Playboy Club

The Playboy Club is an American historical crime drama television series that aired on NBC from September 19 to October 31, 2011. Set in 1961, the series centers on the employees (known as Bunnies) of the original Playboy Club operating in Chicago. The Playboy Club stars Eddie Cibrian, Laura Benanti, Amber Heard, Jenna Dewan Tatum, Naturi Naughton, Leah Renee, Wes Ramsey, Jenifer Lewis, and David Krumholtz.

NBC continued to film the series to sell the series to another network. When production wrapped on November 7, 2011, Chad Hodge (the show's creator and executive producer) 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 due to its low ratings.

Production Companies: Imagine Television, Atla Loma Entertainment, Storyland Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Television

Length: 60 minutes

Distributor: 20th Television

Aspect Ratios: 480i (SDTV)/720p & 1080p (HDTV)

GoAnimate in Real Life Channel: NBC (National Broadcasting Company)

Cast

 * 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.
 * 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 (1999) 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 Numb3rs.
 * 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.

Guest Starring

 * Sean Maher as Sean Beasley, a closeted gay man in a sham 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.

Episodes

 * 1) Pilot (September 19, 2011) (1ATE79)

Written by: Chad Hodge and Becky Mode, Directed by: Alan Taylor
 * 1) The Scarlett Bunny (September 26, 2011) (1ATE01)

Story by: Chad Hodge & Karyn Usher, Story by: Chad Hodge, Directed by: Scott Winant
 * 1) An Act of Simple Duplicity (October 3, 2011) (1ATE02)

Written by: Mark Fish, Directed by: Lesli Linka Glatter
 * 1) The Dream House and How to Avoid It (October 10, 2011) (1ATE03)

Written by: Hannah Shakespeare, Directed by: Kenny Ortega
 * 1) Trouble in Makeoutsville (October 17, 2011) (1ATE04)

Written by: Luke Schelhaas, Directed by: Holly Dale
 * 1) A Tryst of Fate (October 24, 2011) (1ATE05)

Written by: Chad Hodge, Directed by: Phil Abraham
 * 1) Ding Dong Ghoul (October 31, 2011) (1ATE06)

Written by: Chad Hodge, Directed by: Holly Dale

Censorship
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. No nude scenes were written or planned for the film; the clauses were intended for possible R-rated versions of the show for the DVD release and for domestic and foreign cable syndication.[7][26] The nudity clauses were not generated by producers or the network, but rather added by business executives to maximize financial opportunities.