The Baby Blue Movie
{{short description|Canadian softcore porn TV programming}}
{{Infobox television
| italic_title =
| image = The_Baby_Blue_Movie.jpg
| image_upright =
| image_size =
| image_alt =
| caption = Original series title card
| alt_name = Baby Blue Returns
Baby Blue 2
| genre = Softcore pornography
Erotica
| creator = Moses Znaimer
| developer =
| writer =
| screenplay =
| story =
| director =
| creative_director =
| theme_music_composer =
| narrated = Mark Dailey
| opentheme =
| endtheme =
| composer =
| country = Canada
| language =
| num_seasons =
| num_episodes =
| list_episodes =
| executive_producer =
| producer = Robert Lantos
Brian Linehan
| location =
| cinematography =
| animator =
| editor =
| camera =
| runtime =
| company = CHUM Limited (1981–2007)
| budget =
| network = Citytv
| first_aired = {{Start date|1972|9|29}}
| last_aired = {{End date|2008|8|30}}
| related =
}}
The Baby Blue Movie was a late-night programming block on the Canadian television channel Citytv that primarily aired softcore pornography and erotica films. Initially broadcast from 1972 to 1975 to generate publicity for the then-upstart channel, Baby Blue was the first regularly-scheduled adult television program to air in North America. The series was revived in the 1990s as Baby Blue 2, which aired until 2008.
History
CITY-TV began broadcasting out of Toronto, Ontario on September 28, 1972, as the first commercial ultra high frequency (UHF) television station in Canada.{{sfn|Anthony|2008|pp=26}}{{sfn|Barss|2010|pp=104}} Station founder Moses Znaimer aired feature films as the bulk of Citytv's programming as the station established itself, and hired Brian Linehan to purchase and schedule movies.{{sfn|Anthony|2008|pp=27}} To generate publicity for the new station and communicate that it was for "mature, urban adults," Znaimer conceived of a regularly scheduled block of softcore adult films to air on Friday nights, which became The Baby Blue Movie.{{sfn|Anthony|2008|pp=27}}
The title was suggested by Znaimer's partner Marilyn Lightstone, who noted that because the films were not "blue" movies (a term for X rated films), they could be classified as "baby blue" instead.{{sfn|Barss|2010|pp=105}}
I Am Curious (Yellow) aired as the first Baby Blue Movie on September 29, 1972, with the film's companion I Am Curious (Blue) airing the following night. Robert Lantos later joined as a producer after acquiring Canadian broadcasting rights to short films from the New York Erotic Film Festival and selling the rights to Znaimer, which aired as The Best of the New York Erotic Film Festival.
The Metropolitan Toronto Police exerted frequent pressure on Znaimer and Citytv over Baby Blue, and in January 1975 the station was charged with obscenity for the Baby Blue broadcast of Love Boccaccio Style. While the charge was eventually dismissed, Znaimer elected to cancel Baby Blue shortly thereafter; the program had accomplished its goal of generating publicity for Citytv, and the network was running out of acceptable films to broadcast. On May 2, 1975, the all-ages film Cat Ballou aired in the time slot normally reserved for Baby Blue, with the viewer discretion notice comedically re-phrased to indicate that "the following program is for family audiences."
To mark the 20th anniversary of Citytv, The Best of the New York Erotic Film Festival was screened on September 28, 1992 as a one-off installment of Baby Blue titled Baby Blue Returns. The series was revived as Baby Blue 2 in the late 1990s as a companion to Ed's Night Party, with the viewer discretion warning delivered by Citytv journalist Mark Dailey. CHUM Limited was acquired by CTVglobemedia in 2007 and the Citytv stations were sold to Rogers Media later that year; Baby Blue ceased broadcasting shortly thereafter, with Sex House Volume 1 airing as the final Baby Blue Movie on August 30, 2008.{{efn|Per the Internet Archive.}}
Programming
{{Dynamic list}}
=Films=
{{colbegin}}
- All The Loving Couples
- The Best of the New York Erotic Film Festival
- Bummer
- Camille 2000
- The Dark Side of Tomorrow
- Deviant Vixens{{cite web |title=Baby Blue 2 |url=http://www.citytv.com:80/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx |website=Citytv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060114220824/http://www.citytv.com:80/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx |archive-date=14 January 2006 |access-date=8 March 2020}}
- Erotic Day Dream{{cite web |title=Baby Blue 2 |url=http://www.citytv.com:80/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx |website=Citytv |access-date=9 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060410174940/http://www.citytv.com:80/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx |archive-date=10 April 2006}}
- Fire in Flesh
- The Golden Box
- I Am Curious (Blue)
- A Fistful of 44s (1971)
- Love Boccaccio Style
- Love Me Twice{{cite web |title=Baby Blue 2 |url=http://www.citytv.com:80/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx |website=Citytv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060109141328/http://www.citytv.com:80/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx |archive-date=9 January 2006 |access-date=8 March 2020}}
- Sex House Volume 1
- Naked Ambition{{cite web |title=Baby Blue 2 |url=http://www.citytv.com:80/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx |website=Citytv |access-date=7 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820021153/http://www.citytv.com:80/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx |archive-date=20 August 2008}}
- Naked and Free
- Shame, Shame, Everybody Knows Her Name
- Pleasure Palace{{cite news |last1=Dancyger |first1=Ken |title=The Point of Returns |url=http://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/article/download/696/768 |access-date=11 March 2020 |work=Cinema Canada |publisher=Athabasca University |date=1976 |page=46}}
- Therese and Isabelle
- Wanda The Sadistic Hypnotist{{sfn|Anthony|2008|pp=27}}
- Wild Honey
{{colend}}
=Television series=
- Beverly Hills Bordello{{cite web |title=Baby Blue 2 |url=http://www.citytv.com/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx |website=Citytv |access-date=8 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051124014859/http://www.citytv.com/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx |archive-date=24 November 2005}}
- Number 96
Impact and influence
Baby Blue was the first regularly-scheduled adult television program to be broadcast in North America. A 1973 survey by the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement found that the series was viewed by 210,000 of the 450,000 households that Citytv was broadcast to; at its peak, Baby Blue was watched by two-thirds of the television-viewing public in Toronto.{{sfn|Barss|2010|pp=106}} The popularity of the series allowed Citytv to set commercial advertising rates for Baby Blue at CAD$250 per minute, nearly double what the channel charged for other programs on its schedule.
