ROBIN ATTENDS DEMOCRATIC FUND RAISER
New York Post Page Six - 10 May 2008

NEW YORK MAGAZINE INCLUDES ROBIN BYRD SHOW
AMONG ITS 40-YEAR TV HIGHLIGHTS OF NYC CULTURE.

60 MINUTES, 1968–PRESENT
SESAME STREET, 1969–PRESENT
ALL IN THE FAMILY, 1971–1979
KOJAK, 1973–1978
THE ODD COUPLE, 1970–1975
RHODA,1974–1978
MAUDE, 1972–1978
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, 1975–PRESENT

THE ROBIN BYRD SHOW, 1977–PRESENT
Are you there, Byrd watchers? A soft-porn cable-access classic and reminder to every tourist, teen, and channel-surfing insomniac that he’s not in Kansas anymore—never mind that, these days, the cameramen shoot Byrd pretty much from the clavicle up. –C.B.

LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, 1982–1993
THE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF MOLLY DODD, 1987–1991
LAW & ORDER, 1990–PRESENT
NORTHERN EXPOSURE, 1990–1995
SEINFELD, 1990–1998
NYPD BLUE, 1993–2005

ROBIN IN
NEW YORK POST
December 18, 2007

FROM BLOOMBERG NEWS WIRE SERVICE
New York Snow Brings Out Sledders, Dogs in Boots, Photographers

By Samar Srivastava and Gabrielle Coppola

Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Robin Byrd strolled through Central Park with her Yorkshire terrier Om yesterday as New York's heaviest snowstorm this year blanketed the city. Om wore a green and orange parka, and $115 doggy snow boots.

``He hates the boots but he loves the snow,'' said Byrd, 52, a former adult film star who hosts a late-night local-access show on cable television. ``Once I got them on, I marked which was left, right, front and back.''

New Yorkers, who just four days earlier were jogging in the park in 65-degree weather, reveled in yesterday's storm, which dumped 8 inches (20 centimeters) on the city, the National Weather Service said, and delayed flights as much as three hours at area airports before it tapered off and changed to a mix of freezing rain and sleet around midday. As little as 1 inch had been forecast. More snow is forecast today, with the temperature hovering around 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 Centigrade). Tomorrow and Monday are expected to be sunny and warmer.

``It's a winter wonderland out here,'' said Edward Trinka, who has been a doorman at the Plaza Hotel for 45 years, now just the Plaza, after being converted into condominiums and hotel rooms.

The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation set up sledding sites in Manhattan's Riverside Park, Crotona Park in the Bronx, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Juniper Valley in Queens and Clove Lakes in Staten Island. About 60 city employees provided free hot chocolate and sleds.

`Very Picturesque'

In Riverside Park at 103rd Street on the Upper West Side, city employees cordoned off safety zones with orange pylons and propped hay bales against tree trunks to shield them from wayward toboggans. Dozens of kids and parents sledded down a 100-foot-wide (30.5 meters) swath of hillside cleared by city workers.

Amateur photographers took to the streets to capture the beauty of Central Park, while doormen and maintenance workers shoveled and salted the sidewalks.

``This is when all the photographers come out, it's very picturesque,'' said Robert David, a court interpreter from Jersey City, New Jersey, who took pictures of the iced ponds and snow-lined paths in Central Park. David, 30, who sells his photographs, said he uses black and white film to get ``that timeless look.''

``The next day, it gets dirty, but when there's fresh snow like this, it's like a fairytale,'' he said.

Maggie Huang and Richard Mai, at the end of a weeklong break from Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan, decorated their snowman with Pocky, a Japanese candy stick that they broke into pieces to make eyes and a mouth.

Another group of sculptors had left behind a pregnant snow- woman with ice breasts and a cigarette in her mouth, which attracted dozens of amateur photographers.

`This Is Not Cold'

The snowfall lightened the moods of outdoor workers like Lisa Grant, a security guard with the Fifth Avenue Association who patrols the avenue rousting illegal vendors and directing tourists.

``If there's one thing I know how to do, it's dress for cold weather,'' said Grant, who wore three pairs of socks, three pairs of pants, four turtlenecks, a ski mask and two hats.

In front of department store Bergdorf Goodman at the corner of 59th Street and Fifth Avenue, Milton Negron of the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn shoveled and salted.

``I'd rather be outside, you can look at the people, smoke a cigarette,'' Negron said. ``As long as you're busy, you don't get cold.''

At the Helmsley Hotel on Central Park South, bellman Carlos Correa, a former sailor who loves to snowboard, stood in the slushy street, hailing cabs for guests.

``I'm from New York, born and raised,'' he said. ``This is not cold.''

Byrd, the cable-TV host whose guests often appear naked, continued her walk near Central Park's Trump Wollman Skating Rink, the dog Om pulling on the leash as he trotted along in his black booties.

``It's not easy owning a dog when it's snowing in the city,'' said Byrd. ``If he loses one of the boots, I'm screwed. You can only get them in fours.''

