Unsteady camera work, deteriorating videotape, uneasy dialog, the original reality TV. Watch in astonishment as Hugh wanders about the set asking timely questions to his hip friends who pontificate and reply with gravitas. The musical guests are the best, most, but not all perform live. The ones that do perform live are worth wading through this nonsense for. Included are the Byrds, the Dillards and many others. Basically, it's Hugh's home movies, the ones where everyone keeps their clothes on. Unfortunately this show is very hard to come across. A best of featuring the musical guests would be welcome.
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Hedgehog_Movie_Lover22 December 2019
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meddle7120024 December 2005I watched this on the PB channel. I liked how it looked like a party, Hef chatting with guests, strolling around with Barbi, ever present, pipe in hand, looking smooth, walks into an interviews with entertainers, writers, economists, intellectuals, a performance by a band or singer of the period, then onto to more strolling and chatting, it's like you were there! A lot of fun to watch! I saw, David Hemmings with his wife, and an amusing early Deep Purple doing "Hush" with the original vocalist, Nic? Semper (dig that do!) and Blackmore not using Strats then. And ol' Hef asking Ritchie, questions about playing guitar, and Ritchie showing him how to play it, smiling even! How rare is that? Of, course the lovely ladies, gotta have the ladies! I first caught this when I was around 23, I was interested in a lot of the music then, Kinks, Hendrix, Velvet Underground, Stones, etc. Like to collect videos, and would like this on DVD sometime!
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mrb198021 January 2024"Playboy After Dark" lasted for 50 episodes in 1969-70. I lived in small-town Midwest during that period and no stations there would dare have touched this show, so I have discovered it in the past few years. Watching it is a nostalgic experience and it is interesting for the musical acts and other celebrity guests.
The standard formula has Hugh Hefner throwing a party for his guests. The show featured numerous musical acts (Fleetwood Mac, Sonny and Cher, The Grass Roots, Lesley Gore, Lou Rawls, and many others), comedians, beautiful women, and other celebrity guests. Some of the acts are just horrible (especially the comedians), some of the music is pretty good (although not always live), novelty acts like hypnotists and magicians are featured, and there are always famous faces around for star-gazers.
Among the guests are Don Adams (who was never funny), Peter Lawford, Rowan and Martin, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate, Frank Sinatra, Gig Young, Meredith MacRae, Sammy Davis, Jr., Rich Little, and many, many others. The disappointing thing is that these entertainers were only sporadically entertaining, with many of the comedy sketches and music numbers falling terribly flat. In particular, Bill Cosby and Don Adams are far more irritating than funny.
I found myself being transported back in time to my early teenage years by watching this show from 1969-70, so on those terms the show is watchable. However, anyone under 60 should be prepared for a strange experience. Unless you like bad comedy routines, cringe-inducing lounge singers, inane dialogue, and card tricks by Milton Berle, you may want to watch something else. -
A harsh opinion, but it's not mine. Rather, it's the opinion of Tony Hendra (Ian Faith in "Spinal Tap"), who is credited as a writer on all of the 26 Season-One episodes of Hugh Hefner's PAD that were broadcast in 1969.
Hendra published that opinion in the "LIVES" column of The New York Times Magazine (issue of Sunday 4th July 2004). The column, titled "The Personal is Political," is mostly about Hendra's friendship with the late actress Diana Sands, whom he met at one of PAD's post-show parties. Sands -- then 34/35 yrs. old -- already had some very impressive Broadway credentials to her name, and asked Hendra if he would rework one of her stage shows into a movie script. As Hendra writes, "I leapt at the opportunity to write something weightier than intros for a talent-free egomaniac." (I wonder, to whom could he possibly be referring? LOL)
As for the show, I'm curious why it didn't last longer (some say it was unable to get picked up for syndication in "conservative" parts of the country). But be that as it may, Playboy was still in its "cool" phase in 1970 when the show ceased production. The monthly magazine was still scoring A-List interviews, and the Playboy "lifestyle" was still being promoted in movies like Diamonds Are Forever (1971). A far, far cry from today.