While watching Jerry Springer the other day, it occurred to me that literally thousands of people have been on some talk show or other since the advent of that particular forum.
I had a friend who was on Ricki Lake. I met her a few years after her episode had aired. Her then-boyfriend had dumped her on Valentine’s Day, which was the theme of the show. After the show, she and her boyfriend had gotten back together and married. She said that Ricki was very nice, and they got a trip to New York. It was also one of the first things that she would tell people after she had met them.
I was on a radio call-in show once years ago in college. Part of a panel for National Coming Out Day. I was the Media Queer for Central Illinois at the time so any time anything relating to homosexuality hit the news I got calls from the local outlets.
My best friend and her (at the time) boyfriend (now husband) were in the studio audience of a taping of the talk show parody Night Stand, and were seen on camera. If that counts. Which it probably doesn’t.
I had a friend who was on Ricki Lake - his girlfriend brought him there under false pretenses, only to tell him she was sleeping with his best friend. Lovely girl :rolleyes: .
I also had a cross-dressing friend on Jerry Springer - big guy who dressed like a woman. I think I still have that on tape somewhere. This was apparently before Springer was fixed, because the guy actually did go out to the clubs and do an act every weekend (and the only reason it was a big deal was because this was in West Virginia and it wasn’t all that gay friendly).
I was on a morning talk show in Savannah Georgia, and also on a kiddie show in Atlanta. The morning talk show I was subbing for an elected official who didn’t make the cut, I got to talk about why so many strip bars were opening in Georgia. The kiddie show was in response to an article I wrote about fossils embedded in limestone walls.
About 3 years ago I found myself unemployed and home alot. I became a fiend for the day time shows…One day on Ricki I saw a girl I went to Elementary school with. They showed her on screen and I said to myself “That looks like Tawny.” then the name popped up on the screen “Tawny”.
It was sad. Her boyfriend was mistreating her.
There was a talk show filmed for semi-popular radio personality named “Rhona at Night” I was in the pilot episode’s studio audience and got to ask a question of an orgasm expert. It was only shown on PBS really late at night. But occasionally I would recieve calls from friends saying they saw me on tv the night before.
If local cable access counts, then I was a semi-regular on a show called The Spud Goodman Show. It was basically a talk show parody though he would also do some straight interviews with local celebrities or B movie actors in town to hype their latest straight to video masterpiece. In a sense, “I” wasn’t on the show as I played several different characters. I guess my real self wasn’t interview material. It was kind of fun to be recognized while I was at work though. I’m sorry that it ended.
A childhood friend of mine has been on several major talk shows, including Oprah, and I think Today and GMAmerica - because she was stalked by a guy we went to high school with and she took action to get laws changed in California to get him behind bars for a longer time.
It was distressing and surreal to hear her tell the stories about how this obviously unbalanced guy came after her. I barely knew the guy - I was on the track team with him - but he clearly flipped out. She really did a good thing to take control back of her life and to try to protect other women.
Years ago, I was close friends with a girl who went on the Sally Jessie Raphael Show. The topic was something along the lines of I’m A Slut And I’m Proud Of It or some such.
Side note – one of her bragging points on the show was a claim that she had slept with Taime Downe, lead singer of Faster Pussycat. A week or so later, Downe appeared on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball, denying that he “ever slept with that skank on the Sally show”. She then left a message on the Faster Pussycat answering machine denying she ever said it in the first place. The band then looped a snippet of her saying “I never said I slept with you on the Sally Jessie Raphael Show” into a song on their next album. Ahhh, good times…good times.
Oh, and yeah, I loved her dearly, but she was a slut-'n-a-half.
A college professor of mine turned up on Donahue on a show about bisexuals. I have to say I was pleased; he was very attractive, smart, cool…and I believe those people should make themselves available to the widest range possible .
I had some friends who were on the Ricki Lake show back in the 95-96 era. Two separate groups, actually. Both made their stories up completely - I don’t know if the producers were aware or not.
I remember, when I was in high school, a girl went on the Jerry Springer show for some “My teenager is a slut” kind of show. Someone in the drama club recorded the show and played it in the drama room at lunch. Word got out that they were showing it at lunch, and the next day, a bunch of big “shop” guys (who were friends with the girl) came in, demanded the tape, destroyed it and then walked out of the room.
I don’t understand why you would go on a show like that*, and then take issue with people watching it.
*It was the girls choice to go on the show. It was not a surprise where her parents dragged her on the show or anything like that and, on the show, she seemed proud of being a slut.
When I was a teenager, I had a Big Brother through the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles. For whatever reason, we were considered the most personable “couple” in their program, so we were sent off to do a couple of things.
We did a radio talk show where we were interviewed about the impact of the Big Brothers program in the Black community, and we also did a (I think) local television talk show called “Teen Talk” that used to air on Channel 9 back when it was still KHJ-TV. I don’t know if it aired in other markets outside of LA.
A Kiwi former co-worker of mine was on a talk show titled “Much Ado About Love” with about a dozen other foreign women talking about dating and romance in Japan.
My current boss spent a year as a regular panelist on a weekly prime-time show called “Koko ga Hen dayo Nihonjin!” Sort of a cross between model U.N. and Jerry Springer, with about 100 panelists from 70 or so countries. In theory, they’d debate different issues related either to world affairs or life in Japan. In practice, every show regularly turned into a screaming match between the same 5 or 6 members, and this was strongly encouraged (and in many cases scripted) by the show’s producers. He lasted a year because he can scream and rant in Japanese like a pro, but got replaced for the second season because of his tendency to berate the other American panelist, while the director wanted to present more of a ‘nation A vs nation B’ worldview.
I didn’t know them well, but I used to know these two guys who had been on a Geraldo show about identical twins with unusual jobs. They were clowns for Ringling Bros.
My father is an inventor for developing countries ( www.demotech.org ), and he has been on a couple of national Dutch TV-shows in the past decades.
The shows, as do the people who meet him, usually regard him with a mixture of: “what an original, idealistic, driven, man” and “what a weird guy, he looks and lives like a homeless man”.
I was in the opening credits of a local talk show for several years.
I was working out in the local YMCA, and a photographer came in for some “local color” shots. He asked my permission, I signed a waiver of something or other, and he took pictures of me doing sit-ups on the incline board and doing a barbell curl, and they used it on the opening montage. This was about twenty-five years ago.
And my brother-in-law was a guest on another talk show, talking about the Roman Catholic position on in vitro fertilization (my brother-in-law is a priest). I listened to the show, and the host was fairly rude, cutting him off and mischaracterizing what he said.
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