I’d been hired to host a show for the Playboy network about swingers. And I was nervous. Sure, I’d talked about sex often enough on television to have figured out exactly how to describe oral sex while still making it past censors (tip: say “down there” and do a lot of hand gesturing). Yes, I’d been in Playboy – not naked but scantily clad (if a g-string can count as clad). It’s true that I’d hosted a radio show where I regularly interviewed guests about the ménage a trois they’d had the night before or the furry costumes they liked to wear in bed, and have written articles about women who pretend they’re being raped and gay men who come out only to realize they’re in fact straight. In my work life, I’d explored a lot of sexuality. But shooting a television show where I’d be among a bunch of couples swinging? This would be a different story. My actual knowledge of swinging before I started the job was limited to witnessing the key party in The Ice Storm and a few images I hoped I’d one day forget but were still burned into my psyche from when I was flipping channels and paused too long on HBO’s Real Sex.

I don’t want to grow up, I’m a BJS ARE US kid. Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound right…or does it? C’mon, who can’t remember that annoying theme song blasting through our adolescent TV screens on Saturday mornings. The giant giraffe, the backwards “R”, the aisles and aisles of toys…Good memories, right? Well now we’re all grown up and instead of the next great Hot Wheels car, we want to get our hands on the next Hot Piece Of Ass. So our interests have changed, but what’s wrong with sticking with a winning concept?

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