Beginning this fall, NBC will be airing The Playboy Club every Monday night, and I will be watching this show. The show’s aesthetic is obviously inspired by the success of AMC’s Mad Men, which is set in the same era, and focuses on ‘men being men’ and has a cast full of beautiful women. Weather or not the Hugh Hefner’s legacy can inspire the same kind of quality and accolades as the AMC mega hit is yet to be seen. But it’s got a Network budget and an eye-catching subject matter, so if NBC really gets behind it, The Playboy Club could help turn around the struggling Network…
Set in 1963, at the original Playboy Nightclub in Chicago – hence the title. It’s a drama that will focus on the girls in the employ of Mr. Hefner, and will star former ‘Grizzly Girl of the Week’ – Amber Heard (Pineapple Express, Zombieland). This miraculously beautiful blonde is the newly hired ‘Bunny Maureen’ in the show, and she quickly creates some major trouble for herself.
Maureen is a somewhat naive and innocent girl, especially in comparison to some of the other bunnies, but she’ll be forced to grow up pretty quick when she accidentally kills a man with direct ties to a mob family. That’s when Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian – Invasion, CSI: Miami) stumbles across the bunny with bloody nylons, and decides to help her dispose of the body. Dalton seems to be the man to have on your side, as he acts swift and decisively, and instructs the new Bunny on what to do. Nick is a king at the club. Envied by men, adored by women, but it’s obvious that he’s really alone.
The show also stars some other – ahem…talented ladies. Some of the beauties include ‘Bunny Brenda’ (Naturi Naughton – ‘Fame’, former member of ear-rapists 3LW), who is an African-American beauty aspiring to be the first “chocolate centerfold”. Laura Benanti (2008 Broadway production of ‘Gypsy’) plays Bunny ‘Carol-Lynne’, the first Playboy Bunny. She is the mother hen of the group, and gives advice and instructions to the girls. Leah Renee Cudmore (‘True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet’), is ‘Bunny Alice’, a LESBIAN who is in a sham marriage with a gay man. So they cast a straight girl to play the lesbian, and then a leasbian (Heard) to play a straight girl. Acting! Finally we have Jenna Dewan (Star of the classic Horror Schlock – ‘Tamara’), as ‘Bunny Janie’. Janie in a strained relationship with Max (Wes Ramsey – CSI: Miami) who is incredibly overbearing when it comes to Janie’s position as a 1960s living, breathing fantasy. So there’s some built-in drama.
The real question though – Who wants to see some NUDITY? Don’t you worry, because NBC has you covered… or should I say uncovered?
The DVD release of the show has been approved to bare it all, if that is where their creative (or otherwise) juices take them. All of the stars have it in their contract to be shot in their birthday suits. I foresee a long line at Best Buy…
There is already plenty of controversy over this, especially from the idiots at the ‘Parents Television Council’, but none of that matters though. The show will get off to a strong start, and I predict that it will do quite well. Afterall, Playboy is an institution in this country…
Grizzly Bomb 