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Okay, for those of you who don't know what this is all about...

good, we'll keep you in suspense.

Hi, I'm Robin Byrd and this is the Robin Byrd Show.

And what I want everyone to do is to get comfortable.

You're probably with a loved one, so snuggle up real close with them.

And for those of you who don't have a loved one,

well, you always have me, Robin Byrd.

Will you please welcome one of New York's best-kept secrets, Robin Byrd.

Everybody knows Robin Byrd!

She's probably the record holder of the most cable shows.

That's what happens when you produce,

direct, write, and whatever.

She's a cultural avatar,

and I think she loved the idea that she was hosting

the ultimate underground party.

Robin was an important part

of sex-positive feminism and pleasure activism.

And the more lubricated she becomes,

the easier it is

to insert the weenie.

People dismissed her as camp,

but the truth is that Robin fought like hell

for the gay community.

Now, go get your rubbers while I'm doing all this, you know.

Meese today declared a federal crackdown on obscene materials.

Excuse me, but Robin...

Robin, is this it? Fini?

I'm putting up a big fight. My fans are behind me 100%.

Before you know it, we'll be censoring everything in the United States.

Books and what we learn in school.

The fact is, once you speak out, they'll come after you.

Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!

Being an activist is one thing,

but when you're intentionally teaching, it means you're an activator.

That's what Robin was.

Isn't it indecent?

The human body is not indecent.

What is indecent?

Wow, I haven't had anybody in this apartment

in over 20 years.

It's hard to find things in here.

Oh, here's my costume.

It's a crochet bikini that I would wear on the show.

Yep, it's stretched out, alright.

Nope, doesn't smell.

So, that's this.

This should go in a museum.

As you can see, I have the decks here

and the DV cam.

And transferring--

And my audio board is underneath all of those.

Sit with Daddy.

Go sit with Daddy. Baby, you can hear me?

Yeah, I hear you, and I'm not gonna say a word.

That's Shelly.

He never left, no matter how crazy I am.

And these are all our children.

We have more than 600 tapes.

December 27th, 1989.

Different century.

They're numbered. All my shows are numbered.

So, these are the earlier ones.

Here's one with Heather Hunter.

It's always fun when Heather's on.

Julie Bond was my first transsexual.

She was beautiful. She was beautiful.

I always thought it would be a good idea

to get up close and personal with Jeff Stryker.

So we did an interview in bed at my hotel in Vegas,

and then we had sex and Shelly filmed it.

And his dick was large. It had girth.

This is the first-- the Hot Legs show.

Let's put this in the box.

That is a super classic.

This is one of the first shows I did.

In 1976, there was a porn producer, Bobby Hollander.

And he had this TV show called Hot Legs,

hosted by two porn stars.

Bobby had begged me

'cause nobody was in town to do the show.

It was a half-hour show on Thursday nights.

They called me and said, "Do me a favor."

And I'm like, "What?"

"Well, can you come down and be a host?"

And he was like, "Oh, please, please, please, please."

I'm like, "Okay, Bobby, I'm gonna do this for you."

The format, it was a film. Like a short.

Like a 8-millimeter short for 15 minutes.

And then, the next 15 minutes,

you opened up the phone lines to the audience.

This was the first time that TV was interactive.

And everybody took all their hostilities out

on this poor half-hour show where they could talk to the TV.

But first, some phone calls.

And I was so reluctant to push the first call

because they weren't screened.

- Hello? - Hot Legs.

Hot Legs, this is.

I oozed "Please love me."

Please don't hate me. All I want is love for everybody.

I want to know, what makes you so hot?

All these lights here.

And they're like, "You're great,

we love you, you're so beautiful."

You've got a great show. You got a hit.

So, I was like, "Oh, thanks.

I'm beautiful. Oh, great!"

You know, there's nothing like a compliment,

especially on television.

Hello. Your hot legs are absolutely very delightful.

And I said, "Oh, thank you."

And, "You wanna say anything about the film?"

"No, we just want to see more of you."

And I didn't get paid.

My payment was all those compliments.

You know, this was the '70s. We didn't do things for money.

I continued to go back every Thursday to fill in for them.

And the studio that we were doing it at said,

"Oh, there's no show tonight." I'm like, "Why?"

He says, "Well, Bobby Hollander owes me a lot of money.

"And until he pays me, there's not gonna be any more show."

And I said, "Well, I wanna do a show."

And they said, "Well, you can't call it the Hot Legs show."

And I said, "Well, what am I gonna call it?"

And I said, well, Johnny Carson had the Johnny Carson Show.

Tom Snyder had the Tom Snyder Show.

I'm gonna call it the Robin Byrd Show.

I was the first woman to bring adult programming to television.

Well, it was mostly a male audience

when it started out as Hot Legs 'cause it was run by a man.

It was more geared towards men.

And here I am, I have a female's point of view,

which is a lot softer.

- Hello? - Hi, how are you?

I just want to know why the show has changed

from the Bobby Hollander Show to now, of course, your name?

Well, because I'm producing it now.

Oh, very good.

In the beginning, they said, "You'll have to produce it yourself."

And I said, "Okay, I'll produce it," not knowing what a producer does.

Of course, 30 years, some-odd-years later,

I know a producer does everything, everything.

- Hello? - Yes, Robin.

- Yes? - Yes, I'd like to know

what do you do when you're not on the show?

I'm constantly thinking about the show.

I was always told that in TV, you can't use white, black, or red.

And I'm like, well, I'm gonna change that.

I got my red background paper. I had a black rug on the floor.

I wore a black crochet bikini.

And you know what? All those colors

and psychedelic looks that I added to the show,

well, I taught the studio how to do video feedback.

And that's what you see on the show.

We're gonna do some exercises now, and that's all part of living these days.

Back in those days,

it wasn't common for women to be bodybuilding.

Now, you breathe...

in from your diaphragm.

So, I'd show everybody, this is what I do for my body.

I do squats, I do lunges. This is my thing.

You can do the same.

