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Previously we’ve covered the iconic Six Million Dollar Man on Gone But Not Forgotten. It’s only right that we also showcase Steve Austin’s equally amazing bionic co-hart. The Bionic Woman, who was as popular as The Six Million Dollar Man and was an important piece of TV history for a number of reasons. It would give women, girls, and guys a new perspective on just how powerful a woman could be, not only in a robotically enhanced strength but also in their character. Jamie Sommers was something special, and not even a TV death could keep her down. On this episode of Gone But Not Forgotten, listen close as we tell the story of The Bionic Woman.

The Bionic Woman herself was introduced in Season 2 of The Six Million Dollar Man already an important part of Steve Austin’s life. Jaime Sommers and Steve had a relationship...

View of Mister Kelly’s marquee featuring Joan Rivers and Adam Wade, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1968.

In the 21st century, it seems that a near-unlimited supply of entertainment is at our fingertips, or at least at the click of a mouse. That flow seems constant with a staggering variety of options. But what did folks do around 75 years ago? Sure, radio was still dominant, though this new “gizmo” called television was making inroads. And of, course the movies were there. As for live entertainment, many performers played at regional venues like state fairs and auditoriums. If you were looking for something more intimate, the big cities had nightclubs. And in between meccas like LA (with Ciro’s and Slapsy Maxie’s) and NYC (with the “Copa” and the Latin Quarter), there was the “Windy City”. When the vaudeville and burlesque venues began to shutter, lots of big-name talents, in music and comedy,...

Hugh Hefner‘s first child and only daughter is opening up about the late media icon — and how his family is coping with the loss.

In an interview appearing in the January/February 2018 issue of Playboy, the magazine her father founded in 1953, Christie Hefner, 65, touches on everything from their evolving relationship over the years to the complicated legacy the 91-year-old left behind when he died on Sept. 27 of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure after contracting septicemia — a blood infection — and drug-resistant e. coli.

Asked how she’s dealing with his death, Christie — who is the daughter of Hugh and his first wife,...

The Brett Ratner fallout is already underway as Playboy has decided to put the brakes on the upcoming Hugh Hefner biopic. Ratner had been trying to get the biopic off of the ground for years and had only recently gained traction. After the death of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, Brett Ratner announced that the biopic was moving full steam ahead and that Suicide Squad star Jared Leto was going to be playing the media mogul. After allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Brett Ratner, Leto's representatives swiftly spoke out to say that their client has never been attached to the Hugh Hefner biopic.

Playboy Enterprises told Deadline that they were "deeply troubled" by the accusations against Brett Ratner and that they were putting any projects in development with RatPac Entertainment on hold. Playboy had this to say.

"We are deeply troubled to learn about the accusations against Brett Ratner.

Playboy is placing its business relationship with filmmaker Brett Ratner on hold in response to allegations from six women of sexual harassment and misconduct.

Jared Leto was reportedly set to star in Ratner’s long-planned biopic of the late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Ratner was also developing a reboot of the late-1960s variety-talk mash-up Playboy After Dark.

Despite the earlier report, Leto's representative Robin Baum now tells The Hollywood Reporter that he "is not and was not attached to a Brett Ratner-directed Hugh Hefner film, nor will he be working with him in the future."

The project collapsed within hours of the...

Without a doubt, Hugh Hefner was a complex figure.

The late media icon, who founded Playboy in 1953, died on Sept. 27 of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure after contracting septicemia — a blood infection — and drug-resistant e. coli.

Over the course of his 91 years, Hefner lived an exciting and controversial life. On the one hand, he revolutionized the publishing industry, contributed to the sexual revolution that permeated the 1960s and ’70s and fought for birth control and abortion rights — but on the other hand, he was criticized for objectifying women, and even admitted that he considered women to be “sex objects.”

Sitting down with People TV,...

In his final months, Hugh Hefner surrounded himself with a small circle of friends and family — including longtime love Barbi Benton.

