Porn meets feminism in Ellen Rapoport’s new HBO comedy ‘Minx’

The Business

KCRW

Tv & Film

4.6 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Writer Ellen Rapoport’s workplace comedy “Minx,” about a Playgirl-style magazine, was hard to sell. Set in 1972, the series follows an idealistic young Vassar graduate who teams up with with a pornographer to create a magazine featuring feminist articles alongside photos of naked men. With “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig as a producer, Rapoport was pretty sure the show was a slam dunk. “We took it to everyone. Every buyer. Buyers I didn’t even know existed. Networks I’ve never heard of. And everyone said no,” Rapoport says. Ellen Rapoport describes how “Minx” eventually found a home on HBO Max, and how she made her way from Harvard Law to Hollywood.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is the business.
0:06.3	Writer Ellen Rappaport was excited to picture 1970s workplace comedy Minks.
0:11.8	The series would follow an idealistic young Vassar graduate who teams up with a pornographer,
0:16.9	and together they create a magazine that features feminist articles alongside photos of naked men.
0:23.3	Rappaport had Bridesmaid's director, Paul Feig, signed on as a producer, and she'd done tons of research on 70s porn and feminism.
0:31.2	She was pretty sure this was a slam dunk.
0:33.6	We took it to everyone, every buyer.
0:35.7	Buyers, they didn't even know existed.
0:37.7	Networks I've never heard of.
0:39.3	And everyone said no.
0:42.0	Everyone said no.
0:43.2	We talked to Ellen Rappaport about how minks and its plethora of penises found a home on HBO Max.
0:49.6	But first, we banter.
0:51.4	Stick around.
0:52.0	It's the business from KCRW.
0:59.7	Music First, we banter. Stick around. It's the business from KCRW. I am joined by my colleague in banter, Matt Bellany. Hello, Matt. Hi there. So, I think the world is now
1:05.5	divided into people who are very tired of talking about Slapgate and people who still have things to
1:10.5	say about it.
1:11.3	But as you know, late last week, Will Smith resigned from the Academy.
1:16.0	You and I had talked about this, and I had said before he did that, that I thought they were going to expel him.
1:21.7	At that moment, you were like thinking maybe he'd be suspended, but maybe you came to see that I think people were more outrage
1:29.2	than you initially were thinking? Yeah, I don't know that he would have been expelled. I still think
	...

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