The Playboy Club: Creator Wants Show to Move to Bravo

After The Playboy Club was cancelled by NBC, Playboy’s Hugh Hefner wrote, “It should have been on cable, aimed at a more adult audience.” Chad Hodge, the TV series’ creator and executive producer, agrees and hopes that the show will find new life there. Hodge is a Chicago native who previously worked on shows like Tru Calling and created CW’s Runaway.

He recently told Out, “I think NBC gave up too soon… Had NBC stuck with the show I think many more millions would have eventually shown up. Those who found the show realized it wasn’t what they expected — it was good. It was entertaining, sophisticated, and dazzling. It dealt with social mores and moral ethics. And it was an intentional guilty pleasure.”

Hodge is hopeful however that another NBC channel might still rescue Playboy Club. He said, “For weeks now, I’ve been saying we should move over to Bravo. This is a fun, sexy, soapy show, and our core audience is women and gay men. No brainer for them. Bravo has wanted to get into scripted programming for years now. I’d love them to pick up the show. If one million people watched our show on Bravo — a quarter of our NBC audience — it would be a runaway hit.”

The show creator believes that Americans are too conservative about sex, but too liberal when it comes to violence. He noted, “What happened? Remember Basic Instinct? Fatal Attraction? The Red Shoe Diaries? We’ve become such prudes… Sexuality is part of life. I’d be more worried about my kid seeing horrific violence than I would about them seeing network-approved make-out sessions.”

What do you think? Is Bravo a better fit for Playboy Club? Would you watch it there?