Swinging In The Suburbs

Marcus Riley, NBC5 Street Team (video)

So I set my TIVO and tried to watch CBS’s new show, Swingtown,, last night. The show has received a lot of attention, because it’s rare for the so-called “Tiffany Network” to air such racy fare. If you haven’t heard, Swingtown is based on a group of suburban Chicago couples in the 70s who swing with each other. The producer of the show, Mike Kelley, based many of the storylines on experiences he witnessed while growing up in Winnetka. I watched about 10 minutes of the show last night, and quite frankly, I thought it kind of sucked — not just because it’s on a competing network, but strictly because it bored me. My initial thought when I first heard about the show, was that only an HBO or Showtime could do the subject matter justice, and nothing I saw on the CBS show changed my opinion.

In a coincidence of all coincidences, before I even heard of “Swingtown,” I happened to have just completed a Better Sex podcast on swinging — in Chicago’s suburbs no less. Every few episodes, Dr. Laura Berman and I do what’s called a “Wild Card” segment, where I surprise her with the topic. This week I surprised her by bringing in a swinger for the interview, and we also ran a video camera on the interview. Watch how we start off with some small relationship talk before I drop the real reason why “Stephanie” was there. It’s also a glimpse at why I love working with Dr. Berman — nothing phases her when it comes to sex and relationships, and we just rolled with it.

Full Audio Podcast:

Video Teaser: