Fearing the Freak: How Talk TV Articulates Women and Class

Abstract

Although the television talk shows known as “trash talk” shows have faced public criticism nearly from their beginnings in the early 1980s, the proliferation of these programs in the 1990s has led to a growing backlash. Talk shows and their hosts–Ricki Lake, Jenny Jones, Sally Jesse Raphael, Maury Povich, Geraldo Rivera, and Jerry Springer–have faced criticism crystallized by the murder of a Jenny Jones guest by another guest. The program was to air surprise meetings between secret admirers and the objects of their affections. Jones show staff arranged one such meeting by convincing twenty-four-year-old Jonathan Schmitz to appear on the show and meet a person with a secret crush on him. According to People magazine, in anticipation of taping the show, Schmitz purchased more than $300 of new clothing. Once on the program, Schmitz was confronted by a man he knew slightly, Scott Amedure. Three days after taping the show, in early March, Schmitz killed Amedure with two close-range shots from a twelve-gauge shotgun, claiming he had been humiliated.