People in the News for May 1, 1998

Friday, May 1, 1998 | 10:38 a.m.

Welcome to another installment of People in -- Duck that transvestite's fist! -- the News, where our first guest -- Look out for the chair thrown by the neo-Nazi male stripper who's dating his mother! -- is talk-show curiosity Jerry Springer -- CRASH! BAM! Oops, sorry ... Hey, can't we all be nice here? Apparently, we can -- on Thursday, Springer's producers made the shocking announcement that they will "eliminate all physical violence from the series." No more fistfights? No more shoving matches? No more daughters who dress like sluts going for the throats of mothers who despise their children? All the stuff, in other words, that propelled "The Jerry Springer Show" to the top of the great steaming pile of daytime talk. Claiming credit for the show's about-face: boycotters led by Chicago Rev. Michael Pfleger, an advocate of group-hug TV. "This kind of trash television has got to go," he crowed, taking a victory lap. Producers, meanwhile, offered no further explanation. What does a violence ban mean for Springer's show? Said one media analyst, "I don't know what's going to be left."

So happy together

Prime-time newsmagazines? Nice! Departing sitcom stars? Very nice! Prime-time newsmagazines interviewing their own network's departing sitcom stars? Perhaps not so nice. The words "conflict of interest" seem to have been removed from the vocabulary of TV news, if, indeed, they were ever there (we mean that in the nicest way!). At CBS, "60 Minutes" will profile Candice Bergen, outgoing star of "Murphy Brown." At NBC, "Dateline NBC" will chat up Jerry Seinfeld. And ABC's "PrimeTime Live" will talk with Ellen DeGeneres about her canceled show. "This is undermining the credibility of all TV news," says one critic. "People are beginning to see the news as an entertainment medium." The networks reacted with predictable promophobia, insisting their interviews are really, honestly legit news. Really! ABC may have the firmest claim in that regard, given DeGeneres' contentious departure. But "Murphy Brown" and "Seinfeld" are having hoopla-drenched finales, helped along by the news coverage. This kind of trash television has to go! Where's a crusading cleric when you need one?

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets