'The Playboy Club' Features 'Female Empowerment'
Chuck Barney - Contra Costa Times
Aug 03, 2011
BEVERLY HILLS -- The stars and producers of "The Playboy Club," a period drama coming to NBC this fall, spent much of their time at television's summer press tour trying to shoot down what they say are false assumptions about the show.
No, it's not a "Mad Men" clone, even if it does have a dapper Don Draper look-alike (Eddie Cibrian) at the center of its cast.
Also, it's not too raunchy for prime time, even though a conservative watchdog group has unleashed its wrath upon it.
And, no, a show full of scantily clad "bunnies" being ogled by wolfish men is not demeaning to women. In fact, it's empowering.
At least that's what they say. Really.
"The show is all about empowerment and who these
women can be, and how they can use the club to be anyone they want," producer Chad Hodge told critics.
Cast member Naturi Naughton echoed that sentiment.
"(The female characters) are smart, they're going to school, they're buying property -- things they couldn't do at the time. They're using their resources," she said.
As for racy material, producer Ian Biederman says the show is "mild compared to a lot of things that are on television."
Those comments aren't likely to assuage the Parents Television Council, which insists the show "glorifies and glamorizes (an) insidious industry." Nor will they change minds at NBC's Salt Lake City affiliate, which has chosen not to air it.
"The Playboy Club," set in 1960s
Chicago, follows a high-powered lawyer (Cibrian) who frequents Hugh Hefner's glitzy club and becomes involved with a new Playboy bunny (Amber Heard). In addition to all the cotton tails and cleavage, they've tossed in an outlandish crime plot to spice things up.
Based on an early look at the pilot, "The Playboy Club" isn't excessively edgy. And it's not nearly as compelling as ABC's "Pan Am," the season's other retro drama.
Still, it's clearly the kind of show ghat gets people talking -- the kind of show that struggling NBC needs, according to the network's new entertainment boss Robert Greenblatt.
"What it has going for it is a recognizable brand that's automatically going to draw attention to it, good or bad," he said. " "... It's the right kind of thing for us to try."
As for those comparisons to "Mad Men," Greenblatt simply waves them off. "I have great respect for 'Mad Men,' but apart from the setting and period being similar, I think (it's) much more of an energized soap opera."
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Copyright 2011 by Contra Costa Times