In 1975, the theater company Theatre Passe Muraille staged the original play I Love You, Baby Blue, which used the series to examine Toronto's sex culture; the success of the play allowed the company to purchase its current space on Ryerson Avenue, which it occupies to this day. David Cronenberg's 1983 film Videodrome, which focuses on a fictional Toronto-based UHF television station that is infamous for broadcasting sensationalistic material, is inspired by Citytv and Baby Blue.
See also
- Bleu Nuit (Midnight Blue), a softcore programming block that aired on Télévision Quatre-Saisons (TQS), now Noovo in Quebec
- Cinérotique, a softcore programming block that aired on CFVO-TV in Quebec
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{reflist|30em|refs=
{{cite web |title=Citytv GREAT MOVIES |url=http://www.citytv.com/toronto/greatmovies.aspx |website=Citytv |access-date=4 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829161725/http://www.citytv.com/toronto/greatmovies.aspx |archive-date=29 August 2008}}
{{cite web |last1=Marsh |first1=Calum |title=On CITY-TV's golden era, and how to show Canadians the movies they don't even realize they want to see |url=https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/television/on-city-tv-golden-era-how-to-show-canadians-the-movies-they-dont-even-realize-they-want-to-see |website=National Post |access-date=7 March 2020 |date=27 March 2017}}
{{cite web |last1=Kaplan |first1=Ben |title=On the eve of Citytv's 40th birthday, we ask Moses Znaimer and colleagues whether such a station could still be born today |url=https://nationalpost.com/posted-toronto/on-the-eve-of-citytvs-40th-birthday-we-ask-moses-znaimer-and-colleagues-whether-such-a-station-could-still-be-born-today |website=National Post |access-date=7 March 2020 |date=22 September 2012}}
{{cite book |last1=Benson-Allott |first1=Caetlin |title=Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens: Video Spectatorship From VHS to File Sharing |date=2013 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0520275126}}
{{cite web |title=Try Toronto television for the best in 'blue' movies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/30104800/ |website=The Port Arthur News |access-date=7 March 2020 |date=21 March 1973}}
{{cite press release |date=31 October 2007 |title=Transaction closed – Rogers takes operating control of Citytv |url=https://about.rogers.com/news-ideas/transaction-closed-rogers-takes-operating-control-of-citytv/ |publisher=Rogers Communications |access-date=7 March 2020}}
{{cite news |title=Goodby, Baby Blue, says 79 |url=https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6ced67c9-730c-4d48-9d54-bf85820a5302_541x300.jpeg |access-date=8 March 2020 |work=The Toronto Star |date=3 May 1975}}
{{cite web |last1=Summi |first1=Glen |title=Naked truths |url=https://nowtoronto.com/stage/theatre/naked-truths-2000-05-18/ |website=Now |access-date=7 March 2020 |date=18 May 2000}}
{{cite web |title=Shows In Small Spaces Part 6: Theatre Passe Muraille's Back Space |url=https://toronto.citynews.ca/2009/12/23/shows-in-small-spaces-part-6-theatre-passe-murailles-back-space/ |website=Citytv |access-date=7 March 2020 |date=23 December 2009}}
}}
;Bibliography
{{refbegin}}
- {{cite book |last1=Anthony |first1=George |title=Starring Brian Linehan: A Life Behind the Scenes |date=2008 |publisher=Emblem Editions |isbn=978-0771007583 }}
- {{cite book |last1=Barss |first1=Patchen |title=The Erotic Engine: How Pornography has Powered Mass Communication, from Gutenberg to Google |date=2010 |publisher=Doubleday Canada |isbn=978-0385667371 }}
{{refend}}
Further reading
- Bidini, Dave. "[https://nationalpost.com/arts/dave-bidini-its-a-friggin-nuclear-technicolor-smutfest It’s a friggin’ nuclear Technicolor smutfest!]" National Post, January 30, 2011.
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080820021153/http://www.citytv.com:80/toronto/greatmovies_BabyBlue2.aspx Baby Blue 2] at Citytv (defunct; link via Internet Archive)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baby Blue Movie, The}}
Category:Citytv original programming
Category:Canadian late-night television programming
Category:Canadian motion picture television series
Category:Pornographic television shows
Category:1972 Canadian television series debuts
Category:2008 Canadian television series endings
Category:1970s Canadian anthology television series
Category:1990s Canadian anthology television series