Perhaps
it’s the ultimate evidence of just how clueless and unaware of pop culture
trivia I can be, but I honestly didn’t have a clue that Jerry Springer’s
television program was still in production.
SPRINGER: Rides off into sunset of retirement
At
least not until I read the news reports indicating that the production company
that puts the show together is no longer going to do new episodes.
FOR
THE RECORD, the show that once was a national sensation/embarrassment that was
produced from our very own NBC studios in Chicago lasted some 27 years – and there
are in excess of some 4,000 episodes in existence.
It
hasn’t been produced in Chicago since 2009, and to tell you the truth, I guess
I thought the show went off the air sometime shortly thereafter.
Not
that I cared much. I never paid much attention to it when it was in Chicago,
and wasn’t about to continue to follow something I never gave much thought to
in the first place.
Which,
if anything, is the American Way of doing things.
IF
I FIND something too stupid to spend time with, I choose to ignore it. I
certainly don’t go about trying to get it shut down or censored. If enough people
were to take that attitude, the ratings would plummet to the point where the
tacky TV would just go away.
The type of activity the 'Springer show' gave us …
Or
at the very least, shift over in reruns to those many countless cable TV
stations that fill their airtime with all those long-forgotten programs from decades
past.
Which
is bound to become the fate of Jerry Springer’s show.
A
part of me is actually surprised someone hasn’t taken the backlog that has
developed through the decades and created a separate Jerry Springer channel. “Jerry
TV,” all “Jerry” all the time.
WHERE
ONE COULD always tune in to the sight of someone being cracked over the head by
a chair, or trying to beat up her husband after learning he impregnated the neighbor’s
teenage daughter (only to have them separated by Steve Wilkos or many of the
other t-shirted security personnel -- many of whom once were off-duty Chicago cops -- who became an integral part of the Springer
program).
… at the show's peak
If
you think I’m exaggerating, keep in mind that Springer used to defend his
programming choices by claiming he was merely reflecting the reality of a
certain segment of our society. Most definitely the tacky parts, but it is
real.
Personally,
the last time I remember seeing the show, the guest was a woman who used the
program to inform her racist boyfriend she was dumping him. She being white and
her new boyfriend being a black man.
As
though it was somehow enlightening to see some Southern white male feel humiliated
on national television. Of course, in this Age of Trump, we’d probably be
expected to feel empathy for the white guy, and perhaps we’d allow him to get a
sense of public “vengeance” on his girlfriend.
WHOM
YOU HAVE to admit engaged in a bit of trashy behavior by wanting to make a
spectacle out of dumping the jerk she no longer wanted to have in her life.
Hollywood gave Springer a moment of fame
How
big a sensation was Springer? I still recall the 1998 film “Ringmaster,” which
allowed Jerry Springer to play the part of himself as host of a tacky TV show
called “Jerry” (only based in Los Angeles, rather than our wonderful Second City).
Which in my mind is only memorable because it was the first time I ever heard
of actress Jaime Pressly (and the sight of Springer clad in a gaudy Western
outfit).
Now,
it’s all done. Although at age 74 with such a long run, perhaps retirement has
been earned.
And
we can all spend years speculating on how much our society was degraded by
watching such trivial nonsense – even as we watch those reruns over and over
and snicker as much at the period fashion sense as much as we do the tacky
behavior.
I
was never a big fan of “Roseanne” back when it was in its first run on television,
although I have managed to see several episodes as the show continues to live
on in reruns.
Meaning
I’m fully aware of the fact that the story line over its nine seasons on the
air included a sequence in which the fictional Conner family wins the Illinois
Lottery. Supposedly $108 million, and there was a year’s worth of episodes in
which the newly-wealthy Roseanne and her family try to adjust to life amidst
old-money types and their “strange” ways of doing things.
SO
AS THE program is in a re-boot and we’re supposedly seeing what has become of
all the characters some 20 years later, I can’t help but wonder. What happened
to the big bucks of their Lottery prize?
Much
has been made of the fact that the pater
familias of Dan Conner (played then, and now, by actor John Goodman) is
still alive – even though the series ended back in 1998 with hints that Goodman’s
character had died of a heart attack.
But
what about the money?
Should
we now presume that Roseanne and her whacky sister Jackie (who supposedly was
once a cop in their fictional suburb located on the fringes of the Chicago
area when she wasn't being a truck driver) never had the prize?
TRUMP: Is it really all about The Donald?
OR
SHOULD WE presume that the Conner clan had those big bucks and somehow managed
to waste it away? Blew it all on trivialities to the point where there’s
nothing left and their lifestyle is back to the same ol’ blue collar,
lower-middle-class standards of the past.
Not
that I’m losing much sleep over this “burning” question. If I really want to see the wealthy Roseanne, all I have to do is watch the re-runs on any of the many channels that air them.
But
considering how some people are trying to make a big deal out of this particular
reboot of an old television program (whose ratings for the Tuesday night
rebirth were 18.2 million viewers and more people than watched the record-high
viewership that the show’s farewell generated in ’98), I can’t help but expend
a little bit of brainpower on it.
Because
if it turns out that the show being touted and praised by those who are in full
support of this Age of Trump that we’re now in is really about people who had a
chance, and blew it big time, I’d say that doesn’t say much about us as a
society.
The 'queen' of over-reaction -- Becky, ...
OF
COURSE, IF it (the lottery winnings) didn’t happen, it would still be sad if we’re
talking about people whose fantasies focus around a once-in-a-lifetime prize
and they do nothing to try to make it a reality.
For
what it’s worth, the news reports told of how President Donald Trump himself
felt compelled to place a telephone call to Roseanne Barr on Wednesday to
congratulate her on a television success story – managing to draw all those viewers
back to the character for which her life will forever be remembered while also
giving the Trump presidency a plug or two!
Which,
to my mind, means Trump (himself once the character of a television program The
Apprentice) probably thinks this is a priority – and that the “real” issues he’s
confronted with are all the “boring” details that overly-serious people think
are important.
Personally,
I find it amusing the way some people are getting so worked up over this
reboot; largely because I think it sad that some people want to make careers out
of broadcasting the same ol’ stuff over and over again. Coming up with new
characters and stories is just too much work, it seems.
I
EVEN FIND it pathetic the way many people feel compelled to go on various
Internet sites to post anonymous comments bad-mouthing Barr & Co. If the
show dulls your sensibilities that much, just change the channel. There are so
many others to pick from in the modern-day programming environment.
... or Marcia Brady?
As
for me, my own thoughts about Roseanne were cemented the one time I actually
watched an episode back in the show’s first-run days.
It
was the episode where daughter Becky (played by Evanston native Lecy Goranson)
was convinced her life was forever ruined because she farted in the middle of giving
a speech to the student council. Similar to that old Brady Bunch episode where
Marcia got hit right on the nose with a football, causing it to swell up. In
the end, Roseanne/Mike Brady gave their daughters a lecture making them realize
how the humiliating moment wasn’t that big a deal.
I
might be the first person to make a comparison between Roseanne and The Brady
Bunch. Except that I can’t help but think that Maureen McCormick (the ultimate teenaged television cutie) played out her
scenes with more sophistication.
