Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action 1x2

1. Let's go. Okay, are you comfortable?

2. - Yes. - Okay, cool.

3. So I wonder if— if I could start by just asking you about your mom.

4. Just tell— tell me about her.

5. Yeah, um— Yeah. She was a really good mother.

6. I mean, my dad died when I was just a— a toddler,

7. so she raised me and my brother by herself.

8. I mean, she was strong, independent.

9. Just, you know, a great person, you know?

10. I was pretty surprised when she told me about going on the show.

11. She didn't like having her picture taken very much.

12. She always tried to hide her face or hide behind something

13. or hold something up so she wouldn't be in— in the pictures.

14. So to see her up there on the stage just looking like,

15. you know, a deer caught in the headlights, like, "What is going on here?"

16. You need to get a life.

17. I just wish I could go back and say to her, "Don't do it."

18. Jerry! Jerry!

19. The bigger that show got,

20. the more it raised questions, larger questions,

21. about what really went on backstage.

22. Where you going?

23. She's saying she's leaving.

24. I mean, it was highly stressful, it was highly competitive.

25. I need to be able to hear you. You guys are such at a great level...

26. And there are a lot of things that these producers felt they had to do

27. that I'm sure they're not proud of.

28. I've been seeing somebody else.

29. You what?

30. They had to create all kinds of combustible situations

31. because they want to get that spark, they want to get the heat,

32. they want to get the explosion.

33. And yet, they had to know

34. that when the show was over and the lights were off,

35. and those guests were sent on their way home,

36. that they might have really changed their lives for the worse.

37. Forever.

38. Let me take this opportunity to thank you for being with us.

39. And I hope you're able to find some peace in your future relationships.

40. I hope it works out for you.

41. The initial turning point came one Saturday,

42. when we got called into, like, an emergency meeting in—

43. at NBC Tower.

44. Just producers.

45. Producers, senior staff.

46. All of a sudden, the door opens and Jerry comes in.

47. And that's, like, super bizarre.

48. Jerry's never in on a weekend.

49. Like, nope, not a thing.

50. And he just says, "You know, guys, I'm really sorry."

51. "But, you know, there's nothing more to say now."

52. And that's it.

53. Walks out of the room. We're all like, "What?"

54. It turns out there was a story about Jerry

55. having a threesome with some guests from the show.

56. I'm like, "There's no way."

57. "There's no way. They're lying."

58. And, uh, then I saw the pictures.

59. It was weird 'cause it was Jerry, 'cause we never looked at him like that.

60. Most of us would never dream of exposing

61. our most intimate secrets to the whole world.

62. We cherish our privacy

63. and want others to see only that side of us

64. we choose to present.

65. He was always very private about his private life.

66. He never talked about his ex-wife,

67. um, the relationship that they continued to have,

68. and the circumstances of his custody with his daughter.

69. Jerry absolutely loved his ex-wife.

70. They were amicably separated and really good friends.

71. His daughter, um, had some disabilities.

72. And he...

73. He, you know, he put her up on a pedestal.

74. How's your daughter doing now?

75. Yeah, you know, um...

76. To the audience,

77. Jerry was a stand-up father and husband.

78. So he got very lucky that it just kind of fizzled.

79. I mean, if it had happened now,

80. it would have been a cancel moment.

81. For sure.

82. You know, the guests are the guests.

83. They've got their own problems.

84. So you don't cross that line.

85. - Thank you. Thank you very much. - Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

86. But the audience honestly didn't care.

87. I mean, he's Jerry Springer, for fuck's sakes.

88. Please welcome the star of that clip, Mr. Jerry Springer!

89. Jerry loved being a star.

90. He— He didn't act it. He didn't act like a star,

91. but he loved the fact that he was.

92. - Jerry, why do I love your show? - Yes?

93. Why do we all love your show so much? What's wrong with us?

94. I don't want to live in a country that watches my show, I'll tell you that.

95. To say Richard corrupted him,

96. I think absolves Jerry of too much responsibility.

97. But would Jerry Springer have become the Jerry Springer we knew

98. without Richard Dominick?

99. I would say absolutely not.

100. If Jerry Springer was moneyball,

101. Richard found the formula.

102. 'Cause they were crushing it.

