Heh, heh.
A couple years ago a buddy and I were in a class at the Xerox regional training center in Hillside, Illinois (Chicago suburb.)
Now the great thing about training is the fact that they pay for all your meals, put you up in a great hotel, and - best of all - it's not work.
The class was supposed to be a week, but we got done with it by Thursday. So our instructor was going to let us go Friday morning. We had both driven, so the rest of the day was considered travel time and we didn't have to report back to work until Monday.
We knew that we were going to get out a day early by Tuesday, so we talked to the concierge at our hotel, and he got us passes for the filming of the Jerry Springer show on Friday.
So after we got out of training Friday morning, we walked around downtown Chicago all day, then headed over to the NBC building where Springer's show is filmed. It was an interesting time; most all of it was waiting in line or waiting for the filming to begin in the waiting room.
It was a typical Springer show; confessing to your spouse you're cheating or something like that. A few things you might not know from watching the show, Jerry does about 10 minutes of stand up in between commercial breaks. So they actually do step away from the show when they break for a commercial. And, when the audience asks questions, I'd say it goes for about half an hour. They end up only picking the best questions of the bunch to air.
Well, the cool thing is, I stood up to ask a question, and mine made it on the air. I've had several people ask me if I have ever been in the audience of the Springer show. I think the reason why I was so recognizable was because Jerry was about a foot shorter than I was. The guy is really, really tiny.
Just an FYI - from what I saw on the show, it's real. You can't fake the hick-redneckness we saw. Unfortunately none of the women lost their tops, but there was a fight.
Jerry's show is a guilty pleasure . . . like monster trucks or Cheetos.