The Playboy Club

The Playboy Club is an American historical crime drama television series that aired on NBC from September 19 to October 3, 2011. Set in 1961, the series centers on the employees of the original Playboy Club operating in Chicago. The Playboy Club stars Eddie Cibrian, Laura Benanti, Amber Heard, Jenna Dewan, Naturi Naughton, Leah Renee, Wes Ramsey, Jenifer Lewis, and David Krumholtz.
The Playboy Club was canceled on October 4, 2011, after three episodes aired, due to its low ratings. It was the first cancellation of the 2011–12 television season. NBC continued to film the series until October 10, 2011, hoping to sell the series to another network.
When production wrapped on October 10, 2011, Chad Hodge and Benanti both tweeted that they had finished seven episodes, including the pilot. Benanti further stated that the seventh episode has two endings, one of which is more final to the series.

Cast and characters

Main

Eddie Cibrian as Nick Dalton, a smooth high-powered attorney and Playboy Club key-holder who plans to run for state's attorney, but also harbors secret connections to organized crime. Jeff Hephner was originally cast in the role after performing well in test auditions, but the actor had no experience playing a television lead before, and the producers decided to let him go after the full cast table. Cibrian, who was cast just a few days before filming began, commuted from his Los Angeles home to the set in Chicago for filming.
Laura Benanti as Bunny Mother Carol-Lynne. The original Playboy Bunny, Carol-Lynne is romantically involved with Nick.

File:AmberHeardTIFFSept10.jpg|thumb|upright|Amber Heard played Playboy Bunny Maureen, one of the leading roles in The Playboy Club.

Amber Heard as Bunny Maureen, a recently hired Playboy Bunny who is innocent and naive to the ways of the city, yet is running from mysterious and unexplained things in her dark past. Although the series premiere started with Nick helping Maureen out of a difficult situation, Heard said of the character, "Don't underestimate that character and her intelligence, and the journey that she's going to take to really rise above that.... I think Maureen allows herself to be helped when she needs it, and by no means relies on any character, male or female, in this story, and never has."
Jenna Dewan Tatum as Bunny Janie, a very provocative Bunny who is dating Max the bartender. She loves Max but cannot marry him because she is already married, although separated from her husband.
Naturi Naughton as Bunny Brenda, who is seeking to be the first African American Playboy Playmate. Naughton auditioned four times for the role before getting cast, singing the Nat King Cole song "When I Fall in Love" during one of the auditions. In researching the role, Naughton consulted the black former Playboy Bunny Pat Lacey, watched the documentary film The Bunny Years and read the book 50 Years of the Playboy Bunny. Naughton had previously played a Playboy Bunny in "Hands and Knees", a fourth season episode of Mad Men, an AMC period drama also set in the 1960s.
Leah Renee as Bunny Alice, a Bunny who is secretly lesbian and in a marriage of convenience with a gay man. Both are members of the homophile group the Mattachine Society.
Wes Ramsey as Max, a bartender at the Playboy Club.
David Krumholtz as Billy Rosen, manager of the Playboy Club. Krumholtz said he was drawn to the character and wished to play a role different from Charlie Eppes, the character he played for six seasons on the crime drama Numbers.
Jenifer Lewis as Pearl, the warm and well-loved Playboy Club seamstress who sews the outfits for the Playboy Bunnies, many of whom confide their secrets to her. Lewis, who described her character as the mother hen of the club, did not have to audition for the role, which is unusual in a dramatic television series. Lewis was a Broadway singer who performed with co-star Naturi Naughton on the musical Hairspray, and the Pearl character was expected to sing in an upcoming episode when a scheduled entertainer fell through. Pearl was based on a real-life Playboy Club seamstress named Betty.

The contracts for Cibrian, Heard, Dewan and Renee all included clauses authorizing nudity, an unprecedented stipulation for a network series. Under the agreement, the actors could not be forced to perform nude scenes, but if nudity were required for a particular scene, they would have to review the script and then be given the opportunity to agree or decline. Nude scenes were not planned for the NBC broadcast version of the show; rather, the clauses were intended to allow possible R-rated versions of the show to be filmed for the DVD release and for domestic and foreign cable syndication. However, shortly before the series debuted, executive producer Chad Hodge told The Hollywood Reporter that no nude scenes had been filmed for alternate versions of the show nor did he expect any such scenes to be filmed.

