The first-ever TV show for the gays was wild, uncensored & completely free for anyone to see

Oz was never an easy place to reach. Lord knows Dorothy faced her fair share of obstacles every visit there. But in the late 1970s, a show named The Emerald City closed that gap for gays all over New York via the power of public access television.

This wasn’t a retelling of L. Frank Baum’s Wizard Of Oz, however. Far from it. Instead, The Emerald City was one of many public access shows developed at a time when creatives could push back against the status quo through freedom of expression.

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With no editorial input allowed, the unfiltered chaos and creativity that ensued across these public-led TV shows would inspire viewers and court battles alike, as outlined by documentarian David Shadrack Smith in Public Access, his feature directorial debut, which just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

What set The Emerald City apart, however, was the huge milestone it represented at a time when conversations around queerness were non-existent on TV. 

Self-proclaimed as the “world’s first television show for gay men and women,” The Emerald City aired twice weekly on Channel J where presenters would report on queer culture and politics with performance segments interspersed throughout. On-the-ground reporting took viewers into the biggest gay hotspots of the time, filming everywhere from Pride marches and Fire Island to legendary nightclub Reno Sweeney. 

And bear in mind this was long before you could whip out a phone and just start filming.

As quoted in Smith’s Public Access doc, The Emerald City was “Always determined to bring you the naked truth” (often quite literally in those bathhouse segments). This was a series made by queer people, for queer people, which, while still a rarity today, was entirely unheard of back then.

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Poring through old clips on YouTube, there’s so much to love about this show. Its frankness, its horniness, all those denim short-shorts. What stands out most though is seeing queer people of a different era come into their own, using their voices to be heard. Presenters, people on the street and even some famous queers of the time all make their presence felt, unabashed in their queerness. 

From 1976 to 1979, The Emerald City organizers spoke to everyone from Divine and a very young John Waters to Wakefield Poole, Baby Jane Dexter and Charles Ludlam. In one of the show’s most-viewed episodes, English raconteur Quentin Crisp filmed his conversation with Father John Noble of the gay Church of the Beloved Disciple.

Through interviews with these “Friends of Dorothy,” The Emerald City spoke to a wider community on the rise. It had been less than a decade since bricks aplenty were thrown at Stonewall, and the zeitgeist felt freer, more confident for people who deviate from the “norm.” Or at least it seemed to in cultural hotspots like New York City.    

The team, overseen by executive producer Gene Stavis, were, in their words, “trying to represent the gay community as best as we could.” You can certainly feel that drive in the clips compiled by Smith’s Public Access doc, but it’s important to remember that progress can still be flawed, no matter how well-intentioned.

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The Emerald City dealt almost exclusively with shades of white, prioritizing gay white men over queer women and men of color. To be fair, there were a few exceptions, including some of those aforementioned divas interviewed on the show. But by and large, the endless buffet of buff men who were paraded on screen was still rather exclusionary by today’s standards. 

Regardless, The Emerald City did pave new ground that others then built on in their own queer public access shows. As Smith’s doc details, these outlets for expression became crucial to our survival when the AIDS crisis began. At a time when the government did so little to educate the community and support us in our darkest hour, public access TV played a vital role in telling people what they needed to do to protect themselves.

It was the “the perfect avenue to wake gay men up” says Richard Berkowitz, the gay activist/ author behind pamphlets like How To Have Sex In An Epidemic. 

Because when society went out of its way to demonize sexual freedom and gay men in particular, these shows were a godsend. Never mind the low production values. It’s safe to say that such messaging helped save lives, and not just in regard to the AIDS crisis.

Even before that nightmare began, The Emerald City was there for closeted people watching back home. Twice a week, over the course of three years, queers from all walks of life could see that they were not alone, that there were other people out there like them too. And in a world where the internet only existed as science fiction, that’s truly life changing. 

As the Public Access doc delves into, subsequent fights with censors and the advent of the internet diminished the impact of public access TV overall. But it still exists today, thriving in certain corners while giving a voice to Friends of Dorothy (and plenty more) who might not find one otherwise. Chaotic storytelling on the fringe, unbeholden to heteronormative standards? It doesn’t really get queerer than that.

And if you have some time, we recommend going back to where it all started with a return to Oz in these vintage clips of The Emerald City on YouTube.

Public Access premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and is available to screen through the fest’s virtual platform from Jan. 29 – Feb. 1 (find tickets & details here).

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