Do leg circles.

This is how I got my ass.

And then, I had a five-minute story that I would write,

Byrd's Book of Bedtime Stories.

My bedtime music, perhaps?

This was X-rated fairy tales.

So, I would turn you on and tuck you in.

"He had taken her out to dinner, and then he had taken her to a disco."

I started having guests on the show

after the Byrd's Book of Bedtime Stories...

because people didn't understand the adult industry.

They thought that everybody walked around with dildos

in their mouth and their ears, and stuck up their butts.

And I just wanted to show people

that these are just human beings that have a lot of talent.

Mix me with vodka

And call me Bloody Mary

Mix me with hot sauce

And I get pretty scary

- Thank you. - Oh, that's great!

That's great!

- Thank you. - I love that. That's super.

We were on once a week on Wednesday night at midnight.

'Cause it's hump day!

And with me is Samantha Fox.

And I want to...

Mm.

Cut.

Oh, boy.

If that wasn't hot enough for you, we have more.

Then later on, as the show got more popular,

I had up-and-comings and all kinds of people.

Lie back, get comfortable. We have a great show for you tonight.

First on line is Annie Sprinkle.

I did a performance piece on Robin's show

about my 100 worst sexual experiences.

We'd all go and promote our stuff on Robin's show.

That was like the internet.

You've been doing postmodernism. I like to call it porn-formances.

- Porn-formance art. - Oh, porn-formance, yeah.

Robin was so passionate about people in the sex industry,

and her heart really came through.

- How you doing? - Oh, I'm great, how are you?

I've been watching a long time. I think your show is great.

- Thank you. - The first time I've gotten through.

Oh, thank you so much.

And you know what?

My show is still on in reruns today, even though the technology is changing.

This is my cable box.

But in the beginning, there was a sit-top thing

where you had a dial,

and then there was one with push buttons.

And the cable box has been keeping me on for all these years.

In the '70s, buildings were getting taller

and your rabbit ear antennas weren't picking up as much.

And they couldn't get the reception from the antennas,

so that's why they decided to get cable.

Instead of sending signals through the air like they did with broadcast TV,

they put cables under the streets.

Since the streets were public property,

politicians and advocates demanded that cable companies set aside

some channels for public use,

which would become public access TV, the wild wild west of the boob tube.

Hi, welcome to Speak Out.

My name is Ken Sander, and tonight's issue is,

should New Yorkers carry handguns?

The idea was that local community members who were not represented on broadcast TV

would be able to put themselves on television.

There were church groups...

Come to Jesus

...community neighborhood associations.

Artists, activists.

Reagan, Connor, and Anderson.

That's what they are. Call them the three musketeers.

Politics, town hall rants.

Canned wine.

Manhattan Cable actually handed out free studio time to anyone who signed up.

As you can see from the hearts, this is our Valentine's Day show,

so we have one of the most romantic bands

in New York City with us, the Beastie Boys.

What you do is you put your fingers here, you put your fingers there,

and you walk like this, see?

No gatekeepers, no auditions.

Just show up and boom, you're on TV.

Mm, we have an excellent Burgundy today.

A Fixin from Hervelets.

And then, Manhattan Cable added another channel,

which was Channel J.

Getting comfortable in swinging.

Channel J was the first leased access channel

where you could rent time and sell ads.

1-900-HOT-TOOL.

As long as it wasn't considered legally obscene,

you could pretty much do anything you wanted to do.

We have the world's only

weekly pot report.

Our studio was an open door. I didn't censor you. I didn't do anything.

Only thing you couldn't do in the studio was start a fire.

Jim Chladek was a rebel.

He had an office next door to Time Warner.

And he somehow rigged a wire in the alleyway

between the two buildings to connect it for live TV.

That's an old tape.

Why are you holding on to all your tapes?

It's a good question.

I don't know why I'm holding on to the tapes.

I don't need all these tapes.

But I can't see myself getting rid of them.

These originals are gonna stay, or are you gonna put them in storage?

I'm not gonna continue paying so much money for storage.

You know, we're living on a fixed income.

You wanna hold on to the physical tapes?

Yeah, the physical tapes, sure.

What are you gonna do with it, throw it away?

Things don't work anymore.

The format's not the same.

Destroy these tapes?

What would happen if I die?

- You know what's gonna happen? - Oh, you're never gonna die.

- Says who? - I'm not magic.

- What's gonna happen with it? - You're never gonna die.

- Really? - Yes.

What, you think I'm Superwoman?

Yes. I know it.

Okay, but if I die,

city marshal's gonna come in here and throw everything away.

It only means something to you and me because we put our life into it.

Ah, dealing with dementia.

I'm not gonna win at this one.

Central Park is my backyard.

This is where I come to get away and to have me time.

I used to come here with Shelly, too,

but now he has dementia.

So, it's usually just me and Om.

I was born and raised in Manhattan.

I was adopted at childbirth,

and I was taken away from my mother right then and there at birth.

My adopted father was an antiques dealer,

and I would hang out in the store with him.

But he always loved me. I was Daddy's little girl.

My dad died when I was eight.

Everything changed.

My adopted mother, she took a lot out on me.

She drank and cried and screamed.

She would always say I wasn't going to amount to anything,

and that I was ugly.

And we got into a big fight, and she said to me,

"Well, if you don't like it here, then get out."

And I'm like, "Okay, bye."

And I ran away, and I packed up whatever I thought I needed,

which wasn't much,

slept in Central Park for a couple of days.

There were hippies everywhere.

It was freedom.

The '60s was the awakening of love and sex.

You could come out of the closet with your sexuality.

And that's when I realized I really liked women, too.

I had a girlfriend, and she knew I needed a place to stay,

so she suggested that I come live with her and her family.

Fast-forward, I took a GED and I got into college.

I wanted to be an art director.

I wanted to be a creative director. I wanted to be the director.

So, I went to School of Visual Arts.

I started taking some art classes.

And I needed money.

So, I posed for line, you know, drawing, and I had to be naked.