Guest

Sean Maher as Sean Beasley, a closeted gay man in a lavender marriage with Alice. A secret member of the Mattachine Society, Sean is also a political campaigner who was to serve as Nick's campaign manager during a state's attorney run in later episodes. Maher was closeted before taking the role and he publicly came out as the show aired because he felt the series was a good platform to openly discuss his sexuality and encourage public discourse about the issue.
Troy Garity as John Bianchi, the son of Bruno Bianchi, a mob figure who is killed by Maureen in self-defense.
Cassidy Freeman as Frances Dunhill, a Chicago socialite who stands in as Nick Dalton's date as he makes a run for public office. The relationship with Nick is only for show, to please her father while concealing her lesbianism.
Production

Development

and Imagine Television had previously attempted to produce the concept of the series during the 2010–11 television season but the project never came to fruition. After that initial attempt, the companies approached screenwriter Chad Hodge, who became the show's creator and an executive producer. Imagine co-founder Brian Grazer and president Francie Calfo also served as executive producers, as did Richard Rosenzweig, a longtime executive and consultant with Playboy Enterprises. Alta Loma Entertainment, Playboy's entertainment production arm, received copies of all the story outlines and scripts for review but, according to Hodge, took a very hands-off approach and did not get heavily involved in the creative process. Likewise, Playboy Enterprises founder Hugh Hefner reviewed each of the scripts personally, but did not provide much direct input or request major changes. The original title of the series was Bunny Tales, then Playboy, before the final title The Playboy Club was chosen. The show's pilot script was the first new drama series ordered by NBC for the 2011–12 television season.

Writing

Chad Hodge said of writing the series, "When I set out to create this show, the first word out of my mouth was 'entertaining, and cited as influences such films as All That Jazz, Moulin Rouge! and Chicago, and the comedy-drama television series Desperate Housewives. The characters and setting of The Playboy Club served as an exploration of the changing political and moral attitudes of the 1960s, particularly with the approach of the sexual revolution that began in that decade.
Members of the Playboy Club cast and crew have stated they believe the series, and the concept of the Playboy Bunny in general, is empowering to women. One of the show's taglines spoke to this theme: "The men have the keys, but the women hold all of the power." During a Television Critics Association press tour, Amber Heard discussed past Bunnies who had gone on to successful careers and did not regret their past experience working at Playboy clubs, including Lauren Hutton, Debbie Harry, Kimba Wood and Polly Matzinger. Heard said she believed the female characters in The Playboy Club were making free choices about their sexuality, and thus they were not being exploited, adding, "I think it's just as chauvinistic to deny a woman her sexuality." Naturi Naughton said she believed the women who worked as Playboy Bunnies were intelligent, self-reliant women who went to school, bought homes and accomplished things other women during their time could not. Likewise, Chad Hodge said he did not believe there was anything wrong with a woman using her sexuality to get what she wants if she so chooses, adding: "There are different brands of feminism and I don't think it should be boxed into any one version." Hodge later stressed, however, that despite his comments about the empowerment of women, he did not believe The Playboy Club conveyed any strong political convictions or intellectual ambitions, but rather was meant to be entertaining.
The subplot involving the Mattachine Society focuses specifically on the growing gay rights movement in the United States in the 1960s and what it was like to be gay or a lesbian during a time period that was still repressive of that culture. The Playboy Club also touched upon changing thoughts with regard to racial diversity during the 1960s. One of the supporting characters, Brenda, seeks to become the first African American Playboy Bunny. Her role in the series illustrates Hugh Hefner's decision to integrate his clubs, both by hiring black women and allowing black key-holders and performers, which was considered unusual at the time. Brenda was loosely based on the model Jennifer Jackson, the actual first Black Playmate of the Month, although neither Naughton nor the Playboy Club producers contacted Jackson in preparing the role.

Filming

The Playboy Club was shot in Chicago, the same city where the story was set. Filming on the pilot episode began on March 15, 2011, with most scenes filmed on a set at Cinespace Studios on West 16th Street. Some scenes were also shot at the former Meigs Field on Northerly Island. The Chicago Film Office estimated the production would add jobs to the city and pump an estimated $2 million into the local economy per episode. Each episode was shot in about nine days, and filming lasted for 12 hours at a time on certain days. The first episode was directed by Alan Taylor, who had also directed four episodes of Mad Men, including the pilot.
The costumes in The Playboy Club were designed by Isis Mussenden. She was not able to find any original Playboy Bunny uniforms, so she created her designs based on photos and consultations with Hugh Hefner. Each of the five female leads received two suits, each of which cost $3,000 and took about 10 hours to make. Each suit included a built-in bra, French cuffs with Playboy cuff links, satin ears and 3-inch heels. After the costumes were designed, Hefner had claimed they were not cut high enough on the leg, but Mussenden assured him the height was correct based on photos of Hefner with real-life bunnies. Naturi Naughton said the costumes were very tight and difficult to wear for several hours at a time during shoots.
While on the Playboy Club set, Amber Heard's sister used her iPhone to take a photo of Heard in her Playboy Bunny costume and Heard posted it on her Facebook page. The image was widely disseminated on the Internet and featured in the magazine TV Guide. 20th Century Fox Television banned any unauthorized photography on the set as a result of the incident.
Hugh Hefner performed a voice-over narration during the pilot episode, but no such narration was recorded for the other episodes. A young version of Hefner was featured as a character in the show, but was only ever seen from behind. Hodge said this was the result of a conscious decision to feature Hefner in the series but not give him a regular role, of which the real-life Hefner approved because, according to Hodge, "He didn't want to make it his story." On October 4, 2011, Eddie Cibrian injured himself on set after getting his right heel caught underneath a 200-pound steel door, resulting in a deep gash that required stitches.