Robin Byrd, the Sex Godmother of Millennials, Says the Internet Ruined Porn
Key takeaways
- You knew her theme song (the rockabilly “Baby, Let Me Bang Your Box”), and you would have been able to repeat her catchphrases (“Lie back, get comfortable,” “don’t forget to wear your rubbers,” etc.).
- That woman was Robin Byrd, now 71, a former adult film star who became a local celebrity with her eponymous public access show, which ran from 1977 to 1998 (and still airs in reruns, provided you have old-school cable).
- As beloved as Byrd is in New York City, a new HBO documentary makes it clear her impact was much wider.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Still from Bang My Box: The Robinn Byrd Story.Courtesy of Everett Collection/HBO Max Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story If you lived in New York City during the 1980s or 1990s, and you happened to stumble on Channel 35 after 10 pm, you would have seen her: a busty woman with dyed-blond hair in a black mesh bikini, beaming broadly as she gyrated against an adult film star or simulated fellatio on a half-naked male stripper.
You knew her theme song (the rockabilly “Baby, Let Me Bang Your Box”), and you would have been able to repeat her catchphrases (“Lie back, get comfortable,” “don’t forget to wear your rubbers,” etc.).
That woman was Robin Byrd, now 71, a former adult film star who became a local celebrity with her eponymous public access show, which ran from 1977 to 1998 (and still airs in reruns, provided you have old-school cable). Featuring a garish heart-shaped set and decades-old phone sex ads, The Robin Byrd Show featured Byrd interviewing a porn star or exotic dancer, who would then perform a striptease complete with unnecessarily lingering close-up shots. She’d close the show by dancing to her theme song (during which Byrd would, more often than not, juggle a pair of comically oversized breasts). The show was charmingly low-budget, with Byrd giving her guests tapes of the show instead of paying them: “I called it tit for tat and dick for dat,” she tells me.