Bunnies on the Home Tube

The Playboy hutch gets wired for a new cable show

The blond host sits on a windowsill, smiling into a filtered lens. An apple is in one hand, a hair dryer in the other. Dress is informal; in fact, it is nonexistent. Introductions are made. The host is: a) Diane Sawyer, co-host of CBS's Morning show, making an all-out bid to win the war of the a.m. news programs; b) ABC's David Hartman, doing the same; or c) Lassie, doing what comes naturally.

The answer is none of the above. The correct response: Shannon Tweed, the November 1981 Playboy centerfold, inviting viewers to join her in Hugh Hefner's new electronic rabbit warren. In partnership with Escapade, a cable programmer that bills itself as an "adult entertainment service," Playboy last month launched the first in a series of one-hour video magazines into 200,000 homes. "The cable market is similar to the opportunities the magazine had in the 1950s," says Hefner. "This is where home entertainment is going. It's a core interest for us."

Make that soft core. "We know we have a special marketplace," says Playboy Productions President Russell Barry. "It's not a marketplace for porn or for Disney. It's for people who would like a sophisticated, adult, sometimes sexy service." Jerry Maglio, president of Escapade's parent company, agrees. "Playboy has worked very hard at developing its image and standing for quality," he says. "That image, over 27 years, has been established in a very positive way." It also has had a salutary effect on Escapade. Before the Playboy partnership, Escapade was available on some 100 cable systems. Now that Hef has come onboard, Maglio is expecting to attract an additional 115 cable outlets by June.

The first video incarnation of Playboy was, Hefner says, intended as "a sampier--the show is still evolving." In defiance of all McLuhanish precepts, it is a literal video transposition of printed material. All that seemed to be jettisoned from the first show were the subscription card and "Little Annie Fannie." Playboy maybe, as Hefner says, "a very visual magazine," but a new medium changes the visuals and demands alterations in format. TV Playboy is sticking close to home.

The first show opens with a Playboy interview: John Derek and Bo Derek atop a California hill that is only slightly less windswept than the Dereks' conversation. After a promo by Playmate Tweed en deshabille and a parody commercial, the program rips through a "Ribald Classic," stages a centerfold photo session on Shannon and tosses in a humorous feature on Andy Kaufman, male chauvinist champ presumptive, wrestling Playmate Susan Smith to the mat in a "primal battle of the sexes."

The Playboy production people promise more enterprising features for the future, including longer interviews, perhaps even with some political types. However the format is modified, Playboy and Escapade have a strong start on what is expected to be a thriving part of the cable business. Warner Amex already has an adult service as part of its Qube system in Columbus. Penthouse, promising "more provocative, more controversial and much more stimulating material," may be starting up its cable operation this year, and by 1983 Escapade will be re-christened the Playboy Channel. A lot of folks like to watch late-night TV, but Playboy and its competitors are turning out something different: the first programming made directly for people who still own water beds.

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