Son of Spagg: King of Public Access

Son of Spagg

The KinG of PubLic AcCesS The KinG of PubLic AcCesS

by Jayden Moore

It was 1991 when Portland’s independent entertainment scene was taken by storm: That’s when Jim Spagg hit local public access television screens with “Jim Spagg’s Sex Show.” Almost completely improvised, the show would feature him singing and dancing while nude, taking call-ins from viewers, live performances by local bands, and interviewing guests who were also nude. Immediately the show sparked controversy with the public and the law, as it was seen as obscene, pornographic content unfi t for television. People began protesting outside of the studio where the show was fi lmed, as well as taking Spagg to court over his show’s content. The attention only pushed him to continue being provocative, however. And as he fought the law and the public over his show, his fans praised him as a champion of freedom of speech. Eventually Spagg would lose his battle in court over copyright infringement, and the show would come to an end in 2003 (only after he defecated on camera). Years later, many fans still regard him as a rebellious hero who stood for freedom of speech and expression. But who was this hero, really, behind the scenes? What kind of man... What kind of father was he? Let’s backtrack a bit. I am a video production major in my second year of the Integrated Media program at Mt. Hood Community College, in Gresham. Growing up in the 2000s, I had never heard of “Spagg’s “Sex Show” nor did I know anything about public access television. I was introduced to the show and Jim as a public fi gure after getting a job at the Wood Village Walmart store. Within a few months, I met and befriended a man named Jimmy. We became quite close, and before long Jimmy would open up to me about his father and his show. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, so after work I dove deep into the internet, into all of the content focused on Jim that still exists. I was fl oored. The next day I went back to Jimmy, begging for more information.

This is when he told me stories of the man behind the screen, of, growing up and appearing

with his brother in the early days of the show, and of the collapse of their family.

Fast forward to the spring of 2022, where I set out to produce a documentary centered on this “Son of Spagg,” conducting multiple interviews with Jimmy to shed light on Jim and his life behind the camera.

ATLANTA

.Jimmy and his younger brother, Carl, were born in Atlanta to Nancy McSwain and Jim Spagg. From the start, the family struggled, as Nancy was on welfare and Jim was unemployed, refusing to work for anyone but himself, Jimmy explained.

Instead, he would think up “entrepreneurial” schemes – for instance, going to the cemetery and writing names from the tombstones, then ordering cheap products under those names just to turn around and sell them at the flea market. He would also flip used cars. And so he and Nancy, with her welfare money, would manage to scrape by. Jim saw the Atlanta public cable access channel grow popular, and came to desire his own show. He would need a camera, and found a person in Buckhead (an affluent Atlanta district) selling a video camera for $800. He drove the whole family to Buckhead, and then “My dad used his superpower, his haggling ability,” Jimmy said. “He basically convinced the guy that he didn’t want his camera anymore” and bought it for $250. Once Jim had gotten his hands a camera, it was time for him to start production. His television platform began as merely “The Jim Spagg Show” in the 1980s. “We would go places. We would go to the Atlanta Zoo, we’d go to Six Flags, we’d go

to the Atlanta Speedway. And he would just be videotaping our reactions to everything. You know how modern-day YouTubers go and they vlog a place? That’s what he “I never saw my dad after was doing, but he had that. We got on a plane and an old-school VHS camcorder and he’d went to Ohio,” said Jimmy. just be walking around “My mom’s side of the story, videotaping things. when she didn’t have cancer was, ‘Oh, he didn’t love me:’ “That was before it morphed into the ‘Jim Spagg Sex Show’. when she got cancer, ‘He It was a family-type hated me.’ ” show. My mom would let me and Carl watch it, and he had a lot of, like, older people watching it.” That mild version wouldn’t last long. Spagg’s show ramped up “really fast. To me, it seemed like he was doing that, trying the waters to see what he could get away with. Once he found out he could do anything, that’s when it morphed into the ‘Jim Spagg Sex Show.’ Nudity, swearing, all of it. “We were going to watch the show” at home, Jimmy recalled. “And my mom didn’t know how much the show had changed. And as soon as she turned it on and stuff started happening, she turned it off and she’s like, ‘OK, we’re not watching the show anymore.’ ” “But who was this hero, Many others in Atlanreally, behind the scenes? ta were not thrilled, what kind of man... What either. kind of father was he?” “You have to understand the area... They call it the ‘Christian Belt’ (Jim’s term for the Bible Belt), right? And you’re trying to make a show with nudity and swearing? On some weekends when when he would go to shoot, there’d be people in the parking lot picketing him. He was getting a lot of backlash – a lot.” There were even graphic death threats against him. “When I went to school, I wouldn’t say anything. But when Carl went to school, he was telling

everybody that his dad (was like) some famous Hollywood big shot, and he’s got a TV show and everything.”

PORTLAND

with the show, or become more engaged with us, Jim was told.

With the swell of publicity and backlash, the family was pushed to move from Atlanta. Jim did some research and found the next biggest public access platform he could, the Portland Cable Access and Gresham MCTV stations. So the family packed their bags for Oregon, where he restarted his endeavor as Jim Spagg’s Sex Show. Notoriety again came quickly, and he and Nancy would clash as the two disagreed with how the show influenced his offscreen behavior.