My friend said that, "If you're already modeling nude,

"and you're comfortable with it,

why don't you enter this Miss All Bare America contest?"

Now, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a look at Number 8.

Here she comes.

It was like Miss USA, but it was all bare.

Let's hear it.

Aren't they something?

All shapes, sizes, colors, East and West...

High Society magazine saw me

and asked me to do a layout for the Christmas issue.

My whole life I was told I'm ugly, according to my mother.

She got that wrong.

I realized, yeah, I have a bitchin' body.

I got a great ass.

'70s was fun.

Disco, orgies.

I was the orgy queen.

The birth control pill

becoming accessible changed women's lives.

They could have lots of sex without fear of getting pregnant.

So, they went wild and they started experimenting

and having lots of sex partners.

This age of permissiveness

may have finally found its ultimate expression.

A sexual Disneyland

where you can live out your wildest fantasies.

I used to go to Plato's Retreat, which was a sex swingers club.

And I used to love going there because I love sex.

I loved it.

And I was having sex with the people

who were in the porn films off camera.

So, they said, "Well, if you're gonna do it off camera...

why don't you do it on camera and get paid for it?"

And I'm like, "Oh, okay."

Is she not attractive, monsieur?

Ah, oui, oui.

And so, I started doing films.

Do it, Glenna.

Do whatever you want to me.

My most famous film is Debbie Does Dallas.

I was Mrs. Hardwick of the candle store.

They premiered at the Pussycat Theater in Times Square.

I mean, back in the day,

the New York Times had ads for X-rated films.

Deep Throat kind of launched that golden era porn chic.

This is Harry Reems, and I'm interviewing Robin Byrd.

No! And Veronica Hart?

I'll tell you what, you give me your autograph,

- I'll give you my phone number. - Oh, yeah!

I'll go for that, sure.

Movie theaters were showing these films,

and you could go with your husband or wife.

And the porn stars all came, and the paparazzi were there.

And it was like any other premiere or movie

that you would go to like any other film.

No fucking way do I have any regrets.

I have done 13 films.

I didn't set out to do these things.

My life has been always like I'm a pinball,

and I hit one bumper, and then I go to another bumper.

I mean, that's how I met Shelly.

I'm filming in the park,

and I see a familiar face sitting on the rock.

It was Shelly.

So, I walk over to him and I went, "Hi, remember me?

We met in Fire Island just last summer."

I think it was love at first sight.

Well, second sight.

We had a lot in common.

I was interested in art, and he was the artist.

He was a hot shit art director, creative director.

He had his own ad agency,

but he worked with all these big advertisers.

He was, you know, a big deal, but that didn't attract me to him.

What attracted me to him was the fact

that he was so sensitive and warm,

and he was the woman that I always wanted to marry.

We had sex in different little places that he would never think of having sex.

But I was always on top.

We moved in together,

and we've been in the same place since then.

Happy birthday, dear Robin

- Happy birthday to you - ...to me

Thank you! Now, everybody strip!

Hi. My name is Shelly. I live in a shoe.

This is my friend Robin. She's in there, too.

Woo-hoo!

This is my 69th birthday.

A sexy number. Mm, mm, mm.

Last year, it was 68. You do me, I owe you one.

Oh, this is so good.

- Who needs real food? Mm! - Oh, wow.

Whipped cream.

I was in a film where I was covered with whipped cream once.

It's so delicious,

but it's so hard to get off your skin.

Do you remember I came home,

and I had to shower and bathe for like--

Three weeks.

I was a sundae, and people ate it off my body.

Yum!

Ah!

How many years have you and I been coming here for my birthday?

One.

- That's not true. - Two.

- No. - Three.

We've been together almost 50-- we'll be together 50 years this July,

so 45 years at least you and I have been coming here.

How did you meet me?

Oh, I met the Byrd...

Do you remember?

No.

Yes, you do.

- You don't remember? - Give me a hint.

Fire Island.

I mean, he's still a jokester and he's still funny,

but he's not the same.

He was there when we signed the contract

with Manhattan cable that we were gonna be producers.

And then, in the studio, he made sure the crew

did what they were supposed to do.

We had a cameraman, a sound person who was deaf,

a technical director who was colorblind,

and me.

We called him Mr. Head Gopher,

and that was Shelly's, Mr. Head Gopher's job,

was to answer the phone and tell them to hold on.

And I would always say,

"He gives the fastest head in the city. Coffee, tea, and head."

Head Gopher.

Mr. Gopher, go back in your hole.

I don't call him by his name.

Well, Mr. Gopher's screening, what can I say?

475-1550...

My audience has this imagination of who I am.

I'm their fantasy.

I mean, nobody knew we were married.

This is probably a complete shock to know that I've been with him since '74.

Me, the orgy queen?

But he never judged me.

I called Shelly the Head Gopher.

But he was so much more than that.

He's so much more than that.

It's a whole different story with the dementia.

- Hi. - Hi.

Hello! How are you?

Hey, you guys. Hey, you guys.

Hey, you guys. Hey, you guys. Hey, you guys. Hey, you guys.

- Hello. - Good afternoon.

Hey, you guys. Hey, you guys. Hey, you guys.

Hello, travelers.

- Hi, Robin. - How are you?

The Byrd, the Byrd, the Byrd!

This is where I sit every morning.

I know, but you're not gonna sit here now.

No, that's for sure.

We have to make the boat.

You bet.

It's our 50th anniversary.

The first time Shelly and I crossed paths

was right here on Fire Island.

I wanted to see if I could jog his memory a little.

Just wanted to have him regain something.

- Hey. Thanks, man. - Happy birthday.

Does this look familiar?

No.

So, why are we here?

I'm here because I love you.

We're not gonna be walking all the way down there.

Uh-huh. Yeah, come on.

No. You don't want to do that.

That's it. This is the end of the line for me.

You don't wanna go any further?

That's right.

Alright, maybe we can leave you

- and I can walk further? - Sure.

It's really hot, and I didn't realize how far it was.