103. So, you know, people didn't mess with them, like ever.

104. They just did what they wanted.

105. - You're selling your body for money. - That's right.

106. - Why are you doing that? - I love my job!

107. - I can't— - And I love the men I meet.

108. - Shh. - And I love sucking dick!

109. Every television station executive who aired that show

110. knew what a piece of shit it was.

111. They knew it.

112. But the numbers were so good that they couldn't resist it.

113. Richard Dominick gets a mean three-year contract.

114. Jerry gets a $30 million multiple-year extension.

115. These guys were laughing all the way to the bank.

116. That's what their show did.

117. And it may be stupid, and it may be trashy,

118. and it may be enjoying someone else's misery,

119. but that was the— that was the path they chose.

120. I don't remember the exact moment

121. that we became the number-one show,

122. but I do know that that's when I felt like it was starting to be a task.

123. Where before, it was fun.

124. We're having a good time. We're doing great shows.

125. Everybody's happy.

126. But now when you become number one,

127. you got to stay there.

128. Did the ratings issue have a lot to do

129. with the kind of pressure that we were receiving

130. that was trickling down from Richard's office?

131. Um, yeah.

132. Absolutely.

133. No doubt.

134. For the producers, Richard was terrifying.

135. I mean, he would raise his voice, but he would never...

136. It was never yelling, it was just stern.

137. "You guys are a disappointment. That's it. I'm gonna make some changes."

138. Really scary.

139. My job was to take what he wanted and take it to the producers

140. and make sure that they did what he said.

141. And they would find a guest or a story,

142. and then they would come to these pitch meetings,

143. and he would always be kind of snarky.

144. "What makes you think this is gonna work?"

145. "It's not gonna work. Why would you bring this to me?"

146. Oh, man.

147. Fuck.

148. Richard would say, "You need to hit these numbers or you're gone."

149. Very high-pressure.

150. God, that sucked.

151. I remember that so well.

152. It just made it harder, right?

153. Like, it's hard enough to get huge ratings.

154. Don't play stupid little games, and do a good job on this.

155. Yeah.

156. But now we're also just trying to keep our jobs from week to week.

157. So what the hell did you do?

158. Come on. I mean, it's The Jerry Springer Show.

159. If I'm not pregnant, what the hell is this, bitch?

160. Fuck you, bitch.

161. - Well, I'm right here. - Well, say—

162. And I ain't your bitch!

163. - You threatened me. Bring it on. - Wasn't a threat.

164. - I will fuck you up, Angela. - You want to fuck me up?

165. It was really simple. If it did not contain fighting,

166. it did not rate.

167. People wanted the fighting.

168. So that's what we delivered.

169. We just started pushing the needle ever so slowly towards red, right?

170. Of like, let's see how far we can push this shit.

171. Jerry and Richard would do, like, baseball signals.

172. I never knew what they were, really, most of them.

173. But this one, this one was you need to get tougher, you know, with the guests.

174. She has been having an affair.

175. And now let's meet the fellow you've been having an affair with.

176. Let's bring him out.

177. These were like big, knock-down, drag-out, whoop-ass fights.

178. - Fuckin' try it. - Get out of my face.

179. I mean, teeth were knocked out.

180. Some people lost, literally, chunks of scalp.

181. Yeah, I got your hair, bitch!

182. I got your hair. That's right, bitch!

183. Women would pull their nails off.

184. The fake nail with their real nail.

185. Like, we had to get them to the hospital to surgically repair.

186. They were brutal, like, to-the-death fights.

187. The irony is, I'm the least physically offensive person in the world.

188. I've never hit anyone ever.

189. You know? You know, I've never spanked my child.

190. I've never, ever laid a hand on anybody in anger.

191. And, um...

192. And yet the reputation, of course, of the show

193. is this professional wrestling.

194. In spite of the success of the show,

195. there was never a point at which Jerry and Richard were coasting.

196. They always had to top themselves.

197. That's really the dilemma of anything that is predicated upon outrage

198. because you—

199. You know, the bar keeps getting higher and higher.

200. And it was also about balancing the pressures coming from the outside.

201. Not since the game show scandal of the '50s

202. has a TV show been under attack like The Jerry Springer Show.

