Dear Jerry Springer,
Back in the day, before Netflix, DVD and [redacted internet activity], I used to spend a lot of time between finishing my homework and watching Star Trek The Next Generation in syndication on UPN with not much to do. I was a very creative child, but even creative kids run out of steam sometimes, and we just want Star Trek to come on, damnit!
What I learned while waiting for Star Trek to come on was that there was other awesomeness to behold on UPN in [year redacted, it was sometime in the 90s, but that information could be used to identify me]. Much as several years later, I would fall in love with M*A*S*H while waiting for Seinfeld and Third Rock from the Sun, at eleven, while waiting for Star Trek, I fell in love with one particular series of seminal (heh heh, he said "seminal") Trash TV.
It was your show.
First, let me say, as a disclaimer, that at eleven, I missed the early seasons when I started watching, but in researching you as a nuanced adult, I was surprised and enheartened to learn that you were once a very serious journalist. You tackled real social issues and spent nights camped out with runaway kids to show America what was happening in their own backyard, beneath their noses, and you actually maybe made a difference to a lot of people.
You made a difference to me.
I don't love or even like "celebrity culture." But you, Jerry Springer, deserve your celebrity.
You want to know what I loved about your show?
In the Wasteland of Mostly Formulaic and Mainstream Societally-Reinforcing Television that dominated the Networks in the 90s, your show was the one island of representation for gender-nonconforming people outside of Cable TV.
Sure, you can find isolated examples to counter that exact wording, but you have got to understand how critical it was to my channel-surfing, sexually questioning, eleven-year old self to find a show that acknowledged that not all people were "just straight or gay" and that transgender and transvestite were not the same. I learned a lot about the world from watching you, Jerry, as you navigated the complex dynamics of families around identity and society.
Jerry, you ensured that I didn't waste my time between getting bored of books, drawing and Legos for that afternoon, and the Star Trek reruns.
I didn't pick up then, as a child, on your generosity of spirit, your compassion, your humanism, your consistent anti-racism and willingness to listen and negotiate from the heart and the head at the same time. I wish I had. I would have been a much better advocate for your wisdom. I only knew what a "guilty pleasure" was and I guess I didn't realize there was more to it than that. But looking back, an [exact age redacted]-year old adult, I see that now.
A few months ago, in a work capacity, I spent a harrowing night and the early morning hours accompanying a pregnant teenager to the Emergency Room. The girl had gone AWOL (left her out-of-home placement) but availed herself to my agency, so we were trying to place her in a mother-baby program, and not long after I arrived, she began bleeding and I needed to take to the ER. Keeping a traumatized teenager calm and thinking positively in these circumstances is difficult, so I did my "tech support" trick. I asked her for help with my phone. If you give kids something to teach you (even if you already know it) it helps them feel confident and it shows them vulnerability they can't exploit but will help them start to trust you. So I did that, and when we got YouTube working I asked if there something she enjoyed watching on YouTube that she could focus on.
And she said, "Judge Jerry."
And I said, "Jerry Springer?"
And she said, "Yeah, they made a him judge and he's got a judge show!"
Granted, most of the hosts of courtroom TV are not actually judges. Judge Judy, for example (whom I also adore). I think she has a mediator's license or something, but she's not a judge. But Jerry actually has a J.D., and did serve in a public office, albeit in different branches of government, as a member of City Council and later mayor of Cincinnati. So he's at least got some legislative experience.
But that's not important in that moment. What is important is "They made him a judge and he's a judge show!"
And we watched Judge Jerry on YouTube while we waited for the doctor.
And that got me thinking.
So, I wrote this letter.
That is all.
Thanks.
- Raven Green