I mean, I was 19, 17, 18, whatever I was.

And it's a little too much for him.

And I don't want him, you know, he's 84.

You know something?

I think it was this house.

But it's been changed.

Oh, way, way different than 50 years ago.

That's me. Yeah.

Are you familiar with my--

Hi! May I take a picture of the house?

Thank you.

Wow.

I guess coming back was more for me.

When I first met Shelly, he was always an observer.

And that's what his attraction to me was.

Get the Byrd.

Caw, caw, caw!

Because I was what he observed.

Do you remember when we used to go to the health food store there?

- Yeah, of course, yeah. - Downstairs.

That was the best health food store.

Didn't it have like a--

- I used to get my hair cut. - Can we make a left here?

Didn't I get my hair cut someplace along here?

Yeah, you got your-- the next block.

Yeah.

On good old 42nd Street.

Back in the day,

it was an adult playground, literally.

Ah, yeah. Only one hot sexy token does it all.

Come on in. We're gonna tickle your pickle,

burn your banana and make your liver quiver, daddy.

Look, that's where the Gaiety was.

The Gaiety was the male go-go place.

And then around the corner was Females, for straight men.

The back door of the Gaiety,

you'd be able to get through to the straight one.

The straight men went into the straight one

for the females,

and then snuck in the door to the Gaiety.

Byrd used to walk up and down 42nd Street, getting the guests.

She used to go from Show World to...

What was the other place?

Show Palace!

Byrd may be dancing there tonight. Let's check it out.

So, I was performing at Show World.

I kept asking everybody,

"What am I gonna have to do to get on Robin's show?"

And all these guys were like,

"Well, you kinda got to be famous."

And then she's knocking on my dressing room door

after our shows and she's like, "Hi, I'm Robin Byrd!"

So, she finally invited me on the show.

And then of course, I was the female adult star

that was on the Robin Byrd Show the most.

Ha, ha!

Every time Mr. Gopher meets me,

Robin's running around.

And she's like, you know,

shouting and barking orders at everybody.

Shelly, do you need a filter?

- No. - Oh, how wonderful.

Mr. Gopher saying, "Come in the bathroom. You can change."

And the bathroom's like the size of a closet.

It was like a little broom closet.

I mean, we were all crammed up in there.

Just like total strangers just getting dressed.

It was like no space at all.

After getting them all down to the studio,

I would get them together and I would line them up

and say, "Okay, you're on first, you're on second."

And sure enough, all I had was like 10 seconds to get myself ready.

So, that's why I would powder myself in front of the camera all the time,

because people like to see you put your makeup on.

So, I worked it into the show.

Hi, I'm Robin Byrd, and this is the Robin Byrd Show.

And I usually, at this point, get at least my powder on,

but there's so much disarray in the studio all the time

that here I am doing my powder.

I'm the director. I direct in front of the camera.

Like, "Mr. Cameraman, hi, how are you?

Come over here, Mr. Cameraman."

And I would play with the camera.

Am I shining, Mr. Cameraman?

No. Good.

'Cause it's live. There's nothing better than live.

Live audience, live TV.

Just one take.

What you saw was what you got.

This should be like a makeup class.

Okay, and now you put the lips...

I mean, she pretty much did everything, right?

So, you see her on the show and she's kind of ditzy and bubbly.

But when it was time to film and stuff, she was a businesswoman.

Lie back.

- Get comfortable. - Get comfortable.

Here is Joey, and he is Mr. Altar Boy.

She suddenly jumps behind the camera.

And she's like, "So I'm gonna be talking to you

"while I'm filming you, but you can look,

but you can't respond to me."

I'm like, "Okay."

Don't talk to me. Just listen. I'm the director.

I would tell them, "I'm on your face.

"I'm on your dick. Turn around. Bend over. Let me see your butt.

"Spread your ass cheeks.

Now get down on your fours."

That's why when people were dancing, suddenly they just smile for no reason.

'Cause she's, like, "Oh, you look great.

We're gonna zoom in on your crotch right now."

And you couldn't say anything back to her.

At the end of every show,

we end the show with a song called "Baby, Let Me Bang Your Box."

Oh, baby, let me bang your box

Baby, let me bang your box

I was doing a satire, so I would grab people's boobs

and put my head in between them.

Just what the audience wanted to do themselves,

but here I am doing it saying, "It's okay."

And I'm a woman doing it.

And I pulled out your penis and I put it in my eye.

And I recorded and sang the song myself.

Oh, baby, let me bang your box

Baby, let me bang your box

Baby, let me play your 88

Gonna play till the whole house rocks

Bang, bang, bang

Ooh, ooh, ooh, little baby

She likes that

Yeah, in the middle

Bang, bang, bang

Oh, you got rhythm

Baby

Baby, bang my box

Bang, little baby...

It was so fun at the end, you'd always, like,

pretend like you were blowing me and shit like that

at the end of the show.

"Bang Your Box," I loved that.

It was crazy. We would do the show...

Hi, Heather. How are you, honey?

...bang our box on stage.

It was like a never-ending circus, you know?

Rock that, baby

Like that

In the middle

All right, baby

Hello? I just wanted to tell you that I watch your show every week.

Alright!

And I'm sitting here right now. I'm gay, I'm sitting here with my lover,

- and we really enjoy you. - Oh, great.

I noticed that there were a lot of gay men that were watching my show.

So, I started going to the gay theaters and getting the gay performers.

Straight from the stages of the Show Palace Theater,

here is the Brazilian bombshell himself,

Vladimir Correa.

But I had a technical director who was homophobic,

and I said, "Okay, bye-bye."

Having male guests on the show was really a good addition

because I satisfied the viewers at home that didn't want to see women.

Ten years earlier,

we were literally getting arrested and thrown in jail

for being gay.

And now I'm, like, turning on the TV

and I see Robin Byrd and naked male dancers.

It was so liberating.

It was, you know, some of my first memories

of seeing naked bodies in a semi-sexual way,

but also just comfortable around nudity.