Speaking exclusively to People in this week’s issue, Benton, 67, opens up about her memories of the late publishing pioneer, who died Wednesday at 91.

“I cried all night ,” she says of his death. “I was a basket case.”

Benton met Hefner in 1968 on the set of his TV show, Playboy After Dark. She was 18 and he was 42, and while she initially wasn’t interested due to their age difference, the two ended up dating until 1976. She went on to...

It’s difficult to find an aspect of popular culture that Hugh Hefner didn’t influence during his long, remarkable life. Spanning journalism, television, film, fashion and, of course, sexuality, his impact on music is one of the least heralded aspects of his legacy. Over the course of two seasons, Hefner used his weekly syndicated variety show, Playboy After Dark, as a platform for a broad spectrum of artists.

Psychedelic sounds from San Fransisco (courtesy of the Grateful Dead), early heavy metal (provided by Deep Purple), country-tinged balladeers (thanks to Linda Ronstadt and the Byrds) and old-school crooners (like the...

While Hugh Hefner had seen his reputation somewhat tarnished by Playmate Holly Madison‘s tell-all about life in the Playboy Mansion, Down the Rabbit Hole and the subsequent sale of the Playboy Mansion, but his life was about far more than what people tuning into The Girls Next Door or readers of Madison’s book might suspected.

Hefner’s death of natural causes throws the Playboy empire into a state of flux. For one thing, in a 2011 interview with The Hollywood Reporter Scott Flanders, CEO of Playboy, admitted there was no succession plan for leadership of the company. And for another,...

Long Strange Trip (Amazon Video)

I was stoked have scored a ticket for the limited-run (one week) theatrical screening of the new Grateful Dead documentary at IFC Cinema in the West Village. A four-hour love fest for Deadheads young and old, and more importantly for those music fans and the curious who just never got "it" and what it means to be a Deadhead. Expertly handled by director Amir Bar-Lev, there is so much to mine here that I can't imagine how much was left on the cutting room floor. (Props to executive producer Martin Scorsese, too.) Jerry's Frankenstein story frames the movie in a way that initially seems odd but by the end of the film makes perfect sense. After all, like the Monster, the band was "assembled" by the various parts (members, friends, fans, staff) that comprised it. Messy, joyous entropy in action; seemingly random, but actually spiritually...

Andre Royo better get his singing voice ready. The Wire alum will guest-star on Season 4 of Showtime’s Masters of Sex as Sammy Davis Jr.

Masters and Johnson (played by Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan) will meet Sammy after he performs on Playboy After Dark, which the late entertainer did actually appear on in the late 1960s.

RelatedMasters of Sex Taps David Walton for Major Recurring Role in Season 4

Masters of Sex is set to return on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 10/9c. Variety was the first to report the news of Royo’s casting.

Ready for more of today’s newsy nuggets?...

[Guest authors Christopher Lombardo and Jeff Kirschner of Really Awful Movies share their diagnosis of healthcare horror movies with Daily Dead readers.] When the Us was overhauling its healthcare system, much to-do was made about so-called “death panels,” government committees who would decide who lives and dies based on asset allocation. As far as healthcare horrors are concerned, it turns out that playing God is very real, but luckily only in film and Sarah Palin’s fright-filled imagination. Nefarious nurses, murderous docs, and psychopathic hallway stalkers in horror movies have effectively put end-of-life issues at the forefront, but not in a way that can be reasonably debated: your life, their ending of it.

We’ve decided to weigh in on the healthcare hullabaloo by looking at fictional settings that make One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest look like the height of patient-centered thinking. So sit back and self-medicate with whatever’s in the fridge (or better still, the medicine cabinet) and take these seven healthcare horrors—but don’t call us in the morning.

Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann joined the band over 50 years ago, and he amassed some incredible stories throughout his tenure with the psychedelic jam-rock legends. One of the funniest tales – which he shared this week on Conan – involved a pot of coffee, some LSD and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

In the late Sixties, the Dead were invited to perform on Hefner's CBS program, Playboy After Dark. As the band arrived at the studio for soundcheck, they noticed some odd behaviors from the crew, resulting in technical glitches like out-of-focus cameras.

Jenny McCarthy has posed naked for the pages of Playboy a whopping seven times, but her June cover, which she shot at the age of 39, might be her last.

McCarthy first stripped down for the nudie magazine 20 years ago, and today at the age of 40, the new talk show hosts tells In Touch that she's likely hung up her bunny ears.

"I feel like I’m done with it. I might show it off again, but I probably won’t," she told the magazine, but added that she might consider posing nude again if her "boobs aren’t zucchinis when [she's] 50."

McCarthy has never had any issues taking her clothes off, and when she shot her most recent cover for Playboy, she told People magazine she was "really proud" of the eight-page pictorial shot by photographer Steve Shaw.

"The pictures are really gorgeous and classy. They could be out of W magazine.

Chicago — Jenny McCarthy may have made a home in the Chicago suburbs, but the 40-year-old mom of a 10-year-old son hasn't lost her goofy, party girl-persona.

The former Playboy playmate and TV host says Hugh Hefner's 1970s-era "Playboy After Dark" is the inspiration her new weekly VH1 talk show, "The Jenny McCarthy Show," which debuts Friday night. She'll commute to New York to film the show from her home outside her native Chicago.

"In a perfect world the dream is to be as close as possible to my little boy so I can be the mom I want to be and to be the person on TV I want to be," McCarthy said in an interview this week with The Associated Press while she was preparing for her new weekly show.

After years of unproductive development deals McCarthy finally finds herself with her much-desired talk show. But she also...

While Jenny McCarthy has been acting since 1994, she's undoubtedly found bigger success when being herself. Whether it was as the host of MTV's Singled Out or the author of nine hugely successful novels, her intoxicating blend of no-holds-barred honesty and hilarious histrionics has earned her a loyal legion of fans.

Now, McCarthy hopes to dazzle her devotees with a new VH1 late night talk show, The Jenny McCarthy Show, premiering Friday at 10:30 p.m. But how will she stand out in the overcrowded marketplace? That was just one of the questions I posed when Jenny McCarthy rang me up for a chat!

ETonline: What excites you about this show?

Jenny McCarthy: I'm excited that it's actually different from everything else you've seen. If I were to compare it to anything, I'd say it's like Hugh Hefner's Playboy After Dark, which was a cool after-hours party. I've got a bartender, I've got go-go...

Jenny McCarthy has joked that she will bring "sexiness" to late night television with her new VH1 series. The Jenny McCarthy Show is to premiere its first season on February 8 and will focus on discussion of pop culture. McCarthy has spent the last several weeks promoting the chatshow, which she has promised will be more risqué than most late night comedy shows. "What is missing in late night - to me - is a bit of sexiness. Not that Jay Leno is not sexy, but I l feel like the template that I talked about is Playboy After Dark.," she said at the TCAs, according to Access Hollywood. She added: "What I love that Hugh Hefner did was kind of have this... sexy, after hours party, but also have really great conversations with his guests. "That was really my goal and that's our goal (more)...

Pasadena, Calif. — Jenny McCarthy says she's looking to Hugh Hefner's old "Playboy After Dark" as an inspiration for her new talk show.

The actress and former Playboy Playmate will host a late-night talk show Fridays on VH1 starting Feb. 8. After years of being tied up in unproductive development deals, McCarthy said Saturday she came to realize the best character she could play was herself.

She's looking for a party atmosphere. One segment she plans with celebrity guests is the "groundbreaking interview," which is talking to guests while both are lying on the ground.

McCarthy also plans a game, "Drunk, Dumb or Both," asking men outside a bar questions like, "what color is a red boat?"...

