The Exploitative Nature of Daytime Tabloid Talk Shows of Decades Past

Oh, what a time it was to be alive!!

I had friends who went on Jerry Springer for a laugh, inventing a nonexistent love triangle. They got a flight to Chicago and a hotel room for the night for their trouble. So I don't know how many or few of those stories were real.

[quote]Oh, what a time it was to be alive!!

If only!

Let's not forget Morton Downey Jr. and his low-rent Jersey counterpart Richard "Meatball" Bey.

And I actually thought we couldn't sink any lower as a society.

He wasn't disgusted he was the object of a gay c rush. He was disgusted his family and friends would find out. Duh.

It was mostly a big phony spectacle, like wrestling, but there were, as in wrestling, a few casualties.

So, Robert, how do you feel about your father Morton’s past as the host of a tabloid talk show?

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^^^ he looks good for having spent 22 years in prison.

I wonder if he experienced any gay "crushes" in the prison showers while incarcerated?

“I hear someone has a crush on you…”

I may be misremembering, but wasn't there a crossover episode where Jenny Jones herself revealed she had a crush on MILF Sally Jessy Raphael?

R13 No

all homophobes r bisexuals, who think just like they r choosing being straight, gays can too. Their same-sex desires r their secret shame. As evident from all the dead reports n attack reports, they will kill u, just to hide this secret shame

He survived in prison because the other inmates respected his decision to kill a queer for 'punking' him.

I always wondered what happened to most of the wild teens they had on

I remember staying home from school "sick" when they had male strippers on.

I love the Sylvia Browne episodes of Montel

I loved Maury Povich and the "you are NOT the father" DNA tests. Still do. I think after this season he's finally retiring.

The most ghetto show of them all

[quote]I love the Sylvia Browne episodes of Montel

"I see her near a body of water ... I'm sorry, hon, she's passed over."

I wonder if any of the missing kids ever turned up after old Syl told the parents they were dead.

[quote]I also wonder about all the babies whose fathers were confronted on these shows. So many of the fathers called the mothers whores and denied the child could be theirs.

But...they were so funny, though.

^ I mean, imagine the cardio routine these cameramen have to adhere to in order to maintain that level of precision.

Im always surprised that those heifertitis can run that fast!!

R24: It ought to be an Olympic sport.

Lots of homophobia in the comments of that article. Mostly in the votes.

r the straight guys that obsessed with gay sex

OP, I certainly think that all those crazy talk shows laid the groundwork for the rise of people like Sarah Palin and Donald Trump.

At happened twice two kid Sylvia said was dead did turn up.

In 2002, Browne informed the parents of 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, who had disappeared earlier that year, that he had been kidnapped by a dark-skinned Hispanic man with dreadlocks and was now deceased. Hornbeck was found alive in 2007; his kidnapper was Caucasian and short-haired.

In November 2004, Browne told the mother of kidnapping victim Amanda Berry, who had disappeared nineteen months earlier: "She's not alive, honey." Browne also claimed that Berry was "in water", and that she had had a vision of Berry's jacket in the garbage with "DNA on it".[22] Berry's mother died two years later believing her daughter had been killed. Berry was found alive in May 2013.

I hadn't seen Jerry Springer for years until one day, home with the flu, I tuned in thinking, "I wonder what this is like now." It was exactly the same, and the topic was My Mom's The Biggest Whore In The Trailer Park. For all the fakery, I did believe they lived in a trailer park because that girl said, "When I'm walking to the mailboxes . . ." She started crying, saying her mom came home drunk without any toilet paper, and "I didn't have nothin' to wipe my ass with!" and I remember thinking, "You should have used that shirt instead of wearing it on national TV today."

“I’m a Mommy at 14: Out of Control Teens”

Come on, all that trashy shit was still way better than Oprah mugging and preening for the old white hausfraus gushing and giggling over her antics.

One of the best looking men I've ever seen was a guy with blue hair on Ricki Lake. He wasn't gay, though.

