Netflix's New Jerry Springer Documentary Made This '90s Kid Clutch Her Pearls

Just the sound of people chanting "Jerry!" is enough to take me back to my childhood. I'd sneak glimpses of the talk show I had no business watching, whether I was sitting in a waiting room or sneaking behind the couch of my babysitter. I can still remember the energy of the crowd and the scandalous stories that unraveled on the stage. It was a chaotic  (and sometimes violent) spectacle—people seemed to tackle one another more than they talked—but it had me fascinated. Now, decades later, there's an eye-opening documentary that has totally changed how I see this show.

Allow me to introduce Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, which is currently ranked number eight on Netflix's top ten list of shows. The eye-opening, two-part documentary not only tells the full story of how the '90s talk show came about, but it also exposes some dark truths, as told by the show's former producers and guests.

Throughout the documentary, it's revealed how Springer's talk show was reinvented to boost ratings, but this in turn created a ripple effect that led to even more bizarre and disturbing episodes, from siblings admitting to an incestuous relationship to a man marrying a horse. (And guys, that's just the tip of the iceberg.)

Naturally, the daytime talk show became one of the biggest and most controversial hits of the nineties, but many weren't aware of how this impacted the guests, or what really went on behind the scenes.