CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[Caroline]

I wonder, why no x-rated blue movies were released on CED.
I think RCA forbid this, or ?
Pioneer, holding the patent for the japanese Laserdisc System, was against X-Rated movies too and promoted the Laserdisc as " a system for the whole family ". ( Texas Chainsaw Massacre II for the whole family ? )
But after a few years, more and more X-rated movies appeared on LD,
against Pioneers wish.
Why wasnt this the case with the CED System also ?
Was RCA the only company that owned CED manufacturing systems ?

[Paul_C]

RCA wanted a wholesome image. There were only two pressing plants, RCA's Rockville plant in Indianapolis and a CBS plant in Indiana which only operated for a few years. So RCA who pressed titles for other film studios had a say if they would manufacture it. The equipment was expensive and complex so that eliminated small independent companys from pressing their own titles. They did bend the rules a bit because they were competing with videotape and X-rated titles were easy to manufacture for that market and it was gaining popularity fast. The closest they came to X-rated was The Story of O which was simply rated for mature audeiences. They pressed a small run of The Story of O but decided not to relesae it. So plant employees took them home. It's one of the very rare titles but they are out there and can be found. The Penthouse film Caligula was released but it was the R rated version. There were other racy movies such as the three Emmanuelle titles, two Happy Hooker titles, Lady Chatterly's Lover, and others. Some complained the workout videos were racy, but no titles were X-rated.

[Caroline]

yes, US companys were always conservative.
Our dutch companys never had problems with DELETED movies.
But the x-rated laserdiscs (not CEDs) were pressed in NTSC only,
for the world market. The print runs were incredibly low, sometimes
under 1000. So the x-rated laserdiscs are extremely expensive now.
"Story of O" sounds really interesting. ( Here it only had a PG Rating )
But I think the price will be too high.

[Red October]

RCA more-or-less shot themselves in the foot on this one. I do believe that they did press some soft-core material, though. I seem to remember reading about a soft-core excercise disk featuring Kitten Natividad, though. There may very well have been others.