What about the people on Judge Judy, going on international TV to settle petty disputes? That's pretty embarrassing and more likely to be real.

I mean today it’s all on social media and reality TV. This love of trash has gone nowhere.

R33, Oprah was not above all that trashiness, I remember people talking the next day about "She had hookers (gasp) on there!" But yeah, she really started making bank when she discovered how to simplify a white frau's consternation at befriending any sassy black next-door neighbors (by being one you could turn off after an hour every afternoon).

A look at the murder from another perspective . . .

Good way of putting it, r36. I may have mentioned this here before, but years ago I was home sick from work. Lolling in bed not feeling well, watching Jerry Springer, then Ricki Lake. Then it was...Oprah. After watching just a few minutes, I suddenly felt better enough to have a shower and head into work. Her show was THAT BAD. She was fucking painful. I went to work rather than watch that shit.

Matt Gaetz doppelgänger.

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Sylvania Browne was evil.

R13, you’re confused. Jenny Jones was crushing on Virginia Graham.

I remember watching Jenny Jones and seeing Rude Jude's first appearance. She gave him that name because someone had brought him on the show because he made fun of them in high school, and they wanted to show him they were attractive now but he was having none of it and wouldn't apologize. He had such a personality that he did more appearances on Jenny, and then created a whole career based on being 'Rude Jude'.

Sally Jesse Raphael’s daughter died of a drug overdose, Does anyone else remember when they were trying to pass Sally Jesse off as Latin? Lol, her name was Lowenthal. She’s almost 90 now.

I wonder what Sue Simmons has been doing since she left WNBC. Chuck n Sue were a team for many years.

I know a stuntwoman actually hired to perform on The Jerry Springer Show, staging fights with other women as they played out fake scenarios (sisters fighting over a man, for example). She said that only about half of what you see on daytime talk shows is any way real.

[quote]Does anyone else remember when they were trying to pass Sally Jesse off as Latin?

That was an inspirational moment in my life!

I can't believe the homophobic murderer was set free

Sally Jesse's mother was Puerto Rican (Rafael) and Sally lived in PR during her younger years so I believe Sally qualifies.

In the Spanish speaking world we had El Show de Christina which filmed in Miami. Outrageous but Christina was cool. She talked about AIDS when nobody else would and she started an AIDS foundation.

I only watched these shows for the male stripper groups, hunk contest, and similar episodes....

My mother couldn't stand Morton Downey Jr. I'm pretty sure dad watched him (he watched Rush Limbaugh & The 700 Club too, so...). He was an asshole, but the show could be funny on occasion.

I was always shocked by those women that would test like 4 or 5 guys and have no clue who their baby daddy was. I’m a slit but I’ve never had sex with so many guys in the space of a week or two that I’ve completely lost track

R52, many of them are probably lying to be on tv

I remember thinking Ricki Lake’s show was so fun.

I worked with a guy who appeared on one of those “I’m a Drag Queen” episodes of Sally Jesse. He was such a great guy, it was so fun seeing him on tv

R48, he wasn’t convicted of 1st degree murder. He served about 20 years. Par for the course for his particular conviction.

[quote] I loved Maury Povich and the "you are NOT the father" DNA tests. Still do. I think after this season he's finally retiring.

I loved those shows for laughs. I have a friend who went to a bunch of Maury tapings. He lived in NYC and is a nurse and often had weekdays off. A bus would take people into Stamford, CT where the show taped. He usually went with a couple of work friends. He said it was trashy fun and sort of helped them destress from their jobs. In 2017, I was going to go for a visit and we were going to do a taping. Family stuff came up for me and I had to cancel the trip. A couple of years later, my friend got bored of NYC and decided to do travel nursing.

“Hey Mother, I’ve got a secret, I’m an addict and pregnant it’s true…”

Morton Downy Jr.was scum. A friend sent a link a few years ago of Downy's show in the early 90's featuring his gay brother who was ridiculed throughout.

