(Image Source: TV Guide/NBC)

BY: JUSTIN WHALEY

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Joan Holloway, look out. NBC’s “The Playboy Club” is all about bodacious women of the ‘60s strutting around one of Chicago’s most prestigious nightclubs -- in bunny costumes.

NBC has this clip:

But is the Playboy “stigma” pushing the envelope too far for network television? Apparently for NBC, it’s just the ingredient it needs to make the pot boil, despite harsh criticism. A blogger for Entertainment Weekly writes --

“The Playboy Club has been under fire by parenting group PTC since it was first announced earlier this year. The organization sent letters to NBC affiliates warning they’ll possibly file Federal Communications Commission indecency complaints against them if they proceed with airing the show. They also stated that 200,000 Americans are “porn addicts …
Critics wondered why NBC would opt for a show so much like Mad Men when the AMC critical darling draws a relatively small audience.”
 

A blogger for the San Francisco Chronicle suggests that The Playboy Club and women’s liberation movements of the ‘60s are just a bunny tail away from each other.  
 

“I actually kind of like this show. It's not MENSA material and probably won't last, but it's a nice guilty pleasure.Joel McHale had fun calling it "'Mad Men' with boobs" but NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt was closer to the mark when he said it was basically a soap opera.”

But the show’s leading actress Amber Heard says that while the attire may be sexy, it’s empowering and much less risque than today’s magazines and advertisements.
 

“Our generation, it takes us by surprise when the Steinems of the world criticize us, I think because we are part of a generation of women who don't have to choose between combat boots and an apron. We can do it in heels... The [Playboy Bunnies] wanted their own fortune and they went out into the work force doing what they wanted to do.”

Although the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City has banned the show from airing on its station and TV critics are still claiming the show’s raciness, the high attention -- good and bad -- is making viewers eager to see just what The Playboy Club has in store on September 19th. 

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