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Manhattan Cable Television's Channel J was a public-access television channel broadcast from New York City from 1976 to 1990. It became famous and controversial for its lack of censorship and its depiction of marginalized communities and
taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannic ...
themes. As a public access channel, every subscriber to cable television in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
received the channel as part of basic cable service. Channel J distributed ''The Emerald City'', one of the first television series created by and for
LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...
people. It also aired straight and
gay pornography Gay pornography is the representation of sexual activity between males. Its primary goal is sexual arousal in its audience. Softcore gay pornography also exists; it at one time constituted the genre, and may be produced as beefcake pornogr ...
on shows such as ''
Midnight Blue Midnight blue is a dark shade of blue named for its resemblance to the apparently blue color of a moonlit night sky around full moon. Midnight blue is identifiably blue to the eye in sunlight or full-spectrum light, but can appear black under ...
, The Robin Byrd Show, Men and Films,'' ''Blurbs,'' and ''Interludes After Midnight,'' a nude talk show. The channel's robust LGBTQ representation led to the saying "Gay on J." Other shows that aired on Channel J include ''The Big Giveaway'' (New York cable television's first game show), ''The Live! Show,'' and ''The Ugly George Hour of Truth, Sex, and Violence.'' Manhattan Cable Television provided free studio space for anyone to use on a first-come, first-served basis. Producers were simply required to pay an hourly rate of $50 for airtime (), with rights to resell the airtime to advertisers. Channel J has been described as "a funhouse mirror of mainstream network programs" ''(
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
)'' and "the Wild West for adult entertainment" ''(
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...
).''


Programming


''The Big Giveaway''

''The Big Giveaway'' was a game show produced by 24-year-old Arnie Rosenthal that allowed subscribers the opportunity to win prizes by participating via telephone. According to ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...
,'' it was the first game show to air on cable television in New York. Rosenthal later started ''
Score Score or scorer may refer to: *Test score, the result of an exam or test Business * Score Digital, now part of Bauer Radio * Score Entertainment, a former American trading card design and manufacturing company * Score Media, a former Canadian m ...
'' on the
Financial News Network The Financial News Network (FNN) was an American financial and business news television network that was launched November 30, 1981. The purpose of the network was to broadcast programming nationwide, five days a week for seven hours a day on t ...
.


''The Emerald City''