That a feature film biopic hasn't yet been made about one of the most important cultural icons of the last half century certainly hasn't been without a lack of trying. Way back in 2007, Universal and Brett Ratner were planning to make "Playboy," a film about the magazine's founder Hugh Hefner, but it never got in front of cameras. The project never seemed to gain forward momentum, even with guys like Robert Downey Jr. and Hugh Jackman at one time or another kicking the tires on the lead role. But the project now has fresh life, as it has flipped the page over to another studio.

Warner Bros. is taking on "Playboy" with producer Jerry Weintraub (the "Ocean's Eleven" trilogy, Steven Soderbergh's upcoming "Behind The Candelabra") lending his talents to the movie. But right now, that's about all we know. There's no word yet on the scope of the project,...

Exclusive: Warner Bros is matching an iconic film subject with an iconic producer. The studio has taken over Playboy, a project about Playboy Magazine founder Hugh Hefner, with Jerry Weintraub taking over the film as producer. The film originated at Universal with Imagine Entertainment, where the studio tried for several years to tell the story of how Hefner evolved from a puritanical upbringing to become the godfather of the sexual revolution. During that time, Hefner used the magazine to champion civil rights and free speech, putting James Brown on his show Playboy After Dark when no one put black performers on national television. While Universal had filmmakers like Brett Ratner attached at one time or another and actors like Robert Downey Jr. and Hugh Jackman mentioned as possibles to play Hef, the project languished. At Warner Bros, this marks a meeting of a couple of old style iconic guys, Hefner and Weintraub.

Model and actress Cynthia Myers, a 1968 Playboy Playmate, died Nov. 4. She was 61. Hugh Hefner announced her death on Twitter: “I’m saddened by the news of the passing of beloved Playmate Cynthia Myers, Miss December 1968.” No details about the cause of death have been released yet. Myers' movie roles were few. She reportedly had a bit part as a native girl in The Lost Continent (1968) and an undetermined one in Sydney Pollack's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), a psychological drama set during the Great Depression, and starring Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin. In 1970, Myers entered the annals of cult movie history when she was cast as one of the leads in Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, written by Roger Ebert and co-starring fellow Playboy Playmate Dolly Read and fashion model Marcia McBroom. Hardly one of the most well-regarded movies ever made, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls...

Former Playboy Playmate Cynthia Myers has died at the age of 61.

The busty beauty graced the cover of the men's magazine in December, 1968 - just three months after she turned 18. The saucy shots had actually been taken when she was 17, but Playboy policy dictated that editors waited until she was of legal age to publish the images.

The Toledo, Ohio native also tried her hand at acting and made appearances on Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner's Playboy After Dark TV series in 1969, before going on to land roles in 1970's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and 1972's Molly and Lawless John.

Details about her death have yet to be revealed, but Hefner broke the news on his Twitter.com page on Friday, writing, "I'm saddened by the news of the passing of beloved Playmate Cynthia Myers, Miss December 1968."...

Sneak Peek your first look at actress Amber Heard ("Drive Angry 3D"), on the set of the upcoming NBC TV pilot "The Playboy Club".

Emmy award winning director Alan Taylor ("The Sopranos"), who also helmed the Emmy award-nominated pilot for AMC's "Mad Men" is directing the "Playboy" pilot, written by Chad Hodge ("Tru Calling").

The one-hour dramatic, crime series is set in the world of owner Hugh M. Hefner's 1960's-era 'Playboy Clubs'.

Hodge's script follows a group of women working as Playboy 'Bunnies' in the original, and first Chicago club.

At the time, Bunnies wore a costume called a "bunny suit" inspired by the tuxedo-wearing Playboy Magazine rabbit mascot, consisting of a corset, bunny ears, a collar, cuffs and fluffy cottontail.

The Playboy Club chain of nightclubs owned/operated by Hefner's Playboy Enterprises, opened up @ 116 E. Walton in downtown Chicago, Illinois, February 29, 1960, as a cocktail bar with entertainment,...

