Old News: Winter Olympics vs. porn battle in Utah
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It was 22 years ago this week that Utahns learned they'd have to wait a while to peep some T&A on PBS.
- This is Old News, where we transmit truths from Utah's past.
What happened: In February 2002, PBS Frontline had just released an episode with a lot of buzz.
- "American Porn" covered the millions of dollars flowing through the adult entertainment industry, and the Bush administration's efforts to prosecute obscenity.
- It was scheduled to air just as 750,000 people were rolling into Utah for the Olympics.
The intrigue: PBS promoted the episode with "more warnings than over-the-counter drug labels," the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.
- "Even with censoring, you still have to wade through sex acts so out there that even Larry Flynt thinks they're bad for business," wrote the Chicago Sun-Times.
Reality check: The excitement amounted to some foul language and distant shots of nudity, Variety disclosed.
- PBS released two versions, one more explicit than the other.
Yes, but: Even the "clean" cut was wrong for the Olympic crowds, Salt Lake's PBS station, KUED, determined.
- "We thought we could do better with a local flavor this month," station manager Larry Smith told The Salt Lake Tribune.
The bottom line: The station instead "decided to load the schedule with documentaries on Utah history" and air the porn report a month after it was released, according to The Tribune.
- Smith said programming managers thought they could achieve higher ratings in February with shows "discussing Brigham Young, Park City and polygamy."
What we're watching: Maybe if Frontline does something racy in February 2034, Salt Lake's Olympic audiences will finally get to see "American Porn," this time as historical programming!
Previously in Old News
- When the stars first descended upon Park City
- Utah celebrates 90 years since repealing Prohibition
- Utah's diamond-dusted, up-til-dawn Thanksgiving nightlife of yore
- Dangerous, destructive and elaborate old-timey Halloween pranks
- The rise of (unnecessary) Halloween candy X-rays
- Early 1900s ghost sightings