" but I dont have access to this channel.

The disclaimer at the start of the show says that some scenes may not be suitable for children. I dont think that any of it is really, the majority of the shows are of adult topics and there is a huge level of fighting and swearing. It goes on to say in the titles "One hour of your life you'll never get back", to be honest though id rather be watching this than the depressing and violent news at 6pm anyday.

As to the type of people on the show, think of the people that come on the Jerermy Kyle show, imagine them 10 times worse and american and youll be halfway there. Every one seems to be uneducated, living in a trailer park and having no morals whatsoever. I have trouble believing these people are real! I guess thats just me being naive.

The audience seems just to be there to heckle the guests and witness their behaviour first hand, as well as to meet Jerry who shakes their hands at the beginning of every show. Jerry is their hero im sure and they all love to chant "JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!" any time he makes a witty comment to the guests (which generally goes straight over their heads). Jerry is very careful not to get them mad at him and when they do talk over him or refuse to answer he just saying something like "aww but its my show" and the "JERRY!" chant starts up again. He is the boss!

These are a few of the stories that were on the show this week. One woman found out her husband was sleeping with another woman and so she took the film crew of the show to the carpark where her husbands car was and smashed the windows and tyres before setting it alight. Back on the show the "other woman" is brought out the fighting ensues. I should say here that you dont actually see the fights as they are editied out, all you see is the women grabbing for each other and the next second the security guards pulling them apart. When Jerry confronted this "other woman" he said to her "Why would you want to be with him anyway, he doesnt even have a car!".

Another large woman found out that her husband had left her and her five children for a young gay man that he had met on the internet a few months ago and just met in real life the previous week. When she saw who he had left her for she went to attack him before the guards pulled her away. The men and their new partners in both these cases showed no remorse or empathy in what they were doing to these mens families, and this is the saddest thing to me. The audience members werent exactly sympathetic to her either and one woman asked "what do you call the your birds?, you know the ones flapping under your arms?"

Then there was the almost mundane, "I'm really a man" story where a feminine looking transsexual tells her boyfriend she she isnt what she seems. The boyfriend in question suprisingly wasnt even bothered and said, "Yeah i knew".

One of the funniest shows this week was this man who had been in jail most of his life and apparantly got excited by other convicts manboobs in the showers, he had come on the show to tell the woman that had been his penpal in jail and then hed lived with that he never loved her and wanted to be with her niece instead. The poor deluded woman insisted he still loved her and talked of how hed written of his love for her in all the letters shed received. The man who was standing topless on the stage with EVIL tattooed on his stomach proceeded to tell her that he never loved her and only continued to write to her in jail because "its nice to get mail" and he just stayed with her when he was released from because she spent money on him and that she had a nice home. They then brought out her niece who he described as a "tattooed hoochie mama" and said that it was her he wanted to be with, and that when she'd come over at xmas time to their house he'd slept with her when his girlfriend had been there.

A couple of changes to the show from when I used to watch it all those 8 years ago was that the man who used to be the main security guard, a large muscluar bald ex-cop named steve was now hosting some of the shows instead of Jerry. It was extremely amusing how all the men on his shows wanted to fight with him even though he was twice their size. "Bring it on big boy" they'd say and he'd reply, "This big boy will put you on your a**". Steve had to deal with some very obnoxious guests in his shows. A parent who wanted her 16 year old daughter out on the street because she hit her new boyfriend. The boyfriend wasnt exactly angelic either but was proud of the fact hed been off drugs for the longest time in his life - 4 months! and was happy to say that he didnt work because "I dont goddam want to". He also had to deal with a "young punk" as he called him who didnt want to take responsibility for his child and seemed determinded to just fight with anyone because the werent "respecting" him. Apparantly talking to him was disrespectful and deserving of a punch. He didnt fare well against steve as the security grabbed him several times against the wall, and steve reminded him that if this was on the street he would not even be conscious at this point.

Also new to me was this comic reverend, who appeared to be constantly drunk, but who was actually extremely witty towards the guests and who would read verses from the bible to them appertaining to their situation, but actually made no sense. It seemed that he actually had a marriage license as one couple paid for him to perform the service at their wedding in their home town. Also he appeared on another show where two first cousins were getting married (you arnt shocked by this now im sure). All their family was completely disguested by the situation but all they had to say about it was "Well it was you who put us in bed together in the first place".

I think my favorite part of the show is the final thought, where Jerry sums up the situations in a concise and clever manner and dispensing a little advice. "You cannot force someone to love you, love can only work when its between two people who only have eyes for each other" and finishing with "Take care of yourselves, and each other". At this point The guests just look bewildered and wait for the theme tune so that they can continue fighting backstage.

I think that the show may have become a bit of a parody of itsself now that it has been running so long. It seems the fights and swearing have become obligatory and i wonder at whether some of it is just "put on" for TV. Or maybe people are actually like this is real life. I think i know which is true.

Summary: It could be the best rubbish tv