I was a guest on the original version of “The Jerry Springer Show,” in 1991, before it was transformed a couple years later into the outlandishly vulgar circus that became so popular. The producers did, however, encourage some pugilism in a way that the people working for “Larry King Live,” for example, did not.
I believe the topic was “Near Death Experiences.” In these TV discussions I was typically presented as “the skeptic” and, more often than not, I would appear after the first commercial break, after the true believers had had their say. As I was getting ready to go onstage on the Springer show, a producer told me that Jerry would start the segment by asking one of the earlier guests a question and that, before she started her second sentence, I should raise my voice and call her a liar. (I didn’t.)
Springer had an unusually varied career. When I met him and in interviews I saw later on, he seemed like a very nice man. RIP.
Well, Springer made his mark. That’s the most I can say for him. Overall he lowered the collective IQ but if it wasn’t him it would have been someone else so on some level, he was just the messenger.