‘Playboy’ TV Pilot Script Review

The first pilot NBC ordered into development this season is “Playboy,” an hour-long drama set during the political and moral upheaval of the 1960s and centered around the voluptuous ladies of the original Chicago Playboy Club.  The possible series is a chance for the network to come out swinging under its new joint banner (and logo) with Universal and rejuvenate it’s stale dramatic line-up of “Law and Order” spin-offs and waning programming like “The Cape,” “The Event,” and the already finished “Friday Night Lights.”

With it also comes the potential to revitalize the old-fashioned magazine brand in a way that the E! reality series “The Girls Next Door” and the breezy comedy The House Bunny could not, while staying true to its more elegant, tantalizing style now unfit for an age of immediate, over-the-top Internet porn.

So put on your smoking jackets, here’s a look at the pilot script:

The crucial opening sequence simultaneously acknowledges and glides past the seedy, crime-filled streets of 1963 Chicago into the glitz and glamor of the original Playboy Club on Walton St.  Outside, a curvy Bunny, uniformed in a one piece, fluffy ears and a tail, greets and verifies the club’s elite keyholders, a select group of Windy City gentlemen worthy enough to enter the exclusive establishment.

At the center of the swank and circumstance is Nick Dalton, the Don Draper of the series, a former “cleaner” for an organized crime family now a smooth, successful attorney who always appears calm on the surface.  Well-connected and well-liked, Dalton takes (and gets) what he wants, and that means main attraction and original Bunny, Carol-Lynn (Laura Benanti), who is introduced crooning a sultry rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “Chicago.”

But that’s about to change with the arrival of Maureen (Amber Heard), a new cigarette Bunny from Fort Wayne who is as flirtatious as she is naive with the clientele.  She catches Dalton’s eye while dancing and stealing the spotlight from Carol-Lynn, which sparks an instant rivalry, and it isn’t long before Maureen desperately requires his “cleaning” skills.

Neatly written by Chad Hodge, the first of five acts alone deftly establishes the setting, classy mood, and central love triangle between the suave regular, the queen bee of the Bunnies, and the sexy newcomer.  But the subsequent chapters flesh out the story and strong supporting characters that include casual mentions of Playboy patriarch Hugh Hefner; Billy, the push-over club owner being intimidated by the Bianchi family; Alice, the married, motherly Bunny; Janie, a ditsy type likened to Amanda Seyfried in Mean Girls; and Brenda (Naturi Naughton, right), the sassy, black Bunny with dreams of becoming the first African-American centerfold.

Each character has their own distinct voice and, in most cases, they are harboring a secret, which hints at multiple threads intriguing enough to keep viewers returning for more than just teases of T&A.  Aside from the promise of scantily clad ladies, there are allusions to the corrupting influence of the mob, opportunities to follow the revolving door of various keyholders, and the inevitable backroom cattiness and gossip amongst the girls at the club and the Bunny dormitory.

The series will immediately draw comparisons to AMC’s crown jewel of original programming, “Mad Men,” whose success likely sparked some of this pilot’s inspiration, and for more than just the time period.  The aforementioned connection between Dalton and Draper is the most obvious amongst the characterizations, but you can almost see the curvy Christina Hendricks embodying alpha female Carol-Lynn, or Elisabeth Moss as the modest, sexually-confused Alice.  Naughton even played an African-American Bunny on season four of the hit show.  Plus Alan Taylor, who directed the first “Mad Men” episode for AMC, is shooting the NBC pilot and likely to bring some of the same classy swagger to the new series.

But that comparison isn’t necessarily a negative. Best case scenario is the new NBC drama completes a throwback trifecta of quality television with “Mad Men” and HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.”  But, without taking the same risks as its cable counterparts, NBC’s “Playboy” could wind up a cheap knock-off that romanticizes the Golden Years of a dying brand.