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 Festivalat 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. The sixth season was also originally set to feature Anna Sophia Berglund and Melissa Taylor as Hefner's second and third girlfriends, with the Shannon twins relegated to fourth and fifth position - according to a post by the company responsible for the show's opening sequence, nailgun*, that shows an incomplete rough cut of the new intro for the show. 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
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. 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. The cancellation came about in July when then-new E! president Bonnie Hammer vowed to "get rid of the more Playboy trashy element" from the network - a goal that was ultimately achieved as Kendra was also canceled in 2012. In 2012, a new show titled Kendra on Top that would premiere on WE tvin the summer of 2012 was announced as a follow-up to Kendra. 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 led 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.
