Description: Originally called The Maury Povich Show, The Maury Show (also just called Maury) is an outrageous American daytime television show that first went on the air in 1991. The host is Maury Povich who has a degree in television journalism. In 1998 the show was remodeled and put into syndication by Studios USA, now called NBC Universal. It is taped in New York and averages almost 4 million viewers per episode. Maury is well known for paternity tests sometimes the same woman comes back two, three, four, or even five times! The woman is determined to find the father of her baby. The show deals with other topics such as sexual infidelity, controlling spouses, illnesses, phobias, makeovers, and out of control teens. Also during the season, outside hosts of other television shows, such as Cheaters, join Maury on stage and shows the audience clips from their shows. Usually the clips show stupid criminals, kids doing dangerous stunts, or cheaters caught literally with their pants down. For the sake of the blog, I will explain the format of the show for paternity tests. It starts with Maury announcing the day’s topic, then a series of clips get shown that give us a preview of the guests that will be shown that day and intense moments that will happen throughout the show. At the end of the clips a tagline appears that usually reads something like, “I had sex with 2 brothers……..which ones by baby’s daddy?” or, “25 guys…….where is my baby’s father?” appears at the bottom of the screen. The first guest, usually a female, is introduced to the audience onstage. The opposing side, usually a male, and sometimes with his mother or current girlfriend, wait backstage. After the guest on stage tells their side of the story, the guest(s) backstage come out, and the audience boos them. Once the audience and the guests onstage calm down, Maury asks the opposing side for their side of the story. While they are trying to tell the story, the opposite side butts in and starts yelling, as well as the audience. When this is occurring the viewers and audience learn bits and pieces of information about the couple’s relationship in the past. A lot of the time Maury has to step in and calm everyone down. After a couple minutes of hashing it out, Maury stops the fighting and grabs the results. Before the results are read the opposing side has to promise to take responsibility if the child turns out to be theirs. The results are then read, and then there is a lot more yelling at each other and/or crying. After a short commercial break, a new character is introduced and the process starts over again. Analysis: The Maury Show is one of those daytime shows that you either love or hate. Usually people who say they watch it get questioned about why they would watch something that is so out of there and stupid. I believe that people watch it for pure entertainment. When you watch some topics and issues that are brought to this show, you just have to sit back and laugh. Especially during a phobia show when there is a 300 pound man running around the set because someone brought a peach on stage. Or a woman is getting her twenty fifth guy tested to find the fathers of her 4 kids. Another reason why people watch a show like this is so they can feel better about their own life. You can turn on the television and realize that your life is pretty normal compared to the characters that we are introduced to. The viewing audience is generally stay at home moms in their late teens and twenties. However, during the years there has been some criticism over the show. The main point of critics is that the show portrays insincere sympathy to its various guests, using their problems for pure entertainment and to make money. Another point made is that the majority of guests that appear on The Maury Show are African American or another minority group. People say that the show is bias and purposely chooses those minority groups. Many critics compare it to The Jerry Springer Show and even claim that it is even worse then that. There are many people that just choose not to watch it and believe that it is an embarrassment to be a nation that creates and produces shows of this nature. Despite all the criticism, The Maury Show has had an enormous effect in popular culture. Jokes are constantly being made about the show and its content. Music artist Lil’ Jon and BME Click created a song called Dat Baby. The song has an opening hook that declares “That baby don’t look like me”, and the lyrics have phrases that are continually said on the show. The television show South Park also has an episode when the boys go on The Maury Show as part of a scheme to get prizes from the show. No matter what you think of the show, it is an entertaining experience and if you have not had the chance you should definitely check it out. It is not going anywhere because just recently the show’s contract was renewed through the 2010 season.
1 comment:
The people on this show and others like it (Montel), are real people with real problems. There are probably many different reasons why people watch these types of shows. One reason may be to give someone piece of mind, knowing that they aren't as messed up as they thought they were.
Some problems can be humorous (pickle phobia?) but others can be devastating to watch (classic Maury Show moment). Does watching Maury help someone further understand human nature? One problem with a show like this is that I believe it falls into the category of spotting or observing versus analyzing it.
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