Chicago’s Playboy Club of the 1960s was nothing like the new NBC prime-time drama, says former Playboy Bunny Marilyn Miller.<\/p>\n
But she may not have much to worry about — the show is unlikely to be around for long. It\u00a0got off to a very rocky\u00a0start, tanking in the ratings and prompting a boycott of advertisers by the Parents Television Council, the War on Illegal Pornography Coalition,\u00a0and Morality in Media.<\/p>\n
The San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women urged NBC and its affiliates to “replace the program with a series that depicts women’s substantive achievements.” Longtime feminist Gloria Steinem also pushed for a boycott of the program and\u00a0the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City refused to air it.<\/p>\n
Despite all that publicity — which often drives the curious to take a peek — the show drew only around 5 million viewers. That might sound good, except that only 1.6 million of them were in that all-important 18-49 age group that advertisers demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, basically\u00a0a drama based\u00a0on\u00a0a nightclub half a century ago had little appeal except\u00a0to a few curious\u00a0well over 50. Another problem is that the show is boring — a few wealthy key owners sit around a\u00a0bar 50 years ago\u00a0serenaded by\u00a0jazz musicians. There is little\u00a0in the way of plot or action. Even the Bunny suits are quite tame by 2011 standards.<\/p>\n
Former Bunnies, however, say servers were barred from dancing with customers —\u00a0although they did\u00a0on the show.\u00a0That never happened, former Bunny Miller writes in Vanity Fair<\/em> magazine.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing that was incorrect was the dancing together \u2014 we never danced!” she\u00a0notes.\u00a0“The Bunnies danced together, but never with a customer. It was a rule. You couldn\u2019t dance with the keyholders. They couldn\u2019t touch you. You couldn\u2019t date them, or you\u2019d get fired. The Bunnies enforced the rule themselves \u2014 they didn\u2019t want to get hit on all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chicago’s Playboy Club of the 1960s was nothing like the new NBC prime-time drama, says former Playboy Bunny Marilyn Miller. But she may not have much to worry about — the show is unlikely to be around for long. It\u00a0got off to a very rocky\u00a0start, tanking in the ratings and prompting a boycott of advertisers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[1102,1606],"class_list":["post-7511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-nbc","tag-playboy-club"],"yoast_head":"\n