Jerry SpringerProducers Were 'Petrified to Pitch'Man Who Left His Family to Marry a Shetland Pony: 'Train Wreck'

Mar. 15, 2025

A man married to a horse was a guest on a 1998 episode of ‘The Jerry Springer Show’.Photo:The Jerry Springer Show/NBC

The Jerry Springer Show/NBC

The Jerry Springer Showhad many shocking guests throughout its 27-season run, but one of them really stands out in the minds of those who worked behind the scenes.

“It had to be 3 or 4 in the morning when I get a call from this guy. He says, ‘Hi my name is Mark… I’ve been meaning to call the show for a long time because you guys are the only people who would really understand me. I left my wife and my two daughters for a Shetland pony,’ " Yoshimura recalls in the documentary.

“I’m like, ‘This is a f–king dream,' " Yoshimura continues, “He said that he and [his pony] Pixel had looked at each other and they had an immediate connection.”

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“There was this weird buzz in the studio where nobody could talk about it. We were all sworn to silence because we had to make it a surprise,” Yoshimura recalls.

“You watch the cutaways to the audience and they’re just like [shocked]. It was so shocking no one could speak.”

Chicago Sun-Timesmedia critic Robert Feder found the display horrific. “To have a guy on that married a horse, that was kissing a horse on stage, this was the most vile, grotesque freak show on television,” he said of the episode.

Jerry Springer hosting “The Jerry Springer Show”.

Executive producer Robert Dominick disagreed. In the documentary, he calls it “the perfect show,” and notes, “It was everything I ever wanted it to be.”

Producer Melinda Chait Mele adds, “The fact that it got banned, that it hit every major newspaper in the country thatTheJerry Springer Showhad done this show, even if it didn’t air… People were so curious about it — disgusted, but drawn. It’s the train wreck you can’t rip your eyes off of.”

Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Actionis now streaming on Netflix.

source: people.com