National television debut of comedian Bob Newhart.
After production had wrapped the second (final) season, Sammy Davis, Jr. came through Chicago and said he would like to be a guest. Hef had the set taken out of storage, and six more episodes were filmed at CBS.
Filmed at Chicago's WBKB studio on State Street.
The premiere episode features Ella Fitzgerald who was a last-minute guest addition to the first Playboy Jazz Festival in August 1959.
The series premiered in syndication in January 1960 in major markets across the United States except for the south east. Programmers there would not carry the show due primarily to the fact that it heavily featured black and white performers (Sammy Davis, Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Nat "King" Cole, etc.) mingling with black and white "party guests."
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