203. There were pressures about violence and fighting.

204. There was pressures about ambushing and surprising.

205. And then there were the pressures about whether it was real or fake.

206. Former Springer guests seem to be coming out of the woodwork,

207. many making allegations that elements of Springer's show were staged.

208. Listen to the claims of these Springer guests

209. who recently appeared on the show.

210. When you took your ring off and put it in her lap, that was not real?

211. That was not real. That was acting.

212. A lot of people say that it's all fake. The fighting and stuff. Here, look.

213. - Today's paper. - Yeah, right on the front—

214. The New York Post, right there. "It's a fake."

215. I can't think of another show that could make the front page

216. in the New York Post

217. unless, you know, Oprah took out a shotgun and killed somebody.

218. People thought that they were better than us.

219. And so even if we got the ratings,

220. they would try to make us feel bad about it.

221. And I— I think it was easy to pick on us.

222. How many people here have been on The Jerry Springer Show?

223. How many of you actually rehearsed your show before you went on?

224. Wow.

225. It was like, "Springer's at it again."

226. "Oh, it's all fake."

227. "Of course they're getting ratings. It's scripted."

228. You know, "They made it all up."

229. It's like, "No, we didn't." Like, we didn't make it up.

230. My personal directive from Richard and Jerry

231. was my stories cannot be fake.

232. They must be real people, real stories.

233. They can't come on and pretend they're fighting.

234. We don't want to see fake punches.

235. We want— If someone's actually gonna get to that point,

236. they need to really mean it.

237. And they were pretty serious about that.

238. Does anybody have any evidence that Jerry Springer himself

239. knows about these "fakes"?

240. No.

241. His producers look like they ran the show more than he did.

242. Yeah.

243. If any producer is telling guests what to say, then that producer has to go.

244. That's what I said to the company. I want it all to be truthful.

245. How many times do you want me to say that? I want it all to be truthful.

246. Suddenly, I needed to vet the hell out of my guests

247. because if I have a fake show, I'm getting fired.

248. Oh, that doesn't matter. Okay.

249. But I was so high-strung at this point.

250. I was so burnt out that I just wanted

251. warm bodies on my show and a paycheck.

252. Okay, bye.

253. And that's when it all happened.

254. It was just a typical love triangle.

255. Two guys, one woman, super easy.

256. But I should have known better, to be honest, really,

257. because they were from Boston.

258. And... Springer guests aren't from Boston.

259. I mean, these people, they didn't care. They— They thought it was a big joke.

260. So, of course, one guy took a punch at the other guy,

261. and clearly, purposely, just swiped right past his chin.

262. And then the other guy went flying backwards

263. as if he'd actually been hit when he had not been hit.

264. And security knew, of course.

265. So they're like, "What the f...?"

266. You know, and then Richard knew, and it was a disaster.

267. I was in big trouble. I lost my job.

268. So, victim of circumstance in a lot of ways, in that regard.

269. I— I felt victimized by it, personally.

270. Um, and Jerry's reaction to the fake punch, what was that?

271. I was only told. He didn't tell me, um, to my face.

272. But, you know, you would probably see his face on camera, like...

273. He would have probably rolled his eyes.

274. Probably went like this with his cards, like, "What the hell?"

275. He would have been very angry.

276. Jerry! Jerry!

277. When people were saying, "Jerry, you're faking things,

278. you're faking things," he was taking it personally,

279. because he certainly wasn't faking things.

280. So I— I— I think he defended the show perhaps more than he needed to.

281. I want the show to be honest because that's the only way it works.

282. Otherwise, you might as well have a soap opera.

283. God bless you.

284. Steve, get him!

285. At the height of all the controversy,

286. Jerry's teenage daughter, Katie,

287. wrote a letter to a newspaper,

288. which was the first time we had ever heard from her

289. in— in any form, at any time.

290. "My name is Katie Springer. I'm Jerry Springer's daughter."

291. "The city of Chicago seems to be in need of some facts about the man

292. they have so slanderously dubbed the King of Sleaze."

293. "First of all, my dad has more education

294. than many of the so-called journalists in this town."

