Joe had been talking about this case for 20 years and had been talking about how he had been railroaded there, and he has so many legal issues against him, so it was really interesting that this was the one that he was still hanging his hat on 20 years later. Scaachi: I wanted to talk to Joe specifically about a legal case he had in Panama City Beach, Florida, about 20 years ago. What did you want to understand about him specifically? It was a very successful model for a long time until porn became democratized.Ĭommotion John Mulaney is at the top of his craft with his new special, Baby JĮlamin: In your piece, you talk about how he takes credit for inventing reality TV, because he used to work a little bit on some reality shows, and then he takes the same model and he says, 'I couldn't believe anybody else wasn't doing this.' To me, that is the part where all of sexuality in the 21st-century got transformed, because of this guy. I remember them playing on Channel 8 in Alberta really, really late at night, and you would have to call and then you would be added to a subscription service for a VHS and then they would come to your house, and it's just hours of girls flashing the camera. You used to get these ads on late-night TV. Within the first few years of Girls Gone Wild, he made a profit of about $20 million, which is enormous for what is effectively a call-in company. So he figured that out, and he monetized it. Joe understood something about male sexuality that it took a lot of other people a really long time to figure out: He liked the idea of the approachable, cute girl next door doing something that would make her father really disappointed in her.

When he launched Girls Gone Wild in the late-'90s, it very quickly became a behemoth within the porn industry. Scaachi: Back then, Joe Francis was a scion of industry. For that, you can thank Joe Francis.' Set the stage here: Who was Joe Francis back then? You start your piece with this opening line: 'For women, culture is split into two eras: before you could flash your breasts on camera during spring break for a modicum of fame, and after.

The advent of free streaming sites like Pornhub drove the nails further into the coffin - in 2013, Girls Gone Wild filed for bankruptcy.Ĭontent warning: this interview contains mature subject matter and discussions of sexual misconductĮlamin: I've known that you've been working on this story for some time, literally for like a year, and now it's finally here. By divesting porn of its cliched pizza-delivery-guy plotlines and showcasing girl-next-door types more wholesome than the typical glammed-up X-rated star, Girls Gone Wild had become a multi-million dollar empire by the early 2000s.īut the company's meteoric rise gave way to a disastrous crash spurred by criminal investigations into Francis' business activities and lawsuits from women who claimed Girls Gone Wild crews filmed them while they were still minors.

Group Chat Three former contributors demystify Vice Media's legendary origin storyĪround this time, a young TV production assistant named Joe Francis came up with a novel idea: take the guerilla video aesthetic popularized by unscripted programs like COPS, and add a whole lotta gratuitous nudity.Ī fixture of late-night-TV commercial breaks and pre-Google porn searches, Francis' Girls Gone Wild operation hocked low-budget VHS tapes and DVDs of attractive young women on spring break doffing their tops and engaging in other risque activities for leering cameramen.

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