Robin Byrd on Becoming a Broadcasting Legend, One Porn Star at a Time

Robin Byrd is a living legend, porno superstar, and the woman cable TV networks would probably prefer you forget ever existed. From the late ’70s through the ’90s, she dominated the New York City public access landscape with The Robin Byrd Show on Channel J, where she interviewed a litany of porn stars and strippers in her signature black, crochet bikini. Because of this passion for disseminating smut, Byrd unwittingly became a free speech activist when Time Warner Cable threatened to scramble all adult-oriented programming, making it so subscribers would have to send in written requests in order to view her show. In 1978, Byrd and her co-producer Al Goldstein took the company to court where this regulation was deemed unconstitutional. A decision that was once again upheld by the Unites States Court of Appeals in 1995.

Now, with the release of her HBO documentary Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story, the public access pioneer is finally getting the credit she so rightfully deserves for bringing a heaping helping of sexuality to the small screen. Ahead of the film’s release, Interview‘s Editor-in-Chief Mel Ottenberg took a water taxi to Byrd’s beloved Fire Island Pines to talk about her mythological status, the horror of AIDS, and how to organize a seriously memorable orgy.

SUNDAY 5:32 PM JUNE 21, 2026 FIRE ISLAND

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ROBIN BYRD: I forget who said, but everybody says hello to you.

MEL OTTENBERG: Oh, nice. I love that. Can I buy you a drink?

BYRD: I don’t drink, but I’ll take a water.

OTTENBERG: I’ll get two waters. Hold on.

BYRD: This is Mel. Mel’s from Interview magazine. Can we have two waters?

BARTENDER: Absolutely.

BYRD: Thank you.

OTTENBERG: I haven’t been to the Sip N Twirl in a minute. Are you having a tea dance here?

BYRD: Yes, tonight it’s 7:00 to 9:00. It’s called Disco Deck.

OTTENBERG: Oh, fab.

BYRD: Usually, we have a tea dance, it’s called Sky High Tea, and we do it on the rooftop of the community center at Cherry Grove Theater. The arts project also has their own little tea dance thing going on. Yeah, keeps me busy for the summer.

OTTENBERG: I like it. This is an exciting summer, with an HBO—

BYRD: Oh my, yeah.

OTTENBERG: It’s fucking major.

BYRD: Yeah. People expect me to go, “Oh my god, I can’t believe it.” But oh my god, I can’t believe it. After 50 years…I’m an overnight success now. But what’s great is that it was an all-women movie. I mean, the editor was male, but he was gay. I wanted to wait for the right thing.

OTTENBERG: You really scrubbed the internet of Robin Byrd. You can’t watch The Robin Byrd Show anywhere.

BYRD: No. It’s not that I scrubbed it. It’s just that I didn’t want to be exposed, because people’s idea of my show is I’m whatever your fantasy creates of me.

OTTENBERG: Yeah. See, I just think of you as being so fun.

BYRD: I am. I’m a party in a box. But I’m just saying, a lot of people have ideas. And the internet is, I don’t know, not TV.

OTTENBERG: Yeah. Well, as someone who has The Robin Byrd Show living in my mind forever, it’s like—

BYRD: When did you start watching?

OTTENBERG: ’95.

BYRD: Oh, gosh.

OTTENBERG: So, it was already late. I’m late.

BYRD: You missed all the fun, great times.

OTTENBERG: By that point, it was like four hours long, right?

BYRD: No.

OTTENBERG: In my mind it was four hours long. Was it not four hours long?

BYRD: Well, in ’95, yeah. I had Modern Women, the bodybuilding show for women, then I had The Robin Byrd Show for an hour, then I had Byrd Brains and then—

OTTENBERG: Men to Men?

BYRD: Men For Men.

OTTENBERG: Men For Men. Yeah, I just loved it. I loved watching, hanging out, drinking, smoking—being a teenager with no money in New York was fun with fucking Robin Byrd on. And then I might go out that night or whatever, but it was just cool.

BYRD: I raised you well.

