Some professions demonstrate greater sex appeal than others, and I don’t just mean obvious choices like stripper or model. Flight attendants and nurses have always provoked fantasies. Secretaries, hotel maids and diner waitresses? Not so much.

Add burger-flipper to that list, but Playboy tries to combat that concept with Girls of McDonald’s. This program proves that the massive fast food chain employs at least six attractive women across its thousands of locations. McDonald’s presents this sextet of cholesterol purveyors as they pose and chat about themselves.

We begin in Louisville, Kentucky with Cristy Creighton and then head to Vancouver with Amanda Bell. Erie, Pennsylvania’s Jennifer Takach follows and we subsequently meet Shawnna Getzinger from Bowling Green, Ohio. Next we watch Wanda Coallier of Burnaby, British Columbia and the program ends with Randy Occhialini from Winter Park, Florida.

Each model does some strip sequences in which they go from McDonald’s uniforms to the buff, and they also appear in “glamour” sessions as well. In addition to these, we get some nudity via personalized segments. Creighton goes bowling naked with her friend Sara, and the others do things like sit on the beach and whatnot.

Some of the comments from the models are unusually frank. For example, Bell talks about getting weirded out by guys fantasizing about her, and we also hear about problems with posing nude. During some of the studio sessions, we hear from Playboy personnel. We get remarks from Photographers Waldy Martens, George Georgiou, stylists Sonia Leal-Serafilm, Gerry Cantanni and Pat Tomlinson, and Playboy.com managing photo editor Chad Doering. Many Playboy products feature these documentary elements, but this one works better than most as we learn about the various style and photographic choices.

As always, each fan’s mileage will vary in regard to preferences among the models. I’m usually not big on blondes, but Creighton is nicely perky and natural. Though she’s a bit of a hick, she comes across as lively and fun. The shots with her attractive friend Sara are some of the DVD’s best.

Speaking of the best, Bell is definitely my choice for the program’s top model. She’s definitely prettiest, and she seems surprisingly mature for 19. A very sexy woman with a virtually flawless body, she’s a winner.

Inevitably, Takach represents a step down, but not a huge one. Her body is flawed for a Playboy model, as she seems lumpier than most. She also has an awkward style in front of the camera and gets stuck with some unflattering hairdos in the “glamour” sequences; she looks much better with a simple ponytail. I’m also not wild about her apparent implants, though I admit they’re so subtle I’m not positive she has them. Overall, Takach has her moments but seems pretty average for Playboy.

Essentially repeat all of that for Getzinger except for the remarks about the implants; she clearly sports her natural equipment. She’s not as pretty as Getzinger and could use some dental work, though I suppose some folks like gaps between teeth. Anyway, she also seems a bit uncomfortable in front of the camera, and she remains attractive but unmemorable.

Definitely the second hottest of the bunch, Coallier looks like a more appealing Paris Hilton. She’s very pretty and has a killer body, though I really don’t like her nipple bars. (Interestingly, the folks at Playboy airbrush out those bars for the DVD’s insert photos of Coallier.) I do wonder about her career options, though – apparently she aspires to be either an architect or a pro wrestler.

From there we end with easily the least appealing model of the bunch. Occhialini is the only one who looks like a professional – a pro stripper, that is. She has bad implants and an angular face that makes her not too pretty. Add to that her multiple piercings and tattoos and she ends the set on a negative note.

It’s too bad McDonald’s concludes with Occhialini, as I liked the fact it otherwise emphasizes women who look decidedly normal. Some Playboy “Women of” shows feature too many models who would seem too at home in a strip joint. I like amateurs and women who look like they really could live next door to you, not ones who appear to be professionals of some sort.

Except Occhialini, we get women with that amateur look in spades. This means that while they’re not as stunning as the usual models, they have a believable appeal beyond the unattainable perfection usually depicted. Unfortunately, this comes with one negative: the women seem decidedly less natural in front of the camera.

Indeed, most of them fail to display much personality in their segments. I see this as good and bad. On one hand, they come across as more real, but they also appear less interesting. Despite the drawbacks, I like this aspect of the program, partially because it makes Girls of McDonald’s something different. It’s not a great show, but it’s good as a whole.

Girls of McDonald’s appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this single-sided, single-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. One of very few anamorphic Playboy DVDs, McDonald’s varied between bland and great but usually appeared pretty solid.

For the most part, sharpness was positive. Wide shots came across as slightly soft, and a few scenes were intentionally fuzzy due to the visual motifs. Nonetheless, the snippets mainly were nicely defined and accurate. Occasional examples of jaggies and shimmering popped up despite the anamorphic transfer, and I also noticed some edge enhancement. No source flaws interfered with the presentation.

Of all the stylized elements, colors were affected the most heavily. Though the program usually went with natural tones, it occasionally went with more exotic tones. Overall, the hues came across as appropriately rendered and without too many concerns. Blacks seemed reasonably dense, while low-light shots showed good clarity. The visuals jumped around a little too much to excel consistently, but the program earned a good “B-” overall.

As for the Dolby Stereo 2.0 soundtrack of The Girls of McDonald’s, it lacked ambition but seemed fine for the material. Music dominated the track and offered pretty solid stereo imaging. The relentless score spread well across the forward channels and also was bolstered slightly by the rears. Speech stayed centered, and effects played a minor role. They came mostly from the click of cameras, as we didn’t get much other information.

Audio quality was acceptable. Speech consistently came across as reasonably natural and crisp, and I noticed no problems with edginess or intelligibility. Effects were a minor component, as they had little to do in the production. They were clean and accurate when they appeared. Music played a much more active - though still background - role. The score ran virtually constantly through the program and seemed decent. Because the music stayed under the surface most of the time, it didn’t boast great dynamics, but the score was perfectly fine nonetheless. Nothing exciting happened here, but the track was more than adequate for this kind of program.

Many Playboy titles include a good collection of extras, but McDonald’s seems skimpy in that regard. Under the banner Best of Playboy’s Women/Girls of Series, we simply receive excerpts from three prior releases. This area presents segments for Women of Wal-Mart’s Tesha Mullen (seven minutes, 33 seconds), Women of Starbucks’ Signe Nordli (3:30) and Girls of Reality TV’s Sarah Jones (5:27). All of them come straight from those respective releases. This means they add up to little more than advertisements. If you don’t have the various programs, they’re more valuable, but they’re worthless if you do. This is a cheesy attempt at a “bonus”.

Next we get a Photo Gallery that presents pictures as stillframes. We get shots of the program’s models. Fans with access to Playboy’s “Cyber Club” will already have seen these – and more, as the compendium only represents a fraction of the available images. We find some nice pictures, but we should have gotten more of them.

The set also offers some trailers. This includes promos for 50 Years of Playmates, Sexiest Amateur Home Videos, America’s Sexiest Bartenders, Women of Fear Factor and the 2005 Video Playmate Calendar.

No one will mistake The Girls of McDonald’s for stellar Playboy product, but it has its charms. Some of those come from the unusually normal appearance of most of the models. They lack slickness but compensate with a feeling of reality often absent from these shows. The DVD offers better than average picture and acceptable sound but skimps on extras; we get none of the usual outtakes and other goodies. Because of that, I can only offer a tepid recommendation for McDonald’s. It has enough positives to merit your attention, but I’d place too many other Playboy titles above it for me to wholeheartedly advise you to grab it.