As far as LGBT inclusion goes NBC’s swiftly canceled The Playboy Club was heads and bunny tails above pretty much all of the television season’s new shows what with a lesbian and gay storyline that included the historical Mattachine Society.
But the drama, starring out actress Amber Heard, got the ax after just three episodes as the retro show about Playboy Bunnies in 1960’s Chicago failed to secure an audience. Now, the show’s creator Chad Hodge tells Out that he wished he taken the show to Bravo, a network that has a solid fan base of women and gay men.
“I think NBC gave up too soon,” Hodge said. “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.”
But Hodge says he hasn’t given up hope that the show could get picked up by another network. “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.”
He also said that he doesn’t think NBC’s yanking the show is indicative of any sort of move away from lesbian and gay characters in Primetime. We were never criticized for the gay characters, actors, or plots,” he told Out. “In fact NBC encouraged us to make the gay storyline even bigger because it was working so well.”
Here’s to The Playboy Club getting picked up by another network so that we can see how lesbian Bunny Alice’s (Leah Renee) story plays out!
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