OTTENBERG: Yeah. You raised me sex positive and loving sleaze in a fun way. Like Sharon Mitchell.

BYRD: Yeah.

OTTENBERG: She is my favorite Robin Byrd superstar, besides you.

BYRD: Dr. Sharon Mitchell. She’s a doctor.

OTTENBERG: Wow.

BYRD: Yeah, yeah. Amazing.

OTTENBERG: What is cool about you is that you just did it. That’s inspiring. You know what I mean?

BYRD: I wanted my history to be known because I’m a pioneer. I pioneered cable television. I pioneered so much for so many, and I got those arrows so the settlers could travel the land.

OTTENBERG: Yes.

BYRD: But I want these kids to know how and why their land is so easy for them. Or easier. It’s not that easy at this time right now, but it’s easier. You don’t have to be in the closet and be afraid that you’re going to be outed like in the ’80s.

OTTENBERG: What do you think was the most fun year of The Robin Byrd Show?

BYRD: When we were on Channel J, and I saw that there was a need for my show. I purchased a lot of time in the early ’80s, up to the time where they wanted to get rid of me. I got too powerful for Time Warner.

OTTENBERG: Right.

BYRD: But I told them, listen, it was because of me that they had all those subscribers.

OTTENBERG: You got big enough that they noticed, and then they got pissed at the content.

BYRD: Well, I don’t know if it was big enough. I was New York’s best-kept secret.

OTTENBERG: Yes.

BYRD: I told everybody to spread the word and to always tell your friends and tape it. Send it to your friends who can’t get it. Spread the word. It wasn’t like I was underground or anything, but they didn’t like the fact that…I guess they were getting some attention from the…I call them the immoral minority.

OTTENBERG: Yes. Yes.

BYRD: But the moral majority started attacking. And [former US Attorney General]
Edwin Meese and others, they started attacking Time Warner. And then Time Warner started attacking me. It’s like having a bad day, and a man yells at wife, wife yells at children, children yell at dog. It trickled down.

OTTENBERG: So, back to the ’80s. Was that the best of times?

BYRD: It was the best and the worst. It was the best of times because I was getting more airtime and was always there for someone to come home to. I wanted to turn you on and tuck you in before you went to sleep.

OTTENBERG: Lie back and get comfortable.

BYRD: I didn’t want everybody to go to sleep with the bad news that they’d just seen.

OTTENBERG: I love it. Where were the most fun places to party in the ’80s at that time?

BYRD: Oh, god. Xenon, Limelight, Palladium, Tunnel, Area, Underground. I went to 1018, which was Roxy back in the day. There was no roller skating at that time. After the show, we would go up to the VIP room and we would have champagne. Guests would mingle around. It was just fun times, but it was sad because people were still dying of AIDS and having unsafe sex. The porn industry was wild, and people were having unprotected sex in the movies. I felt that they should be sort of educational in a way, to show that you can still have sex with condoms and have it be okay.

OTTENBERG: Yes.

BYRD: So, I had a contest where I had a fishbowl of condoms and everybody had to guess how many condoms were in the fishbowl. I used those finger caps, so nobody was going to ever guess because it was like a half of a condom. But that was how I introduced condoms into my opening.

OTTENBERG: Making condoms a daily part of what people are thinking about.

BYRD: I wanted people to know to have safe sex. That it exists. Have mutual masturbations and have jerk-offs, but safely. It’s nothing. It just takes one little thing to do it, a condom or a dental dam.

OTTENBERG: Amen. I look at the ’80s and I’m just so amazed at how cool and creative and inventive and exciting everything is, and yet it’s also this time of sadness when everyone’s dying. Can you explain to the younger generations how that played out? 

BYRD: Well, the ’70s were really the best of times totally, which led to the ’80s when AIDS was coming out without a name. The creativity came from trying to bring pleasure in a world that was feeling sorrow. You can acknowledge it, but you shouldn’t dwell in it. Live your life for the moment in joy and be grateful for everything.

OTTENBERG: Beautiful. Thank you. You were the self-described orgy queen. Where were the best orgies in New York City back in the day?

