The Icons That Built America Recap for Titans of Talk
-In 1982, a young man from Ohio is the most beloved politicians decided to run for governor….only to fall short of winning. He would soon go into show business, changing the talk show world forever. He is the man, the myth, the legend. He is Jerry Springer.
-Another young man helped change late night TV forever with his own brand of personality. He is also a legend in his own right. He is named David Letterman.
-Back before David changed the world of late night TV, it didn’t even exist. For a long time, nothing would even air at night….until Steve Allen took the reigns and decided to bring The Knickerbocker Beer Show on air. It soon became a hit and became what we now know as The Tonight Show.
-This new kind of television became a favorite thing for David. He would play pretend and act out Steve’s show. His dad had the same kind of humor, but never pursued entertainment.
-Dave would go to Ball State University and work as a DJ. It was a classical music station, but this didn’t stop David from sneaking into the station and doing his own kind of show late at night. The people in charge didn’t like it, but David was not deterred. He soon took calls in from listeners, creating a Make It or Break It segment, where he broke records of songs people hated.
-Before long, David began working at a small TV station as a weatherman. Despite the seriousness of the job, he would add his own brand of humor. When the head weatherman steps down, David tries to get the job, but is turned down. He is devastated. Life only gets tougher when his father suddenly died of a heart attack.
-The death of David’s father gave him a moment of clarity and made him realize that life is short. He decided to go for his dreams. By now, The Tonight Show is hosted by Johnny Carson and being filmed in LA. This gave David the idea to go out to LA himself and do his own show and make it in Tinseltown. He began performing stand up at The Comedy Store in hopes of being a guest on The Tonight Show. Things began were a bit rocky, discouraging him.
-Meanwhile, Jerry Springer, the son of Polish Jews who escaped to London in WWII was ready to make his own move. Born in a subway station in London, his family moved to the USA when he was a young boy. His family would never discuss the past and would often see the world with rose-colored glasses.
-Jerry knew there was something more than what he was being exposed to, so he went on to study law at Northwestern University. He decided to switch gears and work in politics, working for the Robert Kennedy campaign until Kennedy was assassinated. Devastated by this, he would go on to run for city council in Cincinnati.
-However, he was visiting a brothel in Kentucky at the time, which was considered a huge scandal, especially when the brothel was raided. He was terrified of the fallout, so he held a press conference, where he owned it all, apologized and resigned.
-Despite this career ending move, Jerry became a beloved figure and would go on to become one of the youngest mayors of Cincinnati.
-David was still working on making a name for himself, appearing on Mork and Mindy, Mary Tyler Moore’s variety show and made appearances on any show that would take him. This would finally get him on The Tonight Show to do a segment.
-Johnny LOVED it and did an interview with David. By 1980, David was a frequent and favorite guest, leading to him getting a morning show on NBC in New York. The show is flop and quickly cancelled. David thinks this is the end of his career, but a year later, he actually won an Emmy for that very show.
-Late Night with David Letterman would go on air in 1982, following Johnny Carson’s show. Since most people turned off the TV by then, it was a slow start.
-Jerry’s political career would come to an end when he fails to win governor, so he decided to take his new career in a new direction and go into reporting. He struggled in the beginning, but people fell in love with him. He went into controversial topics, added his personality and soon went from zero to hero in the world of television.
-Before long, David began to get a following on his show. He began booking guests, gaining an audience and even landing on the covers of magazines. Johnny himself would even appear on the show, where he would announce his retirement.
-Jay Leno would ‘take over Carson’s crown,’ which was upsetting for everyone, including David. It was expected that he would be the one to get the job.
-Jerry is so popular that he would soon join the ranks of Geraldo Rivera, Phil Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael by getting his own talk show. It was expected to be a Donahue 2.0 but isn’t the hit people expected.
-The late-night TV battle would continue, with David moving his show to CBS. This would be the first show of its kind on CBS and allow David to earn more money than Jay. He became the king of late night.
-Jerry continues to work on making his show a hit when the Rodney King verdict was announced, leading to major riots in LA. This inspired Jerry to take his show in a whole new direction by adding controversial guests–a White Supremacist and a Black Panther. There is a huge fight on the show, which freaked him out. Little did he know that the episode would get a lot of press and ratings. His show got a ton of attention, so he turned it into what we now know and love to this day–controversy, scandal and the Jerry chant.
-Critics may have hated the show, but it was ratings gold.
-Both David and Jerry made history and set the path for the world of talk shows that we know today.
-More next week, stay tuned.
