Channel 35 (channel J)

Manhattan Public Access TV. it was kind of like the wild west of TV. or maybe it was a precursor into Youtube and the internet, and the masses making videos. It was basically a free-for all of privately made tv shows that anybody with a cable box could get, 24 hours a day. after about 10 or 11pm it got REALLY riske'. i can thank Channel 35 for teaching me about "Golden Showers", "chicks with dicks", escorts services, 976 phone sex numbers, Amber Lynn, group sex, and just about anything else i couldn't learn on the playground from my friends. besides the playboy magazines i found in my grandma's attick (no doubt from one of my uncle's 70's collection of smut).

I feel like this was a major asset to growing up in the city. it ensured a forward thinking childhood. one that wasn't completely commercial. one that was liberal and relatively un regulated. there's no better way to grow up :)

it was also full of great stuff, like Al Goldstein's MIDNIGHT BLUE. Robin Byrd's Show, and Ugly George. Al Goldstein was the publisher of Screw Magazine and also a pure New Yorker of yore, with a strong opinion on just about everything in the city...

Robin Byrd had a show that was basically a strip tease. I liked this one, except when the dudes came on. I got to find out i wasn't gay at a very tender young age because of her show. i would have never known that i didn't want to see men naked, in that way, except for getting the opportunity to do so in the privacy of a child's bedroom.