The Playboy Club Episode 1.01 Pilot

It's the early 1960s and the newly opened Playboy Club is the center of Chicago's social scene. As provocatively dressed Bunnies take care of everything from drink orders to checking coats, the city's gentlemen and their guests enjoy a nightclub like no other.

Onstage, a swinging jazz band backs a glamorous brunette Bunny named Carol-Lynne as she belts out "Chicago." Her handsome boyfriend, attorney Nick Dalton, pauses to watch her onstage. He's not alone: a fresh-faced cigarette Bunny, Maureen, is also transfixed by Carol Lynne's talents. Alice, a fellow Bunny, gives Maureen some friendly advice: avoid being seen standing around.

A middle-aged club patron approaches Maureen and asks her to dance. As the tipsy keyholder lets his hands wander all over her on the dance floor, Maureen breaks away - and dances playfully with another patron. Witnessing it all from the stage, Carol-Lynn is not amused. Maureen's caught Nick's eye too; he asks Billy, the club manager, about her. Instead of answering, Billy makes a beeline for the Bunny and reminds her to get back to work.

Nick introduces himself to Maureen and asks her for cigarettes. Her tray's empty of his favorite brand, so she excuses herself momentarily and heads back to the club's storeroom to resupply.

In the storeroom, Maureen jumps with fright when the middle-aged keyholder approaches her from behind. He's incensed that she rejected him on the dance floor. He begins pawing at her, pulling himself in for a kiss. Maureen explodes, pushing him away. But the keyholder, Clyde Hill, aka Bruno Bianchi, pushes her to the floor and gets on top of her.

Maureen fights back but she is no match for the stocky Bianchi. Nick, wondering about his cigarette order, wanders through the club's back hallway and hears the commotion in the storeroom. Witnessing the attack, he pulls Bianchi off Maureen. The two men crash into the wall; Bianchi slugs Nick and continues his assault on Maureen.

Maureen wants to call the police, but Nick tells her they can't. The dead man known as Clyde Hill is really Bruno Bianchi, notorious head of the Chicago "Outfit." Nick tells her that if Bruno's mob cohorts found out they killed him, even accidentally, they'd both be dead within 24 hours.

As Nick drags the dead man off the floor, Maureen cleans up the scene. She finds Bianchi's club key and secretly tucks it into her chest. Nick rolls Bianchi's body into a rug, grabs Billy's car keys from a desk drawer and heads out with Maureen to dispose of the body. They drive to the banks of the Chicago River, park and pull the corpse from the trunk. They struggle to launch the body into the water. Weighted down with chains, the gangster's body sinks into the night.

Nick takes Maureen to his apartment to clean up; her Bunny outfit's spattered with blood. As Maureen undresses for the shower, she realizes she's lost Bianchi's club key. Refreshed; Maureen changes into some clean clothes of Nick's. Though there's clearly some romantic attraction between the two of them, they're both too shaken to act on it.

The nightly party continues back at the Playboy Club; Bunny Janie and bartender Max go at it hot and heavy in a dressing room. No one's guessed what's happened in the storeroom. But club manager Billy Rosen is wondering where his new cigarette Bunny has gone. Nick calls Billy at the club and lets him know he's borrowed his car and his new Bunny for the night. He asks Billy not to mention anything to Carol-Lynne. Carol-Lynne's suspicious nonetheless. In the dressing rooms, Bunny Alice tells her that Maureen left the club around 11:00 - about the same time Nick did.

Nick pours Maureen a whiskey to calm her nerves, then hands her a wad of money he took from Bruno's wallet. You'll need it to get out of town, he tells her. Maureen replies that she's worked too hard and too long to get to where she is now - she's not leaving. As Nick considers her, they hear Carol-Lynne coming up the stairs. Nick directs Maureen to hide in the closet.

Carol-Lynne notices the pair of drinks on the bar and spots Maureen's discarded Bunny costume. She assumes her boyfriend has cheated on her and starts packing her things. She brushes past an embarrassed Maureen stooping in the closet. Nick protests that nothing happened, but Carol-Lynne's mortified and storms out.

Maureen heads back to Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion, where she lives. Her roommate, Brenda is still awake. She's impressed that Maureen has snared the debonair Nick Dalton in a single night. They talk about Nick for a while; Maureen assures Brenda that nothing happened between them.

Nick returns to the club the next day. He tries to assure Carol-Lynne that he's not two-timing her, but she's having none of it. Club manger Billy, after fielding a call from Bruno Bianchi's distraught wife, asks the Bunnies if anyone waited on him the night before. Janie speaks up, but Maureen keeps silent.

Nick Dalton walks though the courthouse, en route to a trial. He bumps into Bruno's son, John Bianchi, who tells him Bruno's missing. He wants Nick's help in finding him; Nick worked for years for the Outfit. But Nick explains he's running for State's Attorney in the next election and can't be seen helping out the mob anymore.

As Ike and Tina Turner tear up the club stage, Maureen steals a moment with Nick. She's terrified that Carol-Lynne knows something about the murder. Nick explains that she's just jealous. Maureen does her best not to think about it and finds her way out onto the dance floor. As she dances, two mobsters spot her from the balcony. One of them, Leo Bianchi, identifies her as the one who was dancing with Bruno the night he was killed.

Nick finds Carol-Lynne at the club. He has a set of earrings he intended to give to her on her next birthday, but he wants her to have them now. Carol-Lynne wonders if he wants her back. He seems to, but he's heard there's a new rule against keyholders dating Bunnies. She tells him she's not a Bunny anymore. But even so, she says, she's a one strike gal, and Nick has blown his chance.

Carol-Lynn calls Maureen into her office. Maureen's sure she's going to be fired, but instead Carol-Lynne tells her she's not upset about what may have happened between her and Nick. She tells Maureen she wants to be friends; Maureen is dubious. Carol-Lynne goes on to reveal that she's creating a Bunny Manual; she wants Maureen and all the girls to be excellent Bunnies.

Mobster Leo Bianchi corners Maureen in a hallway, confronting her about the night before. She denies knowing anything about what might have happened to Bruno and reveals that she went home with Nick Dalton that night, not Bruno. She nervously walks off to start her shift. Nick gets a call that John Bianchi wants to meet in the alley in the back.

Bunny Alice makes a secret phone call from her coat check station. She's talking to her husband Sean about a meeting they're planning at their home.

Nick finds Maureen in the alley, smoking. She tells Nick about the mobster confronting her and relays the story she told about going home with him that night. John Bianchi pulls up in a black limo. Nick kisses Maureen, ostensibly to keep the cover story alive.

Nick gets into the car. John tells him that Bruno is still missing and that he really needs Nick's help locating him. John reminds Nick that he has a debt to Bruno. He reminds him that Bruno took him in when he had no home, helped put him through law school and was like a father to him. Nick says he hasn't seen or talked to Bruno in three years and that John should look for him instead. John drops him off at the Playboy Mansion where a party is in full swing. At the mansion, Brenda finds Maureen in bed, tired, but the girls coax her to get up and cut loose.

Alice and her husband Sean convene the first Chicago meeting of the Mattachine Society in their home. It's to be a safe and supportive, but secret place where homosexual men and women can come together to find strength and political power.

As the party rages into the pre-dawn hours at the mansion, Hef and Carol-Lynne muse over the life of the Bunnies. The mansion is electrified with the sounds of Tina Turner and guests dancing everywhere. As dawn breaks, we see a city worker beside the Chicago River. He bends over to pick up something that's caught his eye. It's a Playboy Club key - Bruno Bianchi's key.