Over two decades, Byrd brought strippers, soft-core pornography and eccentric New York City characters into Manhattan\u2019s living rooms. For many fans, Byrd was a teacher, imparting sexual wisdom and also sex education, particularly around the AIDS epidemic when few others were talking about it. But her show also offered comfort.<\/p>\n
Before Howard Stern, Jenna Jameson or Dr. Ruth, and before terms like \u201csex positivity\u201d and \u201cinclusive spaces\u201d entered the lexicon, there was Robin Byrd.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe provided almost like a porn version of Mr. Rogers,\u201d said Michael Musto, the longtime Village Voice columnist who was an occasional guest on Byrd\u2019s show. \u201cShe was our friend, she was always there for us if we didn\u2019t have anybody. But she was also going to bring an X-rated burlesque revue.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York State law and the city\u2019s cable franchise agreement prevented operators at the time<\/a> from censoring sexually explicit material on cable television except for programming that was deemed to be obscene. That gave Byrd the freedom to create a bawdy, anything-goes show that was an embodiment of a now-bygone era of sexual permissiveness in New York City.<\/p>\n Whatever brought you to Channel 35 on Manhattan Cable (and later Time Warner), Byrd always invited viewers in her opener to \u201clie back, get comfortable, snuggle up next to your loved one,\u201d sometimes as she applied lip gloss or powdered her face. \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t have a loved one, remember you always have me.\u201d<\/p>\n Byrd was born in a hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and adopted at birth. She grew up visiting her father\u2019s antique store in Midtown, where the clientele included entertainers like Liberace and Jackie Gleason. But after he died, an already uneasy relationship with her mother deteriorated further, and she left home at 13.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t part of her ribs, so to speak,\u201d Byrd said. \u201cIt was easy for me.\u201d<\/p>\n She slept in Central Park for a few nights before moving in with her girlfriend and her family. Byrd got her G.E.D. and went on to study art at Manhattan Community College, marketing at Baruch College and art at the School of Visual Arts, where she worked as a nude model for art classes to make money.<\/p>\n Her friends suggested that, if she was comfortable being nude, Byrd should enter a \u201cMiss Bare-All America Contest.\u201d High Society magazine saw her entry and asked her to pose for its Christmas issue. Byrd went on to appear in several pornographic films, including \u201cDebbie Does Dallas\u201d (1978).<\/p>\n In 1976, a porn producer asked her to be a substitute host for a New York City leased-access cable program called \u201cThe Hot Legs Show.\u201d A year later, she renamed the show after herself.<\/p>\n \u201cI may be a great businesswoman to everybody but it came by chance of knowing my worth,\u201d Byrd said.<\/p>\n Byrd had a hand in every part of the show: hosting, recruiting, directing, editing, lighting. The show took advantage of a new live call-in technology to engage with the audience. The calls were put through unfiltered.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was nothing like it\u201d Byrd said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to see television late at night talking about death and murders and crime and the New York City streets. I wanted to turn you on and tuck you in. I felt that I wanted to change the look of television.\u201d<\/p>\n She also created a signature look for herself. Byrd didn\u2019t want the trouble of having to figure out what to wear every week, so she kept it simple:a crochet bikini and cowboy boots. She even wore the outfit during a segment called \u201cModern Woman,\u201d which focused on nutrition, exercise and health.<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t talking about bodies, women weren\u2019t talking about sex, women weren\u2019t talking about how they wanted good sex,\u201d she added. \u201cI just had the vessel of television.\u201d<\/p>\n The wild west of cable-access television was the perfect home for \u201coddballs and fabulosities,\u201d as Musto put it. And Byrd, he said, was the queen of them all.<\/p>\n \u201cShe anchored it with her persona, a wonderful laugh and her wisdom,\u201d Musto said. \u201cIt seemed to be set in some netherworld, some wonderful netherworld that you could escape into.\u201d<\/p>\n When Musto finally met Byrd at the Roxy, a popular gay club, in the 1990s, he almost collapsed with excitement. \u201cIt was like meeting Liz Taylor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But Byrd became a target of a national censorship campaign that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1996, the justices ruled in her favor, after Time Warner tried to scramble sexually explicit shows<\/a> so that subscribers would have to request access to them.<\/p>\n In the process, Byrd became an \u201caccidental activist,\u201d said Stephanie Schwam, who directed the documentary with Jyllian Gunther.<\/p>\n \u201cShe never had a manifesto, she never had a political agenda,\u201d Schwam said. \u201cShe just followed her instincts and her instincts were just naturally really radical.\u201d<\/p>\n Gunther, who grew up in New York City watching \u201cThe Robin Byrd Show,\u201d said there was \u201csomething very modern\u201d about Byrd \u201cbecause she had this direct, unmediated relationship with her audience.\u201d<\/p>\n The documentary\u2019s title is a nod to \u201cBaby Let Me Bang Your Box,\u201d the song she sang (or lip-synced to) at the close of every episode. She happily sang along as it played at Julius\u2019, her signature mop of once-blond hair now gray, but still bopping to the beat.<\/p>\n The show went off the air in 1998 as the internet was taking hold and as Time Warner kept moving the show farther up the dial (you can still find reruns on Channel 1820 on Spectrum in New York).<\/p>\n Today, Byrd spends much of her time looking after her husband, Shelly Byrd, who has dementia. The couple have been together since 1974, and married since 1983. Shelly was a quiet behind-the-scenes presence throughout her career. Now, she says, it\u2019s her turn to take care of him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a Cancer, I\u2019m an Aries, so I\u2019m the boss,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what attracted him to me. I like to say he\u2019s the woman I always wanted to marry.\u201d<\/p>\n Byrd splits her time between New York City and Fire Island, which provides a balance for a girl who was \u201craised on the streets,\u201d as she puts it. In summer, the beach and the birds feed her soul. In winter, Central Park is her backyard. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t fit everywhere,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople always say, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re so Californian.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, really? Or, I\u2019m so European because I\u2019m so free with my body. But no, I\u2019m a New Yorker.\u201d<\/p>\n
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