Robin Byrd was the place where you could be yourself.

Like, it was a place

where there was no such thing as being taboo.

She made no confusion about it.

Sex was something that was normal, natural,

and for everybody.

My partner and I,

we always walked around the Village at night.

And we would see these red lights in the window.

We really couldn't figure out what they were.

But, we finally figured out that it was the Robin Byrd Show

coming on at 10 o'clock.

And after that, we started watching it.

Everybody loved that show. We had cable on at the bar at Julius'.

We'd put it on and we'd all scream, "Robin! Hey, Robin!"

- Hi, Robin. - Hi, Tree.

This is Tree from Julius'.

The gay audience really got me in a different way.

They really loved me.

Are you gonna be on the air next Wednesday,

- Christmas night? - Yeah, of course!

Good, you're gonna be live, 'cause I have to work

so we'll keep each other company.

There you go.

It got to a point I had almost a special number

that I could call, and I was always the first one or the second or third.

475-1550.

- And you're live, hi! - Hi, Robin!

- Hi, Tree! - How you doing, sweetheart?

Did you see Jeff this time?

I wanted to take off Jeff's cock ring from the inside.

Wait, wait, wait. But what about Keith's?

While I'm doing that, I'm gonna reach for the brass ring many, many times.

Sometimes she had guys on there

that nobody would touch with a 10-foot pole.

But then she had some of them that were real hot,

and those are the ones I said, "Bring to Julius'."

And then she'd always ask, how many people are there?

- How many people there, Tree? - Oh, about 25.

Hi, guys!

Hello, everybody, wave to Tree at Julius', 25 at one time.

You have this wonderful window where Robin's show emerges,

and this is a time between Stonewall and AIDS.

So, this is the window of sexual revolution,

a lot of gay pride, and much more openness than in the past.

And it was so refreshing.

I got to New York in 1980 from Long Island.

You could be bisexual, you could be gay, you could be lesbian.

Sex was something that people enjoyed, something that people didn't frown upon.

It was really, really very exciting. But within two years, everything changed.

We just got our sexual freedom.

But it turned on a dime. It happened so fast.

Scientists at the National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta today

released the results of a study,

which shows that the lifestyle of some male homosexuals

has triggered an epidemic of a rare form of cancer.

Researchers know of 413 people

who have contracted the condition in the past year.

I was watching my friends die.

My friend Richie's mother and father put him on the floor in the garage

and would wash him with a hose because they wouldn't let him use the tub.

As a young gay man with HIV/AIDS, it also forced me on disability.

So, I no longer had a job. I no longer had a sex life.

The sex life I wanted was scary.

The stigma was awful.

Ambulance drivers have refused to take AIDS patients.

The person said outright, "I'm not touching him."

When AIDS first started in the early '80s,

everyone thought, "Oh, my God, you know, one encounter

and you could die this horrible death."

Sex became the devil.

All this has led to a drastic change in sexual practices and lifestyle.

According to one study,

8 out of 10 gay men here have stopped all unsafe sex.

Ronald Reagan never even said the word HIV or AIDS.

He never acknowledged what was going on in the world,

until it was too late.

Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!

Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!

Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!

Every summer I would come to Fire Island, and more and more of my friends were gone.

And I'm thinking,

"Shouldn't there be more information about safe sex?"

Now, go scrub your teeth

and go get those rubbers while I put on my lip gloss.

I had this platform that I could speak out.

It was community television.

That's what it was made for.

Just because you carry rubbers in your wallet

doesn't mean that it makes it safe.

They have to come from your wallet on your dicks

for you to have safe sex.

She would always have this kind of

safe sex message on the show where she was, like, doing these demos.

I do have my rubber.

Do you have yours?

And dental dam!

Everybody should have a dental dam.

It was funny and it was entertaining.

For a dental dam,

what you do is you snip that little rolled-up thing,

and then you unroll it, just like this.

Then you would have this rectangular piece of latex

in which you will have oral sex with.

It really did keep me safe.

It's so easy when you're young, dumb, and horny

to not practice safe sex.

But I did end up using condoms all the time.

My George Sardi, Johnny Poo lube bag, where I have my condom.

And it's like in no small part because of Robin.

Do you need one?

Do you have one?

She really did give me this

sense that it was our responsibility as a community

to keep each other healthy, and it's really powerful.

It's a really powerful legacy.

People were dying,

and they were losing their loved ones.

So, I wanted to give them the love that they were missing.

What I want you to do is to lie back,

get comfortable, snuggle up next to your loved ones.

What's that? You don't have a loved one?

Well, you always have me, Robin Byrd.

- Really. - Quite frankly, honestly,

there were nights when Robin was my only person.

I know that sounds strange,

but I was really grateful to have her there.

And I was also grateful to have some semblance of sex in my life

because it wasn't happening for me because of my situation.

I didn't have a loved one.

And I always had Robin.

It was wonderful.

So, the things I learned from Robin

were really helpful to me, as I was very broken

and trying to fix my life.

One was the power of acceptance and openness

to who I am as a gay man and how I fit in.

Robin Byrd meant everything for the culture.

When I say the culture,

I mean people that were outcasts,

the people that were forgotten about, the people that people wrote off.

I think she's an accidental activist.

AIDS was raging.

She was trying to keep the fun and the spark alive

and the spontaneity of sex,

but also remind people that one wrong move and you were gonna be in the soup.

I was on the beach

at around 5 o'clock in the morning the other day,

and I saw three guys fucking.

Nothing wrong with that.

But you weren't using a rubber.

Now, obviously, my message is not getting across to everyone,

and that means you!

So, the next time you wanna butt fuck,

use a condom.

I did see it and pulled it, sort of.

I can't remember the last time we loaded these.

Annie Sprinkle emailed me and said I should archive my tapes.

Annie had all her stuff archived at Harvard.

Here, listen.

"Dear Robin, greetings from San Francisco today.

"You have this incredible archive and legacy.

