TV Bits: NBC Orders ‘Mad Men’-Like Playboy Club TV Pilot, J.J. Abrams Eyes ‘Pulp’ Fiction TV Series
Two high-profile “P” shows are about to go to pilot. The first is calledPlayboyand, much likeMad Men, it’s set in the 1960s. Instead of Madison Avenue, though, the show will be set at a Playboy Club in Chicago. Ordered by NBC,Playboywill be written byChad Hodge(Tru Calling) and uses the legendary club as a way to explore blossoming sexuality in America during the Sixties.
The second show, calledPulp, is being championed byJ.J. Abramsand Bad Robot. Like most things Abrams is involved with, not much is known about it yet except that it’s an hour-long drama with a “heightened sense of reality” like inPulp Fiction. It’s currently being shopped to networks.
Read more about each project after the jump.
Varietybroke the news aboutPlayboy, which is being produced by Twentieth Century Fox TV and Imagine TV. In all likelihood, the success ofMad Menhelped make the show a reality and it’s not the only show in development that’s set in the time period. Starz has a new series coming out calledMagic City, which is set in 1960s Miami and ABC is developing a show calledPan Amabout the wild crews who worked for the airline in the 1960s. Add those toMad Men, which is in New York, andPlayboy, which is in Chicago, it seems like a sure bet that a 1960s California show is in our futuresTV Lineexclusively broke the story about Pulp, which is being written and executive produced byMonica BreenandAlison Schapker, who have worked with Abrams and Bad Robot onAlias, Lost, Fringeand also ranBrothers & Sisters. This marks the fourth show Bad Robot has in development includingone with Jonah Nolan,AlcatrazandOdd Jobs, featuring Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson.
There’s no guarantee either of these shows makes it to air but each certainly sounds promising. What do you think?
