posted on March 26, 2001 03:42:27 PM new
I don't watch it much anymore, but I did last week and I can't figure out whether or not the guests and situations are real.
My every ounce of common sense tells me it's 100% staged. And yet, to the best of my knowledge, no one, not even one "guest," has ever come forward to expose the lie -- not even with their identity hidden.
posted on March 26, 2001 04:03:30 PM new
It's staged of course. I don't remember much about it, but I did see a segment on one of the news magazine shows that interviewed former guests who talked about how they were coached.
Real or not, the point of this show seems to be ridiculing and humiliating people. I'm supposed to find that entertaining? Pretty sad. I feel sorry for the people whose self esteem is so low that they'll allow themselves to be portrayed as freaks for their "15 minutes." And for the people who watch, whose self esteem is so low that they get satisfaction and enjoyment out of seeing other people being put down.
Culturally this country is going straight into the toilet. Even if it's not real, I'm scared. I, for one, look forward to the day when this lame style of "entertainment" collapses of its own weight.
posted on March 26, 2001 04:15:35 PM new
What I don't get is, they seem to have an endless supply of these hateful, disgusting, physically and morally repulsive guests ... where are they coming from? I would feel better if I learned that some low-budget casting company was rounding up local dregs, paying them a few hundred dollars to go on the show and play the part. But as I said, I've never seen anything to that effect. Don't these guests have to function in society? At some level? Don't they have families they must face after making disgusting fools of themselves on TV? Even if they are faking, don't they have employers to whom they have to be accountable? Co-workers whose respect they stand to lose? Don't they have to put up with the scorn of people who see the show and believe that what they've seen is real?
I guess I'm just amazed by the sheer number of grotesque people who parade across that stage every year. And perhaps even more whacked, I want to know what their real stories are. I imagine the real stories are far more interesting (and lots more pathetic) than those portrayed on the show.
posted on March 26, 2001 04:20:59 PM new
I hope it is not, I find it hard to believe that there are that many total dufuses in this great country. Caught an episode the other night, the audience was chanting "You are a whore, You are a whore." At the end the audience gets to speak, they call people names and basically humiliate them, while the rest of the audience cheers them on. There was a girl on that had several teeth missing, an audienece member told her to save her money and get her teeth fixed instead of getting a divorce, the look on her face could not have been faked, and neither could those tears, I felt terrible for her. It used to be midly entertaining, but Springer has sunk to a new low with some of the latest stunts.
My question is: How many men can they actually find to come on stage so that their girlfriend, who is actually a man, can break the news to them that they are not a female. I find most of it hard to believe. The people that are for real are those that break your heart. Very sad.
I shudder about the people who don't shudder at all.
posted on March 26, 2001 04:26:01 PM new
I remember reading some articles a year or so ago, in which some of the "guests" of these afternoon & late evening shows said that they "made the circuit" of the shows, appearing on them at different times. A couple also admitted that they were making everything up out of whole cloth.
posted on March 26, 2001 04:42:20 PM new
Yes, bunnicula. I read the same thing. In fact I seem to remember an article in People magazine about a guy who was a "struggling" actor who had appeared on the show 3 times as different people. He changed his appearance each time for the different "character". That show is as phoney as baloney.
posted on March 26, 2001 05:12:42 PM new
Maybe there are episodes that are real and some staged. I recall there being several Klansmen on one episode from a northern Indiana klan group. They were feuding with a guy who used to be their buddy and a fellow klansman, but he had left and denounced his former friends.
The gist of the show was how this guy had betrayed his former Klan colleagues by leaving and spilling all of their clandestine secrets to the media. He had to get restraining and protective orders to safeguard his well-being. This was a real incident, as it was covered by most media in Indiana.
Also, wasn't there a husband, estranged wife and girlfriend from Florida on the show recently squabbling about their three-way relationship. After the three appeared on the show, the estranged wife was killed by the ex-husband? Seems I recall seeing a story like that move across the wires.
The People article you mention is the sort of thing I was wondering about when I opened this thread.
But even one article isn't much when you think about it. There are so many people who can't stand the Jerry Springer show, you'd think that it would be a prime target in the eyes of investigative journalists out to discredit the show as a fraud.
posted on March 26, 2001 05:26:25 PM new
Giving the Public what it wants
"My Daughter Is a Teen Prostitute," "I'm Pregnant
by My Brother" and "I'm in a Bizarre Love Triangle."
Now how could they stage all of that? LOL-LOl!
Oh and those former Chicago cop bodyguards----they'll never tell----I am from Chicago,never knew there were so many sleazy people -----
posted on March 26, 2001 06:18:41 PM new
When it was just regular sleaze, I dont think it was staged. But I think it is now. I skim thru the channels and on one show I paused at long enough to grimace at, it showed these people who were stumbling their words (as if they didnt already), but it was FAKE. Like someone who is deadpan because they didnt study their lines.
Disgusting people on there. Girls with no teeth talking about getting it on with their brothers; old women slapping lip locks on young men that look 17; fat people in skin tight clothes prancing around saying "Im beeyooteefull". Gross.
posted on March 26, 2001 06:31:26 PM new
Baduizm: That murder happened 1/2 mile from where I lived in Sarasota, and 2 streets over from my best friends' house. I had never watched the show, but from what was brought out on the news, their appearance brought the triangle over the edge. The wife was murdered the night of their appearance on Jerry Springer.
posted on March 26, 2001 06:47:43 PM new
I probably shouldn't admit this, but a couple years ago my sister and I went to a taping of the Jerry Springer Show. Hey, her boyfriend gave us tickets for Christmas! We *had* to go! I didn't want to hurt his feelings!
Anyway, my sister and I figured that being the "unhip-looking", 30-something year old women that we are, that we'd be seated far away from the stage. But oh no! We were escorted to seats smack dab in the front row!
It was an experience I'll never forget. The fighting onstage sure looked real to me and I was literally just a few feet from the guests. (The stage and studio were much smaller than they appear to be on television). I saw the blood that the lady guests drew when they scratched each other. I saw two lady guests on the floor fighting and one of them wasn't wearing underpants. If I remember correctly, I think the audience was also flashed. Is this a prerequisite to appearing as a guest...not wearing underwear?
During the question and answer part of the show, a woman sitting behind me proceeded to get into an argument with one of the guests. The woman seated behind me rushed to the front of the stage to try to get at the guest, in the process stepping down hard on my foot in her haste, and was led back to her seat by one of the "guards". I also narrowly missed being hit by a flying chair a couple of times.
It was quite an experience being an audience member that day. My sister was quite pleased to have Jerry autograph his autobiography which she'd brought along. Me? I was just happy to get the heck outta there without getting hurt!
posted on March 26, 2001 07:42:29 PM new
I read somewhere that some of the guests are real but that they put them in the "green room" (why do they call it that?), give them lots of booze - and keep taunting them to get them mad at whoever they want them to fight.
posted on March 26, 2001 08:03:19 PM new
Interesting story wwy I'd have been trying to get out of there too.
I think they probably start with a core truth and then get the guest to embellish it and jazz it up. I saw an interview a few years ago on 60 minutes or such and Jerry Springer was trying to act indignant because his show gets panned. Well, what does he expect.... I think it wins the prize for the dumbest show on television.
Your post somewhat anticipated my next question -- is there anyone among us who knows a former Jerry Springer guest? Or who even knows of a former Jerry Springer guest, say from their hometown? The number of former guests has to be in the thousands by now. These people must live somewhere.
I would love to see Bill Kurtis do an episode of Investigative Reports on what becomes of Jerry Springer guests after the show. There must be post-show repercussions in the lives of these people. I mean come on, you've got guys crawling across that stage on all fours at the end of a dog leash, being fed kibble by fat prostitutes ... Men who admit to having sex with their daughters ... Sons who say they have sex with their mothers ... Other guys who swear up and down they could not tell that the ungainly woman with the five o'clock shadow sitting beside them was a man when they had sex ... Dozens of women who dump/or get dumped by fiances on the show after its revealed that the fiance is gay and in love with a flamboyant male whore ...
I cannot believe they just go back to their lives and pick up as though nothing ever happened.
posted on March 26, 2001 08:50:38 PM newI cannot believe they just go back to their lives and pick up as though nothing ever happened.
That's just it, Spaz. Nothing DID. I suppose there might be a FEW genuinely dysfunctional people on that show, but they certainly aren't coming up with enough REAL ones to do 5 shows a week. Nah, most of those people are paid to act a "part".
posted on March 27, 2001 04:58:37 AM new
Heck, it's hard enough for me to confess I was once an audience member....does anyone really admit that they were a guest? I think I'd be too ashamed!
My husband taped that episode I attended. My sister and I were in several shots, some close up. I don't think he'll ever let me live it down.
posted on March 27, 2001 11:21:26 AM new
Interesting thread, spaz. I haven't watched one of the Springer-type shows in years, though like many who have posted here, I used to view an episode every once in a while, much as I used to pick up a copy of the Enquirer on occasion. From the conversation, the sensationalism seems to have increased. I suppose that's necessary to retain an audience, but what intriques me most is the composition of the personalities who form a core audience for such shows. Most people I think have seen a show or been fascinated with the "characters" who appear on such shows and follow them for periods of time to satisfy their curiosity, but a segment of devoted daily followers must exist, as with the soap operas. I wonder what the continuing attraction is for the serious fans of Springer.
posted on March 27, 2001 11:26:42 AM newI wonder what the continuing attraction is for the serious fans of Springer
The thrill of seeing someone elses pain. The joy of knowing someone else is ridiculed, ugly, gross, disgusting, mentally challenged, in a rotten situation, or full of hate for themselves and who they came to "confront". The "no life" syndrome of keeping abreast of someone elses sleazy escapades.
posted on March 27, 2001 01:59:40 PM new
Big Burly Guy here....
Unfortunately people, the stories are mostly real. Yes, alot of them are fakers responding to casting calls and such but a greater number of them are REAL!. Scary, isn't it. But you have to realize these basement IQ's represent a miniscule percentage of the population. They are merely obsessed over by the viewership to whom seeing someone dumber than them, lifts them. And you also have to realize who the majority of the viewership are who made it popular and determine the content. AT home, in the middle of the day, sitting on the couch, doing nuttin'.(Read as Unemployed and on assistance, lazy and uneducated.)
[ edited by mark090 on Mar 27, 2001 02:00 PM ]
posted on March 27, 2001 03:00:24 PM new
My sister, who still lives in my small hometown in southeastern Oklahoma, said a couple from a nearby little hick town (hicker than my hometown), was on with the husband's girlfriend (or was it the wife's girlfriend?) I didn't see the show, but it would have been interesting.
[ edited by bluesgirl on Mar 27, 2001 03:06 PM ]
[ edited by mark090 on Mar 27, 2001 02:00 PM ]