"You have documented years and years

"of sex-positive community, of pleasure activists,

"movers and shakers of the sexual revolution,

visionary sex educators, and more."

I'm getting very emotional.

This is amazing.

"Your archive is one of a kind,

"and it must be preserved for decades to come

"before it's too late.

"If we don't share our her-stories,

"the people who want to erase us will write the history.

"We can't have that. Fuck that.

"Please start this process of placing your archive now.

"Time is of the essence.

"Place your archive in a safe institution before the fascists burn it all.

It can happen here, sadly."

Alright, Annie, we'll do this.

Hello?

Hey, day Byrd, baby! How's it going there? Where are you now?

I'm in Brooklyn.

I'm going to meet with the archivist, remember?

Byrd, you're in Brooklyn? Oh, man. When are you coming back here?

Shortly.

Do I have to give the whole library? Do they even want my stuff?

Do I have to have these all digitized?

And who pays for that?

- Hi, I'm Robin. Nice to meet you. - Daylon. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you, too.

And see, I just wanted to show you a few things.

Just to give you a better sense of like the sort of work that I'm doing.

Right, 'cause I'm new to this,

- you know... - Yeah.

It's a weird niche thing that I do.

In my house, it's called hoarding.

Yeah. Yeah, no. Sometimes in my house, too.

- Oh, Veronica. I love her. - Yes, yeah.

- Yeah. - I've been working with Veronica

- and with Annie. - Oh, and with Annie. Yeah, yeah.

That's actually how I--

- we got together this way. - Yeah.

Wow.

So, if we decide to work together...

- Right. - ...one of the next steps

is gonna be actually seeing your stuff.

I know we had talked-- you had mentioned tapes.

I have three-quarter-inch tapes.

Right. So the tapes, some digitization will happen.

- I mean, there's like, you know. - I get the tapes back, correct?

Well, no, the institutions that I'm working with,

they would prefer to have the tapes.

It's worth a lot to myself and my husband.

- Those are my babies. - Yeah. Yeah.

- Those are my children. - Absolutely.

I have to take this. This is my husband.

Hello?

Day Byrd, baby, where are you?

I'm interviewing the archivist

to investigate archiving the Robin Byrd Show

to be in an institution like Harvard or Columbia.

Or a mental institution.

No mental institution.

You're not giving him any tapes or anything like that, are you?

No, not yet.

Not yet. Oh, boy.

Be very careful, Byrd.

Don't let these things out of your possession.

You know that I am not going to give away our babies.

Okay, just remember that--

I can't forget it 'cause you keep reminding me.

Okay, give me a call.

Okay, sweetie, I'll call you on the way back.

Bye.

How do you decide whether and how...

that you want my stuff?

I mean, I need to see the archive, you know?

- Mm-hmm. - And know more

about what we're actually talking about.

Oh, shit.

You're gonna go through all this?

Holy shit.

Oh, my God, they are!

The original Robin Byrd Show T-shirts. Always signed on my butt.

"Bang my box, love always, Robin Byrd."

Oh, my God.

Hello, old friend.

Seeing this sign makes me wanna get back on the air and do it,

but I guess you don't wanna see a 70-year-old

in front of the sign with that crochet bikini.

But at any age. I'm not age shaming.

But I'm not as sexy as I was, let's put it that way.

This is pretty old.

Oh! Oh, my God.

Sandra Bernhard segments.

I became aware of Robin Byrd

the summer I was here doing my show off-Broadway.

And I was up late every single night.

One night I came home, and she had callers.

So, I called in.

Back then, that was a much more, like, kind of like amazing revelation

that you could be talking to somebody while it was live on TV.

I told her how much I love the show

and how she was keeping me company late at night.

And so, we hatched a plan for me to come on her show.

And I co-hosted with her.

- How are you? - Fine, how are you?

Great. Lie back and...

...get comfortable.

Put on your nylons.

- Your rubbers. - Rubbers.

Your silks and satins.

We're here with Lili Marlene, darling.

It was really funny and really out there.

And how many films did you make while you were in the business?

Somewhere between 200 and 300.

- No! - And in five years.

Wait a minute, Katharine Hepburn has a name

for each one of your films, honey.

- Well, she doesn't make the kind of-- - How the hell do you do it?

We ask Lili Marlene tonight.

Well, I'm a flaming sex maniac, I guess, really.

The '80s, when you could still do things

that were totally insane, and fun, and cutting-edge.

The Robin Byrd Show is a hit.

Miss Byrd is a cult figure with her trademark crochet bikini,

white manicured nails, sisterly enthusiasm for her guests,

and playful polymorphous curiosity.

She has become a kind of kitsch Lady Liberty

for the city that never sleeps.

Alright, we're back with Barry Manilow.

Robin has a real nose for publicity.

She's great at getting her name in Page Six.

I remember Barry Manilow said he was a huge fan of hers.

- Yeah. - Her name is Robin Byrd,

and she's got this cable television show.

- And I met her at a party. - Mm-hmm?

And we had a very innocent photo taken.

And the next thing I knew, you know, I was gonna marry her, yeah.

Robin, I saw in the paper

that said you were gonna marry Barry Manilow.

- That you were engaged. - Well, he asked me to marry him.

You see, I don't have the ring yet.

And she went with it, and really got publicity out of it.

When Robin began, it was just a modest show

for her neighbors.

But when your neighborhood is New York,

the country's biggest media stage,

everyone ends up watching.

Hello, there.

I'm Robin Byrd,

and this is the Robin Byrd Show.

And when they did the SNL sketch,

I couldn't believe it. I'm on national TV.

They said, "Cheri, they want you to do Robin Byrd."

And I was like, "As if!

"Yeah, I'm not putting on a macramé bikini top

with bottoms."

And then I had an idea of putting, like, big fake boobs into the macramé,

and then we adjusted it on top of my boobs.

And don't forget to wear your rubbers! See you tomorrow at midnight!

She had called in to SNL,

and she said to me, "Cheri, ask me anything."

I said, "Do you ever think of maybe upping the production value?"

