On April 27, 2023, former Cincinnati mayor and longtime talk show host Jerry Springer passed away. He was 79. The man led a long and textured life with many acts. As a boy, he fled England as it was being bombed by the Nazis. He came to the United States and began studying law, eventually becoming a Doctor of Jurisprudence. He was a campaign adviser for John F. Kennedy, and practiced law in Cincinnati. In 1971, he sat on the Cincinnati city council, but was infamously kicked off in 1974 for a sex scandal. Springer had been candid about the scandal over the following years, and even laughed at himself a little bit for using a personal check to pay a sex worker.
This didn't stymie his career, and he became the mayor of Cincinnati in 1978. It wouldn't be until 1991 that Springer, having accrued some broadcasting experience, would become a talk show host. "Jerry Springer" began innocently enough, but was revamped in 1994, and eventually grew into a rowdy, salacious mosh pit of sex and violence. Each episode became more scandalous than the last. By the time it got to episodes with titles like "Stripper Wars!", one knew what they were getting into. Many critics pointed to "Jerry Springer" as the nadir of American culture, and it seemed to celebrate humanity's trashiest impulses. Springer, in interviews, was frank about the dumbness of his show, and maintained that he was merely showcasing an admittedly bizarre, but often neglected facet of America.
"Jerry Springer" was massively popular. Massively. It didn't go off the air until 2018 after running 4,969 episodes. And while it was an unscripted talk show, it captured the popular imagination enough to eventually appear in theaters. Neil Abramson's "Ringmaster" was released on November 25, 1998.
Wait, What?
It's hard to overstate the popularity of daytime talk shows as they appeared in the 1990s. Some were "classy," others were bleak, and all of them were easy to produce and hooked viewers with real-life scandals. Names like Phil Donahue, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jesse Raphael, and Ricki Lake were on the nation's lips. Whatever the tone of each respective show, usually dictated by the personality of the host, they emerged as the modern-day equivalent of "True Confessions" magazine; talk shows provided schadenfreude for some, relief for others ("There, but for the grace of God," etc.), and lizard-brain sexuality for everyone. If one was very lucky, a fight would break out on "Jerry Springer," and clothes would be ripped off. "Jerry Springer" turned everyone into armchair Caligulas.
The rumor about "Ringmaster" was that Artisan Entertainment wanted to make a scripted drama about a Jerry Springer-like talk show host, meant to examine the salacious talk show trend from the inside out. It would highlight the personal dramas of the people who appeared on his show; what kind of people actively seek to get on national TV and air their dirty laundry and confess their sexual proclivities? When holding auditions for the Jerry Springer character, however, Springer himself stepped in as a candidate. The executives saw a golden opportunity to make their film seem more true to life and cast him. While "Ringmaster" is not a documentary or based on actual events, Springer's presence surely made it look that way. Jaime Pressley appeared in the film as one of his guests, along with Molly Hagan, Wendy Raquel Robinson, and several others.
The story of "Ringmaster" is quite basic. Two groups of people, facing down their personal soap opera-like dramas, seek to wring a little bit of fame out of it.
Minor Celebrity
They audition to appear on TV with Jerry Farrelly (Springer). Farrelly is, as the title indicates, the ringmaster, present on his show to merely wrangle people. Jerry is not the protagonist of the film. Like on his real show, Jerry eventually emerges to plead that people be kind to one another.
"Ringmaster" was not greeted warmly by critics, and it currently holds a 21% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes … with only 24 reviews. Roger Ebert only gave the film two stars, but admitted that it was better than it had a right to be, as many of the supporting cast members made their characters palpably sympathetic. Tyler Coates, writing for the Decider, noted in 2015 that the film was quite bad and had few redeeming qualities as a drama. Coates did point out, though, that "Ringmaster" still serves a vital function as a time capsule. The way humanity viewed pop media fame in the age before smartphones is something that doesn't exist anymore, leaving "Ringmaster" as a very specific snapshot.
There was a time when people were so hungry for fame and visibility, they would happily humiliate themselves on national TV just for the promise of air time. They offered themselves into a "trash" narrative that shows like "Jerry Springer" had cultivated, hoping for a little recognition. These days, "homemade celebrity" is dictated by self-constructed online personae that people can choose for themselves. The rewards are just as petty — millions of eyeballs and no cash — but the impulse seems to be the same.
"Ringmaster" reveals a fictionalized analysis of late 1990s fame hunger. It can't possibly be anything less than fascinating.
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