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The Richard Bey Show is a syndicated American talk show hosted by Richard Bey which aired from September 28, 1992[1] (although the show originally started off as a combination of People are Talking [1982 - 1989], an NBC/Chris-Craft/Fox station staple of which Bey was the host, and 9 Broadcast Plaza [1987 - 1992], which Bey hosted in 1989, after Matt Lauer; hence, it really started on the premiere dates of those shows, though it's unclear when exactly) to December 27, 1996.[2][3] The program was originally produced from and aired on WWOR, from 1992 to late 1996. It was nationally syndicated by All American Television from January 2, 1995 to December 27, 1996 (almost exclusively on UPN stations, due to Chris-Craft Television being the show's distributor). The talk show was executive produced by Bob Woodruff and David Sittenfeld.[4][5] The show was one of many shows that helped pioneer trash TV, with hard R-rated content such as fights, graphic language, graphic sexual content, drug references, etc..
| The Richard Bey Show | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | Richard Bey |
| Presented by | Richard Bey |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production companies | WWOR (1987-1992) All American Television (1995–1996) Chris-Craft Television (1992-1996) UPN (1995-1996) |
| Original release | |
| Network | WWOR |
| Release | 1987 – 1995 |
| Network | Syndication |
| Release | 1987 – December 27, 1996 |
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Production of the show
The show was taped at 9 Broadcast Plaza, which is the WWOR facility, in Secaucus, for which the show's original name came from, a major complex that held every WWOR show as well as WWOR news (pre-, during and post-UPN). The show's set evolved throughout the show's run years. As 9BP (9 Broadcast Plaza) the show had a more beige color. The show's logo was a homage to the change of meanings for pyramids at the time, as it became a symbol of cyborg and cybernetic research. It was a pyramid with the show's title in Futura Condensed Extra Bold. As WWOR's official renaming of the show to The Richard Bey Show approached, the show's set got more colorful. When the renaming happened, the stage looked like a metal concert stage, as shown in one episode where Bey had a big butt contest set to some rock songs. Eventually the set became a mix of Lavender and pink for the rest of the show's run. The show also came from People are Talking (Bey's version), which was a fairly confrontational show similar to The Morton Downey Jr. Show.
The show
As People are Talking and 9BP, Bey and Lauer, respectively, would talk to major celebrities. And often, many high elite celebrities, and even government officials of Nuyorican lands, Italy and France, would appear on such shows. Lauer would have high-cuisine events, and one episode had Sara Lee Kessler hosting a pizza making telethon, with a youth, probably of Steampipe Alley, another major WWOR show. Bey would do the same, although his show was more a talk show. Eventually the seeds of The Richard Bey Show were planted in 1990. Many outlets were already calling the show that name even before the official renaming in 1992 by that time. PAT and 9BP were both innovative: they, when PAT became a WWOR/MCA-TV-produced show were one of the first to incorporate entertainment with the local news, and would have even have the news be debated in a panel. Morton Downey Jr, in one episode appeared, and talked with Bey, about Howard Stern's abuses to one of his guest - abuses which the whole WWOR crew was very upset about. This set the stage for later political comedy, such as that of Stephen Colbert and was an influence on The Colbert Report, on Comedy Central. Many episodes of 9BP, as well as People are Talking when it became a WWOR/MCA-TV production sometime in the late 80s, incorporate syncs of the local news. This definitely happened in 1989, with the premiere of News at Noon, a more informal variant of Channel 9 News at 10 (1987 - 1995), which was the predesor to UPN 9 news at 10 (1995 - 2006), in which Kessler was the main anchor. And in many cases she would talk to Bey and Lauer via a telesync. This also happened on 9BP and PAT as well.
As The Richard Bey Show, the series frequently and deliberately played up the humorous aspects of the tabloid talk show format, bordering on a full-out variety show with its unusual features. It featured such competitive events as the "Miss Big Butt" contest, the "Mr. Puniverse" contest, "Country Drag Queens versus City Drag Queens", "Dysfunctional Family Feud" and "Blacks who think O.J. is guilty vs. Whites who think he is innocent." Young women who were guests on the show were sometimes placed in a spoof of The Dating Game in which the guest interviewed three hidden "bachelors", all of whom were an obvious mismatch for the "bachelorette", e.g., a drag queen or a dwarf. The show also became a more seriously hardened talk show with nasty fights, sexual content, graphic language (and graphic humor) as time progressed. Bey's show made frequent use of sound effects like "uh-duh" for an insane response, "I've been framed" for a guest proclaiming innocence and "You're busted!" for one accused of wrongdoing. Bey would often exclaim "Where do they find these people?!" in the presence of unbelievable guests or audience members. During some shows, there would be a secret word. If an audience member used it in a comment, he would receive $100, a homage to a prior talk and game show, You Bet Your Life. A joking suggestion was then made on how to spend it: "Lobster dinner tonight!" The show was a precursor to reality television, featuring a variety of games incorporating guests' stories, most notoriously "The Wheel of Torture", in which a guest would be strapped to a spinning wheel while a spouse or lover poured slime on them as punishment for a misdeed.
Richard would frequently make fun of Jerry Springer on his show, as when he lost his contact lenses and was forced to wear eyeglasses, remarking, "Don't worry, you're not watching Jerry Springer" and showing Jerry in his "Bad Neighbors" segment, a reference to Springer's show being the lead-in or lead-out to Bey on many stations in the early-to-mid-1990s. Springer defended himself in 2019 by noting that during the run of his own show, he "wasn't in fights involving Jell-O."[6] He also made light of Ricki Lake, Rosie O'Donnell, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jesse Raphael, Phil Donahue, and Oprah Winfrey's shows.
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Bey claimed his TV show was canceled in December 1996 not due to ratings, but as a direct result of doing a program the previous day with Gennifer Flowers, discussing her sexual relationship with then-President Bill Clinton.[7][8] However, in a report by the New York Daily News from approximately a month before the show was cancelled outright, Bey had been losing significant ground in the ratings and his show had already been dropped by nineteen of the stations that were airing it. [citation needed] Bey claimed that the show had beat The Oprah Winfrey Show in ratings on some days in a few markets.[9]
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