No Jerry Springer did not wrestle a bear on his talk show. Believe it or not, this publicity stunt actually took place while he was in the midst of a serious political career! During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Springer served two terms as mayor of Cincinnati and even made a run for governor of Ohio. Springer’s run as mayor was so outrageous that it could have been an episode of his show, as he was caught hiring the services of a prostitute after paying her with a bounced cheque. However, since Springer instantly came clean and admitted what he’d done wrong, the voters greatly admired his honesty and re-elected him! Anyway, this montage of clips contains a wide variety of footage from Springer’s political career, including the aforementioned bear incident.