Beverly Hills, Calif. ? Things are not what they seem to be at the Playboy mansion.

The blonde sidling up for a pat turns out to be Archie, a male mutt living the good life at Hugh Hefner’s estate. A bubbly woman clad in a T-shirt, shorts and heels is an official G.O.F. – Girlfriend of Hef – but also has two college degrees.

And Hefner, who founded an empire on the allure of an unavailable nude making eye contact from a magazine page, says he’s a misunderstood romantic who created a world befitting his own comfortably elastic definition of the term.

This world is on view in “The Girls Next Door” (premiering at 8 p.m. today on E!), an eight-part series from executive producer Kevin Burns that promises to introduce viewers to “the secret side of an American legend.”

On the brink of 80, Hefner is an elder statesman – a veritable Yoda of the sexual revolution. He even looks the part, a slight, oddly endearing figure who offers a gentle handshake and polite conversation with the ring of repetition, testimony to a road-tested personal philosophy that forms the basis of an enduring corporate brand.

“The major message in my life is there isn’t one way to live your life, and we should not be judging if they’re living it a little differently next door – many roads to Mecca,” he said. “I think, in my own way, I’ve tried to break down the boundaries related to sexuality, related to age, related to gender.”

In doing so, he argues, he and his 51-year-old magazine have become a gauge of America’s awkward back-and-forth dance with sexual freedom while hobbled by Puritan roots.

“At the very beginning, I said my life and Playboy are a Rorschach test. … It’s a culmination of the dreams and fantasies and prejudices you bring to the table,” Hefner said.

Those eager to adopt his approach may find an instruction manual of sorts in the show that peeks into Hefner’s life and the playboy-perfect love quadrangle he forms with his three live-in loves.

Hefner, at least in a preview copy of the first episode, makes only cameo appearances. We see much more of his squeezes.

They are Holly Madison, 25, who pronounces herself “Hef’s No. 1 girlfriend” and treats the role as her job; well-educated Bridget Marquardt, 31, who is working on a second master’s degree in broadcast journalism; and Kendra Wilkinson, 20, dedicated to sports and mastering massage therapy.

The series seems to be a bittersweet take on how one man’s dream might be an imperfect fantasy for his women.