Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries

''Red Shoe Diaries'' is an American erotic drama anthology series that aired on Showtime from 1992 to 1997, and was distributed by Playboy Entertainment, but as of 2025, Paramount Global Content Distribution overseas. It is a spin-off of the television film of the same name directed by Zalman King. Most episodes were directed by either King or Rafael Eisenman.

The storylines usually have a plot revolving around romantic intrigue and the sexual awakening of a woman who often also narrates. Sensuous love scenes with nudity as well as sultry, moody music are characteristic for most episodes. There is no story arc or characters connecting the different stories other than Jake Winters introducing each episode.

Premise

Jake Winters (David Duchovny) places an ad in the newspaper under "Red Shoes", seeking women to mail in their personal diaries with stories of love, passion, and/or betrayal. He is then shown walking on desolate train tracks with his dog, Stella. He begins reading a letter from his post office box out loud that begins with "Dear Red Shoes..." In the pilot film, Jake lost his fiancée to suicide and discovered she kept a diary detailing an affair she had with a construction worker and shoe salesman who sold her a pair of red high heels. He placed the ad in the newspaper in an effort to make sense of his fiancée's secret life through the stories of women in similar situations. Each episode is devoted to a woman's story Jake receives, and begins and ends with Jake's comments to Stella.

Production

Zalman King conceived of an erotic television series that would air on premium cable, which was then a burgeoning market as it was not beholden to MPAA ratings. With his wife and collaborator Patricia Louisianna Knop, King wrote the script for the television film ''Red Shoe Diaries'', intending it to be the pilot for the anthology series. The film, in conjunction with four episodes, was pitched to Showtime in 1991.

Said King: "I wanted to do an anthology series from a very intimate, woman's point of view." He dismissed the term softcore to categorize his work because of its pornographic connotations, saying, "Eroticism has a real place in my vocabulary because tusually needs to move out of a relationship or some sort of tension and that's what I'm very interested in. I usually think of my work as romance." Producer David Saunders said, "We weren't interested in making porn. We wanted to make erotic movies with good stories that looked great, were well-acted, and that concerned women as well as men. Showtime's interests and our interests coincided." Of the show's content, writer Chloe King said, "It's not wham-bam thank you ma’am. There's more intellectual than physical foreplay." Lizzie Borden, Anne Goursaud, Mary Lambert, Nelly Alard, and Elise D'Haene were among the female writers and directors on the show.

David Duchovny was cast in ''The X-Files'' shortly after signing on to do the pilot film. Though his character's story is continued in the episode entitled "Jake's Story", he mostly appears as the series' narrator, bookending each episode.

Episodes were mostly filmed in Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley. Later locations included Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

Episodes

Season 1 (1992)

Season 2 (1993)

Season 3 (1994)

Season 4 (1995)

Season 5 (1996)

Release

Syndication

Originally screened in the UK on Channel 5 in the 1990s, the channel screened several episodes back-to-back on August 30, 2021. ''Red Shoe Diaries'' episodes were also broadcast on the Canadian television channel Showcase in August 2010.

Reception

Though the series did not gain positive attention from critics, it was a major success for Showtime and helped boost the network's viewership to compete with HBO in the 1990s. It was the first softcore program to be touted by a premium cable network and to deliver consistently high ratings. Imitators and softcore series similarly aimed at female audiences sprang up in the wake of the show's popularity, including '' The Hunger'', ''Emmanuelle in Space'', '' Women: Stories of Passion'', and ''Strangers''. TV critics described the series as "both creator of 'art house' soft porn and savior of the kind of quality programming for which pay cable has also become known", and "innovative for its time... or stayingtrue to its basic, lusty principles while adding music-video artiness, jumpy, nervy video cuts and dim mood lighting for a veneer of upscale, almost snooty, erotica. Lifetime with nudity."

Despite the series' foregrounding of a woman's perspective and inclusion of some lesbian story lines, it did receive criticism for its heavy featuring of female nudity, particularly since no male full frontal nudity was shown.

Home media

After the 1992 release of the pilot movie, episodes from the series were compiled on VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD as branded ''Red Shoe Diaries'' movies. Each compilation features three episodes.

# ''Red Shoe Diaries'' (1992)
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 2: Double Dare''. "Safe Sex" / "You Have the Right to Remain Silent" / "Double Dare"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 3: Another Woman's Lipstick''. "Just Like That" / "Another Woman's Lipstick" / "Talk to Me Baby"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 4: Auto Erotica''. "Accidents Happen" / "Auto Erotica" / "Jake's Story"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 5: Weekend Pass''. "Double or Nothing" / "Bounty Hunter" / "Weekend Pass"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 6: How I Met My Husband''. "How I Met My Husband" / "Naked in the Moonlight" / "Midnight Bells"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 7: Burning Up''. "Runway" / "Kidnap" / "Burning Up"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 8: Night of Abandon''. "Night of Abandon" / "Liar's Tale" / "In the Blink of an Eye"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 9: Hotline''. "Gina" / "Hotline" / "Love at First Sight"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 10: Some Things Never Change''. "You Make Me Want to Wear Dresses" / "Some Things Never Change" / "Alphabet Girl"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 11: The Game''. "The Game" / "The Cake" / "Like Father, Like Son"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 12: Girl on a Bike''. "Girl on a Bike" / "Written Word" / "Borders of Salt"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 13: Four on the Floor''. "The Psychiatrist" / "Four on the Floor" / "Emily's Dance"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 14: Luscious Lola''. "Luscious Lola" / "The Last Motel" / "Mercy"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 15: Forbidden Zone''. "Forbidden Zone" / "The Art of Loneliness" / "The Picnic"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 16: Temple of Flesh''. "Temple of Flesh" / "Juarez" / "The Farmer's Daughter"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 17: Swimming Naked''. "Swimming Naked" / "Jump" / "Tears"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 18: Strip Poker''. "Strip Poker" / "Slow Train" / "Hard Labor"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 19: As She Wishes''. "As She Wishes" / "Billy Bar" / "Weightless"
# ''Red Shoe Diaries 20: Caged Bird''. "Caged Bird" / "The Ex" / "The Teacher"

On June 17, 2014, Kino Lorber released Season 1 on DVD in Region 1. On the same day they also re-released ''Red Shoe Diaries - The Movie''. Season 1 was also made available on Amazon Prime Video. The TV film and series (seasons 1-4) are also available on Tubi, a free streaming service, but not on Paramount+.

Second ''Red Shoe Diaries'' TV pilot

In 2006, Zalman King wrote and directed a second, feature-length ''Red Shoe Diaries'' TV pilot. This pilot was completed but never aired.

Notes

References

Bibliography

*
*

External links

*
*

{{Showtime Network programming

Showtime (TV network) original programming
1990s American anthology television series
1992 American television series debuts
1997 American television series endings
Erotic television series
Nudity in television
Showcase (Canadian TV channel) original programming
Television series by CBS Studios
American English-language television shows
Films directed by Zalman King