Late-Night Cable Surfers Are in for an Eyeful

It was almost midnight--house finally quiet, kids asleep--as I flicked aimlessly through the television channels, past old movies, Hollywood talk shows, infomercials about paint-on hair . . . looking for something to lull me to sleep.

Instead, I was shocked wide-awake by the scene that filled my screen: a grainy image of two naked women, lustily engaged in what only Bill Clinton might not consider sex.

Had I inadvertently ordered the Playboy Channel? Were my cable wires crossed? Or had all this talk of White House sex simply swung our standards around so much that televised sex suddenly was OK?

I checked my TV guide and found the answer: It was Dr. Susan Block’s sex advice show, listed among the public access offerings, right alongside the “Bible Holiness Hour” and “Assyrian TV.”

Television sex, brought to you by the 1st Amendment.

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I don’t consider myself a prude. But I’m sure I was blushing in the dark that night as I stared at the images that had appeared unannounced on my television screen--so explicit they’d be off-limits at my local video store.

And while I’m actually a hard-core fan of the 1st Amendment, I had a hard time equating those naked bodies on my television with what I consider freedom of speech.

Filmed each week before a live audience in Block’s warehouse studio / erotic museum in downtown Los Angeles, the half-hour program features the lingerie-clad Block in bed, talking frankly--very frankly--with callers about every sex act and fetish you can imagine . . . and even some you maybe can’t.

In case your imagination won’t suffice, Block provides video footage of “real people” actually doing the deeds, scenes filmed in her studio after the show wraps up its taping each week.

“I know I’m kind of radical,” admits Block, who describes herself as a sex educator and therapist with a degree from Yale and a host of sexually related products for sale. “It’s not what you’re used to seeing on TV, and the images are shocking to some people. But the message is really about information, and there’s a lot to learn from it.”

And it has found its niche in the unregulated world of public access television . . . programming every cable station must provide by law, programming that relies not on deep-pocket sponsors, big-name stars or six-figure budgets but the ingenuity of the common man.

Public access was conceived as a kind of electronic town square, to guarantee a venue for anyone with a soapbox and videotape. It’s the channel where you’ll find city council meetings and ethnic folk dancing, martial arts demonstrations and public affairs talk shows, folks claiming the Holocaust never occurred and others warning of alien invasions.

And steamy, uncensored sex.

“It’s a place for people to express views that are different, out of the mainstream,” the public access manager of one cable station told me. “The only requirement we have is that it can’t have commercials, and it can’t be illegal.”

The law requires that the programs be allowed to operate without cable company intrusion.

“And about 99.5% of the programs are normal programs . . . talk shows, interview shows, someone trying to improve the way of life,” says Eric Smith, public access coordinator for Time-Warner’s San Fernando Valley franchise.

“But it’s the other 0.5% that gives public access a bad name.”

Guess which percentage Block’s show lands in?

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“I know some people think this is awful, this is pornography, we should be prosecuted,” admits Block’s husband and producer Max Lobkowicz, a veteran of 30 years in the porn industry.

“But we’re what the marketplace of ideas concept is all about.”

He insists the show is not about titillation but just uses that to get its point across.

Indeed, local cable operators say Block’s show is tame compared with some others. At least it purports to have a point.

“I’d say her show registers about an 8 on a 1-to-10 scale of complaints,” says Time-Warner’s Smith. “There are shows that are much more extreme . . . shows whose only aim is to shock and outrage.”

Like the interview program that features a different porn star each week and includes footage from his or her X-rated movies. “Those segments,” says Smith, “are more explicit than anything you’d see on Spice or Playboy,” soft-porn channels that you have to specially request and often pay extra for.

Block’s show comes into your home without your having to ask for it--and it’s free. A public access channel can be blocked out with special devices offered by cable companies--but you’d have to lose the whole channel, not just the show or shows you find objectionable.

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“I tell customers that if you tune in [to public access] after 10 p.m.,” Smith says, “you’re liable to see something you never thought you’d see on TV.” Late night or not, it’s not just adults who make up Block’s viewing audience.

“We hear from kids all the time,” Lobkowicz says. “They flick through the remote till they find us.”

He admits the show is hardly suited for the younger set. “But that’s a family issue. It’s up to the parents to take control. If your kid’s watching television at 11:30 at night . . . well, maybe they shouldn’t be.”

Besides, Block says, there’s plenty to titillate adolescents on the television shows we routinely let them watch, from “Seinfeld” to soap operas to the nightly news, all rife with sexual themes and innuendo.

True enough. Still, I cringe at the thought of my 13-year-old stumbling upon Block’s show as she skips through the channels on her TV. It’s hard enough to tune out all the talk about sex that dominates our days. Do we really need to see it on display?

* Sandy Banks’ column is published on Sundays and Tuesdays. Her e-mail address is sandy.banks@latimes.com.