EXCLUSIVE: Vice TV is exploring Sex Before The Internet in a new docuseries from former ABC News President James Goldston.
The linear network has ordered the eight-part series from Goldston’s Aquitania Films and Vice World News.
It is one of the first series orders for Goldston, who launched his company last year and has been an unofficial advisor to the January 6 hearings to make it appealing viewing to the public.
The series, which is set to premiere in 2023, will explore a world before Pornhub and OnlyFans, an era where porn wasn’t available at your fingertips 24/7. This was a time when X-rated magazines, VHS tapes and 1-900 numbers allowed people to get in touch with what touched them.
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It will feature Larry Levenson, the infamous owner of 90’s sex club Plato’s Retreat, dial into the controversies surrounding the 1-900 phone sex industry, meet the stars of the exploding sex-on-videotape business and walk the red carpet at the “Oscars” of Porn in Las Vegas.
It will explore the time before women felt powerful enough on set to say no and stars had to speak up against racial stereotypes and demand equality. When being LGBTQ+ was considered detrimental to one’s career, the series dives further into the sex scandals that brought down the likes of George Michael. In those pre-internet days, acceptance was even harder for transgender people like Buck Angel, who will take viewers on his journey from drug addiction and sex work to becoming an award winning porn actor in the early 90’s.
The series is executive produced by Goldston and Steven Baker for Aquitania Films and Lee Hoffman for Vice TV.
It follows the success of Vice TV’s Dark Side franchise, which kicked off with Dark Side of the Ring and has featured football, 90s and comedy spinoffs.
It comes ahead of tonight’s launch of Tales from the Territories, a wrestling docuseries exec produced by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Vice is coming off the back of ten Emmy wins at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards earlier this month.
The company, run by Nancy Dubuc, is currently a potential sale target with sources suggesting that a deal could happen before the end of the year.
“This series raises many important and consequential issues about a unique time in American life and culture,” said Goldston. “We’re excited to bring this documentary series to Vice TV which has a well- earned reputation for pushing the envelope and diving deep into the subject matters others may have shied away from.”
“James Goldston is one of the great documentary producers working in television — from his groundbreaking Michael Jackson documentary, to his work at ABC News – I’m thrilled that he brought his first series from his new company to Vice, and to be working together again,” said General Manager and EVP of Vice TV, Morgan Hertzan. “Today, we live in a world of instant gratification- whatever you want, whenever you want it. Sex Before the Internet reexamines the social and sexual stigmas of that era through a new lens.”
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