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00:00On this episode of Frank Walks, I'm going to be joining Steve Wilkos.
00:06You know, Steve Wilkos was in the Marines, became a Chicago police officer before getting
00:12an off-duty job as security on the Jerry Springer Show.
00:18He became so popular on the Jerry Springer Show that he eventually got his own talk show
00:23in 2007.
00:25Now that show has been on for 18 years.
00:29I'm proud to be going on a walk with Steve Wilkos.
00:40Steve, thank you for joining me on this walk.
00:44And uh, 18 years.
00:47Yeah.
00:4818 years.
00:4918 years.
00:50You know, it's so cliche to say, but boy, does it go by fast, right?
00:54The funny thing about it is when you do TV as long as I have, you know, between the Jerry
00:59Springer Show I started in 1994 and now, 30 years later, I'm still doing it, people ask
01:05me, oh, what was your favorite Springer memory and what's your favorite episode of your show?
01:10I have very few memories of all of it.
01:14It's a blur.
01:15I can relate to that.
01:16Yeah.
01:17I can relate to these becoming a blur.
01:18Because I've been all over the place this summer, and it's almost like I try to...
01:22You forget what you did over the last six months.
01:25Yes.
01:26It's crazy.
01:27It's crazy.
01:28And uh, I mean, you were in the Marines, and then you became a police officer in the city
01:35of Chicago, and I guess you got this opportunity to be a guard on this show here, which is
01:43kind of like a crazy show at the time.
01:45Well, it was the craziest show probably in the history of TV.
01:49You know, that's what was so great about the Jerry Springer Show.
01:55It was, you know, there was no script or anything.
01:57You just did whatever you wanted.
01:58It went crazy.
01:59If things weren't working, we went in a totally different direction.
02:03It was like being in high school.
02:04I say it all the time.
02:05Being on a Springer Show was like being in high school and pulling each other's pants
02:10down, like just, you know, with your buddies, just having a great time.
02:14And it was so much fun.
02:17I say it all the time.
02:20The Springer years were the best years of my life, as far as professionally, because
02:25I was making money that I never thought I would make.
02:29I met my wife on the Springer Show.
02:32You know, I got treated like royalty in Chicago because of being on the show.
02:38So it was just a great, great time of my life.
02:41Now, when they moved to Connecticut, when did they make that move?
02:44That was in 2009, so we've been out here 15 years now.
02:49You miss Chicago.
02:50It's your hometown.
02:51I miss it, but I still have a lake house about an hour north of Chicago.
02:55I get there quite a bit.
02:56My whole family's there.
02:58So I do get back, but would I prefer to live back there than out here?
03:02Yes, because that's where I'm from.
03:04I grew up down the street from Wrigley Field.
03:06I'm a huge Cubs fan.
03:07So I miss a lot of the day-to-day things I used to do when I lived there.
03:11It could be worse.
03:12You could have been raised on this house.
03:13I'd be a White Sox fan.
03:14Oh, God.
03:15That's about the worst team ever in the history of baseball.
03:19As a Mets fan, I'm getting perverse joy out of it.
03:23Because they'll be breaking our record.
03:25Exactly.
03:26And you're having a good year this year.
03:28Surprising.
03:29I thought there was going to be a disaster this year.
03:31Now, you know, before, I went to study broadcasting in college,
03:37and I actually worked on a talk show as an intern in 1999.
03:42What talk show was that?
03:44Forgive or Forget.
03:45Forgive or Forget.
03:46I don't remember that one.
03:47Yeah, everyone forgot it.
03:48Forgive or Forget.
03:49Who was the host of that show?
03:51Well, it was Mother Love.
03:53Oh, okay.
03:54I vaguely remember it now.
03:56And she, my internship actually ended a little prematurely
04:01because I came to work on it on a Monday,
04:05and it was like, okay, we're shutting out production for six weeks.
04:10And basically, I hear about a lot of screaming.
04:14This is my show.
04:16You can't do this to my show.
04:18And basically, they fired her and replaced her with Robin Gibbons.
