Jerry Springer Show

The scary thing is that Jerry Springer was very nearly Governor of Ohio, a fact that I hold over my friend from Cleveland as often as possible. I know, I know, I don't need anything else other than the fact that he's from Cleveland, but it's always good to have extra ammo.

Springer was in fact forced to admit that almost all of the fights on the show are staged, because the police threatened to start arresting his guests for assault unless he did. My favorite people on the show are the audience members who seem not to know that it's all fake, sitting with their mouths agape wondering how some people could possibly be that stupid and ignorant.

Prepare yourself: Springer: The Musical is coming! It’s an operatic production based on the Jerry Springer show.

Yes, "operatic." They're assembling more than a dozen actual opera singers to give the piece a trial run in south London, part of a works-in-progress series that starts August 21, 2001.

Before you grab the rifle and run for that water tower, you should know that Springer appears to be a joke. That is, the show really is happening, but it's supposed to be funny.

The show is written by Richard Thomas, a BBC TV personality and contributor to the English show Attention Scum, for which he wrote the "Tourette’s Divas" segment, which features singers slinging operatic insults at each other. Jerry Springer was not contacted prior to the musical's creation but is apparently amused by the idea.

Thomas says he hopes the trial run will raise the money "to stage it on a Lion King sized budget." I can’t tell if he's kidding.

There was a BBC report in March 2001 that Springer was planning a musical version of his show, starring himself. I hope to god this is the production they were talking about, because otherwise, there's another musical out there ...

Source:
-- The New York Post (kill me now, I'm citing the Post): http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/36450.htm
-- BBC report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/news/entertainment/010312_springer.shtml