(June 29, 2011)               Eddie Cibrian, "CSI: Miami", Amber Heard, "Zombieland", Laura Benanti, "Take the Lead", David Krumholtz, "Numb3rs", Jenna Dewan Tatum, "American Virgin", Wes Ramsey, "CSI: Miami", Naturi Naughton ("Fame") and Leah Renee ("True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet") star in a drama series based on a real place and time, The Playboy Club, coming to NBC this fall on Monday nights at 10pm.

"The Playboy Club" is a provocative new drama about a time and place that challenged the social mores. Where a visionary entrepreneur created an empire and an icon changed American culture. It’s the early '60s, and the legendary Playboy Club in Chicago is the door to all of your fantasies, and the key is the most sought-after status symbol of its kind. Inside the seductive world of the bunny, the epitome of beauty and service, the clientele rubs shoulders with the decade’s biggest mobsters, politicos and entertainers. Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian, "CSI: Miami") is one of the city’s top attorneys and the ultimate playboy, rubbing elbows with everyone in the city's power structure. With mysterious ties to the mob, Nick comes to the aid of Maureen (Amber Heard, "Zombieland"), the stunning and innocent new bunny who accidentally kills the leader of the Bianchi crime family. Dating Nick is Carol-Lynne (Laura Benanti, "Take the Lead"), a bombshell and established star at the club who knows her days as a bunny are numbered and finds herself continually at odds with Billy (David Krumholtz, "Numb3rs"), the club's general manager. Adding to the charm of the Playboy club is Janie (Jenna Dewan Tatum, "American Virgin"), the carefree life of the party who is dating Max (Wes Ramsey, "CSI: Miami"), an overly protective bartender.

This one hour drama is high class all the way. It has all the perfectly groomed, flashy, rich, characters that made the Playboy club a world wide icon. And of course it has beautiful women wearing those infamous bunny costumes. The weakness in the pilot episode is not the perfect costuming or the sense of style that is obvious from the first frame, it is the soft performances of the actors who were selected to bring these characters to life on the screen. The allure of the setting overshadows the tentative dialogue offered by the writers, but it will not draw attention away from the poor scripting for long. I am sure that future episodes will continue to take advantage of the many famous names that have visited the club over the years, and that will quickly allow for more interesting plots now that the character introductions have been completed in the pilot episode. I also recommend that the focus of the drama moves quickly away from the vents of the pilot episode and towards something more in line with what made this club the hottest and most famous night club in the world.

The direction of episode two of this drama series will start to show one of the two choices that can be made with this series. Either they will address the organized crime, corrupt politics and civil right unrest that gripped Chicago during this era, or this show will become the stuff of fantasy, where every guy wants a bunny, and every girl wants to be one. Personally, I hope that, like the real story, a balance of both can be found. If they find that magic formula, this drama could be as big as the real thing was.

 

 - Editor

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