‘Girls Gone Wild’ Docuseries Examines, Interviews Man Behind Soft-Core Porn Empire

In Girls Gone Wild, The Untold Story, producers examine the life of Joe Francis, the founder of the multi-million dollar franchise that profited off of exploitive videos featuring young spring breakers baring their breasts for T-shirts and hats. The trailer for the Peacock docuseries, released Wednesday, features interviews with former Girls Gone Wild employees and victims who survived his exploitative empire. Francis credits his success to not accepting no for an answer, according to an archived clip featured in the trailer.

“I never thought that would come back and haunt me for 20 years,” a woman says in the trailer.

Directed by Jamila Wignot, Girls Gone Wild, The Untold Story will examine the life and career of Francis, and will also feature audio from a nine-hour interview with the soft-core porn company founder, his first new interview in a decade, according to the press release. The three-part docuseries, which drops Dec. 3, also includes personal accounts from 11 former employees and survivors.

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In the late Nineties and 2000s, Girls Gone Wild sold VHS tapes and DVDs of largely intoxicated women who were pressured to lift their tops, make out with their friends, or use sex toys in exchange for free underwear and hats. That content would then be sold on late night television, which raked in $20 million within the first two years.

Francis has since steered clear of several lawsuits, and avoided jail time after a 2013 guilty verdict on five charges including misdemeanor assault and false imprisonment conviction in Los Angeles. He escaped to his Mexico resort home, where he currently resides.