''The Emerald City'' was an American television series and self-proclaimed "world’s first television show for gay men and
women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
" that aired twice weekly on Channel J from 1976 to 1979. It began in New York City and was later syndicated to San Francisco and Los Angeles. Episodes were originally an hour long and then switched to half-hour in the fall of 1977. ''The Emerald City'' was produced by Truth, Justice, and American Way Inc., which was overseen by Gene Stavis (executive producer), Frank O’Dowd (writer-director), James Chladek (co-producer), and Steven Bie, a former lover of O’Dowd (producer, advertising and marketing). The show covered the LGBTQ movement, politics, and culture in the pre-AIDS era. It featured an assortment of national LGBTQ news, interviews, music videos, and live performances (such as
cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dinin ...
and singing) recorded on
compact cassette The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otten ...
. Its on-air talent included journalists Arthur Bell,
Vito Russo Vito Russo (July 11, 1946 – November 7, 1990) was an American LGBT activist, film historian, and author. He is best remembered as the author of the book '' The Celluloid Closet'' (1981, revised edition 1987), described in ''The New York Tim ...
, and Brandon Judell. Former guests on the show include Arthur Bressan Jr,
Divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...
, Casey Donovan,
Wayland Flowers Wayland Parrott Flowers Jr. (November 26, 1939 – October 11, 1988) was an American actor, comedian and puppeteer. Flowers was best known for the comedy act he created with his puppet Madame. His performances as "Wayland Flowers and Mada ...
, Selma Hazouri,
David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...
,
John Paul Hudson John Paul Hudson (March 21, 1929 – February 18, 2002) was an American gay activist, writer, and actor. He was one of the organizers of the first gay pride march in New York City and is recognized as one of the first gay activists and preservers o ...
,
Grace Jones Grace Beverly Jones (born 19 May 1948) is a model, singer and actress. Born in Jamaica, she and her family moved to Syracuse, New York, when she was a teenager. Jones began her modelling career in New York state, then in Paris, working for ...
,
Jonathan Ned Katz Jonathan Ned Katz (born 1938) is an American historian of human sexuality who has focused on same-sex attraction and changes in the social organization of sexuality over time. His works focus on the idea, rooted in social constructionism, that t ...
, Ken Kilban,
James Kirkwood Jr. James Kirkwood Jr. (August 22, 1924 – April 21, 1989) was an American playwright, author and actor. In 1976 he received the Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the Broadway h ...
,
Larry Kramer Laurence David Kramer (June 25, 1935May 27, 2020) was an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to Lo ...
,
Charles Ludlam Charles Braun Ludlam (April 12, 1943 – May 28, 1987) was an American actor, director, and playwright. Biography Early life Ludlam was born in Floral Park, New York, the son of Marjorie (née Braun) and Joseph William Ludlam. He was rais ...
,
Jean O'Leary Jean O'Leary (March 4, 1948 – June 4, 2005) was an LGBT rights in the United States, American lesbian and gay rights activist. She was the founder of Lesbian Feminist Liberation, one of the first lesbian feminist, lesbian activist groups in th ...
,
Leonard Matlovich Technical Sergeant Leonard Phillip Matlovich (July 6, 1943 – June 22, 1988) was an American Vietnam War veteran, race relations instructor, and recipient of the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He was the first gay service member to purposely ...
,
Butterfly McQueen Butterfly McQueen (born Thelma McQueen; January 8, 1911December 22, 1995) was an American actress. Originally a dancer, McQueen first appeared in films as "Prissy" in '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939). She was unable to attend the film's premiere b ...
,
Wakefield Poole Walter Wakefield Poole III (February 24, 1936 – October 27, 2021) was an American dancer, choreographer, theatrical director, and pioneering film director in the gay pornography industry during the 1970s and 1980s.
, and
John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...
. The show was entirely supported by advertising proceeds. Its commercials predominantly featured LGBTQ businesses such as Man's Country bathhouse and ''Mandate'' magazine. Other advertisements included books by
Wilhelm von Gloeden Wilhelm Iwan Friederich August von Gloeden (September 16, 1856 – February 16, 1931), commonly known as Baron von Gloeden, was a German photographer who worked mainly in Italy. He is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boy ...
and
Andrew Holleran Andrew Holleran is the pseudonym of Eric Garber (born 1944), an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, born on the island of Aruba. Most of his adult life has been spent in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a small town in Flor ...
,
Jan Wallman Jan Wallman (May 14, 1922 – October 8, 2015) was an American night club owner and producer. Life She was born in Roundup, Montana. She studied at University of Minnesota. She managed the night club Upstairs-at-the-Duplex. Many performers had the ...
's restaurant, and the pornographic film '' El Paso Wrecking Corp.'' For many involved in the making of the show, ''The Emerald City'' was "about building up ayculture," not just profit. In a 2018 interview, Wakefield Poole said, "We were very happy to have ��a platform to put ideas out there and what life was really like to be gay." To Ken Kilban, "it was a liberating and elevating and enlightening experience. It was… a cultural event. It really had very little to do with sex." Steven Brie described a sense of optimism that the show imbued (a coming "great new world for gay people") and the excitement of celebrating successful people "not minding just
saying A saying is any concisely written or spoken expression that is especially memorable because of its meaning or style. Sayings are categorized as follows: * Aphorism: a general, observational truth; "a pithy expression of wisdom or truth". ** Ada ...
matter of fact that they were gay."


''Interludes After Midnight''

''Interludes After Midnight'' billed itself as a "nude TV talk show." It was hosted by Dan Landers, who interviewed his guests while naked at 10 P.M. on Mondays.
Jon Lovitz Jonathan Michael Lovitz (; born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1990. Lovitz starred as Jay Sherman in '' The Critic'' and played a baseball scout in ''A League of Th ...
parodied the show on ''
Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serve ...
''. In 1989, the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' pilloried the show as a "loose, lewd, boring talk show featuring nude numbskull nobodies."


''The Live! Show''

''The Live! Show'', conceived and produced by Jaime Davidovitch, ran from 1979 to 1984. The variety show featured interviews with celebrities such as
Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...
and
Eric Bogosian Eric Bogosian ( hy, Էրիկ Բոգոսյան; ; born April 24, 1953) is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, novelist, and historian. Descended from Armenian American immigrants, he grew up in Watertown and Woburn, Massachusetts, and a ...
, live performances by stars such as
Robert Kushner Robert Kushner(; born 1949, Pasadena, CA) is an American contemporary painter who is known especially for his involvement in Pattern and Decoration. He has been called "a founder" of that artistic movement. In addition to painting, Kushner creat ...
, art lessons, and
home shopping Home shopping is the electronic retailing and home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as Shop LC, HSN, Gemporia, TJC, QVC, eBay, ShopHQ, Buy.com and Amazon.com, as well as ...
segments.