295. "Chicago is blessed to have my dad on their team."

296. "Yes, his show is crazy,

297. but that doesn't mean he is."

298. "People shouldn't judge before they listen."

299. "Katie S. Springer."

300. I don't know why it was such a big deal.

301. Like, you just can't fake the— that kind of passion, right?

302. I mean, we didn't get to the height of the ratings

303. 'cause we were such brilliant, scripted, make-believe producers.

304. She's making you look like out there.

305. We got there because we could tap into people's emotions

306. and find these things that are troublesome and triggering,

307. and then you feed them to the person that's coming to confront them.

308. And they freak out.

309. I've been, uh— I've been cheating on you.

310. It's called "shaping the missile."

311. And it's the dark side.

312. You know that baby's yours.

313. As far as my mother going on that show,

314. it was shocking, to say the least, that she agreed to do it.

315. Like, what is going on here? It was so out of character.

316. I mean, growing up, I don't remember my mother ever dating.

317. Maybe once or twice, but nothing like a serious relationship or anything,

318. um, being that she was a widow.

319. But a friend of hers introduced her to an AOL chat room.

320. And that's when she met Ralf.

321. They started speaking together, and a year later,

322. he immigrated from Germany to the US,

323. and then they got married shortly after that.

324. But it wasn't long after that there was a domestic issue.

325. He had thrown her on the floor, and she'd hit her head.

326. After that, she left and filed for divorce.

327. All of a sudden, she was in a big house alone,

328. and I— I think she just got lonely.

329. And that's why she went on the show, to— to get him back, basically.

330. Here she is, the woman that's a thorn in your side.

331. Nan.

332. My mother believed that Ralf had been deported to Germany,

333. and that the show was going to pay for his travel back to America,

334. and then they would reconcile,

335. and that he would tell his new girlfriend that he wanted to be with my mother.

336. But she was basically lied to,

337. because that never happened.

338. Nan, what's going on?

339. Ralf and I are trying to restore our marriage,

340. and this, uh...

341. and this trailer trash won't leave us alone.

342. Nan, Ralf loves me.

343. Ralf wants to be with me.

344. And you redheaded bitch from hell, you need to leave us alone.

345. You need to get a life!

346. I don't think my mother had any idea what she was walking into.

347. Why can't you accept that he left you a few months ago to be with me?

348. - Are you so sure? - Yes, I'm very sure.

349. You said you talked to him the last couple nights. Anything else?

350. - I slept with him the last few days. - You slept with him?

351. - Really? - You haven't.

352. Well, you know what? I hope you enjoyed yourself immensely the last two nights

353. because it's the last time you're ever gonna see him.

354. The last time!

355. Oh, yeah?

356. He wants to be with me.

357. He's back here to be with me.

358. Why can't you accept that?

359. It's pretty obvious that they were there to ambush her.

360. And the interesting thing is,

361. the title of the show,

362. "Secret Mistresses," or whatever,

363. if she had known that that was the episode title,

364. she probably would have thought twice, but, you know, she didn't know that.

365. Here he is, Ralf.

366. - Hi, Jerry. - Hey, Ralf, how you doing?

367. Pretty good.

368. What's— What's going on here?

369. - Yes, I had sex with my ex-wife yesterday. - Yes?

370. But the matter of the fact,

371. a month ago I married Ellie, and I do love Eleanor.

372. You can't humiliate this woman!

373. - There's nothing that you can say! - Give us a shot.

374. The producers wanted them to get physical, make threats,

375. and she wasn't about to do that.

376. He's telling you he doesn't want to be with you.

377. That's fine. Bye.

378. All right!

379. Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

380. Backstage, she was informed

381. that if she didn't return to the end of the show,

382. that they would not provide her

383. with her return ticket back to Florida.

384. Certainly during my tenure,

385. that was a threat that we would tell people

386. before they ever got on the plane to come.

387. And a lot of people that came on the show couldn't afford

388. to pay for a plane ticket home.

389. It was a tactic so that you, as a producer,

390. had one more opportunity to keep them.

391. They should feel beholden to you,

392. that they're gonna let— they're letting you down,

393. and you've done all of this for them.

394. And she wasn't having that.

395. She said, "No way."

396. "You guys lied to me? I'm done."

