All language subtitles for S01E05 - Sex on TV

-Brothers and sisters,
lovers and sinners.

"Real Sex" was erotic.

I want to welcome you
to a celebration.

Hell, it was a sexual revolution
for television.

-It was revolutionary.

My little gay brain that hadn't
even fully formed yet

was like exploding
with thoughts and ideas.

-Featuring real people
having real sex,

from S&M fantasies to hardcore
public displays of affection.

-[ Moaning ]

-HBO's late-night
documentary show

first exploded
on TV screens in 1990.

-It was not the hottest people
having sex, can I say that?

It was like just your average
American having sex.

There was so much jiggling.

-It was sex education...

-Welcome to Anal Sex 101.

-...exploration...
-Ease it up a little bit here.

And then, Toni, if you can bring
your legs around him again,

just to start?

Does that hit your G-spot more?

-Yeah.

-...and titillation...

-I can feel that
right on my clit.

Yeah, right there.

-...with no parental
approval required.

-When my parents
would go to bed,

I would just put
everything on mute

and you'd put on some
captions.

And was very like, hush hush.

-In that pre-Internet era,

where else could you go to see
sex or sexuality depicted?

-It was like nothing ever
aired before on TV.

-They were...in front
of the camera.

They were doing everything
in front of the camera.

-Just 33 episodes,

the series spent decades
as a cult favorite...

-Oh, have you ever seen
this program "Real Sex"?

-...until it disappeared.

-Suddenly all the shows vanish.

-I don't want to be dramatic,

but it's kind of like
one of the worst things ever

that you can't get
these shows anymore.

♪♪

-♪ Yes ♪

♪♪

♪♪

-During TV's early days,
censorship kept sex off screens.

In the TV classic "I Love Lucy,"

even marital intimacy
was off limits.

-Here.

-Thanks.

Oh, the opera opened last night.

-I feel like sex was really
taboo for television.

We had married couples
sleeping in separate beds.

We had a kind of peck
on the cheek once in a while,

but those relationships
never appeared to have

any sexual undertones,
overtones.

They were really
kind of neutered, in a way.

-And now,
ladies and gentlemen --

yes, that's right --

Elvis Presley.
[ Cheers and applause ]

-Even Elvis being Elvis
on "The Ed Sullivan Show"

proved to be too suggestive.

-Elvis was known for his, like,
gyrating hips,

and it was not a dance move.

It was pure sex.

-Something not lost
on government regulators

and advertisers.

--We will never show this.
We're too puritanical.

We're too full of shame.

-So we're just going to shoot
him, like, from the waist up

because of these,
like, old, tired standards

about what America can handle
or can't handle.

-Well, it was going
to turn on women,

and they didn't want to do that.

-That all changed with the rise

of cable television
in the 1970s.

Free from most burdens
of federal regulations,

cable became the Wild West
for explicit content.

Shows like "Midnight Blue,"
hosted by Al Goldstein,

publisher of
pornographic magazine Screw,

and "The Robin Byrd Show,"
hosted by the porn star herself,

began airing on local
public access cable TV.

Byrd would invite guests
on the show to talk sex,

perform strip teases,
and take calls from viewers.

-Hi, I'm Robin Byrd, and...

-It was low-budget fare
viewed very late at night

by a relatively small audience.

But soon, premium cable,

with its wide reach
and deep pockets,

would discover the value in
producing more explicit content.

-I heard there was a place
called HBO,

and I thought that was, like,
dirty late night programming,

which eventually
we managed to make it.

[ Both laughs ]

And I got interviewed by you.

-It was 1979.

An upstart producer
named Sheila Nevins

was working at CBS News
and looking for a way out.

Michael Fuchs, the first CEO
of the fledgling

Home Box Office cable channel,
gave her one.

-I didn't want to be pinched.

I didn't want
to be bra snapped.

I didn't want to be
propositioned.

It was, you know,
"Hey, baby,"

not, "Hey, she's good
at what she does."

And when I went to HBO the first
time and I saw you there,

I sort of --
-And I grabbed your bra strap.

-No, you did not.

I was still too old
for you even then.

[ Laughs ]

Thank you.
This means a great deal to me.

-Nevins would go on to become
the high-brow queen of docs.

-We are very proud
to win a Peabody.

-But her first big idea
was inspired

by a series of erotic books

she found
at a Connecticut tag sale.

-I saw these books
called "Eros."

They were hardcover magazines,

and I looked through them
and I saw,

like, 10 ideas for shows.

"That's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to show these
to Michael

and I'm going to tell Michael

I want to do a series called
'Eros America.'"

And I did tell you, and he said,

"You can't put it
on HBO just yet.

