''Midnight Blue'' is a sexually-themed public access

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

program that aired on Manhattan Cable Television

Channel J Manhattan Cable Television's Channel J was a Public-access television, 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 marginalize ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The show debuted in 1974, as ''Screw'' publisher

Al Goldstein Alvin Goldstein (January 10, 1936December 19, 2013) was an American pornographer best known for helping normalize hardcore pornography in the United States. Background Goldstein was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to a Jewish family. He attende ...

parlayed his publishing success into a cable access show, a freeform interview program that played on the late night airwaves of Manhattan cable for more than twenty-five years. He regularly included ads from

phone sex Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people by means of the telephone which is sexually explicit and is intended to provoke sexual arousal in one or more participants. As a practice between individuals temporarily separated, it is as ...

companies, brothels, and escorts, the only television show to do so. ''Midnight Blue'' was the subject of controversy when Goldstein testified before a

United States District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...

in 1995 as part of a lawsuit brought against

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...

's plan to scramble sexually explicit public access programs unless subscribers gave written consent for them. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled in Goldstein's favor in 2000.

was the host and producer along with radio personality Alex Bennett. Alex Bennett and ''Screw'' editor Bruce David were its creators and original producers. Seven collections of show excerpts have been released on DVD by Nyaftermidnight and

Blue Underground Blue Underground is an American company specializing in releasing remastered editions of cult, horror, and exploitation movies on DVD. It was founded in 2002 by filmmaker William Lustig. It was originally formed as a shell company to oversee ...

, Inc., together with added info about the actresses and scenes from their movies.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0074025, title=Midnight Blue American public access television shows Pornographic television shows 1970s American television talk shows 1980s American television talk shows 1990s American television talk shows 2000s American television talk shows 1974 American television series debuts 2003 American television series endings