1992: Showtime Introduces 'Red Shoe Diaries'
On this day in 1992, Showtime debuted Red Shoe Diaries, the full-length Zalman King film starring David Duchovny that launched the cabler's erotic anthology series.
The pre-X-Files Duchovny starred as Jake, a young man who's left reeling after the suicide of his fiancee, Alex (Brigitte Bako). After her death he discovers a diary that details her erotic fantasies, including admission of an affair she was having with a shoe salesman (Billy Wirth).
In the subsequent anthology series, which ran through 1997, Duchovny's character, Jake, places ads in the newspaper's personal section, asking women to share their stories of love and betrayal, in the hopes of better understanding his fiancee's actions. Each sex-saturated episode revolves around a response he receives.
While the majority of Red Shoe Diaries guest stars were unknown actors, the series did feature several current or future stars, including Steven Bauer, Joan Severance, Annabelle Gurwitch, Nina Siemaszko, Matt LeBlanc, Sheryl Lee, Ally Sheedy, Margaret Cho, Christopher Atkins and John Enos III.