Let's do it on Cinemax,"
which was our sister service.

-In 1983,
"Eros America,"

the precursor to "Real Sex,"
premiered on Cinemax.

The show's candid exploration
of human sexuality,

like in this nude
beauty pageant,

helped the channel earned
the nickname Skinamax.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Our mantra, which we didn't put
on the side of buses,

was to go where
no one else had gone.

And sex is the big
flashing red light

if you look at commercial
television, you know?

So we were predestined.

It was our manifest destiny
to go there.

-But going there became

more complicated
throughout the 1980s.

-Federal health officials say
as many as one million Americans

may have been infected
with the AIDS virus

and more than 12,000...

-Horrible, horrible.

I mean, it was very horrible.

I mean, I knew
an awful lot of people.

I was close to a lot of people
that just died of a mysterious,

strange illness.

I had personal friends.

-The AIDS epidemic made any show
that celebrated sex

a risky endeavor.

-No network
would talk about sex.

They wouldn't even have
a talk show about sex.

-Listen, we were
in that environment.

We were concerned about --
everyone is concerned AIDS.

This was a show
that needed some handling.

-At the time, Patti Kaplan
was working

with Sheila Nevins on
HBO children's programming

like "Encyclopedia,"

a show that helped
teach definitions.

-It was literally A to Z.

It was really a purely
educational,

but fun, funny show.

-But when CEO Michael Fuchs
told Sheila she could

finally create a show for HBO
about real people having sex,

Sheila asked her kid show
producer a surprising question.

-One day I literally walked
into her office

and she just said to me,
"What about sex?"

-She came in and I said, "Sex."
She almost fell down.

-And I thought it was not --

certainly
not me she's talking to.

I looked around to see
who was possibly behind me,

and there wasn't anyone.

And I said,
"Well, what about it?"

I'm not sure why -- why
she would think of me for sex.

I think that's something
you'll ask her.

-I thought, no, I can't get
the cigar smokers.

I can't get the guys
who've made porn films.

I can't go into that area.

I've got to go
to an intellectual,

intelligent, creative woman.

I thought, "I'll try Patti."

-So Sheila Nevins
and Patti Kaplan

went to work building
a production team.

They knew the producers
had to be mature and sensitive.

-The team was very much
made up of women.

-Because it was against
the stereotype

of who would be making
a sex show.

-My name is Marla Ratner,

and I was
an associate producer on

the "Real Sex" show on HBO.

-I'm Deb Wasser.

I was the producer, director
out in the field,

finding the stories,

filming them, and bringing them
to the audience.

We, often women producers,

we didn't have to
prove our virility.

We never treated sex
like a commercial commodity.

These are people, real people.

They were allowing the camera
and the audience in to film

and understand the most intimate
part of their lives.

Well, you got to have
respect for that.

-[ Whispering ] Sex, sex, sex.
-"Real Sex" began initially

just as a one hour special,
not a series,

and Patti Kaplan wanted
to call it "Remember Sex?"

-"Remember Sex?" Yeah, because
sex didn't go anyplace.

It didn't die -- just talking
about it died.

But it wouldn't have been
a sustaining title

as "Real Sex" turned out to be,

and that was Michael's idea,
Fuchs.

-I had the same conversation
with "Real Sports"

when we decided
to do "Real Sports."

I said, we don't have
any network contracts.

You're going to be a muckraker.

So we're "Real Sports," and this
was certainly "Real Sex."

-While Michael, Sheila,
Patti, and the team

were eager
to put the real in "Real Sex,"

the lawyers and network
standards folks at HBO

weren't so enthusiastic,

quickly informing
the production team

there were some lines
they simply could not cross.

-You can't ever
show penetration,

and this is very interesting
and I think a little sexist,

but you can't show
an erect penis.

You can look up
a woman's crotch,

but you can't show
an erect penis.

-Pieces would go back and forth
between you and the lawyers

and you'd shave off five more
frames or 10 more frames,

and suddenly it would pass,

just a little bit less

of that erect penis
that was being shown.

-And we had a hoot of a time

because we would get into
taxi cabs going home from HBO

and we would have these
incredible conversations about,

you know, can -- can we show
his dick,

we shouldn't,
you know, what do we do?

-The premiere episode
included segments

on how to strip for your man...

-For some reason,
really turns men on.

[ Line ringing ]

-Phone sex, family business

in which a husband
and wife strip together,

and a workshop
with Betty Dodson,

the pioneering sexologist.

-Betty Dodson, she was someone
I knew, and I thought

I would actually interview Betty
and talk about it,

how she got it together.

But I went to her
and she just said,

"Oh, we'll put on
a workshop, honey.

