American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story

Last episode seemed to be rushed and didnt touch on the end of his life barely at all.. The whole rest of it was great and I learned alot. Maybe second season?!

I highly recommend this. Very intriguing story. I don't think Hugh was a drug trafficker or user but I would have loved to been a fly on the wall at all of his parties. I want to watch it again.

Playboy is that iconic brand that has always remained in my mind synonymous with porn. I have never read the magazine nor was it ever available at my home, I only had exposure to the brand through the internet and that too very rarely. So, I was surprised to find such an inspiring story of the life of Huge Hefner. I have to say that this series/documentary was an eye opener and well made, not revolutionary but still intriguing. Worth a watch just to understand the cultural impact playboy has had on society.

So from reading previous reviews on here, I for one would like to champion it as an enlightening story. It depicts playboy through the decades and how it changes in order to remain relevant, yes some of it is pandering, however, the reminder of what society was like then and now is enough to enjoy the events of history. It is actually sobering to to see what life was like back in the 50's and how far we have progressed to the present day, it is not quite what Happy Days portrayed IMHO.

So watch it, it is rewarding, enjoyable and informative in a slightly biased way. Hugh is what he was, in his time he was relevant, he seams old fashioned and antiquated now, but that is evolution. For what he was and what he believed in you have to appreciate what he tried and did achieve.

After I started watching this documentary I realized that I've had the completely wrong perception of Playboy my whole life, i.e. if I'm to believe everything depicted in this documentary. I've only browsed through Playboy magazine a few times in my life, and I never read any of the articles in it ;-) Though I've always been fascinated by the life of Hugh Hefner, though from a purely sexual perspective. After watching the first 4 episodes of this series though, I'm even more fascinated and impressed by this man as I had no idea he was such a visionary and innovative entrepreneur and that he had such a nag for surrounding himself with talented people. Further, the documentary gives the distinct impression that he was anti-establishment, an equal opportunity employer, had an open door policy, was a great boss, was surprisingly respectful of women (even though at the same time he was obviously exploiting them too), was color blind and, even though indirectly and possibly unintended, he supported for the civil rights of blacks by ignoring the fact that the southern states didn't want to air his Playboy Penthouse TV show because he had a lot of black entertainers on this show. It's almost too good to be true. And as mentioned I have only seen 4 episodes so far, but I kind of doubt the tone is going to sway again Hefner. Lastly, I liked the acting and the occasional switching back to real Hefner footage.