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NBC has made its first drama pilot order this development season and it has gone to Playboy, a period drama about Playboy bunnies in the Chicago club in the 1960s. The project, set against the background of the political and moral changes in the 1960s, was written by Chad Hodge. 20th Century Fox TV and Imagine TV, which first took a stab at the concept last season with a different writer, are producing. Hodge is executive producing Playboy with Imagine’s Brian Grazer and and the company’s new TV chief Francie Calfo. This is the first pilot order this month as the New Year marks the beginning of the traditional pilot pickup season. The green light for Playboy comes before NBC’s new top programmer Bob Greenblatt has officially joined the network, something expected to happen later this month when the Comcast-NBCU gets government approval.
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Now THIS sounds fascinating. It’s not a medical show, a crime/law show….it has amazing potential.
Wow, that was a fast announcement!
Who cares about Playboy Clubs… Mad Men already did an episode on this. Good luck with making a splash NBC! I’d rather see Epix’s Penthouse show.
Sounds like “Mad Women” to me. I’m not sure if more 60s nostalgia will sell, even with the rather antiquarian Playboy brand attached to it.
Should be a hit with the coveted old geezer demo!
HAHAHA that made me laugh! XD
The new promo:
NBC: WE’RE NOT EVEN TRYING ANYMORE
Great idea. I wish they’d sold the show to a cable network, though. Seems like they’re going to have to censor a lot of material.
Chad’s an incredible writer and if anyone can give this a big, fun, sophisticated voice it’s him. Exciting!
Did someone pitch this as “Models, Inc meets Mad Man?”
Way to go NBC, running head first into last place yet again.
I agree with Michelle’s assessment. It seems like an intriguing premise. At least it’s not driving over old tired paths.
Another project developed under the regime from 2 years ago…….
Sounds like MAD MEN meets American Dreams meets NBC’s THE 60′s Miniseries.
At least they’re trying….
Trying to be derivative of cable shows that are successful because they can actually AIR what makes this interesting in the first place!
I don’t get all the snark. EVERYTHING sounds a bit like something else at this point. Who comments here, anyway, but a bunch of out of work, angry-at-the-world writers, maybe?
This is a huge joke. why waste time and money on a show that has no chance of making it on the air? this falls into the same category as the chelsea handler project: interesting idea, impossible on broadcast. perhaps it will garner a nice demo rating in the first three weeks but will certainly get more angst than applaud when ten million angry men realize there will be No Boobies or Cleavage on NBC.
Who are these “ten million men” who don’t already know that boobs can’t be shown on a licensed broadcast network? Just asking.
Just because something is not legal/cop/hospital does not automatically make it risky and “original.” Especially given Mad Men’s recent Playboy club subplot, this piece of development feels especially derivative. But Angela has no choice but to lean on Imagine TV–they have a way better track record than she does.
I don’t think this will make it.I really enjoy Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire and Spartacus, but they’ve got to know that period shows aren’t going to fly on network TV.
Also, from a guy’s point of view, I don’t want to see a show about Playboy Bunnies with no nudity.
I love how Spartacus made the same list as Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire. Hilarius.
have you seen spartacus? was one of the most enjoyable programs on tv last year, and not because of the gratuitous sex and violence so much as the smart dialogue
Yeah, period pieces aren’t gonna fly on network TV. See such notable failures as MASH, The Wonder Years, and China Beach.
I just read the articles.
if you want to see a nude playboy bunny, go buy a mag or playboy tv.
even in the real clubs they wore bunny suits for cheap lowers like you.
Mad Bunnies
NBC needs to take more chances. A show like this has sex, nostalgia, and one of the most recognizable brands in American culture behind it. Mix in a great script and eventually a solid director and you’ve got the most interesting thing they’ve done in years.
And I love how people are lining up to accuse it of being a Mad Men clone before the pilot’s even been shot. What an original critique! This is the first pilot order of Bob Greenblatt’s new regime: the man who made Showtime more relevant than HBO. It’s safe to say he and his team know more about making TV than the haters who show up on this site every time someone gets good news.