04:22Oh, yes.
04:23Wow.
04:24So what's funny is that was done in New York.
04:28So I had to go get audience for them.
04:31And my two favorite, my two key memories I remember is they sent
04:38me to where they taped a view with subway tokens and a flyer
04:44telling me to come to the Mother Love show.
04:46Meanwhile, Montel Williams has got a Jitney bus and gift certificates
04:51for Ruth's steakhouse.
04:53And I said, oh, we're having pizza.
04:56You can get pizza.
04:57And then they sent me out to Times Square where I got one guy handing
05:02out flyers to tell people to go see the new girls on the second floor.
05:07See a talk show?
05:08Yeah.
05:09Well, the great thing about like the Springer show was you talk about
05:13being yelled at.
05:14When I worked with Jerry all those years, do you know I never heard
05:19Jerry yell at anybody not one time?
05:22I mean, never.
05:24And in all the years, my 18 years of my show, I only yelled at one
05:29person one time ever.
05:31That was it.
05:32You're an Anderson style.
05:36I have an intense approach.
05:38So I guess he liked to yell a little.
05:40Yeah, yeah.
05:41A little bit?
05:42I only yell at my guests.
05:44That's it.
05:45Yeah, I hear that you take these guys to task.
05:49Hey, man, it's a show like when I and it's easy to get from me right
05:54off.
05:55People are like, why?
05:56You know, you get so mad.
05:57Yeah, because when I do my show, it's like to me, life is real
06:01simple, right?
06:02You try to be a good son, a good father, a good husband, a good
06:06brother.
06:07You try to be a good neighbor, right?
06:09Like I don't bother anybody but don't bother me.
06:13But people make life complicated.
06:15They want to be a pain in the ass to everybody.
06:17They don't do what they're supposed to do.
06:19They don't raise their kids.
06:20They don't know what their kids are.
06:22And I saw a lot when I was a cop.
06:24We'd arrest kids 14, 15 years old that were out at 1 o'clock in the
06:28morning and we'd take them home to the parents.
06:30And they'd be like, what the hell is your kid doing out at 1 o'clock
06:32in the morning?
06:33Like you don't even know where your kid's at.
06:35You don't even know what he's doing.
06:37You don't know who he's hanging out with.
06:39You know, anyone that goes on a bad path, you can look back to
06:43what the parents, how the parents raise them.
06:45Exactly.
06:46If you have discipline, you have a father and a mother at home and
06:50they, you know, they drop the hammer on you as I like to say,
06:54then you got a much better chance of staying out of trouble.
06:56I remember when I worked at the courthouse.
06:58I worked at a courthouse for 16 years, criminal court.
07:00I remember there was several times where one day and I'd
07:04actually schedule it that way.
07:06Somehow it was like trying to sneak your way to get them in a
07:10room together or something like that.
07:12Whether you might be on separate cases where a father's in jail
07:15for something else and the son's in jail on another new charge.
07:19And I'd always try to schedule them together.
07:21And it was like father and son.
07:24That happens more often than you would think.
07:27I mean, it's the bad path.
07:30Now, I have to just comment on this walk here.
07:34This skyline has changed with these super skinny buildings up
07:38in the sky.
07:39And they're ugly as hell.
07:41They are.
07:42They are.
07:43They're ruining like the skyline here.
07:45I like to call them Richardson buildings.
07:47So we've walked for, this is 348 consecutive days.
07:51Frank's lost 60 pounds.
07:53Oh, great.
07:54The thing we've probably most consistently talked about in
07:57Manhattan is the disgraceful new buildings.
08:01It's a terrible look.
08:02So Frank, you want to explain Richardson?
08:04Yeah, I've come up with a cartoon character.
08:07And it's an unnamed executive.
08:12And Richardson is the architect.
08:15And whenever I see a bad building,
08:17ugly looking building, I go, Richardson,
08:19you did it again.
08:20You're a genius.
08:21Oh, my god.
08:22I mean..
