It's common for a polarizing figure's death to be met with mixed emotions, but it takes a unique life to evoke a combination of widespread affection and revulsion. Jerry Springer is such a man.
This is not speaking ill of the dead. Springer, who died Thursday at the age of 79, long considered himself more of a circus officiant than a talk show host. In 2002 TV Guide declared "The Jerry Springer Show," his defining contribution to the medium, to be the worst TV show of all time. Instead of being chastened, Springer and his producer Richard Dominick incorporated the questionable encomium into each episode's introduction.
Twenty-one years later one might reconsider whether that rusty medal still fits. But there's no doubt the worst of TV's worst have Springer to thank for napalming a trail for them. Long before TLC rebranded from The Learning Channel to the home of Honey Boo-Boo and "Dr. Pimple Popper," Springer drained the human soul's pus before raving studio audiences to slake the guilty pleasure of millions.