''Men and Films''

''Men and Films'' was created in 1982 by
Lou Maletta Louis Phillip "Lou" Maletta Jr. (December 14, 1936 – November 2, 2011) was an American media executive and LGBT rights activist. Maletta founded the Gay Cable Network in 1982.Hevesi, Dennis (November 9, 2011)Lou Maletta, Gay-Television Pioneer ...
, who later created the
Gay Cable Network Gay Cable Network (GCN) was one of the first cable television networks which openly appealed to a gay and lesbian audience. It was established in 1982 in New York City by Lou Maletta, was broadcast on Manhattan Cable Television channel 35 and wou ...
. On the show, Maletta interviewed gay porn stars and reviewed gay pornographic films, motivated in part to destigmatize gay sex. It aired at 11 P.M. on Thursdays.


''Midnight Blue''

''Midnight Blue'' was produced by
Al Goldstein Alvin "Al" Goldstein (January 10, 1936December 19, 2013) was an American pornographer. He is known for helping normalize hardcore pornography in the United States. Background Goldstein was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to a Jewish family. He ...
, the publisher of ''Screw'' magazine. The show featured reviews of
pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotic ...
s, interviews with celebrities such as
Debbie Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981. Born in ...
and Tiny Tim, and discussion of topics ranging from
stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. Mo ...
s to
group sex Group sex is sexual behavior involving more than two participants. Participants in group sex can be of any sexual orientation or gender. Any form of sexual activity can be adopted to involve more than two participants, but some forms have t ...
. It ran from 1974 to 2003, later moving to Channel 35


''The Robin Byrd Show''

''The Robin Byrd Show'' featured
Robin Byrd Robin Byrd (born April 6, 1957) is an American former pornographic actress and the host of ''The Robin Byrd Show'', which has appeared on leased access cable television in New York City since 1977. Background Robin Byrd was born and raised ...
interviewing other adult film stars. Like ''Interludes After Midnight,'' ''The Robin Byrd Show'' was later parodied on ''Saturday Night Live,'' with Cherie Oteri portraying Byrd''.'' The show later moved to Channel 35 and then Channel 79.


''The Ugly George Hour of Truth, Sex, and Violence''

''The Ugly George Hour of Truth, Sex, and Violence,'' starring pornographer George Urban, ran from 1976 to 1982 (with sporadic reboots until 1991). Urban roamed the streets of New York urging women to take off their clothes on camera. He also interviewed celebrities (including
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
,
Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...
, and
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
) and interviewed politicians about the
first amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
. He once recorded a segment inside the sex club
Plato's Retreat Plato's Retreat was a swingers' club catering to heterosexual couples and bisexual women. From 1977 until 1985 it operated in two locations in Manhattan, New York City, United States. The first was the former location of the Continental Baths, a ...
.


Controversy

Channel J's sex-positive programming was scandalized in mainstream discourse and subject to censorship efforts. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', for instance, reported in 1984 that late-night viewing on Channel J "has become identified with sex" owing to its depictions of "male frontal nudity," “clips from pornographic homosexual films," and other "explicit sexual" content.
Morality in Media The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), formerly known as Morality in Media, is an American conservative non-profit known for its anti-pornography advocacy. The group has also campaigned against sex trafficking, same-sex marriage, sex ...
, an anti-pornography organization, called the shows "abominable." At the time, state law prevented cable operators from restricting content, even sexually explicit content, except that which was considered
obscene An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be u ...
. In response to Channel J, the
New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an officia ...
passed a law in 1983 requiring cable companies to offer devices to block entire channels or programs that "viewers may find objectionable." According to ''Time'' magazine, only 19 such devices were ever installed.


References


External links


''The Emerald City'' episode recordings

Man's Country 1978 bathhouse commercial on ''The Emerald City''
{{DEFAULTSORT:J, Channel LGBTQ business organizations LGBTQ history in New York City LGBTQ portrayals in mass media Television stations in New York City Nudity in television Nudity in the United States Pornography in New York (state) Erotic television series Pornographic television channels Pornographic television shows