“My mom found out she had breast cancer. Growing up, my mom and my dad didn’t like going to the doctor. When my mom finally went... she found out that she had cancer. And she found out that it was bad – third- or fourth-stage cancer. The doctor was giving her time limits on life. And she basically laid it all out on a line with my dad and said ‘Hey, I’m going to Ohio, I’m taking the kids with me: ‘Do you want to come?’

“And he said ‘nope,’’ because at that point,his show was starting to reach its height.

CLEVELAND

“He would shoot the big bulk of his show on the weekends, and he’d come home Sunday night and he’s all jazzed and juiced up,” said Jimmy. “Sometimes, some people get a little too deep into the character. When my mom and him were fighting, sometimes it was like the crazy game show host was fighting with her, not my dad. The ‘Jim Spagg’ character would come out in the fighting. She’d always say, you know, ‘Snap out of the game show host and let me see the man that I fell in love with.’ And still he would not break character. He’d do it just to spite her.” This battle would cause a rift between Jim and his family that would bring an ultimatum: Stick

“ I never saw my dad after that. We got on a plane and went to Ohio,” said Jimmy. “My mom’s side of the story, when she didn’t have cancer was, ‘Oh, he didn’t love me;’ when she got cancer, ‘He hated me.’ I talked to my dad a couple of times Jayden Moore and Jimmy McSwain sitting for photo shoot. on the phone, and he would always say how much he loved my mom, and he was so sorry that he couldn’t go to the funeral. So, yeah, that’s a straight-up lie. That’s just how she felt, too. Yeah. Here you are, you’re in third-, fourth-stage cancer and the person that you love doesn’t want to have anything to do with you. How would you feel? “That’s what happens in life. Sometimes there aren’t happy endings. That’s why we try not to talk about the past a lot because it doesn’t make you feel

good... thinking and dwelling on it.” Upon moving to Cleveland, Jimmy and Carl would live with their mother’s very fractured family, also financially strapped. They were simply two more mouths to feed, and were resented. The main conflict was with Nancy’s sister. “I loved my aunt. But immediately when we got off the plane and showed up, we got nothing but spite from her. In fact, I heard from my uncle, ‘You know what she said to me about you and your brother? That we should have just dropped you off at an orphanage.’ ” Jimmy had escaped one toxic environment for an even more spiteful and hostile one. After his mother died, he and Carl would be separated, and the younger brother sent back to live with Jim in Portland, at age 15. Jimmy didn’t like that idea. “I was worried because I remember the first time seeing the show and the stuff that my dad did on the (Portland) show. I was like, wow, he’s going to be a young kid and he’s going to be around all of that.”

CODA

Ultimately, once their father was sued and then spectacularly lost access to the PCA and MCTV studios, he tried recording a new program, “Jim Spagg’s School of Humanity.” It was a shortlived bid for more attention. He would pivot away from provocative content and focus on philosophy and life advice, and even ran for Portland mayor in 2004. However, he would suffer a fatal heart attack on May 8 of that year. Only after Jim’s death did Jimmy track Carl down and come west to reconnect, after no contact for more than a decade. Then, and even to this day, Carl was very closed off and cagey about his father and the things he witnessed, his brother said. Currently the two live together in Wood Village. On the absence of Jim in his own life, Jimmy said, “Well, they say that boys are closer to their mom and girls are closer to their dad. But I feel like in the teenage years, boys kinda need their dad a little bit more. And in my teenage years I didn’t have my dad. I think it would’ve probably been a better outcome if I did.” Asked if his father passed anything to Jimmy that stuck with him, the son said, “So originally, it was his name: Jimmy was his name, but he went downtown and got his name changed to Jim. And then when I was born, they named me Jimmy, and he would always tell me ‘I gave you my name.’ ” Jimmy then elaborated on showman’s legacy. “I don’t want everybody to think that I hate him, but if I could have the fans take anything from this, what I would like is the fans to see my side.” As for the show and any lasting impact, Jimmy reckons, “He wanted everyone to have freedom of speech, and I think that’s kinda neat. In the times that we’re living, the government is always concocting some crazy way to take things from us, and you have people out there that are trying to help us keep something.

“And I felt like that’s what he was trying to do – keep freedom of speech with us.” Following my interview, Jimmy recalled that years before, his father sent him a VHS tape of the very early Atlanta shows, which Jim considered his favorites. I was able to digitize the tape and to let Jimmy view “Jim Spagg’s Atlanta ’88” show once more. In it, the father declares these were the golden days, then sings – as if reaching out directly to Jimmy – “Those Were the Days,” made famous by Mary Hopkin. Indeed, those were the days, my friend... As Jim bid farewell to viewers at the close of each show, “Happy Doodles!!”

“I loved my aunt. But immediately when we got off the plane and showed up, we got nothing but spite from her. In fact I heard from my uncle, ‘You know what she said to me about you and your brother? That we should have just dropped you off at an orphanage.’ ”