We'll do a workshop."

And I said, "You will?"

-Her workshop "Sex for One"
was television's

first lesson
on how to masturbate better.

It was sex for women,
and it was sex for women alone.

And it was sex with vibrators

and with a lot of examination
of the genitals,

things most women
don't know anything

about what they look like.

-I teach masturbation to women.

I get all kinds of women.

-Before the segment even aired
in the "Real Sex" premiere,

Patti got pushback from an
offended male colleague at HBO.

-This producer turned pea green.

I mean, he literally
was so appalled by this piece.

And he went back to Sheila
and he said, you know,

"You can't -- you can't
put this on HBO."

-What about "Sex for One"
with women masturbating?

They're touching their vaginas.

Are they allowed to?
No, that's porn.

They can't touch it.

Well, we'll try
to get it through.

We'll show it to John.
Remember? The lawyer?

He was nervous.
Our lawyers were nervous.

The same time with their hands
on their crotches telling me

"no, no, no,"
and then it would go to Michael

and Michael would say
"yes, yes, yes."

And that was the end
of the whole thing.

-So on November 13, 1990...

-No, no, no.
Nobody is touching my balls.

-...HBO subscribers
sticking around after

"She's Having a Baby,"
starring Kevin Bacon

and Elizabeth McGovern,

were about to be part
of television history.

-It was really naked
and having sex on TV

before for the Internet

and you can watch it for free
if you pay your cable bill.

-But not everyone will be happy

about getting
what they paid for.

-I love it, but, you know,
my friends love it.

But the priest,
he doesn't love it.

♪♪

-On a cold late night
in November 1990,

HBO's theme plays in
a hot new era

in cable television,

but on the network
that claims to be not TV.

-This is the age of safe sex.

-The premiere
of "Real Sex" begins

with a very TV-like disclaimer.

-Since we were
introducing the show,

we did put that disclaimer
in there.

That linked it to AIDS.

In that environment,
to do a show to celebrate sex,

I think you needed
an explanation.

-...fulfilling the need
for excitement and passion.

-I think viewers
were not prepared for this

the night it first premiered.

-What? What is this?

-I don't think they knew at all.

-Next, a stripper shares
her secrets

with the women next door.

-It was a real rule breaker.

-This was different.

It didn't look like porn.

The people in it didn't look
like porn stars.

And so there was a little bit
of wonder, like, what is that?

-It's the 1990s.

Real stories, real people.

Real sex.

-It was horrifying, it was
fascinating and titillating

and made me feel like, you know,
a lot of things down there.

-With an estimated 2.8 million
households tuning in,

the show was a hit.

-Who know, first of all,

the success that the show
would have?

Which was enormous
in terms of ratings.

-I believe that "Real Sex"

was the second most popular
show ever on HBO,

topped only by a "Sports
Illustrated" swimsuit special.

-So HBO decided
to make it a series.

Now, Sheila Nevins
and Patti Kaplan

had to find filmmakers willing
to work on sex programming.

-There were a lot of people
who didn't want to work on it,

"high-brow" docu people.

When I said could you do
a segment on this,

could do that,
you know what they would say?

I can't, I'm applying for grant
from so and so

and I can't put my name on it.

Can I do it without putting
my name on the screen?

And I would say no.

You make this piece,
your name rolls by.

-I happened to be interviewing
with human resources at HBO

for a production job,
and she said,

"I happened to get a call
this morning from Patti Kaplan,

who's the producer/director
of the "Real Sex" show.

-And I went, "O-Okay."

My reaction when I heard
"Real Sex" was,

what do I tell my parents when
I, you know, if I get this job?

-My mom was humiliated.

I was producing documentaries,

investigative reports,
hard-hitting stuff.

Oh, she was so happy when
I interviewed Henry Kissinger.

This was not her dream
for her kid,

but I loved producing
"Real Sex."

-Patti Kaplan assigned
Deb Wasser to produce

what would become a signature
feature on "Real Sex."

Person-on-the-street interviews

where everyday folks
answer intimate,

provoking questions
about their sex lives.

-It didn't work in the places
you might think.

Like, you know, the line
out in Times Square

for Broadway shows didn't work
because they were tourists.

It worked better
with younger people,

definitely better
greased with alcohol.

-We basically planted ourselves
in front of bars

just to get people who were,

you know, looser to talk to,
were more willing to say things.

-God gave us hormones
that caused us to have sex

and lose our hair.

And as long
as I've still got my hair,

I intend to have as
much sex as possible.

-When you think about whipping?
You ever tried that?

-I haven't tried it,
but I could do it to someone.

