The host synonymous with hand-to-mouth television was also a progressive political mind and groundbreaking changemaker
Show with two of my closest high school pals. This was back in the 1990s, when Chicago was the center of the talkshow universe and Springer and Oprah were the hottest tickets in town. My parents, bless, wouldn’t have batted an eye if I said I was going to see the queen of daytime. But the king of sleaze? Up to now they wonder how I ever got their permission.
The spectacle itself didn’t disappoint. The confessions were sotto voce, the reactions were big and the reveals were gasp-inducing. I’m pretty sure at least one chair was thrown, prompting Steve to spring from his seat to break up the ruckus. Through it all, we charged our fists and chanted “Jair-REE! Jair-REE!” while the man at the center of it all couldn’t have appeared less excitable.
In 1971, Springer ran for a congressional seat in Ohio and lost – but still made it to the Capitol to testify before a Senate judiciary committee in favor of lowering the voting age, which prompted a ratifying of the 26th amendment. That same year, he’d win a seat on Cincinnati’s city council only to resign the position three years later after being caught for soliciting in an FBI sting.
What’s more, Springer started out doing a show about politics – a kind of extension of his sharp-tongued local TV news op-eds. But when producer Richard Dominick took over in 1994, he junked that format for episodes on adultery, race wars and other controversies. Before long, the show was not only surging past Oprah in the ratings but spurring Sally Jessy Raphael, Montel Williams and other rivals to shake up their formats, too. Verily, the era of tabloid TV was born.
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