08:23Because I started coming to New York in the 90s with Jerry.
08:26And we would always stare at the plaza.
08:28And, you know, it was like a big thing for me to come to Central
08:32Park and walk around.
08:33Yeah, beautiful buildings.
08:34And now when I come and I see these pencils sticking to the
08:39sky.
08:40These toothpicks.
08:41Yeah.
08:42And what it is is they're all residential.
08:44And they cost like a million dollars to get like an apartment
08:48in there.
08:49And they don't even look good.
08:50Well, and the other thing is I read in the Wall Street Journal
08:54most of these buildings are empty.
08:56Yeah.
08:57People don't even live there.
08:58No, they're ugly.
08:59They're multi-million dollar mansions,
09:01penthouses.
09:02And they're ugly.
09:03Yeah, they're not.
09:04I like the old buildings in New York.
09:06But that's me.
09:07I like everything old.
09:08Well, yeah.
09:09These buildings with style.
09:10Look at that.
09:11That's just like a stick.
09:12A stick of butter up in the middle.
09:14There's nothing.
09:15It looks like a tower of like crates that are just like you
09:19put in a dorm room somewhere.
09:21But this, I love Central Park.
09:23Every time I come in it.
09:25Even in the wintertime, we come down.
09:27My wife and kids, we always spend like a couple nights in
09:31New York right before Christmas.
09:33And it's just a beautiful place.
09:35It's beautiful.
09:36It's beautiful.
09:37It's beautiful.
09:38It's beautiful.
09:39It's beautiful.
09:40It's beautiful.
09:41It's beautiful.
09:42It's beautiful.
09:43It's a beautiful place and, you know,
09:45we'll pick a different hotel and we do all the things.
09:47And we walk around New York and shop.
09:49And it's just really a wonderful time.
09:51But this time of year is absolutely the best.
09:55I don't think there's a better city around Christmas time
09:58than New York.
09:59No, there isn't.
10:00Not even Chicago.
10:01I mean Chicago has great things.
10:03But you can't beat New York.
10:05The way they put the lights up everywhere.
10:07If you want to dare the crowds and go through Radio City
10:10area. Oh yeah. I mean it's just everywhere it really does fill the Christmas spirit up very well.
10:16Yeah it's uh and it's the way they decorate and everything it's really really a beautiful city.
10:21So what's you have coming up this this year on your show? So you know people always say
10:28what's going to be new and when you've been on the air as long as I have you really don't
10:34change a lot because your core audience expects a certain type of show. Now the great thing is
10:40we do a show that's really kind of based on like like being a cop and so there will be once in a
10:47while stories that come up that are completely different but for the most part we're doing
10:51lie detector tests, DNA tests, people that steal from other family member stories,
10:58child abuse we do you know stories like that. But so you know when you get like I said when
11:04you're on for as long as we have you can't change too much because you'll turn off the
11:08people that have been watching for 18 years. I mean 18 years especially that there's not as
11:14many talk shows on anymore. I was thinking about this earlier today and that a lot of local stations
11:19have gone to put more local news on so the talk show market is not what it was. Well tv's not what
11:27it is but you know remember like every year there'd be five or six new talk shows every year come out
11:33oh this is new this is new and I would check them out to see who the competition was.
11:38Nothing came out this year, nothing. So you see where tv's it's changing and like you saw a lot
11:45of stations they just air news but I think that's going to get oversaturated. Oh it is
11:49over saturated already. I think things are you know they go around in circles and eventually.
11:54You know what's coming back? Game shows. Yeah. That's going to be the thing that they're going
11:59to be the next 10 years game shows are going to be back as like the afternoon blocks. Yeah. It's
12:06cyclical. Yeah. And then after game shows into talk shows will hit fire again. And I want you
12:12know I have to be serious on my show and when they bring back the Jerry Springer show in another form
12:18I want to be the host of that show. Yeah that was fun. It was crazy. It was crazy and
12:27you know you just never knew what was going to happen on that show.
12:32And like I said we were just running around like idiots.