397. Somehow, she found her way to the bus station in Chicago,

398. walking along the streets by herself,

399. and didn't have any money, didn't have anywhere to go.

400. Just— Just her, crying.

401. Finally, a good Samaritan saw her visibly upset

402. and bought her a bus ticket to come home.

403. As strong as she was,

404. I'm sure she felt confused and didn't understand what had happened.

405. After the show,

406. no one from The Jerry Springer Show contacted to check on her,

407. to see where— where she was, where she went.

408. As far as I know, it never happened.

409. We weren't problem solvers.

410. We're gonna give you a chance to come on,

411. tell your story,

412. get it all out,

413. but we're not gonna help you.

414. After the show was over, we got them out and gone.

415. It was, "All right, back to the greenroom."

416. 'You can grab your bags. Limo's waiting. Go home."

417. Then hope it's over. And usually it was.

418. After the taping of the show,

419. Mom was determined to, uh, go on with her life without Ralf.

420. She didn't want

421. any— anything more from him.

422. And I don't know what happened

423. in the two or three months after they were on the stage,

424. but, um, somehow, it ended up, they got back together at some point.

425. And she put money down on a home.

426. And then he had went back to his old ways, apparently.

427. Uh, threatened her again, and like she did on the show,

428. she wasn't gonna take it anymore.

429. That's fine. Bye.

430. I'm Lisa Kleinberg.

431. I'm an attorney,

432. and I represented Nancy in a domestic violence injunction

433. against her former husband, Ralf Panitz.

434. There had been several incidents with Ralf before,

435. and this time Ralf had actually kicked Nancy out of the house.

436. Nancy had said to me that her and Ralf had been on The Jerry Springer Show,

437. and that it was gonna air in two weeks.

438. But that didn't register with me.

439. I just focused on the domestic violence that had occurred.

440. I really felt from her that this was it between her and Ralf.

441. She was done with him.

442. She just wanted to move on with her life.

443. She wanted to get back into her house,

444. and she wanted to get settled.

445. I remember there was a bit of anxiety before we walked into court.

446. Nancy was very nervous.

447. This was really important to Nancy

448. as that, you know, Nancy was living basically out of her car.

449. She was completely displaced.

450. The judge granted her sole ownership of the home

451. and a restraining order against him.

452. He wasn't supposed to be in the home.

453. So it was a relief.

454. She was ready to move on.

455. When Ralf walked out of the courtroom, he didn't, like...

456. He wasn't cursing, he wasn't stomping.

457. He just kind of seemed resigned to the— to the ruling,

458. and he kind of walked out fairly... calmly, and there really wasn't an issue.

459. Right. So you're not...

460. But then he went to a bar.

461. And they were playing his episode of The Jerry Springer Show.

462. This is Ralf. He plays the games with all his women.

463. He takes all the money— He takes all the money he can get—

464. Nancy, he's never played any games with me.

465. Ralf watched the entire show,

466. getting drunk,

467. and he was getting more agitated.

468. Do you think, like, he's playing you,

469. and— and maybe it's time for you to tell him it's...

470. Oh, sure, he is.

471. I think that that is the thing that really pushed Ralf,

472. because at some point, he said to somebody in the bar,

473. "I'm gonna kill her."

474. That story was produced by one of my colleagues.

475. So when the scandal broke,

476. I'd just come into the office, and it was a different sort of mood.

477. Everybody was like, "Did you hear?" And I'm like, "No."

478. And they said, "It's our worst nightmare. The lawyers are on their way."

479. And I was like, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

480. I was at work.

481. A family member showed up and said

482. that I needed to...

483. call and talk to a detective in Florida.

484. So I left work immediately and went home and called.

485. They told me what had happened,

486. that someone had attacked— attacked my mom,

487. choked her,

488. pushed her down on the floor, and stomped on her head.

489. That that was her cause of death.

490. They said it was one of the worst scenes

491. that they've ever, ever encountered.

492. I was pretty— pretty shocked.

493. I didn't know what to think.

494. I... I wanted to break something. You know?

495. I don't know.

496. I didn't know anything about Ralf

497. or anybody else being a suspect or anything until it came on the news.