Actress Amber Heard ("Drive Angry 3D") will top-line the new NBC TV series pilot "Playboy".

Emmy award winning director Alan Taylor ("The Sopranos"), who also helmed the Emmy award-nominated pilot for AMC's "Mad Men" will direct the "Playboy" pilot, written by Chad Hodge ("Tru Calling").

The potential, one-hour episodic dramatic series will be set in the world of owner Hugh M. Hefner's 1960's 'Playboy Clubs'.

Hodge's script follows a group of women working as Playboy 'Bunnies' in the original, and first Chicago club.

At the time, Bunnies wore a costume called a "bunny suit" inspired by the tuxedo-wearing Playboy Magazine rabbit mascot, consisting of a corset, bunny ears, a collar, cuffs and fluffy cottontail.

The Playboy Club chain of nightclubs owned/operated by Hefner's Playboy Enterprises, opened up @ 116 E. Walton in downtown Chicago, Illinois, February 29, 1960, as a cocktail bar with entertainment, featuring Bunnies serving drinks to keyholders and...

From the moment that Hal Holmes and I slipped quietly into his basement and he showed me his father's hidden collection of Playboy magazines, the map of my emotional geography shifted toward Chicago. In that magical city lived a man named Hugh Hefner who had Playmates possessing wondrous bits and pieces I had never seen before. I wanted to be invited to his house.

I was trembling on the brim of puberty, and aroused not so much by the rather sedate color "centerfold" of an undressed woman, as by the black and white photos that accompanied them. These showed an ordinary woman (I believe it was Janet Pilgrim) entering an office building in Chicago, and being made up for her "pictorial." Made up! Two makeup artists were shown applying powders and creams to her flesh. This electrified me. It made Pilgrim a real person. In an interview she spoke of her life and ambitions.

I am going to start by saying that I Would Love To Shake This Mans Hand!

Hugh Hefner has become a household name. Whether people love him or loath him, they know his name and his profession. As the founder of Playboy Magazine, Hefner was a big influence to the sexual revolution here in the United States. He broke stereotypes, boundaries, and barriers on his way to the top, owning one of the most successful publications of all times.

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist And Rebel, by director Brigitte Berman, takes a look into the life of a man so wealthy that he never has to change out of his pajamas. More importantly, it goes behind the scenes, and takes a look back into the history of the man that changed the world as we know it.

Many of us, although being very familiar with the name Hugh Hefner. have...

In Brigitte Berman’s new film, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, the Academy Award winning Canadian filmmaker profiles the outspoken, flamboyant founder of the Playboy empire and reveals Hefner as both a hedonistic playboy, but, more importantly, as the man who’s been a groundbreaking advocate and catalyst for First Amendment rights and social and racial justice.

When Hefner launched Playboy magazine in 1953, he became a champion of the sexual revolution and, immediately, the forces of Church and State initiated a war against him that raged over the decades. With humor and insight, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel captures Hefner’s fierce battles with the government, the religious right, and militant feminists. The film also features compelling interviews with a remarkable Who’s Who of the decades and rare footage that present a snapshot of the life of an extraordinary man and the controversies that surrounded him.

Toronto -- Cannes regular Hugh Hefner is bringing his Playboy party to the Toronto International Film Festival.

Hefner said he'll be in Toronto with his "girlfriends" as part of the PR and party parade for the world premiere of "Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel," by Oscar-winning doc maker Brigitte Berman.

Turns out Hefner broke more than sexual taboos after launching the Playboy magazine in 1953, as he campaigned for civil rights and free speech, and put blacklisted and black American performers on his "Playboy After Dark" and "Playboy's Penthouse" TV shows when they couldn't appear elsewhere on national TV.

"Here's an opportunity to have this other side of me, a more serious one, explored by someone as talented as Brigitte Berman and having it done by a woman and a Canadian with the support of the Canadian government, it's all very complementary," Hefner said.

The Playboy founder said he...