Katie Springer lived a life outside the spotlight before stepping forward in defense of her dad, Jerry Springer.
A letter written by a then 15-year-old Katie is discussed in Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, a new two-part Netflix documentary that looks back at The Jerry Springer Show.
Jerry welcomed Katie in 1976 with Micki Velton, to whom he remained married until his death in April 2023 at age 79. Former Chicago Sun-Times media critic Robert Feder reads the heartfelt letter from the controversial talk-show host’s daughter in the documentary.
“At the height of all the controversy, Jerry’s teenage daughter, Katie, writes a letter to a newspaper which was the first time we had ever heard from her in any form at any time,” he explains.
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The letter read, “My name is Katie Springer, and I’m Jerry Springer’s daughter. The city of Chicago seems to be in need of some facts about the man that they have so slanderously dubbed the King of Sleaze.”
“First of all, my dad has more education than many of the so-called ‘journalists’ in this town. Chicago is blessed to have my dad on TV. Yes his show is crazy, but that doesn’t mean he is. People shouldn’t judge before they listen. Signed Katie S. Springer.”
The Jerry Springer Show, which debuted in 1991 and ran for 27 seasons, until 2018, was one of the most-influential shows in TV history. It got off to a slow start as a run-of-the-mill talk show, but its ratings skyrocketed in the mid ’90s when it was reinvented as a tabloid-style spectacle.
The documentary covers one infamous 1998 episode that featured a man who left his wife and two daughters to marry a Shetland pony. Another episode that aired in 2000 featured a love triangle that ultimately led to a husband murdering his ex-wife.
“To have a guy on that married a horse, that was kissing a horse on stage, this was the most vile, grotesque freak show on television,” Feder says of the former episode in the documentary.
Speaking with PEOPLE earlier this year, Katie, now 48, said her father viewed his popular, long-running talk show and its onscreen drama with good humor and a sense of pragmatism, understanding it enabled him to provide for his family in a “good way.”
“He knew the show was ridiculous. He would say that,” she said, adding, “Always, when he would meet someone, and they would say, ‘I love your show,’ he would jokingly say, ‘May you never be on it.’ ”
Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action is now streaming on Netflix.
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