Envy sucks, huh? Go back to polishing that spec pilot no one’s ever going to buy. And then get ready to beg Chad Hodge for a job when staffing season rolls around.
“NBC needs to take more chances. A show like this has sex, nostalgia, and one of the most recognizable brands in American culture behind it.”
Stick to writing sitcoms. Anything that can be described as having sex and nostalgia will never make it on network tv in its current climate. Too much too soon.
Here is why this project doesn’t make sense: Playboy is a “brand” that is popular because it legally photographs naked women. NBC is a brand that cannot legally show naked women. This show would be dynamite on any premium channel but not on a platform that reaches 114 million viewers.
Any heterosexual male will tell you that Playboy hasn’t been associated with truly titillating nudity for the past 10 years. They don’t even try to compete with the porn industry anymore. If Playboy was JUST about the nudity, that idiot Kendra wouldn’t be on magazine covers every week. For better or worse, she got famous for being representative of the “Playboy” lifestyle (i.e. being one of Hefner’s girls, living in the romanticized Playboy Mansion), not for being shown naked.
Fact is, the Playboy brand is associated with a personality (Hef and his many blonde wives) and a lifestyle (the Playboy Mansion as a paradise).
NBC won’t need to show T&A to get people to watch. Anyone with an Internet connection knows where to find that. If they can create great characters and provide an insight into an exclusive club, they’ll be cooking with gas.
It won’t be “porn” porn, it will be what Entourage is: “lifestyle porn”. i.e. you want to watch people live a life you don’t have (which is what Playboy was really selling all along anyway). If they can recreate that (even within the bounds of network), then it could work.
Will most of the cost of this show be royalties paid to Hef?
Anyone with knowledge of the old Playboy Clubs realizes the girls were not topless. It was all about seduction and allure. It’s a gentlemen’s club with great tales of famous clients, performers and employees. If anyone can make this concept sing, it’s Chad Hodge. Go back and read his script “Studio” which perfectly captured the era of Studio 54 AND brought interesting characters and storylines to the table.
Whether or not this makes it to air, I think it’s worth keeping an eye on.
In the vast talent pool of TV writers, Chad’s on the top step of the shallow-end. The thought of him writing emotionally complex female characters is laughable.
He’s pretty, and charming – absolutely. But once you shift your focus from those sparkling eyes to the words on the page… Not all that glitters is gold.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, though I think “pretty” is a tad too strong. I guess you could say “80s pretty” if you want to be specific.
Trying to be irrelevant maybe. No one wants to see crap about the 60′s except baby boomers and nostalgic development geeks and festival programmers. The rest of the world couldn’t care less!
Loved it when I first saw it as an episode of MAD MEN this past season…. Matt Weiner should get residuals and if they use the term “chocolate bunny”….
Hey, it sounds interesting.
This is based in Chicago, not New York.
The original club was on Walton.
I don’t think the show sounds derivative because Mad Men did a Playboy episode. It sounds derivative because Mad Men covers much of the same ground. The show may be brilliant ( although probably not) but it just feels like it was aped off a wildly successful show.
I think period can work on network tv, although those examples that were cited are o-l-d and this is a serialized show, so it’s definitely risky..but at least it’s something different. .. the success of shows like this on basic and paycable suggest there is an audience out there; but is it BIG enuf for network?..the bar for a hit on AMC and FX is substantially lower than for network..Mad Men’s numbers would be a flop on any broadcast net..as to the censorship issues– that’s a relevant concern– to not homogenize the material. As to the timing of the order, even though they go out of their way to say this was greenlit before Greenblatt’s ‘officially’ there– my money is he’s in on this decision. And I wouldn’t be so quick to bet against his track record. So..risky but at least it’s not another freaking dance/song/reality show!
Yawn. Next.
Now THIS I’m looking forward to (and I haven’t watched network TV in five years!).
Just include an episode where they have to deal with visitors swiping the bunny club’s ashtrays as souvenirs on a daily basis.
Guilty as charged…