Human animals in Springer circus

It will, in many ways, be a typical 20th birthday party: noisy, vulgar and full of people doing things that they later regret. By the end, some guests will be crying; others will be patching themselves up after a fight.

This week Gerald Norman "Jerry" Springer - born in London, raised in New York, loved and loathed around the world - will celebrate two decades at the helm of the inimitable chat show that has borne his name for more than 3500 episodes.

A "best of" edition will be screened in New York's Times Square, an appropriately gaudy location to pay tribute to such historic episodes as Hot-Headed Hookers, Unusual Love Triangles and I'm Having Your Husband's Baby!

If this special programme does its job, it should remind fans that behind the craziness of Springer's freak show, which over the years has prompted 30,000 guests to throw many times that number of punches, there lies a cultural institution.

The Jerry Springer Show is not just the ne plus ultra of gutter-scraping tabloid TV; it is also a popular phenomenon which, for better or worse, helped to revolutionise broadcasting, ushering in the era of reality television.

Without Springer plumbing new social depths in the 1990s, we might never have witnessed shows such as Big Brother, or Pop Idol which revolve around allowing the sofa-dwelling masses to sneer at the flotsam of society.

"Jerry calls himself the ringmaster, and he's dead right," says Ian Markham-Smith, who co-authored Springer's biography with Liz Hodgson.

"He created a circus in which humans act like animals. It whetted the public's appetite for watching people humiliate themselves on TV."

His guests, in a typical week, could include Ku Klux Klansmen, dwarfs, porn stars or prostitutes. Shows may involve themes of bestiality, infidelity or incest.

Sexual infidelity is the show's meat and potatoes. Part of Springer's charm lies in his efforts to circumvent American standards of sexual prudery. He rewards women who flash their breasts with "Jerry Beads", yet nudity is pixellated before broadcast. He encourages swearing, yet bleeps out obscenities.

In its first three years, The Jerry Springer Show was serious fodder. Guests included Jesse Jackson and Oliver North. But soon, it emerged that ratings would spike each time a "lowbrow" story aired. In 1994, Universal snapped it up, and issued a decree: henceforth, Springer would only do lowbrow. Viewing figures rocketed, particularly among the young, so coveted by advertisers.

Springer's star has waned (its US audience is now 1.9 million, up 200,000 this season, but down from 11 million). "There has been a bump in his viewing figures recently," notes Janice Peck, author of The Age of Oprah. "There's a worrying level of anger everywhere."

TWO DECADES OF SCRAPING THE BARREL

Mum, will you marry me? - July 9, 1998

The show begins with a wedding ceremony between Brenda, then 42, and her 19-year-old stepson Brian. Keith, 46, objects midway through, saying: "That is my son and my ex-wife. She fed him, bathed him, put him to sleep, and now she's sleeping with him?" Brian replies: "Yeah, and she still bathes with me and to you she don't" - resulting in a fight between father and son.

I slept with 251 men in 10 hours - September 20, 1991

Annabel Chong, a porn star and University of Southern California student, admits to the bizarre sex marathon. She currently works as a web developer in California under her real name, Grace Quek.

A very Klan Christmas - January 14, 2002

Ku Klux Klan members J.D. Alder and disciple "Mr X" bring a white Christmas tree plastered in red swastikas to the stage, while both are dressed in Santa Claus outfits similarly decorated. They use the N-word frequently.

Hands down, our best show - March 10, 2007

Trudy has a prosthetic arm, and her boyfriend, David, says he cheated on her because, according to him, she did not make an effort to look attractive. David says: "You leave your arm half all the time. You only put it on when your friends are around." Minutes later Trudy removes her arm and throws it at him, narrowly missing his head.

Kung-fu hillbilly - October 22, 2007

David allows brother "Lil Wayne" to reside in his trailer. As rent, David insists Wayne allows him to pimp out Wayne's girlfriend, Ashley, even insisting Wayne pay to have sex with her. He threatens: "If he don't let me I'm gonna kung-fu him ... and I ain't even paying for no doctor bill."

- INDEPENDENT