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"I
distinctly remember seeing Hugh Hefner starring in his own suave talk
show in the late sixties called 'Playboy After Dark'. Any chance you've
heard of it?"
Not as well-known is the fact that there were two earlier attempts by Hefner to create a television spin-off of his famous magazine. While neither caught on in a big way, both were critical and audience hits with unique formats that presented timeless performances by some of the greatest comedians, jazz, soul, folk and be-bop artists of all time.
The format was modelled on a hip, swinging bachelor party, the kind of bash where cool people lounged in their cocktail clothes exchanging bright ideas.
Hef's first "Penthouse Party" (as the show was also known early on) featured raucous comedian Lenny Bruce, a controversial choice.
Hefner and Lenny Bruce discussed the format of Playboy's Penthouse on that first program: BRUCE: "This is a kind of a... an interesting party. You know, I first figured it would be like, sort of a TV, you know, a typical fake party. But it's got a good party feeling to it, with some pretty chicks, which is a good composite. HEFNER: "Well, (we have) the girls and we serve real liquor... it does the trick." BRUCE: "You think you'll get any objection to drinking on the show? I don't think I've ever seen that on a show."
BRUCE: "That's what grooved me about the show. That it's an honest... it's actually a party. So whatever happens at a party, within, you know, limitations..." HEFNER: "Well, (laughs) we're trying to build the personality of the show out of the magazine itself and make the thing a sort of a sophisticated weekly get together of the people that we dig and the people who dig us."
On August 3, 1966, Lenny Bruce was found dead on the floor of his Hollywood Hills home. The LAPD announced he had died of an overdose. Music producer Phil Spector called it "an overdose of police" - a strategy he may want to use for his upcoming murder trial.
Once again the party format was carried forward, with an elaborate $35,000 bachelor pad set built on a CBS Hollywood soundstage, complete with a den, sunken living room, and curvaceous bar. Twenty girls and nineteen guys (guess who got two girls) provided the atmosphere and mingled with the exceptional guest stars.
The program also provided a way for Hefner to get some face time with the magazine's growing audience. "Fame is as meaningful to me as fortune," was his revealing quote to the press in 1969. Guest stars on Playboy After Dark (surrounded by the ubiquitous Playboy Bunnies) included Marvin Gaye, The Checkmates, improv group The Committee, Janis Ian, The Byrds, Buddy Greco, Shari Lewis (in her post-Lambchop, adult comic days), Pat Henry, and others.
Sally Marr (who also had a nightclub act) went on to appear in several films including 'Harry and Tonto' (1974). In 1994, Joan Rivers portrayed her in the Broadway play ''Sally Marr - and Her Escorts,'' at the Helen Hayes Theater. Ratings were high overall for Playboy After Dark but the show was cleared for broadcast in only twenty-three cities, not enough to ultimately warrant continuation. It was successful in attracting new magazine readers, however - sales of Playboy peaked at over seven million copies a month in 1971.
The television production provided an opportunity for Hef to get out of his Chicago digs and shake things up in Los Angeles. He enjoyed the experience so much, Hef decided to make LA his base of operations in 1971, purchasing the now-famous Playboy Mansion West in the Holmby Hills. Like Batman changing Batcaves, Hefner became an LA party-scene fixture from that point on. Hugh Hefner, ever modest, had this to say in 1969 about Playboy After Dark: "It's better than the Johnny Carson show or the Joey Bishop show and I do a better job hosting than Ed Sullivan does."
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TV Guide's Playboy After Dark Page, with TV Listings, Photos, Videos, Exclusive News and More.
Access
our
GREAT
DEAL!
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Playboy
magazine, which began publishing in 1953, was enjoying robust sales in
the ‘80s. To expand the empire, founder Hugh Hefner launched a subscription-based
cable component, The Playboy Channel. It quickly became one of the first
subscription cable TV success stories. 
Hefner's
first nationally televised series, 
Beat
poets, writers, comics, and musical immortals like Ella Fitzgerald, Cy
Coleman (composer of the Playboy theme song), Nat "King" Cole,
Sarah Vaughn, The Limelighters, and Harry Belafonte mingled in an impromptu
fashion with Hef and his assembled party-goers. 
There
had never been anything like Playboy's Penthouse on television.
From a historical perspective, this was the first national program
where whites and blacks sat down together and partied as equals. 
It
was rare for any TV production to book the up and coming nightclub comic
because of his rambling delivery and outspoken views on race, religion
and politics. Hugh Hefner was making a point on his very first outing,
tackling subjects never touched upon in 1950s television culture.
Playboy
helped bring Lenny Bruce from the small clubs to the mass marketplace
with this TV segment and through publishing Bruce's autobiography How
To Talk Dirty and Influence People after serializing it in the magazine
beginning in 1964. 
HEFNER:
"Well, we'll find out. We hope not."
This
show provided an opportunity for a larger audience to see and hear what
Lenny Bruce had to say for himself, rather than read what other people
were saying about him in the newspapers (especially after a series of
obscenity and drug busts that began in 1961).
The
musicians that dropped by usually engaged in conversation with Hef to
start out, peppering their talk with musical asides; then an intimate
and lengthy concert segment would follow. For instance, folk singer 
Hefner
was not your typical slick TV host, he had a nervous, disarming quality
that worked to the benefit of the proceedings. He was smart enough not
to hire a professional to headline, revealing in a 1959 interview, "If
we did the thing ourselves, and the viewers could meet me as a human being
every week, then hopefully they would begin to discover, those people
who did not read Playboy, well, son of a gun, this guy isn't
a dirty old man."
Playboy's
Penthouse ran for two seasons (re-syndicated in 1963) and helped
extend the magazine's image as a source of sophisticated, diverse entertainment.
Shortly after filming the premier season's episodes, Hefner opened the
first Playboy Club in Chicago and moved into the first Playboy Mansion.
Skip
ahead to January of 1969. With magazine sales topping 5.5 million a month,
Hefner (then forty-two) again entered the television arena with Playboy
After Dark, a 26-week color version of his earlier series. 
Ironically,
while the Playboy name translated into viewers in the cities that ran
the show, it made it difficult to get airplay in the midwest and south.
Many stations couldn't carry the show because the brand name meant smut
to older, more conservative audiences. The racially mixed guest list probably
didn't help distribution in the south, even in 1969. (In
Charlotte, NC, the show was listed in TV Guide as 'Hugh Hefner.'
) 
