Robin Byrd made a career of exposing herself – literally.
The bisexual former porn actress earned fame and cult status for hosting “The Robyn Byrd Show,” a late-night adult-themed public access television talk show that ran in New York City from 1977-1998. The 30-minute episodes featured an array of guests, primarily a gaggle of barely or not-at-all dressed porn stars.
Full frontal female and make nudity was the rule more than the exception if you made it onto Byrd’s show.
The show become an educational tool of sorts during the the AIDS epidemic when Byrd regularly urged her viewers to practice safer sex, often demonstrating how to use condoms and dental dams. She also became a free-speech advocate when she successfully sued the Reagan administration as well as Time Warner Cable from keeping them from scrambling adult content. In one case, in 1995, the Supreme Court ruled in her favor to keep public access unfiltered and uncensored.
“I was an accidental activist,” Byrd says.