She goes, "Cheri, nobody wants to see well-produced porn."

And she gave me her lip gloss.

I put it in a plastic bag and I kept it in a drawer.

Somebody's like, "What's this?" I go, "Robin Byrd's lip gloss."

Smithsonian!

Smithsonian!

After a decade, I finally started making some money.

There was this woman named Betsy Superfon.

Betsy Superfon was out in California.

She was the queen of the phone lines.

What's your fantasy tonight?

She had sex lines, she had astrology lines.

Betsy Superfon bought tons of air time on my show for her phone sex lines,

and I would fly to California,

and she would drive me around in her Rolls-Royce

that said "970 Girl."

Phone lines were like this big thing, you know, before apps and before webcams,

before OnlyFans.

If you wanted to get off or get connected,

you picked up the phone.

And there were actual phone numbers in the back of magazines.

It was analog sexting, basically. You never knew who you were talking to.

But that was part of the thrill.

Let your imagination run wild.

Just pick up the phone.

But I realized it was so lucrative for everybody else, that they convinced me

to have my own phone lines.

You can always call us at 970-BYRD.

That's right, 970-2973.

So, then on my own car,

I went and got a license plate, said "970 B-Y-R-D."

970-BYRD.

She was very much in the moment

and very much a businesswoman and in control.

Well, we're gonna take some phone calls.

The numbers are 475-1550.

It's a free call. We don't put you on hold.

And if we do, well, it's a free call, you know?

And if you don't wanna spend no money and you wanna spend some money,

you can call my 970-BYRD

and help support the show and talk to my girls.

They're there. Hi, girls! They're there waiting to talk to you now.

I had a gay advertiser,

and he suggested that I do just a show for men,

so that the gay audience could see only men

and have their own phone lines.

We called it "Robin Byrd's Men for Men."

And I said, "Well, let's do 970-BYRD.

Let's do 970-BEEF for the men."

"Where's the beef?"

And then, I had TVTS.

That was the transgender phone line.

So, the crazy crochet

bikini-wearing loon

also put on her business hat.

You're not allowed here, ha-ha!

Ah, little alpha.

Ha-ha-ha, you're such an alpha. You won't stay on your back.

No, you won't. I can keep you--

Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye!

What you doing? Do you wanna get smudged?

Do you wanna get smudged?

Let's go.

Oh, shit!

Oh, shit!

Well, no more smudging.

Shelly and I would always walk the beach to this house

that we're in now, and found out one day it was for sale.

I had money from the phone lines enough to get a loan. A jumbo loan.

And the minute the door opened, I said to Shelly,

"Don't say anything, but I love it."

Hello!

Cheers, everybody. Good morning! Welcome to Byrdland.

You know, everything in this house has a little meaning.

You know, I love disco, so I got my disco balls.

When I had this painting made for me,

you know, a little bondage never hurt anybody...

if you're doing it right.

The house was a party house.

I love exercising.

It's just too bad I don't have the body right now to show it.

And it is a bit rusty, but it still works.

I'm young at heart and in my spirit, but my body and everybody...

You know, you know...

When you have a 60-something-year-old car...

it's hard to find parts.

I chose Fire Island 'cause it's a beautiful place to live.

It's been a haven for gay people since the early 1900s.

Freedom of expression is very important

to everyone here in Fire Island.

They feel very strongly about standing up for their rights.

This administration is putting the purveyors

of illegal obscenity and pornography on notice.

Your industry's days are numbered.

Thank God for a president

who agrees in totality with what we morally stand for here.

We are committed to the pro-family, anti-pornography perspective.

The free love vibe of the '60s and '70s, that was over.

And suddenly, we were in a full-swing moral panic.

Ed Meese and the Moral Majority,

they were all coming down on people like me.

More controversy tonight from the report on pornography

that US Attorney General Edwin Meese put out this year.

Meese today declared a federal crackdown on obscene materials.

They outrageously abuse the persons who are being photographed and portrayed.

They do untold injury to society.

Meese said he'll introduce legislation

to ban obscene cable TV programs

and telephone pornography services.

By this point, part of the feminist movement

is allying with the conservative religious right establishment,

arguing that pornography is the most serious form of harm to women.

And so, leased access begins to become a social problem

according to some 'cause it's a lot of sexual content.

So, I started getting censored.

Oh!

No, it can't be.

There's a box in there that says "Byrd fan mail."

Oh, my God.

- Wow. - Wow!

"Dear Robin, those scum-sucking pigs really made me mad.

"Anyone who wishes you to be gone

can simply block the channel and fuck themselves."

Time Warner was petitioning to take me off cable,

and they wanted everybody to sign a card

that said that they watch indecent programming.

The viewers at home, I mean, they were pissed off.

"Dear Robin,

"if they cancel your show, I'm going to cancel my cable.

"Their goal is nothing less than an Orwellian measure

"to control what people can or cannot witness

in the privacy of their own home."

This one's from Sy Newhouse.

"As a prominent publisher and writer,

"I'm shocked that Manhattan Cable is indulging in censorship.

"Manhattan Cable is acting like a gang of fascists

"and should not be tolerated.

"We have considerable power of the press, both here and nationally.

Sy Newhouse, Condé Nast Publications."

Wow, this is some hell of a sandwich.

Unbelievable.

Listen, listen to my voice!

Don't take away my freedom of choice!

Robin Byrd's program has escaped scrutiny for more than 14 years, but no more.

Listen, listen to my voice!

Don't take away my freedom of choice!

Shame! Shame! Shame!

A bawdy and boisterous protest

outside the offices of the owners of Manhattan Cable,

where Byrd, her viewers,

and other Channel J producers are ready to fight.

Take back what is right today!

Don't take away our Channel J!

I don't tell you to watch or not to watch. You have that freedom.

I just give you a choice, an alternative to what's on.

The FCC and the politicians started stepping up the pressure

on the broadcasters and cable.

Tightening the rules, and that's when the lawyers

started screening everything that I did.

