# The Playboy Club (2011)

> A 1960s Chicago nightclub becomes the setting for glamour, ambition and danger among its waitresses and the men who run the place.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/36095

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 3
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama
- Created by: Chad Hodge
- Network: NBC
- Cast: Eddie Cibrian, Laura Benanti, Amber Heard, Jenna Dewan, Naturi Naughton, Leah Renee, Wes Ramsey, Jenifer Lewis
- TMDB rating: 6.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1797475/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: mild
- Tone: glossy, seductive, tense, sardonic

## What critics say

Audience reception was negative, with viewers finding the 1960s Playboy Club drama thin and unconvincing across its short run.

## Synopsis

The Playboy Club (2011) is a US period drama created by Chad Hodge for NBC. Set in early 1960s Chicago, the series follows the glamorous, risky world of the legendary Playboy Club, where the key to the door is the most sought-after status symbol of its time. Eddie Cibrian plays Nick Dalton, a figure tied to the club's power structure, while Laura Benanti, Amber Heard, Jenna Dewan, Naturi Naughton and Leah Renee play the club's bunnies, each navigating ambition, romance and the constraints of an era that limited women's choices. Jenifer Lewis and David Krumholtz add texture as Pearl and Billy Rosen. Each episode moves through backroom deals, nightclub performances and the threat of mob interests hovering over the club's glossy floor. The series runs three episodes of forty-five minutes and was canceled after its single season. Its tone is sleek and sultry, mixing seductive surfaces with a current of unease and social pressure. Fans of Mad Men, Pan Am and The Gilded Age will find resonance in its period styling, its portrait of constrained women chasing power, and its atmosphere of polished fantasy masking real stakes.

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- [Mad Men (2007)](https://ember.film/tv/1037)

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