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Imagine this. It’s one night in New York in 1974. You’ve partied with friends. You stumble home at midnight, turn on the TV and flop onto the couch. On screen is channel 35. This isn’t the Partridge Family or the Rockford Files. Did you really drink that much?
This was Midnight Blue, a one-hour, regular TV show that aired on Manhattan Cable. And it was like nothing you’d seen before. It was a cross between a late-night chat show, a surreal variety review, and a bad acid trip.
You might see interviews with characters like Debbie Harry, O.J. Simpson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, back-stage location reports from strip clubs or brothels, and conversations with adult film stars like Marilyn Chambers, Seka, or Harry Reems.
And interspersed between the features were bizarre advertisements for swingers clubs, prostitutes, phone sex lines, synthetic cocaine, and sex toys.
So how did a show like this come to exist? And how was it even allowed on the air?
This is the story of the rise and fall Midnight Blue.
We grateful to Alex Bennett and Josh Alan Friedman for sharing their memories with us, and to Blue Underground for the use of the Midnight Blue clips in this podcast.
Blue Undergound has several DVDs featuring the best moments from the show – including a recently released six disc set, Best of Midnight Blue, that comes highly recommended.
This podcast is 79 minutes long.
The musical playlist for this episode can be found on Spotify.
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Midnight Blue
Al Goldstein in the earlier days of the show
A young Sharon Mitchell interviewed on the show
Alex, Al and Georgina Spelvin
Annie Sprinkle reviewing the latest sex toys
An ad for Plato’s Retreat featuring Larry Levenson and his partner Mary
Marilyn Chambers interviewed on Midnight Blue
Midnight Blue parody ad for the Home Humiliation System
Tiny Tim interviewed on Midnight Blue
Al interviews adult film director Gerard Damiano
Al interviews comic Gilbert Gottfried
Al interviews Veronica Vera
Al interviews Veronica Hart
Al interviews Chris Stein and Debbie Harry
Al interviews Annette Haven
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Superb account of the glory days of adult entertainment in the Big Apple.
I’m listening to it now and am staggered by your production values and breadth of content. Absolutely fantastic!
Thank you Sam!
Knockout!!!!!!! Can we expect a part 2 with Robin Byrd?????? LOVE IT!
Thank you!
There was another NYC cable show (on channel J?) in the eighties called Interludes After Midnight, hosted by a bearded guy named Mark. Could you do a piece on that show as well? Keep up the good work RR!
Excellent story telling and the music is spot on!
Epic as usual… Al Goldstein was the King of Porn in New York.. For many years… His rants.. interviews.. Cable TV Show and articles.. Got him plenty of press back in the day.. So in the honor of Mr Al Goldstein.. Once more as I pick up a copy of his legendary Screw Magazine… Lets all repeat… Screw You… As Al would always say!
Actually he would say “FUCK YOU!” As in his infamous “Fuck You Department!”
Midnight interlude was like an infomercial to sell ads for escorts. The host, who probably also produced and sold the ads, was called Daniel j. Even as an 11 year old who at the time got wood during the opening scene of petticoat junction when the sisters popped up in the water tank, I could see thru the guy as a phony. The show was all naked people , supposedly swingers, and oozed no sexuality . Robyn Byrd show on the other hand…
Not to be confused with Electric Blue, Playboy’s soft core porn show of the early 80’s.
FABULOUS REPORT.
Thank you!
Loved Midnight Blue as it was shown on some satellite channels as a re-run back in the 90s as well.
It’s great to see The Rialto Report finally catching up to covering Midnight Blue(from its humble beginnings to its sad end),for a lot of informative facts about the show and it surprised me that Alex Bennett,who I familiarly know as a San Francisco(/San Francisco Bay Area) radio personality,worked on Midnight Blue as both a producer and an on-air personality. His New York connection also explains his rivalry with Howard Stern,a man who Alex openly despises.
Howard made a lot of enemies among lazy disc jockey’s clinging to morning zoo formats or just didn’t have the talent to go head-to-head.
It’s ironic, though, that Howard has turned into what he used to hate.
As for this episode of TRR, one of the best.
Thank you Bondurant!
