Remember that time Gloria Steinem infiltrated the Playboy Club in Manhattan? Drunk History does. In a segment from Tuesday’s upcoming episode, Abbi Jacobson portrays the young feminist as she enters the realm of bunnies in the name of journalism back in the 60s. ESPN host and comedian Katie Nolan narrates the fascinating tale, while Jane Krakowski offers a masterful turn opposite Jacobson as “bunny mother” Sheralee.
As Nolan notes in the clip, Playboy Clubs at the time lorded over their waitresses with several policies that were “just gross.” Bunnies worked long hours, with an exhaustive demerit system that punished them for a wide swath of innocuous offenses, including not smiling enough. And to secure employment, each prospective bunny was required to come in for a physical examination—you know, the kind with stirrups. In the end, Nolan notes, Steinem concluded that Playboy Bunnies were overworked, did not make as much money as they were led to expect—and, “on top of that, it [was] basically a prostitution ring,” according to Nolan.
Steinem’s exposé, “A Bunny’s Tale,” published as a two-parter in Show magazine in 1963, helped launch Steinem to prominence many years before she founded Ms. magazine. The article also played a role in getting Hugh Hefner’s clubs to stop administering physical examinations on bunny applicants and to overhaul the demerit system. Drunk History’s segment is available in full above—though if you want an even longer treatment, you can always watch the 1985 made-for-TV dramedy based on the same story, starring Kirstie Alley as Steinem.
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Westworld (Season 2)
HBO is once again hoping you’ll ignore the big Game of Thrones-shaped hole in its schedule and turn your attention back to the sci-fi mind game that is Westworld. The Emmy-nominated series, starring Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton, is ready to confound you once again in its second season. Until its spring 2018 premiere, take a trip back in time and revisit nine burning questions we still have about the finale.Photo: By John P. Johnson/HBO.
Grown-ish
Yara Shahidi takes the lead in this youthful Black-ish spin-off set to air on Freeform starting Jan. 3, 2018. In this series, Zoey is finally off to college, stumbling through cringeworthy rites of passage like embarrassing herself at a frat party and hiding secrets from her parents.Photo: By Eric Liebowitz/Freeform.
’Tis the season to watch a bunch of perfect human specimens fight for tiny gold medallions. This year’s Winter Olympics will kick off on Feb. 9, 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.Photo: By Julian Finney/Getty Images.
The Chi
After breaking out on Master of None and winning a historic Emmy for one of this year’s best TV episodes, Lena Waithe is ready to claim her spot in the prestige-TV realm. Enter The Chi, her Showtime series about young people coming of age in Chicago, set to premiere on Jan. 7.Photo: By Matt Dinerstein/SHOWTIME.
A Wrinkle in Time
The classic Madeleine L’Engle tale is finally coming to the big screen on March 9, 2018, thanks to Disney and director Ava DuVernay. The sci-fi story about a girl tesseracting her way through time to find her missing father will star newcomer Storm Reid alongside stars like Oprah Winfrey,Mindy Kaling,Reese Witherspoon, and Chris Pine.Photo: By Atsushi Nishijima/Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
After some catastrophic ups and downs, Han Solo’s origin story will finally be revealed to us on May 25, 2018. The Star Wars spin-off stars Alden Ehrenreich as the galactic smuggler and also features Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian and Emilia Clarke playing a mysterious character named Kira.Photo: From Lucasfilm Ltd./Everett Collection.PreviousNext
Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com. She was formerly an editorial assistant at Slate and lives in Brooklyn.