Robin Byrd, The Mother of Millennial Sex, Says The Internet Ruined Porn

You would have stayed in New York City in the 1980s or 1990s, and you stumbled on Channel 35 after 10pm, you would have seen her: a pregnant woman with hair dye in a black bikini, looking huge as she fights great movie stars or simulating fellatio on a half-naked male.

You knew his theme song (the rockabilly “Baby, Let Me Bang Your Box”), and you could recite his lyrics (“Sleep, relax,” “don’t forget to wear rubbers,” etc.).

That woman was Robin Byrd, now 71, a former television personality who became a local celebrity with her popular community show, which ran from 1977 to 1998 (and still airs on repeat, as long as you have old-school cable). I have a great looking set and many years old phone ads, The Robin Byrd Show showed Byrd interviewing a porn star or exotic dancer, who would take off all of her clothes and pose for unnecessary close-ups. She even closes the show by dancing to her theme song (a time when Byrd, often, sports large breasts in a comical way). The show was very cheap, with Byrd giving his guests tapes of the show instead of paying for them: “I called it tit for tat and dick for dat,” he tells me.

As beloved as Byrd is in New York City, new HBO The documentary shows that the consequences were far-reaching. Directed by Jyllian Gunther and Stephanie Schwam (two self-proclaimed “Byrd-watchers”), Bang My Box: The Story of Robin Byrdstreaming on HBO Max on Tuesday, hails Byrd as a sex icon who promoted freedom of speech for the LGBTQ community, promoted safe sex during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and led a lawsuit against Time Warner Cable when they tried to investigate his show. The video is a love letter to the analog era of smut, when Byrd became the hottest thing years before that.

WIRED spoke with Byrd about the documentary, Internet porn, her publicity, and, of course, how she wears the statues as a hat.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

EJ DICKSON: When Stephanie and Jyllian approached you with the idea of ​​making a documentary, what was your initial reaction?

Robin BYRD: I had many ads in the past, but they were not good. And Stephanie and Jyllian, they were Byrdwatchers (Byrd’s term for fans of his show). I raised them. They used to sneak around when they were young. They got it. It was during Mercury retrograde, and Mercury retrograde involves communication. Now is the time to reset and start over and rethink. I realized that I am not growing up, and my story needs to be told by the right people.

New York magazine compared you to Mr. Rogers. Would you, in a million years, hope to be compared to him?

Well, I compare myself to him, and Ed Sullivan and Johnny Carson. There was a lady named Shari Lewis who had this Lamb Chop doll. I was raised with that. I was raised with TV. And look, I became TV.

Your show has had over 600 episodes. Do you have a favorite guest or favorite episode?

The first time I was with (a trans man), no one knew he had ribs and he was beautiful. And I had a male photographer, and when they saw him, they had a big fight in front of the camera, so I had to be between them. It didn’t make sense to me, and I didn’t know they would act that way. But there was racism in the gay world, just like there is racism in the straight world.