To contact the reporters for this story: Samar Srivastava in New York at ssrivastav11@bloomberg.net ; Gabrielle Coppola in New York at gcoppola@bloomberg.net . Last Updated: February 23, 2008 00:28 EST

FROM THE FEB 22 1999 ISSUE OF THE NEW YORKER
SPECIAL NEW YORK ISSUE
PHOTOS BY RICHARD AVEDON.

Captions of photographs on facing pages:

NEW YORK LAW JOURNAL
Communications and Media Law
October 6, 1995
by James C. Goodale
Head of communications law practice group
at Debevoise and Plimpton.

ROBIN BYRD, AL GOLDSTEIN:
FIRST AMENDMENT CHAMPIONS?

Robin Byrd and Al Goldstein claimed a huge First Amendment victory a few weeks ago when they won the right to run their porn shows on Time Warner′s local cable system. Whether this is a victory, however, is highly dubious.

Byrd and Goldstein have achieved a certain amount of local notoriety with their bare-all shows on late cable run under the compelled-access provisions of federal law, which require cable operators to broadcast the shows whether they want to or not. These provisions are generally referred to as "Public Access."
Since first proposed in the 1970′s, in large part by the American Civil Liberties Union, the provisions have been attacked as unconstitutional, since they strip, excuse the pun, cable operators of their First Amendment right to control their programming.
In 1978, the Eighth Circuit found the provisions unconstitutional. The Supreme Court disposed of the case on other grounds. Constitutionality is being challenged in the D.C. Court of Appeals, with a hearing set for November. The lower court has held the proposals constitutional.

Full text at:
www.jamesgoodale.net
Court Documents at:
Court TV On Line

EXCERPT FROM GENTLEMEN'S QUARTERLY ARTICLE
MARCH 1993
WRITTEN BY NED ZEMAN.

"The bad thing about interviewing Robin Byrd is that even in very public places, she is inclined to think it's not a problem to discuss the most intimate matters - matters like the peak of female arousal, matters like body fluids - in a booming voice.

Wading through her scallops at Le Cirque, she launches into a yarn about the one thing that fazes the guys on her TV crew. She explains, loudly, 'It's when I bring in, say, a chick with a dick. You know, women with wieners. My crew think they're women, and then they drop their drawers and here comes, like these flagpoles.'

At the next table, the chewing of three ladies who lunch suddenly grows labored, as if they are eating racquetballs."

EXCERPT FROM MIAMIGO ARTICLE
JANUARY 2001
WRITTEN BY JULIAN BAIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID MORGAN.

Even at college Robin's talents were not appreciated. "At college they pushed me into the business end of advertising, marketing, and accounting, but I wanted the art stuff so I went across the street to the School of Visual Arts, and I was an artist. I took art classes and sketching, but art classes were very expensive and I was out on my own. So I started life form modeling. I was a nude model. The models that I had sketched were not inspiring so I decided that I was going to be the best artist's model to inspire all these great artists. I had the model's body, I was voluptuous and I found my sexuality early."

EXCERPT FROM NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE
JUNE 23, 1996
WRITTEN BY BOB MORRIS.
PHOTOS BY ED KEATING.

"At Miss Byrd's cluttered apartment on the East Side, she was greeted by an unassuming man who has been her companion for 25 years. They wanted him referred to in print only as her 'head gopher,' but she kissed him and seemed to mean it".
"he despairs that the woman she believes is her biological mother will not acknowledge her. 'It's not that I'm looking for an identity,' Ms. Byrd said, 'Lord knows, I've created that for myself.' . . . In the meanwhile, there's work to do. Punching buttons on her editng system, she set to 'nipping and tucking' show No. 510, which she taped a few years ago. She turned the fast-forward knob, causing each gyrating guest's clothes to fly off like sparks."

EXCERPT FROM WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE
MARCH 27, 1997
WRITTEN BY DAVID RICHARDS.
PHOTOS BY ERICA BERGER.

"Byrdwatchers," as she calls her viewers, may not always be willing to stand up and let themselves be counted. There are no reliable figures to indicate the size of her audience. But Byrd claims that her fans come from all walks of life - "doctors, lawyers, judges, congressmen, entertainers, up-and-comers" is how she puts it - and that word of mouth is the only advertising she has ever needed.

Time Warner, which operated Channel 35, the leased-access channel that is Byrd's perch, announced its intention to scramble her show and other sexually candid fare. . . . Byrd joined with the American Civil Liberties Union and others to combat the plan as an infringement of the First Amendment.

EXCERPT FROM HX MAGAZINE ARTICLE
JANUARY 8, 1999
WRITTEN BY JOSEPH MANGHISE
PHOTOS BY AARON COBBETT

"Now the free bird of cable TV is throwing her hat into the musical arena with a new CD, 'Lie Back and Get Comfortable: Robin Byrd Presents Latin Songs to Make Love To' (BMG). The disc is a personal-pics set designed to do exactly what the title says.

"'HX: 'You've always been a big promoter of safe sex on your show. Do you see this album as another way to do that?'

Robin: 'The Latin audience is very macho. You could say a lot about safe sex, but they still have that machismo attitude. It can be a mind-closer sometimes. I wanted to package this with condoms, but BMG said it cost too much. If the listeners were going to be making love, I wanted to make sure it was safe. If I independently produced this album, I would have done it that way.'"