BYRD: I had friends, so they were always there. I was with Golden Superman. We used to go to clubs, and the whole Upper East Side had these little [spots], and [they were] straight. They had a lot of bars that had swingers.

OTTENBERG: Right. Who was Golden Superman?

BYRD: A friend of mine who I went out with. He helped me. He gave me a place to live and gave me a salary, like an allowance for my art. I had my canvases and my acrylics, and he was just a good friend that we used to do parties with.

OTTENBERG: Fun. Wow. And it wasn’t like Plato’s and stuff like that. It was more smaller places?

BYRD: Oh, small. Yeah. You go to a restaurant and pick somebody up. I mean, it’s not any different for guys to pick up other guys.

OTTENBERG: Right. How about Jeff Stryker? I want a little bit more information, please. I love Jeff Stryker. I’ve never had sex with Jeff Stryker.

BYRD: He was a sweetheart, really a sweetheart. His penis is huuuge. It is girth. [Laughs] I always said, “I’d like to do an in-bed interview with you.” And he goes, “Sure.” And we tried three different times, and three different times it didn’t work out. The last time we attempted to do it, there was a fire in my hotel room.

OTTENBERG: Oh my god.

BYRD: But there wasn’t a fire. It was like a fire alarm, fire drill, whatever. So, we walked all the way up like 25 stories, and the fire captain goes, “Oh no, you go right back down. You can’t come up here.” I’m like, “But I’m going to have an interview here!” So, we went to his room in Sahara, and it was on the other side of the strip. So, we finally got to his room and Shelly [Byrd, Robin’s husband] was the cameraman, and we did it. All the other times…he had gotten into a fight once and he had a bruise. The other time, he had some sort of something on his lip. And I was like, “No, I don’t think this is going to work.”

OTTENBERG: How was Jeff as a lover?

BYRD: Caring and sensitive.

OTTENBERG: Who else were the best, hottest guys?

BYRD: Luke Hasa was hot. Joe Simmons, he died early. He was a model for Robert Mapplethorpe. Hot, Black man, beautiful body, sweet as can be inside and out. Vladimir Correa. Brazilian Bombshell.

OTTENBERG: I remember Vladimir from around the time I learned to masturbate. He’s very that. So who were the hottest, most legendary women of all time on The Robin Byrd Show?

BYRD: Heather Hunter, she was my baby. I loved her. Oh my god. She was at the screening on Tuesday, the premier screening for Tribeca Film Festival. She hasn’t changed. She looks the same. It’s amazing.

OTTENBERG: Cool.

BYRD: Annie Sprinkle was one of my favorite ones. I used to have some strippers that were showgirl strippers from Vegas, like Raven De La Croix. She was one of the Russ Meyer, big-boobed girls. Candy Samples. You’re asking me to choose…Porsche Lynn. My god, Porsche Lynn’s like my sister. I love her. She was always great. 

OTTENBERG: Right. And wouldn’t people do the show to sort of announce that they were in town to be at The Gaiety, or you’re escorting and you’re doing your thing for a week in New York, right?

BYRD: I used to call it tit-for-tat and dick-for-dat.

OTTENBERG: Right.

BYRD: So, if you’re on the show, you don’t get paid, but you also get free advertisements for whatever. All your fan clubs and whatever else you were doing.

OTTENBERG: Tell me about being behind a sex worker-friendly show back in the day, how did the flow go?

BYRD: On Mondays, I would be like the Damon Runyon of Times Square. I would go to Show World. I would go to Show Palace. I would go to Show Center. I’d go and interview and see if the guests wanted to be on. So whoever said yes, that’s who was on the show. Then, I would hang out with them on Tuesday to make sure everything was okay and that they weren’t going to get themselves into trouble or whatever. Then, on Wednesday, I’d pick them up. I’d drive them to the studio, and it’s showtime, folks.

OTTENBERG: Right. “Bang Your Box” is so legendary to me. I remember it so well when you would sing the song and nuzzle everybody and do your thing. When did you start doing that song?

