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All Dr. Ruth, all the Time

The inimitable psychosexual therapist tells us how excited she is for Tablet readers to watch her shows from the ’80s and ’90s, which are now available on a new online platform

by
Gabriela Geselowitz
June 30, 2017
Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Cantor Fitzgerald
Dr. Ruth Westheimer participates in the annual Charity Day hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York City, September 11, 2015.Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Cantor Fitzgerald
Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Cantor Fitzgerald
Dr. Ruth Westheimer participates in the annual Charity Day hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York City, September 11, 2015.Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Cantor Fitzgerald

If you thought you were finally out of TV to binge, you are wrong in the best way.

Your favorite Haganah sniper-turned-international sex educator—that is, Dr. Ruth Westheimer—has a huge treasure trove of footage set to stream. Night Flight, a online video service focused on the crazy ’80s, will now be showing Dr. Ruth’s TV show library from the decade.

Dr. Ruth had several shows on and off in the 1980s on Lifetime, like Good Sex with Dr. Ruth Westheimer and What’s Up, Dr. Ruth? She did everything from traditional celebrity interviews (Gloria Steinem, Jerry Seinfeld, e.g.) to counseling for audience members about the birds and the bees (and in at least one clip, a pirate fetish); and what turns women on. Quite frankly, I find her shows to be absolutely riveting. Dr. Ruth didn’t just build her sexy empire on good advice about condoms; on these shows she’s engaging, and charming, and warm, and all the things you like about your Jewish grandmother combined with all the openness of the Internet in a pre-Internet age.

Take, for example, the following, in which Dr. Ruth talks with a very anxious Richard Lewis, and with Jerry Seinfeld about sex.

We reached out to Dr. Ruth for comment, and here is what this modern-day heroine told us: “How fortunate I am that my television programs are now on Night Flight so that people who either have never seen them or enjoyed them and want to experience them again have an opportunity to do so. It’s very exciting for me and I hope all the readers of Tablet tune in. And I’ll have more news about other projects to announce in the coming months.”

We bet she does.

And, well, for good measure, enjoy these, too.

Gabriela Geselowitz is a writer and the former editor of Jewcy.com.