NOTE: You can sample some of the songs on the CD at Amazon.com.

EXCERPT FROM NEXT MAGAZINE ARTICLE
DECEMBER 15, 2000
FROM AN INTERVIEW BY NORA BURNS
PHOTOS BY DAVID MORGAN

NORA: "I have so many friends who come from out of town and love to watch your show. Why can't they see your show in California?"

ROBIN: "It's the fear of, 'Oh my God, I'm going to see a naked body.' But really what's wrong with it? In the 80's I said TV was going to come to my level and it has. Network national primetime television - 8pm - nudity! So what if it's rear nudity? It's still nudity and there's nothing wrong with the human body. Nothing. It's what you're thinking about that's wrong. It's not the human body. . . ."

NORA: "I have to admire those guys who get on your show and just have a little, little thing to show."

ROBIN: "Well a lot of times in the old studio, we'd sweat in the summer because the air conditioner was never working. And in the winter we could freeze. Of course, you know that the guys have shrinkage problems. Not like you or I where our perky little titties pop right out there. Our nipples stand right up. But it's the innies for the guys."

EXCERPT FROM NEW YORK BLADE NEWS
JANUARY 22, 1999
WRITTEN BY WAYNE HOFFMAN
PHOTOS BY JAKE PRICE

"Byrd has survived lawsuits from Time Warner Cable to scramble here show's signal or boot her off the air completely. In her last battle in 1995, she sat in court along side "Midnight Blue's" Al Goldstein to hear the verdict permitting the adult shows to continue unchanged.

And now she's weathering the city's mass closure of the adult venues from where she draws her guests . . . but as the new zoning laws

have driven those strip joints out of business, it has become more difficult for Byrd to find new guests.

Her original mission in her show was to provide 'fun, fantasy and relaxation,' but Byrd admits that in the current state of sexual affairs in New York, her program also makes a political statement fighting what she calls 'the theme-parking of America."

NBC TELEVISION - SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE SKETCHES
CHERI OTERI as ROBIN BYRD

NBC's "Saturday Night Live" show did three paradoy sketches of The Robin Byrd Show with Cheri Oteri playing Robin in each one. The programs aired November 8, 1997 and January 17th and April 11th of 1998. This frame from the November 8th program shows Cheri interviewing porn star Ron Jeremy as played by guest host Jon Lovitz.

EXCERPT FROM THE RESIDENT
5 FEB 1999
WRITTEN BY LEAH REISMAN
PHOTOS BY GREGORY P. MANGO

" ...Bleached blonde hair and a loud signature giggle aside, if there's one thing Byrd is not, it's a bimbo. When it comes to the issue of free speech, for instance, she couldn't be more serious. . . . Another emotional issue for Byrd concerns the right of adopted children to find their birth parents. Byrd, who was adopted, has been trying to uncover the truth about her parentage. Her adoptive mother has refused to tell her the identify of her birth mother, and New York, like many states, has laws restricting adopted children from learning about their birth parents. This has been a cause of anguish for her. . . .'I didn't get along with my mom, and because I was adopted, I knew that I wasn't going to be like her,' says Byrd. 'She also gave me an ultimatum: "You know if you don't like it here then leave." You just don't say that to a 13-year-old.' . . .

(Later in New York City) A friend asked her as a favor to host a cable access show called Hot Leggs for a week? Byrd described the show's format as '11 minutes of a diddy film' followed by a call-in period where the audience would share their thoughts on the film. She almost said no. She has seen the show, and saw the hosts taking a lot of abuse from the callers. At the time, cable access shows were considered, 'lower than an ant,' she says. Eventually she agreed to do it. Much to her amazement, the audience loved her, telling her she was beautiful and asking when she would be on again. 'And I was never called beautiful, ever,' says Byrd. 'Never pretty, never beautiful. I never thought of myself as that, because I was always told I was ugly and I'd never amount to anything. So I started believing it.'

Byrd was hooked. She started hosting the show more often, until she finally took over. Eventually she started her own show on leased public access. . ."

EXCERPT FROM NEW YORK PRESS
25 JUNE 2003
WRITTEN BY STEVE WEINSTEIN

The Gay 10
New York queerest straight folk.
Number 4 - ROBIN BYRD

" The likes to say she is a "trisexual," meaning try anything, but the shocking truth is that Byrd is a closet het. No matter: She made her name in porn, presenting male and female strippers on late-night cable. Her real accomplishment was taking sex and turning it into camp. The boy shows were always more popular, and for years her pre-Black Party extravaganzas brought together every visiting boy porn-star in town. Her phone-sex lines cater to every taste, no matter how bizarre. She spends her summer in the Pines, where she is first on the dance floor at every tea dance. She recently learned to flag. She has taken outrageousness and made it into a business."

NEW YORK MAGAZINE
MAY 17, 2004
BIG QUESTIONS - PRIME TIME

Robin was included in New York's Question and Answer section along with Ralph Nader, columnist Joel Stein and entertainment critic Ken Tucker.