Boob Tube: Sex, TV & Ugly George

This just in: sex sells. Here's another bulletin: men like to look at women's breasts—especially big ones. George Urban, aka “Ugly George,” the subject of this documentary from filmmaker Danny Schechter, never quite capitalized on the first, but he went to town on the second. Back in the ‘70s (the pre-AIDS era, when disco decadence was ascendant), George had his own public access cable show in New York. Armed with a video camera that he carried around on a self-designed backpack, George lured young women into alleys or hallways, where he would attempt to convince them to pull up their tops and display their chests. Although “Ugly” might be a bit extreme, the fact that the guy is no Brad Pitt didn't stop him from, as one interviewee here puts it, “getting over like a fat rat.” Schechter's film includes plenty of footage from those old “shows” (which don't quite even merit the label amateurish, but can be quite amusing), along with many recent interviews with friends, foes, and experts (such as the woman who describes herself as a “sexologist” and explicates the “power dynamic” that existed between Ugly George and his, uh, subjects). Eclipsed in recent years by the likes of Girls Gone Wild and Howard Stern, today George is broke, bitter, and not a little self-deluded (having contributed to an increase in Time Warner cable subscriptions back in the day, he now claims credit for funding the corporation's gleaming new headquarters). But at least he can bask in the memory of the 4,000 women he claims to have bedded. A strong optional purchase. Aud: P. (S. Graham)