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Lunch with Jerry Springer, a Man of Many Dimensions

Lunch with Jerry Springer is a fasten your seat belt whirlwind. You spend an hour feeling like you are a passenger on his extraordinary turbo-charged hot air balloon.  Springer cares passionately about many things, among them the tabloid television talker that bears his name.  “Our show doesn’t deal with any serious issues,” Springer told an Atlanta Press Club luncheon audience on Friday.  Now there’s a shocker.  Lately, Springer has been calling the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta home while he headlined the musical “Chicago” which closed its run this weekend at The Fox Theatre.

Springer is a man with a full portfolio:  Lawyer, city councilman, Cincinnati mayor, former Ohio gubernatorial candidate, television news program host and commentator, talk show survivor, Broadway stage player, political activist, Air America radio host.  Ask what he likes best, and he says, “Family.”  This is clearly a guy with many dimensions.  He’s just as comfortable with crazed TV talk show lovers in trysts as when discussing health care policy.

Luncheon guests who expected Hollywood gossip instead heard Springer speak passionately about his commitment to universal health care which he describes as a moral crusade. “We are a good and decent people.  We saw that in 9/11,” Springer said. “Where there is a cause there is nobody better than us.  If God forbid, somebody attacked the West Coast and we knew who did it, would somebody stand up and say, ‘Let’s not go after them.  It’s too expensive.  Let’s hold hearings.’  Some things ought to be guaranteed.  You ought to be able to get to a doctor.”

Springer has a fairly interesting theory about liberal vs. conservative.  He contends with conservatives largely in control of the agenda 40 years ago, liberals took to the streets to make their case.   Today he sees liberals largely in control and conservative radio as the political equivalent of taking to the streets.  “Talk radio has gone insane in some areas,” he says.  “It’s off the charts.”  But he disagrees with critics who target conservative radio .  “Rush LImbaugh has every right to bo on.  Let him preach.  Let him preach.  As conservative as they want to be, let them be.”  Springer’s Air America liberal radio show was heard nationally for about 18 months in 2005 and 2006.

Conversation with Springer flows rapidly through his political career — he was Cincinnati’s mayor before he ran for Ohio governor.  There was his television newsman career — ten years as a Cincinnati anchor and commentator, three shows per day.  Then the lucrative talk show career that made him a household name.   Phil Donahue was retiring and the station needed somebody; they took him to lunch and told him, now you’re also the new talk show guy.   This year Springer has been headlining the musical “Chicago” in London, New York and Atlanta while recording five “Jerry Springer Show” episodes per week, 180 episodes per year.  His television program airs three times per day on WATL in Atlanta.

Springer on television is a combination of boxing referee and carnival barker.  His job is to get the juices flowing, in some cases get the guests swinging, and then keep it going. He describes the program as a “normal talk show in the beginning” that evolved into a “talk show for a fraternity party. The decision was to go young.”  When Universal Studios bought his program,  “They called us in and said, you’re only allowed to go crazy.”  Today he describes his program as outrageous, adding “Why are people watching?  I wouldn’t watch!”  Some folks, he says, seem to expect programs like “Christmas with the Klan.” 

Jerry Springer is 65 years old, an age when most folks are slowing down rather than speeding up.  His gears seem remain in overdrive.  After “Chicago” plays in Philadelphia this month Springer will be off to Las Vegas for ten live weeks of “America’s Got Talent.”  After the Press Club luncheon on Friday he sat down for an interview with Mother Nature Network, the environmental news network co-founded by Rolling Stones guitarist Chuck Leavell.

 ”I’m at a point,” he says, “where I do things because I enjoy them.”

Written by Mike Klein

APC Board Member

If you would like to read more by Mike visit his blog http://mikekleinonline.com/