Lavender Lounge

Lavender Lounge was a public access television show in San Francisco that aired from 1991 to 1995, one of the first of its kind in the United States. Mark Kliem was the creator and executive producer of Lavender Lounge, nicknamed "The Queer American Bandstand". In addition to dancers invited from the general public, Lavender Lounge frequently featured LGBTQ+ artists, drag queens and performers such as the queer punk band Pansy Division, Elvis Herselvis, and the Acid Housewives, the latter of whom the New York Times, reviewing Lavender Lounge, described as " three men in psychedelic-colored housedresses".

The format of the show was a "TV Dance Party for Gay Boys and Girls", with members of the public invited to dance in the studio to recorded music interspersed with guest performers. It was patterned after Dick Clark's American Bandstand and John Waters's Hairspray, but aimed at a gay and lesbian audience.

Sixty episodes of the Lavender Lounge television show were created, including being named "Official Video" of GLBTQ Pride Parade" in 1993 and 1994, plus "Official Video" of Halloween In The Castro 1992 and 1993.

Segments of Lavender Lounge were screened at the Los Angeles Gay Film Festival and the Fresno Gay Film Festival. During a six-month period in 1994, episodes of the show were broadcast on satellite reaching from Alaska to Puerto Rico.

In 1994 and 1995, Lavender Lounge was aired on both the Public-access television channel and the leased access channel in San Francisco. It was one of the most popular Public-access television shows ever aired in San Francisco.

Mark Kliem was born in Detroit and graduated from Central Michigan University in December 1977. Moved to San Francisco in October 1981 and plans to stay.

In 1991 he was Creator and Executive Producer of San Francisco's most popular Public Access TV show, Lavender Lounge. Kliem produced 60 episodes between 1991 and 1995.

In its first and most memorable incarnation, Lavender Lounge was described as the "Queer American Bandstand", modeling itself after the mid-century hit TV dance party show created by Dick Clark. With Kliem as the host and MC, the gay public showed up at the studio to dance to DJ music interspersed with musical guests and comedy bits.

In 1993 the show made a dramatic change to documentary style to become do in depth coverage of people, places, issues and events in San Francisco's gay community.

There were 40 episodes of Lavender Lounge as a half hour dance party theme and 20 episodes of half hour and full hour documentary themes. In 1994 a deal was struck to air episodes on an a satellite system for six months that was seen from Alaska to Puerto Rico. It was screened at the Fresno Gay Film Festival, Los Angeles Gay Film Festival, and shown to gay activists in Russia.

After the TV show ended, Mark Kliem worked full time in the gay adult business producing and directing movies for Brush Creek Media and PR Simon Productions. In 1997 he became Webmaster of gay adult streaming video site Naked Sword and founded website Gay Porn Blog.

Mark Kliem left Naked Sword in 2003 to run Lavender Lounge Studios full time, creating and managing adult websites and creating original content. He won a Cybersocket Award in 2005 for Best Blog. He served as judge of the GayVN Awards for 9 years and was nominated for an XBiz award for Best GLBT Company. Around 2011 he started releasing original content and reissued vintage gay porn onto DVD.