-The way that "Real Sex"
presented New York was like

it was Sodom and Gomorrah.

[ Laughs ]

It seemed like there was a lot
of sex going on in New York.

-"Real Sex."
It's a wrap.

-What are you doing later?
You have wonderful eyes.

Would you like a ride
on my bike?

-You'd go up to people,
and especially if you --

if you found a couple,
then you could dare them.

You know, you ask him to,
you know,

oh, what does she sound like
when she's coming?

And then he'll do
some demonstration.

-Yeah!
[ Laughter ]

-Oh, and then she's going
to get back at him

and she's going to tell you
something about him.

-Tie him up.

-No, no, no. Never happened.
-Yes.

-Never happened. Believe me,
I promise never happened.

-It was astonishing how much
they were willing to divulge.

-She masturbates more than I do.

-[ Laughs ]

-There would be couples
that would just, like,

you could tell that
they were going to, like,

bang in the cab on the way home
because they were,

like, getting turned on
during the interview.

-You gotta be kidding.
-Let's go, let's go.

-Really? Oh, my God.

-It was a sociological study
of -- of sexuality

over the years in this country.

Because in the beginning,
it was like a shock to us.

-Where do you most like
to make love?

-Kitchen.

-The kitchen?

-After a while,
we had to stop them

from talking because we said,
"Thank you, we have enough.

We have what we need.
Thank you so much."

-I think it probably
set me up to become someone

who talks openly about sex

and expects people
to just not judge me for it.

-That bold stance is
something her fans love.

-I have a vagina that resembles
a hastily packed suitcase.

Um...
[ Laughter ]

-The production team
wasn't all women.

Filmmaker Barry Shils
piqued the interest

of the "Real Sex" team
with his unique résumé.

-I used to work for a horror
director named Larry Cohen,

and he -- favorite film of mine

that we did was called
"The Stuff,"

An ice cream yogurt product that
people are getting addicted to,

but actually, it's eating them
from the inside out.

♪♪

[ Screams ]

-[ Grunting ]

-Shils also shot a film
about Wigstock,

an epic drag show
in New York City

that included a young RuPaul.

Those projects
helped him land a gig

at "Real Sex," where he soon
turned his camera

on this erotic circus
in New Orleans.

-Just imagine a circus,

but everything
with an erotic angle.

If they're breathing fire,
their women are topless

while they're breathing fire.

If they're on a tight rope,
you know,

they're also probably naked.

-Have a good...time.
Party...

-One of Shils'
favorite stories for "Real Sex"

was a black male strip club
in Philadelphia

with an extremely
loyal clientele.

-And I had never seen anything
like 400 African-American women

in a giant dining hall

watching a five hour
long male strip show

where the strippers
come off the stage,

onto the floor,
onto the laps of the audience.

-There was so many men,
like, wow.

To be that close
to a man, you know?

And he has dick out.

-But not all real sex stories
took place in public places,

and back in the '90s,
discovering sexual kinks

living in the shadows
was complicated.

-Pre-Internet, you know, now
kids just go Google it.

[ Chuckles ]
No, Google.

Back then, when the dinosaurs
roamed the earth,

the way you look things up
was in the big fat book

that came out every year,
The Yellow Pages.

And guess what?
Eques eroticas,

that fetish where you --
people get off riding a horse

or being ridden was not listed
in The Yellow Pages.

-That's a good girl.
Stand right there.

-The segment "Ride Pony Ride"

explored a fetish
where people get turned on

by riding each other
like horses.

-I can't believe
the powers that be

let me do this
most esoteric of fetishes.

It is a leather fetish,
but far beyond that.

If you're a horse, you might be
wearing a butt plug with a tail.

[ Horse whinnies ]

The people that were part
of this at that point,

very secretive,
tight knit community,

were not inclined
to let us in and film them.

Perhaps they themselves had been
brought up to be ashamed

of such a strange --
unusual fetish.

-When of Wasser's favorite
stories took place

inside a sex toy factory.

-A great big factory where they
had huge vats of liquid latex

and they were
popping out dildos

like on an assembly line.

They were modeling penises

and vaginas off of celebrity
porn stars privates.

And I'll never forget the
wonderful gentleman, porn star

who had to have
the mold on his cock.

-Like taking teeth impressions.

-It's made from sea kelp.

-From that point,
you need a good

five minutes to keep it hard.

-Give it another minute.
-And you can't touch it.

-It's all in the head.
-It's all in the mind.

It's up here, you know?
It's not down here.

It's up here.

-He was very proud of his --
his actions.

-"Real Sex" inspired sexual
awakenings across America.

But the show seemed to have
an especially large impact

on the generation of teenagers

who grew up surreptitiously
watching the show.