BYRD: 1980? I think it was 1980. We recorded it up in Rouses Point, New York. It was by The Toppers in the ’50s. Even though it was banned from being played on the radio, it was still a college favorite. Shelly used to sing it to me, and “Super Freak” was out by Rick James then, and I’m like, “Double entendre songs is really a good idea. Let’s do it.”

OTTENBERG: I love it. Do you remember going to Show Palace or Show World to see who you wanted that week and seeing stars and being like—

BYRD: Usually, the people that came were friends of mine, so I knew that they were coming in. I had free range of [the talent at] both clubs, most clubs actually, because the club owners knew how much my show was viewed, and it was good business for them. Like I said, it was tit-for-tat and dick-for-dat. On Wednesday night, the minute I got home, I’d set up those VCRs so that I could make copies of the master VHSs. We always ran a safety VHS in the studio in case something went wrong, which sometimes it did. The VHS I would use to make copies so that I could give my guests copies of the shows. That was Thursday and then, Friday, I would deliver them and say goodbye and then head out here to Fire Island.

OTTENBERG: Nice. What’s the update on your tapes now? Did you give them to an organization that does archiving?

BYRD: No, I can’t upset Shelly. I can’t jog his emotions towards the tapes. I can’t do that to him. I would love to, but no. I have to wait. And quite honestly, I’m going to wait as long as I did for this documentary because patience is a virtue and I waited for the right thing.

OTTENBERG: Beautiful. One other thing that I wanted to hit on is, it’s so exciting to watch how they wanted to take down Channel J, and they wanted to snuff your show out, and you fought back. How’d you do it?

BYRD: Perseverance. I believed in what I believed in and I stuck to my beliefs. And I believe in karma, also.

OTTENBERG: Your good karma and these dicks’ bad karma?

BYRD: You give love, you get love. I don’t think I have any reason to have any bad karma.

OTTENBERG: You’re good vibes all the way, Robin Byrd.

BYRD: I try. It just comes naturally.

OTTENBERG: Okay. Remind me, let’s say again what your summer schedule for tea dances is.

BYRD: Well, I’m at the community house. You have to go to @therobinbyrd on Instagram and just keep an eye out on my stories and postings. Because here at Sip N Twirl in the Pines, I’m here almost every Sunday. Also, in Cherry Grove I have the community center, which is Sky High Tea.

OTTENBERG: Yes. Beautiful.

BYRD: Also, I have my merch from the show.

OTTENBERG: Yeah. I’ve got to get a t-shirt and a mug.

BYRD: I want to get myself the crochet bikini t-shirt.

OTTENBERG: Yes. You need that. You need that.

BYRD: I don’t want to wear my bikini anymore, but a t-shirt now would be amazing.

OTTENBERG: It would be amazing on you.

BYRD: Yeah, because I don’t wear much of anything.

OTTENBERG: You’re a nudist on the beach, aren’t you?

BYRD: I am. Yeah.

OTTENBERG: And you always have been?

BYRD: I always have been, and I’m always known by the Park Rangers there.

OTTENBERG: Yes.

BYRD: So, between Cherry Grove and the Pines is called the Carrington Tract, which is federal land.

OTTENBERG: Yes.

BYRD: So, in front of our town here in the Pines, any beach you can go to on our Pines, you can be naked.

OTTENBERG: Fabulous.

BYRD: You can be naked on Cherry Grove Beach anywhere you want. However, when you’re on federal land, they are restricting nudity. And this is recent, right after [Hurricane] Sandy. I’ve been going there naked for many, many, many, many years.

OTTENBERG: Please keep it up.

BYRD: I refused to put anything on there. Actually, they go, “Robin, you know better.” I just shrug my shoulders and I take my sarong and put it around my waist. But they’re all geared up with guns and tasers and bulletproof vests. And here I am, nothing to hide, nothing to put my ID in. Naked.

OTTENBERG: You’ve got to do it. It’s amazing. Can we take a picture together?

BYRD: Of course. I do good selfies.