Has John Waters changed, or has the world? Either way, the Pope of Trash has gradually gone from a counterculture revolutionary to a quasi-establishment figure who puts on shows at legitimate art galleries and wears expensive designer suits, albeit expensive designer suits that make him look homeless. And now, in a perfect distillation of his current cultural status, Waters is positioning himself as the Robert Osborne of porn.
He is doing so by hosting a series called Groundbreakers for Playboy TV, each episode of which will see Waters introducing a dirty-movie classic. Waters will intro and outro each film, as well as providing commentary in three segments that will appear between (sex) scenes. Five episodes have been filmed so far—1972’s Deep Throat, 1978’s Candy Stripers, 1973’s The Devil In Miss Jones, 1976’s Tell Them Johnny Wadd Is Here, and 1978’s Debbie Does Dallas, all classy picks as far as porno is concerned.
Waters tells Variety, “Porn classics are another extreme element of show business,” and that when he was young, “I pretended I owned a dirty movie theater. That’s how I played as a child.” Playboy TV’s Wendy Miller adds that Groundbreakers will attempt to put classic adult movies in their proper historical and cultural context, for example in the area of comparative grooming.