498. Forty-year-old Ralf Panitz and his new wife,

499. 45-year-old Eleanor Panitz, are the two that are wanted

500. and are now the targets of a worldwide search.

501. All three people involved

502. had been on The Jerry Springer Show that day.

503. Jerry Springer made good copy,

504. and a murder related to Jerry Springer made even better copy.

505. So it was irresistible as a story.

506. It became another circus

507. of going after Jerry and going after the show.

508. Mom was definitely lost in the coverage.

509. I mean, whenever they would report it,

510. the— the first line would always be,

511. "Guest on the Springer show brutally murdered."

512. Instead of his guests, Jerry Springer's in the hot seat.

513. It was just a constant onslaught.

514. Like every half hour they would do an update.

515. I couldn't get away from it.

516. Do you think the show had anything to do with it,

517. or do you think it was pure coincidence?

518. - Well, I can't comment further, you know. - Okay.

519. People happen to have been on the show, as I understand it, so...

520. But, you know, I hope they get the killer, that's the main thing.

521. The rest is just television. It's just, you know...

522. - Do you remember— - So we'll cooperate fully.

523. But as I said, I can't comment further, okay?

524. - Do you remember those people at all? - No.

525. - All right. - Okay?

526. You're mic'ed up, Jerry.

527. Can I get one cut shot of just you standing there?

528. Jerry Springer, he just kind of blew it off,

529. like, "What do I know about it?"

530. How disrespectful can you be? It's just awful.

531. She was murdered, and what I'd like to know is,

532. did The Jerry Springer Show, knowing he was violent,

533. offer her any form of protection after the show,

534. um, any form of counselling?

535. And do they care?

536. They got their pound of flesh.

537. Police say Ralf and Eleanor Panitz

538. are wanted for questioning in connection to the murder,

539. and they have also secured a copy of The Jerry Springer Show

540. as part of their investigation.

541. Jerry!

542. The rumors were we were gonna be subpoenaed,

543. and that's when Richard called me into a meeting and he said,

544. "You know, I like that Jamaica show idea, at a swingers' resort."

545. I'm like, "What do you mean?" Like, you know, "Who's going?"

546. And he's like, "Everyone."

547. And I was like, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

548. And he was like, "No, absolutely."

549. There's a rumor going out that the company took

550. the ent— the entire show

551. and s— sent us to Jamaica to get Jerry out of the country.

552. That's bullshit, because, you know,

553. you can't take a whole show and 60 people on a whim.

554. "Oh, we're gonna go to Jamaica." It's impossible.

555. I don't want Richard to get mad at me,

556. but, like, if you were gonna subpoena somebody,

557. all of them were there.

558. That's a great coincidence.

559. Yeah, perfect.

560. - Jerry, Jerry. - Oh.

561. - What? What? - We're taping.

562. I know, I know. We were just talking business.

563. - All right, I'll see you later. - Bye!

564. The show, the show. Oh, hi.

565. Here we are in, uh... Here we are... Where are we?

566. We are in Hedonism II in Jamaica...

567. So do you think that was Richard protecting the show?

568. We didn't get subpoenaed.

569. You know what I mean? Like, they didn't subpoena anyone.

570. A man whose former wife was killed after they appeared

571. on the American television program The Jerry Springer Show

572. has been arrested by police and charged with her murder.

573. Eleanor Panitz was initially held as a material witness,

574. but hasn't been charged.

575. Does this have anything to do with the Springer show at all?

576. Are we responsible for months after they leave the show

577. for everything that happens in their life?

578. We're not. We're not responsible for that.

579. I don't mean to trivialize this.

580. It was a very, very sad event.

581. But it has nothing to do with the show.

582. If Jerry Springer thought he was involved in that in any way, he would have quit.

583. At the height of his popularity, he would have quit

584. if he thought he had anything to do with that.

585. They did not take any responsibility for their part in any of this.

586. But Springer's involvement in the case

587. was brought up several times in court.

588. We were just supposed to go and tell our story.

589. And then they were gonna bring Nancy out,

590. and then we were gonna tell her that we were married,

591. and she needed to leave us alone.

592. That was never supposed to be

593. where Nancy spent the night with my husband

594. and had sex with my husband.

