Amazon to Chronicle Hefner's Life in Docu-Series 'American Playboy'

HOLLYWOOD—Amazon has ordered a 13-episode docu-series on the life and crusading exploits of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner for broadcast on its Amazon Prime Video streaming service. Variety reports that American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story will be the first documentary project for which the legendary publisher will open his private scrapbook archives kept at the Playboy Mansion. Produced by Stephen David Entertainment and Playboy Enterprise's Alta Loma Entertainment division, the series will debut sometime in 2017 on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and Japan. "It has been a long road in finding the right partners to tell the full story of Playboy as it has unfolded over the past 63 years," Hefner said in a statement, "and I believe we have found them in the collaborative team of Stephen David Entertainment and Amazon." Conrad Riggs, head of unscripted programming at Amazon Studios, told Variety, "Although Hugh Hefner is an iconic figure known worldwide, most people may not be aware of the impact he has had on some of this country's most important social revolutions. We are excited to bring Prime members the untold story of Mr. Hefner's remarkable life and his contributions to modern American history." Hefner has previously served as the subject of A&E Biography's Hugh Hefner: American Playboy in 1996 and the 2009 doc Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel from director Brigitte Berman.