Is it my hyper sensitivity, my vivid imagination, or are our television icons and mega stars really going the way of Jerry Springer. I speak with some trepidation of Dr. Phil and the world’s favorite persona, Oprah. I am not a regular viewer, but I do see each show or snippets on occasion. I have been struck in recent weeks and months by the move to Jerry Springer’s stock in trade, cheating husbands, cheating wives, love triangles and all that jazz.

We do not yet have fisticuffs, floppy breasts, bare-chested men with a tie around their necks, women losing clothing, Dr. Phil beads or Oprah beads, but the slippery slope is there. When will we go from suburban chic to trailer trash? I think of the couple back for a second show with Dr. Phil. They received a second 15 minutes of fame by talking once more about the husband’s skirt chasing and screwing other women, also known as his continuing infidelity. We learn how he just can’t stop, can’t help himself. We see footage of him walking the neighbor-hood and meet his mistress. What possesses his wife to come back for more? To be cuckolded one more time? Throw the bum out and move on. No, move right and do what’s right! What’s next?

Even Oprah is finding that sex sells and has had several shows devoted to unfaithful men. To her credit, she is seemingly stunned, virtually incredulous, at a loss for words, and wondering why, why does this wife put up with it? Why does she still have him in her house under the same roof. Oprah is old fashioned enough to understand that infidelity is quite simply all or nothing. You cannot be a little unfaithful any more than you can be a little pregnant. One percent dishonesty and deceit is one hundred percent dishonesty, disloyalty, and trampling of sacred vows, sacred honor, a man’s word and integrity. Then again, long term integrity and intimacy and the pure joy of monogamy is hardly television material, so O and we are stuck with “celebrations” of perfidy.

We keep seeing more and more couples with issues of cheating and infidelity appearing on these “high level” shows. They make philanderers famous, perhaps even glamorous, thus virtually condoning and encouraging the behavior. Watch for a security detail, some female antagonists, wife and mistress, rolling on the floor, instead of sitting in a chair with Oprah or on a stool with Dr. Phil. It is only a matter of time as the genre deteriorates and finds itself targeting the lowest common denominator.

Peter Flierl is the author of a survival guide for husbands of women with breast cancer, PRAYER, LAUGHTER & BROCCOLI, and is a freelance writer and motivational speaker.

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