Take 5: Hoppin' down the Bunny trail
Hugh Hefner lands in the UK to mark the launch of the new Playboy Club in Mayfair, which opens on June 4. (June 2, 2011) Credit: Getty Images
One of the more interesting fall series announced last month is NBC's "Playboy Club." The early-1960s drama stars Eddie Cibrian ("Third Watch") as a Chicago high roller with shady connections who does business at the titular establishment. Hugh Hefner and his empire have previously figured in several other TV projects, such as these five:
1. PLAYBOY'S PENTHOUSE (1959-60) Syndicated show set at a Chicago-based "hip" party at which Hef mingled with such guests as Lenny Bruce, Tony Bennett and Sammy Davis Jr.
2. PLAYBOY AFTER DARK (1969-70) Syndicated show set at an L.A.-based "hip" party at which Hef mingled with The Grateful Dead, Joe Cocker, Sammy Davis Jr. and others.
3. DEATH OF A CENTERFOLD: THE DOROTHY STRATTEN STORY (1980) Jamie Lee Curtis starred in this TV movie about a murdered Playboy playmate. (The same story was told in the 1983's big-screen "Star 80" with Mariel Hemingway as Stratten.)
4. A BUNNY'S TALE (1985) TV movie based on a 1960s magazine article by Gloria Steinem (before she became famous as a feminist writer and spokeswoman) in which she went undercover as a Playboy Club bunny. Kirstie Alley played Steinem.
5. THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR (2005-) E! reality series focusing on the lives of the young women who live with Hef at the Playboy Mansion.
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