'4-Play'
comes to
Playboy
channel
From the Associated Press
The latest breakthrough on cable is
that the Playboy Channel can make
situation comedies that are even worse
than the networks'. The low art of
televised humor now has sunk from bad
bathroom jokes to bad bedroom jokes.
"4Play," which debuted on the
Playboy Channel last night, is billed by
the pay-TV network as the first adult
sitcom. But it's scarcely for
discretionary adults. This tasteless,
boorish show is a case of profanity and
nudity merely for profanity and
nudity's sake.
In one scene in a dress designer's
shop, a model keeps dropping her to to
reveal her chest and the word "FRON-
T." "Men are getting dumber every
day," she says.
Because the network censors aren't
around, the characters in "4Play" are
able to curse and parade around in
states of undress designed to divert at-
tention from a juvenile, loud and poin-
tless script.
The story is about a fortyish husband
who has an affair with a 19-year-old
feminist. But she's the kind of feminist
that only Playboy could dream up-a
beautiful airhead who tells the wife
about the cheating relationship because
that's what it says to do in her favorite
women's magazine.
This sex triangle also is destined to
become more multisided, with the
girlfriend's father making advances
toward the wife.
'4Play' is going to make television
history," says Madeline David, who
wrote and produced the series. "It's
the first sitcom to come to grips with
the contemporary urban scene and its
sexual angst."
Ms. David's partner in crime is Paul
Klein, president of the Playboy Chan-
nel, who asked her to do the show. They
once worked together at NBC when
Klein was the network's top program-
mer and Ms. David was head of
daytime TV.
"'4Play' is the most exciting project
I've ever seen bar none," says Klein.
"The work is fresh, contemporary,
honest, full of energy and hilarious."
About the only teensy-weensy value
from "4Play" is that it proves that net-
work TV could actually be worse than it
is.
ESI (f
X M F
The Michigan Daily -oSaturday, May 7, 1983- Page 5
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