Now that binging is a normal viewing habit of film & especially TV buffs nowadays, Adam & Eve's wonderful turn of this century series for couples "Naked Hollywood" is well worth resurrecting. Hardcore originals were released by Adam & Eve, with soft-core bowdlerized versions later aired on cable's Playboy Channel.
The concept, produced in-house by Emily Adams and written/directed by Toni English was made for two seasons back in 2001/2, consisting of 12 episodes and then an additional 10 more (with recasting of one role). Format resembles HBO's "Sex in the City" in that four ladies compare notes on coping and their sex lives, but both the empathetic characters and stories have a life all their own, not in the vein of the dreaded porn parody crap that has flooded the Adult market a decade later.
Billing of the four is alphabetical (so Dee is tops) but Nina Hartley is clearly the core of the series. Besides narrating, with asides addressed directly to the camera, she plays Lindsey Sherman, a talk radio host who gives sex advice to her listeners. Soon after she became Adam & Eve's official sex expert, still working for the label after two decades with dozens of self-help semi-documentary videos directed by her husband Ernest Greene.
Dee is an artist, and bisexual, with frequent lesbian scenes in the early episodes, including this premiere edition "Faking It". She also delivers interracial sex, not usually paired with a Black partner.
Keri Windsor is the freewheeling member of the troupe, not merely sexually active but promiscuous, which makes for ready banter when the hens roost together at breakfast or lunch sessions. Final member of the koffee klatch is a tall drink of water, Lauren Montgomery. She's the model beauty of the cast, looking at first as if she strayed from a mainstream set to Pornoland by mistake, but fitting in nicely to English's story lines. As the least famous actress of the bunch, at first she reminded me of the wonderful fetish star Darla Crane, but in Episode Two (Lust or Love), Crane guest stars, and the resemblance didn't hold at all.
"Faking It" is a fine example of English's clever and surprisingly thoughtful scripts, aimed at presenting sex from a woman's point of view and succeeding, thereby making NH a model of Couples Entertainment. Initial story lines are set up: the title is explained after Monica (Keri Windsor) goes along with her boyfriend giving her a facial after sex: cringing but faking a smile with spunk all over it.
She explains to her peers the importance of faking such things with guys, not just the proverbial orgasm but other attitudes. One strong bit of advice she lays out there: "Don't ever be the first one to say 'I Love You'".
These words of wisdom bear fruit when Nina as Lindsey accidentally blurts out that admonition after sex with her steady Steven, very well played with subtlety for a change by the ordinarily overbearing Evan Stone. His ardor for her seems to cool instantly and we have to wait for future episodes to see if she can win him back.
Dee has a lesbian clinch with lovely blonde guest star Daisy Chain, and it is interesting that the mutual friend who takes umbrage at this is played by Drew Warner, better known as a Gay Porn director.
Hartley moves on to another man, her colleague at the station (and a series regular) Joey Ray, but it's a one-shot.
That leaves Kim (Lauren Montgomery) who falls for a potential sugar daddy (patented baddie Marty Romano) that turns out to be a male prostitute and not the rich magnate he passes himself off as. Show's production manager Jim Steel is pressed into service in front of the cameras as the guy who is a sugar daddy, only the sugar he's keeping is Marty.
The women are beautiful, the acting exceptionally good, and the sex scenes hot and explicit without ever verging on the bad taste current porn fans seem to demand. That quaintness is what makes this a classic romantic and erotic series, the likes of which Netflix or Amazon would produce today if they had the gumption.
The concept, produced in-house by Emily Adams and written/directed by Toni English was made for two seasons back in 2001/2, consisting of 12 episodes and then an additional 10 more (with recasting of one role). Format resembles HBO's "Sex in the City" in that four ladies compare notes on coping and their sex lives, but both the empathetic characters and stories have a life all their own, not in the vein of the dreaded porn parody crap that has flooded the Adult market a decade later.
Billing of the four is alphabetical (so Dee is tops) but Nina Hartley is clearly the core of the series. Besides narrating, with asides addressed directly to the camera, she plays Lindsey Sherman, a talk radio host who gives sex advice to her listeners. Soon after she became Adam & Eve's official sex expert, still working for the label after two decades with dozens of self-help semi-documentary videos directed by her husband Ernest Greene.
Dee is an artist, and bisexual, with frequent lesbian scenes in the early episodes, including this premiere edition "Faking It". She also delivers interracial sex, not usually paired with a Black partner.
Keri Windsor is the freewheeling member of the troupe, not merely sexually active but promiscuous, which makes for ready banter when the hens roost together at breakfast or lunch sessions. Final member of the koffee klatch is a tall drink of water, Lauren Montgomery. She's the model beauty of the cast, looking at first as if she strayed from a mainstream set to Pornoland by mistake, but fitting in nicely to English's story lines. As the least famous actress of the bunch, at first she reminded me of the wonderful fetish star Darla Crane, but in Episode Two (Lust or Love), Crane guest stars, and the resemblance didn't hold at all.
"Faking It" is a fine example of English's clever and surprisingly thoughtful scripts, aimed at presenting sex from a woman's point of view and succeeding, thereby making NH a model of Couples Entertainment. Initial story lines are set up: the title is explained after Monica (Keri Windsor) goes along with her boyfriend giving her a facial after sex: cringing but faking a smile with spunk all over it.
She explains to her peers the importance of faking such things with guys, not just the proverbial orgasm but other attitudes. One strong bit of advice she lays out there: "Don't ever be the first one to say 'I Love You'".
These words of wisdom bear fruit when Nina as Lindsey accidentally blurts out that admonition after sex with her steady Steven, very well played with subtlety for a change by the ordinarily overbearing Evan Stone. His ardor for her seems to cool instantly and we have to wait for future episodes to see if she can win him back.
Dee has a lesbian clinch with lovely blonde guest star Daisy Chain, and it is interesting that the mutual friend who takes umbrage at this is played by Drew Warner, better known as a Gay Porn director.
Hartley moves on to another man, her colleague at the station (and a series regular) Joey Ray, but it's a one-shot.
That leaves Kim (Lauren Montgomery) who falls for a potential sugar daddy (patented baddie Marty Romano) that turns out to be a male prostitute and not the rich magnate he passes himself off as. Show's production manager Jim Steel is pressed into service in front of the cameras as the guy who is a sugar daddy, only the sugar he's keeping is Marty.
The women are beautiful, the acting exceptionally good, and the sex scenes hot and explicit without ever verging on the bad taste current porn fans seem to demand. That quaintness is what makes this a classic romantic and erotic series, the likes of which Netflix or Amazon would produce today if they had the gumption.