I think a big company like Time Warner

was primarily interested in making profits,

and they were responding to whatever political pressures

they perceived in terms of their own business interests.

So, then we get to the 1992 Cable Act.

A lawmaker from Nebraska says

he wants to protect the sanctuary of your home

from uninvited indecencies.

He's trying to ban the Robin Byrds of the world

from public and leased access channels

by giving cable companies the right to say no.

Washington lawmakers

are once again moaning over this type of programming,

and have introduced a senate amendment.

Members will record their votes.

So, Congress passed the law.

Censorship was gonna be permitted.

They wanted to scramble my show, which in cable terms

is making it so that you couldn't see it.

That's when I realized that protesting wasn't enough.

I joined in a lawsuit to sue Time Warner

with Al Goldstein and Lou Maletta.

They both had their own shows on Channel J.

We were all fighting for the same thing:

free speech.

They wanted to scramble your signal.

Would that have really put you off?

It's the fact that people had to request

- this channel to be put on the air. - So, requesting.

- So, what's wrong with that? - Because you come out of the closet.

The real reason is,

they think it's indecent.

I, for one, feel that the human body is not indecent.

I show the human body, and they're dancing.

It's an art form.

My intent is not to be indecent.

What is indecent?

I think homelessness is indecent.

Children who have no family, that's indecent.

I don't think that the human body dancing around to songs is indecent.

Once Robin joined the lawsuit to keep her show on local TV,

she became national news.

Joan, Donahue, they all wanted a piece of her.

Robin, Robin.

For all the Byrdwatchers, as you call your fans in New York,

is this it? Fini?

Well, I'm putting up a big fight. I'm not going to give up the fight.

My fans are behind me 100%. They're anti-censorship.

- Yeah. - It's for the freedom of speech

and expression. It's the American way.

I was fearful of losing the audience.

I was fearful that this negative thought about my show

was going to go the wrong way.

I was fearful of losing my purpose.

A new court battle over the First Amendment

and censorship, the issue...

The Supreme Court will have to decide whether this is freedom of speech

or whether cable companies have...

As the decision was being made on my lawsuit,

I was right here in this house.

Congress said it was protecting children

when it passed the censorship law requiring cable operators

either to ban all indecent programs or round them up...

I was waiting for the Supreme Court

to decide whether or not I was gonna be banned

or not for the show.

- See you on the other side! - See you.

And they called me and said

the decision was finally made on the courts.

The US Supreme Court has told the federal government

to stay out of the business of banning indecent programming

from cable television.

The airing of sexually explicit programming

on public access and leased cable channels was protected today by the Supreme Court.

Writing for the court, Justice Stephen Breyer

said the need to shield kids doesn't justify

reducing the adult population's viewing to only what is fit for children.

I am so relieved that there is justice in this world,

and that... God bless America.

After Fox interviewed me in the harbor,

we went home and opened up a bottle of champagne

and got stinking drunk.

I felt vindicated for my viewers. I felt vindicated for my justice.

I was elated.

Yes.

The First Amendment protects

not only the right of Robin and others to express themselves,

but also protects audience members to choose to view it.

It was a very important cultural moment

when Robin challenged the power of a very big company

to determine what our media diet was gonna be.

So, she's a local hero for having represented

that diversity and that challenge to the rule

of the big monopolistic companies.

After the lawsuit, I was overwhelmed with joy

that after three years, it finally came to a close.

It was a relief.

But I felt very spent, so to speak...

'cause we used a lot of energy,

resources, money.

Hello, Bobby.

- Hi, Robin. - How are you?

Hello. How are you?

Hi. Welcome home! Hi!

And then, the crochet bikini was getting stretched out,

and I'm hiding my getting-older body.

After 25, 26 years, I'm done. I've done it.

That's a quarter of a century, so I'm gonna retire.

I think every success that is achieved

is endemic to that particular time when it happened.

I guess Robin felt the internet was too unwieldy,

it's global, it's scary, it's hard to control it.

It's not like leased access in New York.

It was one of the first times

that I was able to put things out of my apartment,

and put them into my--

- Into someplace else. - Yeah.

Oh, my God, I don't know what you're gonna think

about all of this.

I'm excited to see it.

Oh, wow. Okay, great.

Awesome.

But this is some of the...

stuff that I thought maybe you'd find interesting.

- Yeah. - There's lots of stuff in here.

We have the signs, the picket signs.

That's awesome.

"Protect your rights. Save Channel J."

This journal, I don't remember this journal.

Wow!

Okay, this is great.

This is the sort of thing that's,

that's, you know, definitely of scholarly interest.

There's a great sexuality collection at

Cornell University has some really amazing stuff.

I'd love to work with you, but the fact

that you're even, like, thinking about this

is really good and really important.

So, I'm thankful for that.

The past year opened my eyes to the point

where I wanna do something with the clutter,

which turns out to be not so much clutter as much as history.

I don't need that stuff.

All I need is you

He's my person.

That's true.

That's really all I need.

That's all I needed to build what we built.

I would like to move forward with archiving our stuff.

What do you think?

You're asking me, but Robin is the one

that did the shows and everything else and says yes or no.

And I go with her decisions.

Oh, we have an agreement there.

It's not gonna get done if I don't make it happen.

- Because life isn't infinite. - Sure.

- Why am I in this thing again? - Because you're part of my life.

Oh, okay.

Wow!

Happy birthday, dear Robin

- Robin! - Whoo!

Happy birthday to you

Whoo! Yes!

Not every day I turn 70.

Oh, my God, it's out there. I'm 70.

I am 70! Can you believe that?

No. Suck.

When you all wanted me to walk down the beach naked,

I'm like, "Oh, no, I don't wanna do that."

Because I didn't want people to see that I'm,

you know, older, fatter.

You know, I didn't want that image.

But then I was like, "Wait a minute. What a hypocrite am I?"

I feel that we all have a mission.

We all have a destiny.

We're all given these detours.

Me, my detour, was to make people happy.

To give them love that I wanted.