-I was always kind of full
of anxiety to some degree

when I was watching it,
because I was afraid

that someone
was going to catch me.

-Justin wasn't alone.

Even the producers
had anxious moments

around the graphic content
on "Real Sex."

-The whole flight crew
was thinking,

"What in the hell is this?"

-This is me on a typical day
at Central Junior High.

-How do you feel about
menstruation?

-Like most people in America,

I didn't get any sex education
at school.

-Even as HBO's
"Real Sex" modernized TV,

sex education in school
remain trapped in the past.

In the early '80s,
Tristan Taormino

was in sixth grade
on Long Island, New York.

-I got one session where they
basically divided

the boys and the girls.

They put us in a room
and showed us

a really old film strip
with a doctor and a coach,

and there were a lot
of anatomy diagrams.

There was a lot of talk about
sexually transmitted infections,

like images of genitals,

which have been sort of
wracked by infection.

-According to
comedian Nikki Glaser,

things hadn't changed much
by the mid 1990s.

-I think the American sex
education system is broken.

And you, like,
saw the fallopian tubes.

I don't know where any of that
happens on my body.

It was all confusing to me.

It was like dissecting a pig.
-What if I want to have sex

before I get married?

-Well, I guess you just have
to be prepared to die.

-There is an element,
absolutely,

a fear that runs
through sex education.

Don't get pregnant.

Don't get a sexually
transmitted infection.

Quite frankly,
don't have sex.

-To me, twink is Chihuahua
but make it a person.

-Sure.
-As a young gay teenager

in middle America,
comedian and TV host

Zach Noe Towers
said that before "Real Sex,"

he had limited options
to educate himself.

-For you to get your hands
on porn

in Saint Louis, Missouri,

you either had
like an older brother,

a neighbor,
single dad-type who had like

A VHS of "Debbie Does Dallas,"
like in his closet

or you had to find a box of it
in the woods.

-Pornographic videos existed,

but you would have to go
to a video store

and you'd have to be old enough
to go through the beaded curtain

in the back
to look at the erotic videos.

-So "Real Sex" became the first
real sex education

for a sheltered community
of people

living in the pre-Internet era,

in part by introducing them
to sex experts.

-Welcome to FPR Radio.

Tonight,
we're going to talk about

lots of different things,
like sex.

-This is a Speakeasy,
brothers and sisters.

We've always called
ourselves the Speakeasy.

Dr. Susy Speakeasy.
-Speakeasy.

-Because we speak easy
about subjects

that are not easy
to speak about, like sex.

Sex therapist Dr. Susan Block
credits her first orgasm

to sex educator Betty Dodson,
who was featured in "Real Sex's"

first episode.
-And discover your own sexuality

in your own, you know,
your own sensuality.

-Block was at Yale University
at the time.

-And it was life changing.

I think that was definitely
an epiphany that made me feel

that I needed
to get sex educated

and eventually become
a sex educator.

-My vibrator, baby. Oh, was that
right under the microphone?

-In 1995, "Real Sex"
lead producer Patti Kaplan

took viewers into
Dr. Susan Block's studio/bedroom

where all the action happened.

-Lying on her big breasts bed
on which she sleeps

and then does everything else,

and she's answering
people's calls.

People would ask questions
about sex or trauma

and struggling
with this or that.

So you get to see her
actually in action on collars.

-Callers call in to ask
me a question,

to tell me a story,

to share a fantasy, or to share
their lovemaking with me.

-I mean, everything that was
educational was not

some doctor talking about sex
and, you know, which is a snore.

-I'm glad I was
in the education business.

It's my goal in life to teach.

-I also got a call from somebody
that was concerned

about his penis size and a lot
of people are concerned.

And so we took
that call seriously,

and yet we also had
some fun with it.

-That's really big.
[ Laughter ]

That's really big.
-Is this too big?

-That's way too big.

-It was educational.

And then it was also
naughty and fun.

I loved "Real Sex"
because it was on HBO

and my dad worked
for the cable company,

so we had free HBO
and it was always on.

And my parents didn't know
about like late night HBO,

or if they did,
they just didn't care.

And me and my friends,
we were always

spend the night the night at
my house, even though my house

wasn't the best house
to spend the night at

because I didn't have
the biggest beds

for us to sleep in
or all the coolest arcade games

and best food.
But I had real sex on HBO.

-Fellow comedian Joanna Briley
wasn't so lucky.

Growing up in Brooklyn,

she couldn't afford
premium cable,

so she and her friends
watched episodes on VHS tape.

-"Real Sex" on HBO was like
afterschool special.

