OK, this is embarassing enough as it is, just asking the question. Everything inside of me tells me this is all scripted, but I just…I just…need to know. I mean, I’ve seen some moronic people out there, but this is too much right? Please don’t flame me if it is a well known fact that Springer is fake. I’m sooo naive sometimes… 
The way I always understood it to be, these type of shows interview hundreds (maybe thousands) of people each year for their shows and they always pick the most obnoxious and flamboyant people to come. On the day of taping, various producers and other staff people talk to these people, telling them that they want these people to give the audience one hell of a show. They also tell these people to not hold back, to tell every rotten, stinking thing they know about their families, friends, rivals, etc. If the blonde bimbo with the four children by four different men feels the urge to punch the lights out of her trailer trash sister, who just happened to also have several children by the same men, they encourage them to do so. They make a big show out of “just trying to get these families back together”, but they know that what is really going to happen is a butt-kickin, cat-scratching, all-out brawl. As long as the ratings stay up, this kind of crap is going to continue to be aired. As to whether it is scripted, I suppose some of it might be, but I can’t imagine two amateurs off the street would be able to pull off a brawl in front of an audience that would look that realistic.
Not that I would actually know, of course. I really haven’t watched any of these kind of shows in several years, except for maybe a minute here or a minute there before shutting it off.
It’s real to the same extent wrestling is. There are real elements, but much of it is fluffed up for TV. And you watch Springer but get insulted by Wrestling? What the hell are you smoking Demo?
Oh yeah, never mind that last question.
Hey, back off you bastard! I already said it was embarassing! Actually, after not having even had cable for about four years, I got it for a New Year’s Eve party. I rarely watched it after that until psycat and kids came out. Now it’s on a lot and I find myself flipping. Sad thing, 60 channels of crap with a rare occasional good find. (Kids in the Hall last night was fucking hilarious. Sometimes discovery or history channel has something, but mostly crap.)
Anyway, the channel has fallen upon Springer a few times and I just…have…to…watch… It’s too crazy! What can I say.!
As Shadowfox said the people who work for the Springer show encourage the guests to behave as outrageously as possible. Some of those guests probably are telling the truth (more or less) when they describe the sordid details of their lives, but there are others who are there just for fun and make the whole thing up.
I read an article in the Stranger by a woman who ended up on Springer with an acquaintance who had been trying to get on the show for a long time. As you have probably noticed little announcements run during the show along the lines of “Are you in love with your sibling’s spouse? We want to hear from you! Call us at <phone number>.” The woman who wanted to be in the show would always call the number and, if she managed to get through, would claim to have whatever problem they were looking for. Finally she was selected for a show on people who were cheating on their homosexual partners with a person of the opposite sex. She recruited the writer from the Stranger to play her lesbian lover and found a male friend to be the third corner of the triangle. The writer from the Stranger reported that the people from Springer not only provided trashy looking clothes for them all but pressured her to chase the man in her group around the stage and try to fight with him. She also said that after talking with one of the other groups on the show that day she discovered that their story was also bogus.
Shad and Lamia, thanks so much. That’s exactly the kind of info I was looking for.
[sub]or at least hoping for![/sub]