595. That was never part of the plan at all.

596. Ralf Panitz, the jury having found you guilty

597. in count one of the indictment of murder in the second degree,

598. the court now adjudicates you guilty.

599. "Circuit Court Judge Nancy Donnellan gave Panitz

600. the maximum sentence allowed under Florida law

601. for second-degree murder,

602. saying a life sentence is the only just sentence."

603. "The judge had harsh words for the Springer show,

604. which had fea— featured the warring couple and Eleanor."

605. "'The trio were manipulated by the show to increase their humiliation.'"

606. "'It was and is reprehensible,' the judge said."

607. "'To Jerry Springer and his producers, I ask you,

608. are ratings more important than the dignity of human life?'"

609. "'Shame on you,' the judge said. 'Shame on you.'"

610. My mom was a wonderful woman. I mean, she— she was really great.

611. She raised two young boys by herself.

612. And she was just a great woman. She was fun to be around.

613. Um, she just definitely didn't deserve that.

614. I feel like this whole situation just...

615. erased the whole middle part of my life.

616. Like, dealt with it for the last 20 years now.

617. At this point, I would hope I would have a blossoming career,

618. and be moving on,

619. but here I am 24 years later still talking about it, you know.

620. I just...

621. It's had a pretty big impact.

622. Can't— Hard to trust people anymore.

623. So...

624. Ultimately, the murder didn't hurt the show.

625. Nothing hurt the show.

626. And you redheaded bitch from hell...

627. But this episode vividly dramatized

628. how dangerous things had become.

629. These were real human beings

630. with real emotional issues.

631. Here he is, Ralf.

632. People who were so mentally unstable

633. that they could commit murder over these issues.

634. To hold those up as entertainment,

635. as sport,

636. as something for audiences to be cheering and jeering over,

637. that's about as dark as it could possibly get.

638. I wasn't doing well.

639. Emotionally, the pressure of that show was— was kicking my ass.

640. I mean, stuff starts to grate at you,

641. you know, of things that you ask people to do

642. in the name of entertainment.

643. You know?

644. But at the end of the day, my pressure was to please Richard.

645. And that was it.

646. You talk about giving people what they want,

647. but where— where would you personally, uh, draw the lines?

648. Oh, I would not. There's no line to draw.

649. If I could kill someone on television, if I could execute 'em on television,

650. I would execute them on television.

651. The only way that I could deal with it was,

652. I was shit-faced hammered for four days.

653. Then I'd, you know, sober up and do my show,

654. and then crawl back into a bottle,

655. pumping my body full of tequila.

656. You know, and then the tequila stopped working.

657. Cocaine's right on the heels of it.

658. Fuck.

659. I remember one night, a woman called the show

660. 'cause she wanted to tell her dad

661. to stop ordering her at the website that she's a hooker on,

662. 'cause they'd send her. Um...

663. And she'd have to do the job.

664. This had been going on since she was like 16, right?

665. Uh, and I'm like, "I'm not gonna get this fucking story."

666. Like, the dad's not gonna come, right?

667. And he came.

668. And I was, like, dumbfounded.

669. We had them under aliases in different hotels,

670. and they didn't know where each other were.

671. And I went over to her hotel first,

672. um, just to see how she was doing.

673. And, uh, I knocked on the door.

674. And her dad opened the door in a towel.

675. And she came to the door.

676. You could tell that she was... embarrassed.

677. They'd just got done, you know, having sex.

678. It was like putting two barrels of a shotgun to my head

679. and pulling the fucking trigger.

680. You know?

681. That's something that I don't think I need to contribute to.

682. And that was the fucking end for me.

683. You know, I quit the show.

684. I didn't tell anybody. I didn't even tell Richard.

685. I literally packed my shit into a truck and I was a no-show,

686. and I wasn't responding to any calls or anything.

687. And then I got a call from a number I didn't recognize.

688. It was Richard, and he said, "You're not coming back, are you?"

689. I said, "I can't."

690. And he said, you know, "I understand, and take care of yourself."

691. And I couldn't stop crying.

692. I was broken.

693. Go. Ready to roll.

694. - Roll for speed. - Yeah, okay, and...