[Quote]During one controversial episode Downey introduced his gay brother, Tony Downey, to his studio audience and informed them Tony was HIV positive. During the episode Downey stated he was afraid his audience would abandon him if they knew he had a gay brother, but then said he did not care.

^^ And that is horse shit. He was cruel.

r44 He's hosting the All Out Show on Shade 45 (Sirius XM), now.

r44 Oh, NOW the Wikipedia link saying exactly that loads?? Lol.

Tony Downy died in 1994 of AIDS.

R2 While trying out for a game show, I got into a conversation with a girl who worked on the show. She told me that she had previously worked on Jerry Springer and Maury Povich's shows and that Springer's show was mostly staged, but Povich's was real.

My favorite was non-exploitative Phil Donahue, it was life-changing when I saw his show for the first time: lesbian nuns. I remember an audience member asking a nun if she was “chaste” & the crowd laughing bc they thought she meant “chased.”

He had so much gay content: I saw Zack Spears & Steven Marks on an episode. Plus he was the first day timer to talk about AIDS. 3-5pm were must-see with him& Oprah airing back to back, I much preferred him as I thought he approached things more rationally & intellectually.

It was so sad when his ratings started slipping due to the increased trashiness that was proliferating talk shows at the time. Iirc his last ep featured Rula Lenska & the “take it all off” shaving cream lady. I thought Oprah would pre-tape a farewell send off but didn’t, I lost a lotta respect for her, especially as she cited him as a pioneer of the genre.

I am “Rula Lenska”!

Rula Lenska appeared in a 1984 'Doctor Who' story with Peter Davison and the Daleks:

I watched Jerry Springer to see thst beeft security guy, Steve.

[quote]My favorite was non-exploitative Phil Donahue

Mine as well, R63.

I still remember when I was young and ACT-UP appeared on his show in 1990.

Gay people depicted in the media tended to be weak or silly, and here were a group of people who were smart, assertive and anything but weak.

What is Phil up to these days? I wasn’t even sure if he was still alive…just checked his Wiki and it does appear he is still with us.

R68- If you call being married married to that cunt Marlo being alive then he is.

I'm surprised he didn't wear a MAGA hat.

This era definitely represents the 90s.

I will always respect Phil Donahue for doing what he could to increase HIV/AIDS awareness. I always thought the photos and images of him as pallbearer at Ryan White's funeral alongside Elton John and Howie Long was sad, but touching.

Maybe someone should do a catch up with the kids who were the subject of the paternity tests on Maury? Or maybe not.

r22 Sylvia Brown was on Montel when one of the mothers of those three girls held in a guys basement in Cleveland for decades asked her about her missing daughter and she deadpanned looked at her and said "She's dead. You know she is dead you need to accept it." Yeah, she failed hard.. There were also Charles Perez and Rholonda Watts show...I remember one Geraldo Show where he had on a soap actor, Brent Jasmer. His story was he was adapted and had been looking for his birth monther, then Jerry Rivers goes "come on out!" and brought out the guy's mother and sister with no warning. You could tell he was fucking destroyed. Literally got no prep or time to even decide to meet his birth mother and sister they just hauled them out - here you go. It was fucking despicable.

R21 too bad Captain Stubing wasn’t there to catch his pants and crotch sniff them.

Roughly about 8,173 people.

James Van Praagh was sort of Oprah's Sylvia Browne for awhile. He appeared on her show a few times. I also recall Oprah had one or two episodes involving people who said they were abducted by aliens. I also remember the alien abduction topic being covered on Maury.

I don't think Ricki Lake ever went into topics of psychics, ghosts, UFOs/aliens etc. I think Oprah, Maury, and Montel were probably somewhat inspired to go into those topics due shows like Unsolved Mysteries, Sightings, and probably the period when TLC used to produce and air paranormal documentaries.

God, I'd forgotten about that old queen James Van Praagh!

He's a total fraud but I bet he could smell cookies from The Other Side.