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Airdate: American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story

Amazon Prime docudrama on Playboy founder includes archival footage, interviews and re-enactments.

New US docudrama American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, April 7.

The series tells the story of Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner, who created one of the most recognisable brands in history. It combines archival footage, interviews with notable figures including Jesse Jackson, Gene Simmons and Bill Maher and re-enactments.

“At a time when civil rights are more in the news than ever, Prime Video members will be delighted to learn more about the Playboy brand and its contributions in that area,” said Conrad Riggs, Head of Unscripted, Amazon Originals. “This series will offer the unprecedented, behind-the-scenes story of Hefner’s life and his fight to protect and advance essential American rights, including free speech.”

Produced by the Emmy Award-winning Stephen David Entertainment and Alta Loma Entertainment, American Playboy begins in post-war America and takes us through the launch of Playboy magazine in 1953 and the next six decades of Hefner’s life and career. As he built his empire, Hefner became both a social justice advocate and a target of the conservative movement while becoming an outspoken defender of civil rights, freedom of speech, gay rights and, of course, sexual freedom. The series is the result of unprecedented access to thousands of hours of never-before-seen footage from both Hefner’s and the Playboy archives and Hefner’s personal scrapbooks, which number more than 2,900 and constitute a Guinness World Record. The 90-year-old Hefner has been deeply involved in the development and production of American Playboy, imbuing the series with rich first-person accounts and never-before-told stories.

American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story is produced by the Emmy award-winning Stephen David Entertainment, a Banijay Group company, and Playboy Enterprises’ production company Alta Loma Entertainment, and executive produced by Stephen David (The Men Who Built America, The World Wars, The Making of the Mob, The American West), Peter Jaysen (You Me Her, Fired Up, Dateline NBC) and longtime Playboy executive Dick Rosenzweig (The House Bunny, The Playboy Club) with co-executive producers Shirley Escott (Shadow of Doubt, The Making of the Mob: New York) and Tim Kelly (NASCAR: The Rise of American Speed, American Genius).

One Response

  1. Watching this at the moment. Noticed in the credits, it’s a part NZ production…. even got a grant from the NZ Government.

    I guess that means it would count for local content points if an Australian network bought it from Amazon.

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