Who

The host of the raunchy, tacky, and hilarious Robin Byrd Show, former porn star Byrd is the grande dame of New York cable access television.

Backstory

Byrd (or Robin Cohen as she was known back then) was raised in an adoptive family in Manhattan and ran away from home at 13 to live with friends. After attending Baruch College for three years in the '70s, she dropped out, paying the bills working as a nude model at the School of Visual Arts. A stint as a porn actress followed—she appeared in the classic porno Debbie Does Dallas in 1978—a period during which she also worked on porn mogul Al Goldstein's racy cable access show Midnight Blue. Byrd later landed a cable access show of her own, Hot Leggs, and renamed it The Robin Byrd Show a few years later. That was the only thing about it that changed over the years: For close to two decades, porn stars and strippers gyrated around her colorful set for a few minutes and then sat down with the bawdy Byrd for an interview; at the end of the show, Byrd and the guests danced to the novelty song Baby, Let Me Bang Your Box in front of her red heart-shaped neon sign. Byrd went on to produce two other dirty cable access shows, Byrdbrains and Men for Men.

Of note

Byrd's shows are no longer being filmed, but they live on as reruns, which means the smutty Byrd—with her metal-groupie hair, crocheted bikini, and white cowboy boots—will be preserved in all her '70s/'80s glory for a long while to come. (Byrd is so much a part of the city's collective memory that she's been spoofed on Saturday Night Live twice.)

The nonstop re-playing of vintage Robin Byrd Show episodes also means that her kitsch celebrity status endures, and Byrd, for her part, has done what she can to exploit her lingering quasi-stardom: Fans can purchase Byrd's personalized ringtones (such as a clip in which she demands: "Kiss my feet, slave, and answer the phone"), she had a short-lived radio show on heretv.com, she emceed the Donkey Show a few years ago, and she was the star of a memorable ad campaign for the Fuse TV network in 2003.

Legal file

Time Warner Cable waged a lengthy legal battle to scramble Byrd's and Goldstein's smutty shows on account of their X-rated content. After years of litigation, in October 1995, Judge Leonard Sand backed Byrd and Goldstein's right to stay on the air without interference. "There is still democracy in New York," Byrd told reporters on the courtroom steps.

Personal

The unmarried Byrd lives in an East 50's co-op and spends summers at a Fire Island Pines beachfront home.

True story

New York state adoption and birth records are sealed, making Byrd's hunt for her biological mother all the harder. When she finally found the woman she suspects is her mom—an Orthodox Jew in Florida—the lady refused to admit her identity.