The Jerry Springer Show was an internationally known television tabloid talk show, hosted by Jerry Springer. The show was ostensibly a talk show where troubled or dysfunctional families came to discuss their problems before a studio audience so that the audience or host could offer suggestions on what could be done to resolve their situations. In actuality, the show came to epitomize the so-called "trash TV talk show," as each episode of the show focused on a lurid topic that usually involved sex, racism, marital jealousy, the Ku Klux Klan, and other prurient subjects. Typical topics of discussion on the show included unusual extra-marital affairs, vicious rivalries between families, rebellious and promiscuous teenagers, strippers and adult movie stars, and the like. Some of the strangest confessions included when a man admitted that he had married his horse, or a man who had a dedicated fetish for vomiting. The show proudly boasted that it was once voted the "Worst TV Show Ever" by TV Guide.
Shaineh Berkowitz and numerous friends and neighbors of here were rabid fans of the show. After her pregnancy by The Great Mutato, she contacted Fox Mulder, whom she had heard of after watching an episode about a werewolf boy. After giving birth to horrifically disfigured children, she and Elizabeth Pollidori appeared on the show - for which both women were thrilled. (TXF: "The Post-Modern Prometheus")