The Girls Next Door, also known as The Girls of the Playboy Mansion, is a reality television
series which originally aired on E! from August 7, 2005 until August 8, 2010.
The series was created by executive producer Kevin Burns and Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy
magazine.
The show was followed by two spin-offs, Kendra and Holly's World.
Synopsis The series focuses on the lives of Hefner's
girlfriends who live with him at the Playboy Mansion.
Hefner is often on the show along with various Playmates and other celebrities.
The series not only showcases events at the Playboy Mansion, but also sheds light on other
Playboy related events such as the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, Playmate
test shoots at Playboy Studio West, Operation Playmate, party night, birthday parties, and
more significantly, the personalities and real lives of each of the Girls.
Development and production Kevin Burns approached Hefner in 2005, which
resulted in a pilot called "Hef's World" being filmed.
This followed "Hef, his girlfriends and friends contrasted with the staff".
When presented to E!, they told him to go back and interview each of the girlfriends
to "see what you can get", which resulted in the premise shifting from Hefner to life
in the mansion from a female's perspective.
Seasons 1-5 The first five seasons centered around then-girlfriends
Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson.
In October 2008, Hefner's relationships with Madison ended for unconfirmed reasons and
Wilkinson left to continue her relationship with boyfriend Hank Baskett.
Marquardt also temporarily left at the same time to film Bridget's Sexiest Beaches for
The Travel Channel, but in January 2009 ended her relationship with Hefner and moved out
of the mansion permanently.
Season 6 Despite the end of Hefner's romantic relationship
with Madison, Marquardt, and Wilkinson, all three were contractually committed to a sixth
season.
Madison indicated to Life & Style magazine, the manner in which their contractual obligations
would be fulfilled was still unknown at the time, but that they were still filming material
together.
However, the focus of the show shifted to Hefner's new girlfriends, 19-year-old twins
Kristina and Karissa Shannon, and 23-year-old Crystal Harris.
Madison did appear in the first two episodes of the season, and also appeared with Marquardt
and Wilkinson in the episode "The Showering Inferno", which focused more on them than
Harris and the twins.
Episodes
DVD releases 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released
the first five seasons on DVD in Region 1 between 2006-2009.
These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.
In March 2011, it was announced that MPI Home Video had acquired the rights to the series.
They subsequently released season 6 on DVD on July 19, 2011.
They also re-released the first five seasons on the same day.
On November 29, 2011, MPI Home Video released The Girls Next Door: Complete Collection on
DVD in Region 1.
The 17-disc set features all 91 episodes of the series as well as many bonus features.
Spin-offs
In 2008, Kevin Burns approached Kendra and offered her a show of her own.
She later accepted and the show premiered on June 7, 2009.
The show was a hit for E!, averaging 2.6 million viewers in its first season and setting many
records - including being the highest-rated premiere since 2002.
In 2009, Burns revealed he was in talks to create two new shows, one for Madison and
one for Marquardt.
Holly's World premiered on December 6, 2009 as a backdoor pilot and later received an
8-episode first season that began airing on June 13, 2010.
Just Add Bridget filmed a pilot in April 2010, but wasn't picked up.
In 2010, a backdoor pilot focusing on the Playmate House aired on August 8, 2010.
The show was not picked up.
In 2011, Holly's World was initially given a third season that was due to begin filming
in September, however it was later confirmed the season had been canceled before the production
had begun and that the series would not be returning.
In 2012, Kendra announced that she had left E!, effectively canceling Kendra, and that
a new show, titled Kendra on Top, would premiere on WE tv in the summer of 2012.
As with all other spin-offs, this show is also produced by Kevin Burns and his company
Prometheus Entertainment.
Reception The show was an instant hit for E! and quickly
had its first season expanded from eight to fifteen episodes.
The second season premiere was watched by 1.6 million viewers and then topped itself
by having 2.16 million viewers for the third season premiere - the second highest season
premiere ever on the E! network.
The initial success of the show was so great that Playboy published a nude pictorial of
Madison, Marquardt, and Wilkinson in the November 2005 issue.
This later lead to two more pictorials in September 2006 and March 2008.
The final episode starring Madison, Marquardt and Wilkinson was watched by 2.535 million
viewers.
Despite starting with the highest rating season premiere in the show's history, the sixth
season saw ratings drop from 2.4 million watching the premiere, to only 960,000 watching the
fourth episode only three weeks later.
Ratings then dropped even further to 919,000 viewers only five weeks after the premiere.
References
External links Official website at E! Online
Official website at Playboy.com The Girls Next Door at the Internet Movie
Database