Pat Howley's TV comment – Good, bad and ugly US chat shows

THE ALTERNATIVE and controversial 1960s American philosopher Timothy Leary once claimed that in this information age philosophy should not be taught as it was in feudal times, it should be performed. Were Aristotle alive today, Leary went on, he'd more than likely be hosting a television chat show but, and this is Howley speaking now, I doubt if Aristotle's Late Late, even on a poor night, would have  the cobbled-together-in-a-hurry look such as was foisted on viewers by RTE1 last Friday evening. I didn't stick with the show to the end because, as I hear people say about stocks and shares, my interest dipped into negative territory after I'd watched internationally acclaimed singer Susan Boyle come on, say her bit, and then depart, without being asked if there was any chance of a few bars, and that despite the show's resident backing group sitting and twiddling their thumbs. I dreamed a dream when I saw her make her appearance but, thanks to Tubridy, it was a dream in vain. To top that, Friday's show had the rare luxury of an appearance by one of the most controversial American chat show hosts, only he was side-tracked and distracted into talking about almost everything under the sun, everything apart from what he does best, which is to upset people on his chat show and make a good living from it. This was the English-born but very American Jerry Springer, who is the king of controversial chat shows, and Tubridy should have pushed him as to why he persists in raking around in the gutter for his material. Nothing, it would seem, is taboo with Jerry, which is why his shows have never been bought by RTÉ and why, in the US and elsewhere, they have long faced censure and denunciation by official, semi-official and, worst of all, self-appointed moral watchdogs. I've only seen Jerry's show on a few occasions although the format is obvious from the outset. Chat shows built around the flattering of a visiting celebrity are not his thing but, as with television in general and chat shows in particular, he is keenly aware that the way to popular appeal is by highlighting the unusual.  On the surface, at least, his shows are talk shows since various members of stressed and dysfunctional families are, in turn, offered possible solutions to their difficulties by the studio audience. Then they're allowed turn on each other and such are the enmities and emotions that it is not unusual for blows to be struck,  the main objective of the exercise. Springer's shows have been condemned as trash and, according to what Jerry told Tubridy, can hit such a low ebb that at one point a few years back they were voted the worst television ever. The less than uplifting family issues aired can include anything from adultery to paedophilia and incest to prostitution, while the show's specially hired security personnel are ever ready to move in as soon as the name calling, backbiting and wild accusations begin. But there are television audiences that love it and the show , as Jerry told Tubridy, is now in its 21st season. Tubridy gave RTÉ viewers a flavour of his show through a short clip of a vicious fight between two women who had fallen in love with the same man. Each woman's modus operandi was to pull the other's long hair and to do so with such savage viciousness that it was difficult to understand how anyone, anywhere, could take pleasure in it. One immediately began to smell a rat and it is hardly surprising that there have been ongoing allegations over the years that the fight scenes are rigged and possibly even choreographed beforehand. To my mind it's all a cynical manipulation of crude emotions and nothing seemed more cynical on Friday than Springer's admission to Tubridy that he  would never watch his own show: 'I'm not interested in it. It's not aimed towards me. It's just silly.' Tubridy, as is his wont, was optimistic and positive in the extreme. Apart from giggling at the clips of guests indulging in fisticuffs, he ignored everything else and used up all the precious minutes with questions about Springer's young days during the war, and afterwards.  A tragic story, his father and mother had escaped from Nazi Germany in the nick of time but many of his relatives, including his grandparents, died in the gas chambers. Jerry was born in a London tube station, which was used as a bomb shelter during the Blitz and, a few years later, the family emigrated to the United States, settling in New York. In later years he would become a Democratic politician before making it big with his tabloid chat show. He was working for Robert Kennedy when the latter made his 1968 bid for the White House and I wondered if there was a link between the Kennedy assassinations and Jerry's subsequent negative if lucrative approach to happy television-land.  Chat shows thrive on the feel-good factor but Springer has punched holes in that too. On this telling he could have been a card-carrying member of the American League of Decency. It was a chance to see another side of American television, and an opportunity missed. ****** Chat show hosts are a dime a dozen in the US, the home of chat shows, which should mean,  given the competition, that only the very best survive. There's one by the name of Conan O'Brien, or Conan Christopher O'Brien to be exact, and with a name like that there must be an Irish connection in his family somewhere. Whether or which, he is well disposed to this country and with the fix we are in now we need all the favourable publicity we can get. Described as a television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer, he has, since 2010, moved on from CBS (I think) where he was a chat show host for many years, to TBS, a cable television station. There he hosts a late-night talk show called  Conan, which airs four or five nights in the week and which, I'm reliably informed, is a big success.  My attention was drawn to the show recently because of an interview O'Brien did with actor Don Cheadle who, since the runaway film success The Guard in which he co-stars with Brendan Gleeson, has been elevated in my mind to the status of  honorary Irishman. O'Brien was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, raised in an Irish Catholic family and is a graduate of Harvard University. Among many other endeavours, he was on the writing staff of The Simpsons, which gives him huge street cred everywhere. In the kind of publicity that money cannot buy, he asked Don Cheadle, during his chat show interview, about the time he spent in the West of Ireland while filming The Guard which, as we all know, was shot mostly in Galway City and Connemara. Cheadle responded by joking about being in the minority in Ireland when it came to the colour of his skin: 'I loved it. Not a lot of black people there, which isn't the reason why I loved it.' He was quick to add: 'That could have come out really wrong. Ireland was a surprise. I expected to see a lot more Jacksons, but it was great.' With great enthusiasm, he went on to talk about the unique Connemara landscape, comparing it to Mars: 'That country, particularly that part of the country, it's like Mars. It's another place. It's vast, it's stark, there's stone walls. People kind of said, â€Ëœwell, this is my property line ... because I put a wall there'.' How about that? Put a wall around something in Ireland and it's yours. Don loved the Guinness here, describing it as 'food' and he picked up the blarney here too.