A 13-episode documentary series about Playboy Founder, Chief Creative Officer, and Editor-in-Chief Hugh Hefner called American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story will debut at some point in 2017 on Amazon Prime Video.
According to Variety, this production is “the first time Hefner has opened his private scrapbook archives, housed at the Playboy Mansion, to any filmmaker.”
The filmmakers pulled from more than 17,000 hours of footage and Hefner’s 2,600+ scrapbooks. Dude was Facebooking, Pinteresting, and Instagramming for decades on decades. The show’s producers say that Hefner himself delivers “never-before-told” stories through first-person interviews, which are sure to be even more intense than when he got dosed with LSD at a Grateful Dead show.
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“Although Hugh Hefner is an iconic figure known worldwide, most people may not be aware of the impact he has had on some of this country’s most important social revolutions,” said Conrad Riggs, head of unscripted programming at Amazon Studios.
Did you know the 90-year-old men’s icon has done more than bed a bazillion women? I did. Not sure if I mentioned this before, but if I did, so what, I should mention it every damn time I write about Playboy. I used to work at Playboy for a couple years in the magazine’s Marketing Services department. And, no, that’s not code for Chief Playmate Oiler. I got to “chaperone” Playmates to, from, and at events. Again, not code. They mostly just politely smiled.
Anyway, Hef has been outspoken in defending abortion rights, civil rights, and same-sex marriage. Hugh was integral to Roe vs. Wade (my second mention in a blog in a week… yeah, I dunno) and J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was all up in Hef’s bidness. The maverick did all this while wearing a smoking jacket and pajamas.
Of course, a fraction of all that’s promising in the upcoming series was covered in the 2009 doc, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, but with 13 episodes, we should get a way more in-depth look into the rabbit hole.
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Via Variety