12:44Well the Springer show you know you could it's just like you could do anything on that show.
12:51We could put you anywhere and you would you'd be fine. Like we we would hire this is how the
12:57Springer show was. There would be a girl who would run out of the audience to run on a stripper pole
13:03take her top off dance around the pole and the next day she'd be working there.
13:08So you know you just never knew what was going to happen.
13:12Yeah. I mean it really was crazy. It was all the talk shows basically before Jerry Springer went
13:19Crate would change the format to like this new format. We're kind of like more serious tone.
13:25Even when I started on Jerry Springer he was originally they brought on Jerry to replace
13:30Phil Donahue and it was a boring show and they were going to get canceled and they started going
13:36And then like you said after Jerry took that route then a lot of shows followed and tried to
13:42you know go that way too. I mean Maury Povich with the with the you were not the father all the time
13:49and and basically the way these like a father would like celebrate or or or somebody would
13:57And before they have to reveal it goes that little that little piece of shit that ain't my kid that's
14:03my kid and all of a sudden it's it's your son. Oh I'm gonna be the best dad I can be. You know
14:10it occurs to me that kid right now might be 18 years old or 60 60 years old. Dad what was it like
14:19That kid right now might be 18 years old or 60 60 years old. Dad what was it like when you
14:27found out I was your son? Well kid let me tell you. Well we never thought about that like all
14:35these people talking about their family and their kids and stuff on TV and you say hey 20 and I
14:42always tell these guys like talk about their kids and I go hey man remember 20 years ago your kids
14:47are gonna be watching this I mean and I say that too it's like I still have my mom but I went through
14:54kind of life like do I want to embarrass my parents you know like conduct yourself in a way
15:00you're not gonna embarrass your parents or embarrass your kids right then I start having
15:05kids I don't want to embarrass my kids and you like whatever you're saying on TV it lasts forever
15:12social media now whatever you put out there it's out there forever
15:18I it's it there's always like there's always someone there to take receipts
15:27well listen you know and I'm sure you guys you know pretty much all the same age when can you
15:33imagine if there was cameras and video and all that crap around when I was a teenager or when
15:40I was in my 20s I'd get blown up man I probably wouldn't have a show like people are like oh my
15:46god Steve I can't believe you did that but like things are the way they are in a certain period
15:50of time and everybody does it but things change and social norms change and you have to adapt
15:55otherwise you get canceled but yeah I'm just glad there wasn't any cameras around I mean we have a
16:01whole different set of standards now today that were like 30 40 years ago and some people tried
16:06to like hold those standards I mean it's just how it goes think about the names we called each other
16:13in the high school uh you know high school playgrounds or whatever I mean we would all
16:18just get blown up you know like the first timeline when when I was a younger guy and people would say
16:25gay or the other derogatory terms yeah I didn't even know what they meant and we were calling
16:31each other that I and I had no clue what I just knew it was a bad word and when you were trying
16:36to insult somebody would say that yeah and at the time no one really nobody nobody really even
16:41knew but if you said if they if you said those words now you'd be yeah it's a it's we got more
16:48educated yes and that's that's been helpful that way that people they want to be a little kinder
16:54yeah so well anyway thank you for joining us thanks for having me on the walk and uh good
17:01luck on your show and uh just think you're two years away from the big 20 and then hopefully
17:07I'll be done and Steve one more time any advice for Frank on how to manage his people when he
17:14loses his temper and you can kind of repeat the question well you know Frank when you're managing
17:19people and I just have to say like this I worked for Jerry Springer for all those years he never
17:24yelled at anybody I've only yelled at one person 18 years you got to be nice to the people that
17:30work for you okay I try to be I try to I try to improve the cat's got his tongue I try to improve
17:41I'm trying to improve I grew up I grew up in a house full of yelling oh in fact in fact my parents
17:48make the Costanzas look sane
17:52see my parents were Jerry's parents were you know I go down to visit my parents before and I'm like
17:57please turn the air conditioning on yeah yeah that's for sure
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