The Rialto Report is more then a podcast it’s Theater of the Mind.
Thank you so much Steve!
Always nice to hear more detail about something I only saw on the television – though even then I knew they had a real cast of characters running the show.
A random question: this is podcast 76 but what happened to 75?
Thanks again for keeping a consistently great show up and running!
Tom.
Podcast 75 is Ashley West’s interview on Supporting Characters: https://www.therialtoreport.com/2017/12/24/supporting-characters/.
Thanks for listening!
I see, thanks! Wanted to make sure I didn’t miss an episode!
Love the home humiliation robot! 🙂
Wonderful report! I am proud to have received ten penises from Al!
That’s quite an achievement!
Another great podcast by The Rialto Report !
Another late night cable tv show I remember from early 90s was “Voyeur vision”. There would be a non nude model performing phone sex for men calling on the phone. As was the case with Midnight Blue, the commercials would consist of 900 numbers, escort services etc.
With the advancement in technology today, its so funny to look back and see, by comparison, how dated this stuff has become lol
Thank you so much!
I really liked this. Thanks so much for all you do.
I laughed, I (nearly) cried, I learnt, I enjoyed. I can’t say more than that.
Wonderful, wonderful.
We really appreciate it Glenn!
2018 – and the bar keeps getting higher, raised by the inimitable Realto Report, I love all that that you do, and this is no exception, please don’t stop.
Thank you very much Pritch!
Very entertaining.
For me what I like about your work, is that “adult film” is just the departure point for a broader investigation into the whole era and sub-culture. This should be part of every serious attempt to understand the post sexual revolution generations.
We appreciate the thoughtful comment!
Local cable access shows rule! Once while visiting grammaw in Grampa Bay, Florida some hot full nudity strippers show came on that was very exciting. This was late 90s so it is probably long gone.
Al is a defiant F-U and your feelings rebel and these types of people always improve the world. Love the Melvins-I Like Porn song that is on the Screwed soundtrack.
R. Crumb has some killer comics and Jeanna Fine, so so hot! Everything was better in the golden age not just porn.
Ohh yea! A young Sharon Mitchell and Blondie aka Debby Harry. RR rocks! {:o)
Thank you so much GOL!
Such a show would not be allowed today in PC world. Sad. Thanks to those who preserved it on DVD.
The test of an interesting podcast is if you enjoyed it even if it wasn’t YOUR nostalgia. I wasn’t around in New York back then to watch Midnight Blue, and I enjoyed this immensely.
Some odds ‘n’ ends:
-Arthur Bremer was the guy who stalked Richard Nixon and ended up shooting and paralyzing George Wallace as a target of opportunity. In his diary which he kept during his stalking (later published as AN ASSASSIN’S DIARY), he mentioned buying a copy of Screw and going to a massage parlor advertised in it. (The experience was not a good one.)
-I remember a short parody of Midnight Blue on Saturday Night Live with none other than Al Franken playing Al Goldstein.
-The hypocrisy of the anti-porn crusaders is legendary, but it never seems to be remembered. Wally George was a mess in his personal life with six ex-wives. His estranged daughter Rebecca De Mornay (whom he should have been proud of for her acting accomplishments) said he had committed bigamy. This was not a guy who should have been wagging his finger at anyone else and telling them the right path to be on!
Thank you so much Rick!
Ah, good ‘ol Channel J. The Extra ‘e’ is for extra pee!
His ending was a very tragic one, but it was one that was of his own doing I’m afraid. Besides all of the ranting and personal vendettas that took over Midnight Blue, I really can’t understand why he didn’t make the transition onto the internet the way that his competitors had. As of today Hustler, Playboy and Penthouse are still in existence, but Screw is gone.
I think if he had just made that move onto the internet Screw would still be around, and it probably would have expanded into even more ventures, just like his competitors.
The last part of the podcast was very sad, but a good listen.
Ever jonesing for the next installment, I go back periodically to revisit some favorite RR podcasts. Listening to #76 again tonight I’m struck by April & Ashley’s ability to so naturally blend the heat, humor & humanity as they tell these stories. The Story Of Midnight Blue is a remarkable piece of work. Thank you April.