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"Playpen Magazine"? (1 Viewer)

Ricardo C

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Ever notice how in many TV shows, whenever a nudie magazine is needed for a scene, more often than not you see the same copy of the fictional "Playpen" magazine being used as a prop? The mag's name appears in blue, using the same font as Playboy's, and the cover has a picture of a blonde, bikini-clad woman against a black background.

Does anyone know if this is some sort of gigantic showbiz running gag? I've spotted it in everything from "Married with Children" to "Friends" to "Wings" to "Home Improvement", and several others, and I've always wondered why shows produced by different companies and aired by different networks, would use the same prop.

Yes, meaningless question, but that's what the internet is for, right? :D
 

James T

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I don't know if it's the same prop, but I remember the Playpen title in a few movies. It's probably just one of those things that the producers don't want to get sued from Playboy or Penthouse for using their name, so someone created a hybrid name.

I've seen others like the word "cola" written accross a pepsi can.
 

James T

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Big'uns was the title they used and stuck with later in the seasons. Very early and a few late seasons they used playpen.
 

Joseph DeMartino

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In addition to all the crap they actually own, the studios also rent a fair number of their props, costumes and furniture items for movies and TV - both from rental houses around Hollywood and from one another. That's why you'll often see the same SF props and electronic set elelments in shows and movies from different studios. If somebody has a good mock-up of a phony skin mag that you need as a piece of set dressing, why re-invent the wheel and make one yourself from scratch? Just rent the one you've already seen.

Regards,

Joe
 

AllanN

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This is similar to Morley cigarettes. I’m pretty sure they got there start in X-Files and I’ve seen them in a few other random places.
 

LarryDavenport

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I think I've seen Playpen as far back as the 60's and 70's (I think I spotted it in a Three's Company episode (maybe even a Partridge Family episode).
 
E

Eric Kahn

Big-uns was used the entire run of Married with children, the running joke with it was that they used the exact same magazine in every episode that it was mentioned, I think it was a playboy they pasted a fake cover over, the front picture was always the same
 

Lucia Duran

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I love catching stuff like this in television shows. The soda cans in the big bang theory have funny names as well. Seinfeld use to do the same with random items at the coffee shop.
 

Joseph DeMartino

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That actual Playpen magazine has nothing to do with the "Plabyboy" knock-off props, which have been used in TV shows and movies since well before 1986. (The real mag seems to have gone out of business, BTW. That one ad for that single used issue is the only reference I've been able to find to the magazine. Clearly it was not the inspiration for the TV/movie props. More likely those gave the publisher the idea for the name.)

Notice the font used on the old mag is not the same as the "Playboy" font invariably used on "Playpen" issues seen in TV and movies.) Just the other night I saw a episode of some cop show - maybe NCIS? - where someone finds a box of stuff hidden under a kid's bed. Right on top are a couple of issues of "Playpen". (One with a brunette, if memory serves.) Right underneath the magazines is a gun, so the story then goes off in a different direction, sad to say.
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Regards,

Joe
 

nutan

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Hi there,

No Playpen is not some kind of insider thing that film industry people are making references to other shows. I work in the film industry and Playpen magazine is a "cleared" magazine from a place where film/tv decorators and propsmen go to buy products for use in a TV or film production.

The term "cleared" means that it is a fictional product that doesn't exist and therefore can be used for these purposes (real products have to be released to a production by whomever the owner of the trademark is. If we don't have time to get that release or the real company won't give us permission to use their product or the production company (Paramount, Lionsgate etc) won't allow the production to use real products, we will use a fake).

The name of the company is Earl Hays and whenever a production can't use a real product they can buy a fake at Earl Hays and that is why you see Playpen over and over again!! Everyone uses Earl Hays stuff....even in commercials! See link below.

In terms of the names of fake products that you see in TV shows and films they are not used to make the audience laugh or make reference to other shows. They are used for legal reasons. Productions cannot just use whatever product they want without permission from the trademark or copyright holder therefore we make up fake names and sometimes the person who makes them up can have a little fun!

Hope that helps solve the mystery!!

MAGAZINES
 

Matt^Brown

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Can anyone buy from this store? I would like to buy a few of the "Beer" bottles and put them in my movie room.
 

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