If you ever came home,
ABC used to have

a afterschool special,
so "Real Sex" on HBO

was that for me
as a young adult.

And I got to watch and indulge

and figure out
what I liked in sex.

-Adult film star Silvia Saige
says "Real Sex"

was a big part
of her early sexual exploration.

-I'd say I was probably
like eight, nine

when I was
watching these things.

I was very blessed to have a TV
in my bedroom, and we had cable.

Because
I grew up really religious,

I always thought
God was watching.

I know it was taboo
and it wasn't something I was

supposed to be watching.

Oh, hey, boys.

-You were staying
Up extra late to watch

all those titties and wieners.

-Zach Noe Towers
Towers says "Real Sex" made him

comfortable in his own skin
for the first time.

-It was like
a glorious world

that I never knew existed.

Right there, right in front
of me, you know?

You get up close just so you
can like you one of the penises

a little through the screen.

"Real Sex" is probably one of
the only things that made me

not so scared of being gay.

-I completely trust him.
Absolutely complete trust.

-It was a show that advanced

provocative
conversations around sex.

-These days, Justin Lehmiller
studies sex for a living.

He works at the Kinsey Institute
at Indiana University,

named for Alfred Kinsey,
a professor who in the 1940s

broke ground
with his sex research.

Kinsey was the subject
of a movie starring Liam Neeson.

-From a sexual standpoint,

it's hard to say
what's common or rare

because we know so little
about what people actually do.

-I remember seeing diversity
in terms of sexuality,

people who weren't necessarily
just heterosexual,

people who had other sexual
attractions and interests.

-We didn't distinguish
between heterosexual sex

and homosexual sex.
-That's what I would say.

In those days
who was doing gay material?

We were early to the dance.

That was our idea, by the way.
-Yeah.

-We liked to be early
to the dance.

-And also as a dance,
it was necessary to take

and to do, consenting adults
choosing their pleasure.

Choose it anyway you want.

-"Real Sex" was empowering
to many distinct groups

by giving voice to
their specific sexual desires.

But a story about
Cherokee sexual practices

raised a troubling question

about whose voice
should be allowed to speak.

-We had a lot of legal trouble
with this

because it brought down
the whole

Cherokee Nation
on HBO's head.

-So, the classic anal toy,
of course, is the butt plug

because it was designed
for anal stimulation.

This butt plug design
I helped collaborate on.

So I have a butt plug
named after me.

One of my proudest moments.

-Remember Tristan Taormino,
the girl from Long Island

who didn't receive
very good sex education?

Well, she grew up and learned
a thing or two since then.

-So the idea here is that if
you're having strap-on anal sex,

you're using this part
to penetrate your partner.

This part goes inside you.

-Tristan almost went
to law school,

but her advisor in college
convinced her to give,

of all things,
sex writing a shot.

Her book, "The Ultimate Guide
to Anal Sex for Women"

became the number one sex ed
book for women that year.

-And they sent me
a little, like, plaque.

[ Laughs ]

When Amazon was kind of doing
those things in the early days.

-It was the year 2000,
the beginning of a new century.

Jennifer Lopez's Grammy dress
created a stir.

The reality show "Survivor,"
where contestants had to live

on a deserted island
is a smash hit.

And in the most moronic mistake
of the millennium,

Blockbuster video decides
against buying Netflix

for a bargain basement price.

Tristan had started
teaching workshops

and participating
in sex performances

and New York City's
alternative sex scene.

It was then that she gained
the attention

of the "Real Sex" team.

-Tristan Taormino is such
a wonderful free spirit.

She got popular first
with the idea

of strapping it on
and girls...their boyfriend.

Pretty radical.

-"Real Sex" director Deb Wasser
asked if Tristan Taormino

would like to have
her own segment on "Real Sex."

-I mean, there was no question
in my mind.

I'm doing this.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-♪ Girls are gonna party ♪

-So, I did "Real Sex" 25,

and it was about
a lesbian strap-on party.

-Yes, I'm a dike.
Yes, I'm queer.

Yes, I'm a lesbian.
Yes, I love and...women.

-We did a performance together
where we did kind of

sexy striptease
wearing strap-ons.

I think people
really associate it

with masculine woman,
with butch women.

Like, okay, I get it.
Like, I get you want a dick.

And it's like, actually,
all of us want a dick.

-One of the young ladies
in attendance may have had

a little too much fun,
according to her boyfriend,

who worked as a gaffer
on the "Real Sex" lighting crew.

-Somehow,
the gaffer's girlfriend

ended up coming to this party
and having a moment of ecstasy

in front of the director
of photography.

The cinematographer was pushing
his camera in between her legs

as she was reaching
great heights.

