# Skinemax is no more... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 30, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540 "2018-08-30T19:59:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/1 "2018-08-30T19:59:33Z")
… as parent HBO finally [pulls the plug on its soft-porn programming](http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-hbo-adult-20180828-story.html#). Of course, they will continue to have nudity, sex and violence in the course of regular production programming (GOT, etc.), but the dedicated-softcore late-night B-flicks and realities over at the farm team network, featuring laughable scripting and mostly undetectable acting chops, have been fully phased out. I am actually surprised they lasted this far, I would have expected the programming to have died off back c. 2010 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/2 "2018-08-30T20:22:01Z")
It’s funny to me how long this has been going on. Cinemax was referred to as “skinemax” _thirty_ years ago in college. (I’m also amused that after getting all that criticism over the bare breasts and other sexual content in Game of Thrones that HBO followed it up with The Deuce, which is all about Times Square in the 1970s, with the strip clubs, bars and pornographic movie houses.) And BTW, I thought Real Sex and Taxicab Confessions were often very interesting, aside from the titillation aspects. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/3 "2018-08-30T20:36:38Z")
I, too, was surprised that the cheesy B-movie soft-core pornos were still being run on Cinemax. The documentary stuff, like Real Sex, was sometimes really interesting, and Katie Morgan was simultaneously hilarious and sexy. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/4 "2018-08-30T20:44:27Z")
It was on that other pay-movie channel, but I still miss _Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater_. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/5 "2018-08-31T14:38:18Z")
I will miss the bad pun movie names popping up in my guide. _Lord of the G-strings_, _Playmate of the Apes_, _Womb Raider_, and who could forget _Edward Penishands_ ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/6 "2018-08-31T15:18:12Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > I will miss the bad pun movie names popping up in my guide. _Lord of the G-strings_, _Playmate of the Apes_, _Womb Raider_, and who could forget _Edward Penishands_ To be fair, I think the later ones in that list would not have shown up on Cinemax but rather on Spice or some of the other dedicated-adult channels. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/7 "2018-08-31T15:22:08Z")
Where will I watch Andy Sidaris films now? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/8 "2018-08-31T15:59:13Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I’m also amused that after getting all that criticism over the bare breasts and other sexual content in Game of Thrones that HBO followed it up with The Deuce, which is all about Times Square in the 1970s, with the strip clubs, bars and pornographic movie houses. High ratings trumps criticism. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/9 "2018-08-31T16:12:30Z")
Goodbye, [_Emmanuelle_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuelle)-I shall miss all your “adventures”. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/10 "2018-08-31T17:31:32Z")
They couldn’t give us any warning before doing it? My wife is out of town and there were some movies I was…I mean…um…Finally we thought of the children! ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/11 "2018-08-31T18:03:42Z")
It did give us Banshee. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/12 "2018-08-31T18:25:33Z")
I remember watching one of those movies. Girl was riding this guy cowgirl style. She’s moaning with pleasure. Then the camera zooms back, where you can see the guy’s limp penis laying on himself while the girl hovered about six inches above his dick acting like her world is getting rocked. I mean, I get penetration isn’t necessary for SC-porn, but you’d think they’d want to edit that part out that destroys the illusion. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/13 "2018-08-31T18:33:04Z")
Makes sense to me; in say… 1988, there was a real market for that kind of thing, since anything else was behind the counter at convenience stores, in the back room at video rental places, or at specialty shops/rental places. I don’t doubt that there were a LOT of people who watched that stuff. Fast forward 30 years, and ANYTHING you want to look at is right there on the internet. I’d guess you probably would have to hunt a lot harder for Cinemax-style content versus more explicit stuff actually. So what paying customers would still be watching that stuff on Cinemax? People without internet access is my guess- probably elderly people. I suspect it’s now more profitable for them to show a re-run of any old retread movie that they already have the rights to show, instead of getting the rights to the “Skinemax” stuff and showing that. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/14 "2018-09-01T17:32:09Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > I remember watching one of those movies. Girl was riding this guy cowgirl style. She’s moaning with pleasure. Then the camera zooms back, where you can see the guy’s limp penis laying on himself while the girl hovered about six inches above his dick acting like her world is getting rocked. > > I mean, I get penetration isn’t necessary for SC-porn, but you’d think they’d want to edit that part out that destroys the illusion. CGI fail. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/15 "2018-09-01T17:59:16Z")
I forgot all about Real Sex. I always think of all the soft core (but no doubt unsimulated) porn I saw on Cinemax whenever I see Randy Spears on regular porn. He seemed to show up a lot on the late night cable stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2018, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/16 "2018-09-01T19:49:41Z")
I too was surprised that it still existed, I didn’t expect that re-running the \*Emanuele \*series et al was likely to be interesting. Oh wait, they have a slate of “reality” soft-core porn. :dubious: Humph. If only reality television could kill **all** programming. Then 'ya know, TV is reborn as good stuff. > [@bump](#): > > So what paying customers would still be watching that stuff on Cinemax? People without internet access is my guess- probably elderly people. I think people like the “concept” of Skinemax, as the idea of “couples porn” – you flip through in bed, say you won’t watch it, but then you do. Most of the married couples I talk to do just that – but with _Rick and Morty_ or ancient Aqua Team Huger Force episodes (those still on past midnight?) I.e. even if you **don’t** watch it, its done its job – made you realize you should stop watching and go to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2018, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/17 "2018-09-01T22:51:24Z")
Soft-core porn is, to me at least, like non-alcoholic beer. I mean, what’s the point? ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2018, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/18 "2018-09-02T07:45:21Z")
It’s more like very low-AC beer. One that gives you a light buzz if you really need it. Better than nuthin’, I used to think when I was in that situation, in the pre-internet early 90’s. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/19 "2018-09-03T18:41:14Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Soft-core porn is, to me at least, like non-alcoholic beer. I mean, what’s the point? Well, some of us prefer to see full bodies and faces, rather than the close-up gynecological exams you get with hardcore. And for Og’s sake, why do porn directors think we want to see ten minutes of a guy getting a blowjob? ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540/20 "2018-09-03T21:19:07Z")
There must have been some confused young people over the years, thinking all sex is done with a woman’s legs tightly closed, mostly with her facing away from the man, and at angles that imply slots A and B are somewhere on her thighs or abdomen. And of course, women love to be upside down, preferably doing handstands for long periods of time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skinemax-is-no-more/820540.md?page=2)