Global Courant 2023-04-27 20:54:11
Longtime TV personality Jerry Springer, who helped pioneer the genre of confrontational daytime televisiondied Thursday after a battle with cancer, his representatives said.
He turned 79.
Former Cincinnati mayor Springer died in Chicago, publicist Linda Shafran told NBC News. He died of pancreatic cancer, family spokesman Jean Galvin added.
“The Jerry Springer Show” ran from 1991 to 2018 and was known for its profanity-prone guests who often had to be restrained by attendant guards while onlookers cheered wildly, “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!”
Talk show host Jerry Springer.Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis via Getty Images file
The show’s popularity in the 1990s saw it rival in the ratings for its daytime counterpart, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and Springer did not regret the high-energy, low-brow material he aired on afternoon TV .
“I don’t watch the show, but it’s not aimed at 66-year-old men,” Springer said in an interview in 2010. “If I was in college, I would watch. I like doing it. It’s a lot of fun.”
“Springer” was such a success that the words “Jerry Springer” became synonymous with anything outrageous or ridiculous on TV.
After Chris Rock’s infamous Will Smith slap at last year’s Oscars, complained Alec Baldwin how the show had “turned into the Jerry Springer show”.
Gerald Norman Springer was born on February 13, 1944 in a London Underground station used as a bomb shelter against German air raids.
His Jewish parents – Margo and Richard Springer – had fled Nazi Germany before the outbreak of World War II.
The family moved to the United States and Springer grew up in New York City, where he graduated from Forrest Hills High School in Queens.
Springer went on to earn his bachelor’s degree Tulane University and law degree from Northwestern. He joined Robert Kennedy’s ill-fated campaign in 1968 and took part in the massive anti-war protests at that year’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
He settled in Cincinnati and soon took an active role in Queen City politics, eventually becoming mayor in a city hall career that could easily have been the subject of a “Springer Show.”
He won election to the city council in 1971 before resigning in 1974 after admitting to using the services of prostitutes, some whom he paid with checks.
The scandal didn’t sink Springer and the would-be talk show king’s openness about the affair is largely credited for his political comeback.
He won election to the council in 1975 and served as mayor for one year from 1977. Springer then turned his attention to television, as a political reporter and anchor on WLWT, the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati.
This is an evolving story. Check back later for updates.
Polly DeFrank contributed.