695. Thank you. Hey, welcome to the show.

696. You know, over the years, we've done some really crazy shows

697. with some very wild guests,

698. and our latest season has been hotter than ever.

699. In some cases, too hot for TV.

700. After the murder case, there was a lot of lawyers worried.

701. "We don't want any nudity."

702. "We don't want people complaining."

703. "We don't want things in the press."

704. They were cracking down, cracking down, cracking down,

705. on things we were doing,

706. and they were slowly removing the life from the show.

707. - Ooh! - Oh, I know how you feel.

708. I think that as time went on, as our culture shifted,

709. it just didn't seem as important.

710. It didn't seem as vital to the public conversation

711. as it was at the beginning.

712. The show never really recovered

713. after it lost its initial audience,

714. and having beat Oprah for weeks in a row,

715. we dropped off.

716. The guy in the end, why don't you go to a tanning bed

717. and get rid of that red neck?

718. We're proud of our rednecks where we come from.

719. It became mediocre.

720. It was the most popular show on television,

721. and now they're killing it.

722. And after a while,

723. they killed me too.

724. I'm finished.

725. And then, well after I was gone,

726. um, they just wanted to squeeze every penny out of it,

727. and the show just became the same thing every day.

728. My guests say it's time to leave the past behind them.

729. They are ready to rumble.

730. Shivering from the cold and bitterness

731. that has taken their— over their relationships.

732. A lonely cross-dresser who wore his dead mother's underwear.

733. Please meet Heather, Debbie, Ryan.

734. Jade says she's tired of making room for her mother.

735. boyfriend has cheated on her one too many times.

736. Well, still in the game.

737. Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

738. The pact that Jerry made with Richard Dominick

739. was a bargain that really caused him to sell his soul.

740. And I believe that he knew every day of his life

741. that what he was doing was really beneath him

742. and beneath his dignity.

743. I'd like to take this opportunity to frankly apologize

744. for everything I've ever done in television.

745. I have ruined the culture.

746. Yes, he got the success and the riches,

747. but what did he have to do in order to achieve it?

748. It's a perversion of the American dream.

749. I just hope hell isn't that hot. I burn real easy.

750. I'm very light-complected.

751. I hope you all pray for me,

752. because if I get to heaven, you're all going.

753. Is there an— a TV show you watch you're embarrassed to admit you watch?

754. The Jerry Springer Show.

755. It was a low point for television,

756. and TV Guide has since named The Jerry Springer Show

757. the worst television show of all time.

758. All time! The worst!

759. I will fuck you up, Angela.

760. You want to fuck me up?

761. It's also ushered in an era

762. that we're living in now where anything goes,

763. and where there are no guardrails or boundaries.

764. - Don't touch my daughter! - You bitch!

765. Do it!

766. I look at some of the stuff that's being done now and I go,

767. "Eh, we're kind of responsible for this crap."

768. Guys, stop it!

769. Kourtney!

770. What on earth?

771. Maybe, you know, I am gonna go to hell.

772. The Jerry Springer Show gave a lot of people permission

773. to say whatever falls out of your mouth.

774. You dropped to your knees?

775. Yes.

776. Must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees.

777. I should be, Omarosa said me.

778. I mean, it's the ruination of American culture.

779. Step up, motherfucker. What you got?

780. I don't think they've ever been held accountable for anything.

781. I'm sure there have been other people that have been affected,

782. other guests that we don't know about,

783. or people just watching the show at home think, "Oh, this is normal."

784. It's not.

785. Look at the history of the show.

786. A guy punches a girl in the face, it gets huge ratings.

787. We put a girl without clothes on the show,

788. everybody loses their mind.

789. And it's like the worst and greatest thing that's ever happened. Right?

790. All you guys want to talk about is all that shit.

791. There's a reason,

792. 'cause everybody that's on the other end of that camera on Netflix,

793. sitting in their living room,

794. only wants to hear about the Shetland pony with underwear...

795. the murder that was or was not our fault,

796. but, you know, we're the problem.

797. You know, if none of that happened,

798. there's no documentary on Netflix.

799. Full stop.

800. I think you can call it a wrap right there.

801. Roll credits. We're done.