Well, the gaffer had a fit
and my lighting crew

quit in the middle of the shoot.

-Despite having to find
another lighting team,

the episode made Tristan
a bright new star.

-I got fan letters probably
for the first time.

So Taormino was invited back
to "Real Sex,"

this time to teach her specialty

and the topic of her
bestselling book, anal sex.

-Welcome to Anal Sex 101.

What do you think?
-Tastefully done.

-The butthole, and be nice
and gentle with it, okay?

You have to be turned on
or nothing's going in your butt.

-The anal episode was amazing
where a girl

is like fisting people

in like a rec center room where
people have, like, AA meetings.

I can't believe I saw that
in eighth grade.

And now I understand
why I'm into what I'm into.

-It's a group
of everyday people.

You know, when I
look back on it,

everyone looks pretty ordinary.

Like, you could run into them
at the grocery store.

-It was not the hottest people
having sex. Can I say that?

It was like just your average
American having sex.

You got to see bodies,
a lot of skin.

There was so much jiggling.

-Sometimes the taboo topics
the TV show embraced

would have an impact on the
production team's private lives.

Like when Sheila Nevins'
Irish nanny

delivered a message
from her church.

-She said oh, today they said

you better not watch HBO
because there's dirty shows

and you can't watch it.

I said, "Rosa,
you love the show."

She said, "I love it, but, you
know, my friends love it.

But the priest,
he doesn't love it."

-Deb Wasser had a time of it
trying to explain

to her children
what mommy did for a living.

-My children didn't understand
the distinction

between erotica
and pornography,

and one of my children
went into school and said,

My mother directs pornography.

-I stopped directing pornography

shortly after having
children who could talk.

-Children were also on the mind
of the "New York Times"

TV critic who wrote bleakly
in a 1992 review of the show.

"'Real Sex' is not for the
kiddies or for people worried

about family values
or for anyone who believes

pornography leads to rape."

Patti Kaplan once had a friend
appear in an episode,

despite Kaplan
warning her against it.

When the friend
saw the episode,

she demanded she be cut
out of future airings.

She never forgave me for that.

She kept saying,
"Remove me, remove me,

but you couldn't
really remove somebody.

-The show also faced the
occasional threat of a lawsuit,

like when a man was caught
on camera during an episode

in which people
were photographed nude

on public streets.

-He was going to take us
to court on that,

and we were
really nervous about that.

He made us give
the children's ward

at Mt. Sinai money
every year for 10 years

so that we wouldn't have to
cut him out of the piece

because the women
were dropping their fur coats.

-And he's just in the picture?

-Walks right by.

-Then there was the Cherokee
Sex Workshop segment

in which Harley Swift
Deer Reagan,

who claimed to have
Cherokee ancestry,

taught what he claimed
was perfect Cherokee sex.

That included a lot of detail
about female genitalia.

-She's usually
instantly orgasmic.

You're very,
very quick and fast.

-Harley Swift Deer Reagan,

he talked about
how in perfect Cherokee sex,

there's a certain kind of rhythm
and things that you --

that you try to learn
that makes for much better sex.

-So if you're making love with
the buffalo woman, brothers,

what you will learn to do
is to build up

slowly, graze the pasture
a little bit.

[ Laughter ]

-But the Cherokee Nation
disavowed Reagan,

saying their community
had no connection

to the man or his teachings.

-Because he was sharing these
somewhat preposterous ideas

that he seemed to think
were Cherokee,

and that was -- that was
a big legal problem for HBO.

-The group threatened to sue HBO

and demanded
an on-air retraction,

neither of which reportedly
ended up happening.

The Cherokee sex segment also
led to one of Patti Kaplan's

most embarrassing moments.

Her team made charts
based on how Reagan described

different types of penises
and vaginas.

Flying home
from filming the segment,

Patti and her team
forgot a cardinal rule.

Please take all of your sex
charts with you when deplaning.

-It was the most humiliating.

We ran back to the plane.

The whole flight crew was
hanging over this these charts

and looking at these things
and thinking,

"What in the hell is this?"

We were too embarrassed
to say much.

We just sort of asked
if we could please

have our charts,
and we exit the plane.

-Despite the controversies,
HBO's portfolio of sex shows

grew under Sheila Nevins.

-[ Laughs ]
-But in this age of streaming,

if you want to watch
any of these

HBO shows today,
you're out of luck.

-I don't think you can see
"Real Sex" at all.

-"Real Sex."
That's a wrap.

-Under HBO executive
Sheila Nevins,

the channel built
a late night TV empire.

-What Sheila did was the first
wave of reality television.

