Hard-Cocked Studio 2000 Shuts Down For Good

Even its name is stuck in the past. Having failed to capitalize on the popularity of net-based sex, famed gay porn factory Studio 2000 has unceremoniously gone out of business. Here's a retrospective of two decades of porn hotness.

Studio 2000 opened a new age of Grade-A porn back in 1992. Its founders were producer Scott Masters and veteran director John Travis, who reportedly discovered legend Jeff Stryker. The team brought the glossy look of Falcon Studios to the next level, bringing crisp videography, plotlines, and impossibly buffed and polished men into the limelight. Thus began the era of full-body waxing and pubic trimming.

Take Down
The studio's inaugural film was Take Down (1992), introducing Adam Hart and starring Rick Bolton. What a glorious beginning, for the story of a closeted sweet-faced blond college wrestler (Adam Hart) struggling with his sexual identity was a huge success. With a star-studded cast (of the era) including Danny Sommers and Jason Andrews, it had a coming out story, hot college jocks, and the fulfillment of unrequited gay love. Studio 2000 quickly proved itself filmmakers to be reckoned with. (Disclaimer: Take Down was the first film I purchased as a scared newbie gay walking into an Adult Video Story, so it has an extremely dear place in my heart...and loins.)

Grease Guns (2000)
Arguably the era's most popular mechanics porn, Grease Guns was so sexually revved up that it spawned a sequel. Starring Cody Foster, Aiden Shaw, and Sean "Long Dong" Davis, it told and impossible tale of blue collar seduction with an electro-synthesized soundtrack. Sadly, we've never been to an auto shop with guys anywhere close to this level of hotness.

Dream Team (2000)
This tale of set during a high school basketball reunion in the 1950s won Studio 2000 its first GayVN Awards in 1999: Best Romantic Video, Best Screenplay and Best Director for Jerry Douglas (one of the best gay porn directors period). For those of us who like a whole lotta plot and characterization while jacking off, Dream Team is perfection, with each scene maximizing a rise in sexual tension. The cast's only "name" is Kurt Young, but every performer brings porn performances as memorable as any Best Actor Oscar winner. Since the whole thing is set in the 1950s, the fulfillment of forbidden lust is all the sweeter. If you haven't checked out this one, immediately add it to your Must-Wank-To list.

So, what lead to Studio 2000's demise? With the rise in "amateur" internet porn, the company's big-budget films, manicured men, highly choreographed, obviously scripted sex fell out of favor for more "realistic" fare made popular by sites like Sean Cody and Amateur Straight Guys. Studio 2000 couldn't keep up. Now, a moment of silence for another casualty of changing times.

· Studio 2000 is officially out of business (menofporn.typepad.com)