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Packed with tiny dogs in purses, low-rise jeans, and Juicy tracksuits galore, The Girls Next Door is an essential reality show of the early 2000s. The show follows the three girlfriends of Hugh Hefner, founder, and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, throughout their day-to-day lives attending Playboy events, parties, and photoshoots.
Despite the last episode airing nearly 15 years ago, the show has recently re-entered the public discourse after two of the show’s stars, Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, started a podcast (Girls Next Level). The two women are rewatching the show episode by episode, dissecting what’s real, and what’s fake, and giving us all of the behind-the-scenes info we always wanted to know. Additionally, the women have opened up about some of the more problematic issues with the show and their relationship with Hefner.
Many of Madison and Marquardt’s fans have started rewatching the show along with the podcast, as all of the episodes are available for free on Tubi. With that in mind, here are five facts you may not know about The Girls Next Door.
The Wham-O toy company sent a cease and desist letter to the show
In Episode 6 of the first season of the show, we see the annual mansion Fourth of July event, an outdoor BBQ party complete with a giant Slip ‘n Slide. But on the podcast, the women revealed that Wham-O, the company that makes Slip ‘n Slide and Hula Hoops, sent a cease and desist letter to the production company of Girls Next Door saying that they needed to stop mentioning the products in the show (they also discuss hula hooping in Episode 7). The letter said Wham-O felt the show was “too adult and we shouldn’t be talking about kid’s toys,” said Madison on the podcast. “What do you call it? Just a hoop?” she added.
Marquardt and Madison hated how they were characterized in the show
Marquardt and Madison said that Kevin Burns had never produced a reality show before Girls Next Door, and the duo has a lot of qualms with how he went about it. With the growing popularity of reality TV at the time, conflict was a central part of the genre and Madison said that she felt Burns staged and instigated drama between her and Wilkinson for the series. Marquardt echoed her sentiment saying she felt sick and couldn’t sleep after rewatching the second episode, which introduces her. “This is my bitch episode,” she said. She added that she felt like Burns framed her as being cut-throat, mean, and even going as far as sabotaging other girls because she wanted to be featured in the magazine. The two women even speculated that Marquardt was set up by producers in Season 1 Episode 7 when Marquardt had to miss an impromptu photoshoot for the magazine.
The girlfriends initially weren’t paid
Marquardt and Madison explained that they weren’t paid for the first 15 episodes of the show and paid very little for the following episodes. When it came to actually participating in the show, Madison said they felt like they didn’t have a choice in the matter if they wanted to remain Hefner’s girlfriends.
A lot of the animal noises are fake
In the pilot of Girls Next Door, we’re introduced to the mansion’s nine dogs, Bridget’s cat Gizmo, and a menagerie of birds and monkeys in the mansion zoo. Marquardt and Madison said on the podcast that seeing their old pets has been a highlight of rewatching the show, but not all of it is completely accurate. At one point, Marquardt said she realized that audio of Madison’s dog’s barking was dubbed over footage of Kendra Wilkinson’s (the third girlfriend in the show) dogs in Episode 1. She also added that the screeching and growling that always plays when they show her grumpy cat Gizmo is fake.
The show was originally supposed to be about the mansion staff
In Episode 6 of the podcast, Marquardt and Madison revealed that Burns originally planned for the show to be called Hef’s World and center around the staff at the mansion and what they had to do to appease Hefner’s crazy requests and massive parties. E! ordered a pilot for the show, but according to Madison, they decided they wanted the show to be about the mansion through the eyes of the girls, rather than the staff. After making that decision, Burns returned to the mansion to do personality test interviews with the three girlfriends. Madison revealed on the podcast that in the interview Burns asked her when she realized she was beautiful: “I just remember going, ‘I’m not beautiful, I made myself beautiful,’ and later on he would tell me ‘when you answered that question, that’s when I knew we had a show.’”
