Morton Downey Jr., the big-mouth brute who was, for a short time in the ’80s, the most polarizing figure on TV, is making a comeback.
The talk-show host died in 2001 in relative obscurity, but a new movie about his startling career has taken the Tribeca Film Festival by storm and is promising to revive Downey for a generation that never heard of him.
“Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie” traces the rise and fall of Downey’s show, produced at the Ch. 9 studios in Secaucus, NJ, in 1988 and ’89.
His show, where he and a live studio audience of revved-up young men berated and screeched at controversial, newsmaker guests, is the forerunner of shows like “The Jerry Springer Show” and — to some extent — conservative cable shows.