but he's so important to my parents.
Why?
Because as a kid, I used to get in trouble
all the time for staying up and watching his show.
Please welcome the man, the myth, the legend,
the one and only Jerry Springer!
Hello! - Thank you.
Please. Don't get up.
- [laughs] - Don't get up. Thank you.
- I... - Thank you.
- I'm not gonna-- I'm fangirling.
I'm nervous.
This means so much to me because your show
was everything growing up.
- Well, Lilly, you are so sweet and I'm glad
you grew up in spite of my show.
- [laughs]
- 'Cause I want to apologize to your parents.
I've ruined the culture.
- Not even!
But also, that will get me brownie points.
So, Mom, did you see that? Jerry Springer just apologized.
So we're good now.
So, Jerry, explain for my younger audience
that may not be as familiar.
What was "The Jerry Springer Show"
all about?
- Well, it was about crazy.
It was about people
that brought their real lives onto television
to talk about something that was bothering them,
but it had to be outrageous.
In other words,
if you called us with a warm, uplifting story,
we were required to send you to another show.
We were only allowed to do things
that are outside the norms of proper behavior.
So I knew every day going in
I would be handed something that was crazy.
So it was really a circus.
We didn't deal with serious issues.
It was just-- the show was stupid.
[laughter]
It was--what am I saying?
- You were on the air for like 27 seasons...
- With that show, yeah. - Yeah.
Okay, and so you interviewed multiple guests every episode.
So how many guests in total do you think you've spoken with?
- We actually figured it out-- a little over 50,000.
We're dealing with people, many of whom have never
been on an airplane, have never stayed at a hotel,
have never been out of town.
With these people, they're not famous,
and there's no agenda.
They're on there because they're really upset
that their girlfriend is sleeping with another guy
and, you know, and they're all going to meet on stage
and not be very happy about it.
So that's-- you can't control that.
- [laughs] Wow.
This is blowing my mind.
- There was no preparation for me.
I wasn't allowed to know
who the guests were or what the show was about.
They gave me a card,
which you saw me carrying around on the show,
but all the card has on it are the names of the guests.
So my job is to simply ask questions that you would ask
sitting at home and then make jokes.
- So you genuinely didn't know
what you were getting into before you stepped onto set?
- No, I just knew it was going to be crazy
'cause it was a show about craziness.
So it's like if I was hired to do a show about basketball,
all my guests would be basketball players.
Since I'm hired to do a show about crazy,
everybody was crazy.
[laughter]
- This is blowing my mind because, you know,
when I got into this industry, I think I just convinced myself
that shows like "The Jerry Springer Show"
like, "Oh, man, it had to have been staged.
Like, those are probably actors and he probably knew."
But you're telling me that that's not the case.
- Yeah.
And we--at first, when people hear that,
it sounds surprising, but then walk down
any street in America,
and by the time you get to the end of the block,
you've met--
you could see eight people that could be on the show.
You know, so everything that has been on the show--
except the one story which--
we had this guy who married his horse.
And, well, we did a follow-up show
because the horse left him.
- So not one show, but two shows.
- Yes, because the horse left him.
We like to follow up on what happens to our guests.
I guess he left the door open in the h--you know.
I have no idea that the horse will--
remember, I told you I never know what the show is about.
- [laughs] - So they hand me a card.
Every show, you'll notice the first question I ask
is always, I introduce the person
and then I say, so what's going on?
So there's...
"Oh, and well, please welcome Bob.
Bob, what's going on?"
And Bob sitting there in his chair,
just a 50-year-old guy or something,
and he says, "Well, I'm having trouble with the neighbors."
"What's wrong with the neighbors?"
"Well, they don't like my wife."
"What's wrong with your wife?"
"I don't know. She's quiet.
She keeps to herself."
I don't know what the problem is."
Well, this is striking me as pretty boring.
So I look at the card, and I see the next guest.
"Well, okay, let's meet your wife here."
Out comes this horse. - [laughs]
- Now, I--
my reaction is what I think
any normal person's reaction would be.
I assume that his wife fell off the horse,
that she was going to just ride a horse in there.
So I said, "Oh, my God, stop the show!
Is she okay?"
And the executive producer
who stands to the side is screaming at me,
"No, no, that's his wife."
- [laughs]
- And that was Pixel.
They lived in Branson, Missouri.
In his home, the hallways were extra wide
because the horse lived in the house with him.
- What is this story? [laughs]
- Yeah, when I was on stage
and Bob was sitting in the chair
and Pixel was, let's say to my left,
whenever I stood between them,
Pixel would push me out of the way
because she wanted to be able to see Bob
without any interference.
So if I was in their line of sight--
so it was--I mean, there was something going on there.
[laughter]
When Pixel came out, I said, "Hey, why the long face?"
[both laugh]
We try to run that show
every year around the Kentucky Derby
'cause we want horse lovers to watch our show.
That's how you get ratings.