-We really did do reality TV
for real, in the sense

that real people could do things
that were dramatic,

that were sexual,
that were serious.

So that basically it
all kept moving into

all kinds of programming.

-That included
"Taxicab Confessions,"

a series in which passengers
and taxis

are filmed with hidden cameras,

discussing
and doing salacious acts.

-That's it?
-Yeah, that's it.

-[ Laughs ]

-Maybe I shouldn't be
celibate anymore.

-The "Taxicab Confessions"
that they used to do,

those were big for me
because I felt like

you were watching these people

have sex in the back
of this person's car.

And to me,
that was just like, what?

There was also "G-string Divas"
about strippers

working in a gentlemen's club.

-All you need is
a certain movement.

You have to move slow,

but at the same time,
you have to have rhythm.

You actually have to pretend

you having sex with nobody there
to have sex with.

-And "Cathouse," a show about
a legal brothel in Nevada.

-And all the ladies do have
their own individual tours.

-Okay, Tiffany.

-Sheila spent an inordinate
amount of time in brothels.

She was fascinated with brothel.
-Loved brothels.

-Sheila Nevins once asked

a prostitute
if she felt exploited.

-And she said, "Are you kidding?

When I was working
at McDonald's,"

she said, "I felt exploited."

When I was with a guy,"
she said, "I always say to him,

That's the biggest thing
I ever saw."

She said you same line,
You get paid $1,000.

You give the same hamburger,
you get a $1.98.

-I'm a whore, I'm a slut,
I'm a tramp.

I'm a hooker.
I'm happy about it.

-There were so many teenagers

bingeing that stuff
and staying up late.

I mean, it was a whole block
of just sex.

It was so fun.

I like hung handjobs.
So fun.

-After 33 episodes,

"Real Sex" aired
its last new episode in 2009.

But the show, as well as HBO's
other late night fare,

continued to be
available On Demand.

-It was way better than what
kids are seeing now

when they watch porn.
It was educational.

It was done with, like,
heart and intellect.

-Then in 2018,
the show's all vanished.

HBO decided to get out
of the adult content business,

making this block of sex

no longer available
on any of its platforms.

-Why is this show not available?

This show was extremely popular,

and HBO,
I guess they like the money,

but they did everything
they could to hide this show.

They didn't want to be known as,

oh, what everybody fears --
pornography.

-Suddenly all the shows
vanished.

We reached out to HBO
to find out why,

and the company responded...

Adult film star Silvia Saige
believes something has been lost

without this type of
programming,

especially "Real Sex."

-That was the thing.
-about "Real Sex,"

is it wasn't people
with six pack abs.

It wasn't these fake breasts,
fake lips, Botox,

people like myself having sex.

It was real people.

We have, like, this fake image
of what sex is

and what sexy is supposed to be.

-I mean, I don't want
to be dramatic,

but it's kind of like
one of the worst things

ever that you can't get
these shows anymore.

-Tristan Taormino,
whose sex workshops

were featured on "Real Sex,"
says HBO is hiding away

a living history
of sexual culture.

-With all that's going on
on television today

and all that's going on
with streaming,

the idea that "Real Sex"
is being kept

in some kind of vault
just really depresses me.

-But in today's age, with the
wild world of the Internet

at our fingertips,
would "Real Sex"

have the same impact
as it did in the 1990s.

-I don't think there's anything
like "Real Sex" now,

and I don't think it could exist
because of the Internet.

I think that there's just
too much in front of us

and nothing is shocking anymore.

-And yet comedian Nikki Glaser
still thinks the raw honesty

that "Real Sex" revealed about
people is still relevant today.

In fact, she brings up the show
regularly with TV executives.

-"Real Sex" really inspired
so much of my career.

I'm not even joking you,
two days

I brought it up in a pitch
meeting with the network,

being like, I want to make
a show like "Real Sex."

-Lead producer Patti Kaplan says
she is surprised

by how often the show
comes up in conversation.

-Out of the blue, you know,
somebody says,

what did -- what do you do
or what kind of work do you do.

-I said,
Well, I am working at HBO.

-"Oh, have you ever
seen this program 'Real Sex?'"

-Deb Wasser has left
the television industry,

but she remains proud
of the liberating

influence of real sex.

-Sex is amazing.

It is one of the crazy things
that God, Mother Nature,

our wonderful universe
has given us.

So if "Real Sex" could help
people, teach them,

learn them to free themselves,

that's an awesome gift
"Real Sex" gave.

-As for Zach Noe Towers,

he's already got his very last
comedy routine worked out.

-I will be reminiscing on
"Real Sex" until the day I die.

I will be in an old folks home
at 96, going "Real Sex!"

-Take 4!