Coming this fall: ABC's "Pan Am" -- "Mad Men" in the skies?

[PADDY]

You're the expert 'here' on that era Jack, they were lucky to have you on the show!

 

[MrBern]

Hefner tweeted!
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hugh-hefner-reacts-playboy-club-canceled-243839

 

[C-dot]

Hefner tweeted!
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hugh-hefner-reacts-playboy-club-canceled-243839

I know it was really badly done... But to be honest, I was kind of getting into the storyline. Hef is right about it having the wrong audience. If it had continued, I would have watched it!

 

[GoldenEraFan]

I couldn't sit through the whole thing when the show premeired. So many inaccuracies and over acting. Seriously, since when does a Kennedy era pilot have long sideburns. They're trying too hard to be the next Mad Men, and as a result the show feels like a 1970's does the 1950's type show, just focusing on the stereotypes people remember.

 

[MrBern]

http://news1.ghananation.com/femail-stuff/211953-christina-ricci-embraces-pan-am-role-as-she-rocks-up-to-fashion-s-night-out-in-sixties-inspired-striped-dress.html

staying warm between scenes

 

[Senator Jack]

Worst CGI (helicopter bit) ever.

Yeah, I noticed a scene in a taxi, too, that was cgi. The car ahead of them and I believe even the streets were cgi.

Well, they're still shooting every week here, so i can't imagine it's going to be cancelled this season. Unfortunately, though they called me up for more work, it was last minute, and I couldn't get out of prior commitments.

It could be good, but it seems they just don't know where they want to go with it. It seems they don't have a solid multi-episode story arc. What I believe they failed to realize is that with three or four plot lines to juggle each week, you simply can't get a good espionage story to fit in during a quick layover in Paris, Berlin, what have you. And then that drama has to then be boiled down to 10 minutes to allow for all the other plots. Of course, with their built-in "deadlines" (meaning the story has to be wrapped up before the plane takes off) they kind of limited themselves even further in what they can do. I do know that ABC rushed the production company to get it on the air for autumn, so that could explain the weak scripts. Perhaps if there's a second season, it'll improve.

Oddly, I was also called in for a completely different show about Cuban skyjackers, but we only shot the pilot.

Regards,

Jack

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Good grief, this thing is awful. The men are all far too young and where the hell did they find them? The School of Squint and Dimples? Worst CGI (helicopter bit) ever. All has the feel of a lot of kids doing what they think is right for the period and pulling it out of their butts. Mad Men has a feel of realism. An imperfection here and there. Believable characters. Pan Am is like a bad Chinese knockoff.

(no bearing at all on the good Senator Jack's involvement - I wish they'd brought you in to save it)

I agree on all points.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Yeah, I noticed a scene in a taxi, too, that was cgi. The car ahead of them and I believe even the streets were cgi.

Well, they're still shooting every week here, so i can't imagine it's going to be cancelled this season. Unfortunately, though they called me up for more work, it was last minute, and I couldn't get out of prior commitments.

It could be good, but it seems they just don't know where they want to go with it. It seems they don't have a solid multi-episode story arc. What I believe they failed to realize is that with three or four plot lines to juggle each week, you simply can't get a good espionage story to fit in during a quick layover in Paris, Berlin, what have you. And then that drama has to then be boiled down to 10 minutes to allow for all the other plots. Of course, with their built-in "deadlines" (meaning the story has to be wrapped up before the plane takes off) they kind of limited themselves even further in what they can do. I do know that ABC rushed the production company to get it on the air for autumn, so that could explain the weak scripts. Perhaps if there's a second season, it'll improve.

Oddly, I was also called in for a completely different show about Cuban skyjackers, but we only shot the pilot.

Regards,

Jack

You should be proud of yourself for getting this kind of work! Enjoy it!

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

Even though I haven't watched the show (no cable or antenna), I have to share. While on my usual afternoon antiquing crawl, I chatted with one of my regular shops owner. Who was a flight attendant in the 60s and 70s for... PanAm! You can imagine where the conversation promptly headed . Her opinions on the show were interesting.
Weigh-ins and make-up checks? Yes.

Pregnancy = end of job? Yep.

Grabby businessmen? No. She said that the business men were with a few exceptions, gentlemen. They DID hand the girls their business cards and hope they'd get lucky. They didn't. The girls were in their 20's. The men were usually in their 40's, and married. Girls weren't interested. Most of the cards hit the garbage can immediately.

Pilots and flight attendants? Nope. Again, there was usually a big age difference. She said most of the pilots were WWII veterans, and married. As astonishing as it may seem, the girls weren't interested in men their fathers age- and the pilots felt the same.

Did they know they looked good in their flight attendant togs? Oh yeah! She said they adored strutting down the street in their uniform and matching PanAm bag.

 

[Young fogey]

Catching up at the Lounge and have read this whole thread so far.

Good criticism (and I'm happy for Senator Jack). Good catch on the smoking; I'm surprised I didn't think of that. I thought the same about the captain's hair: here's my can of pomade (Murray's, what they sell here) and a couple bucks; now get a haircut, you beatnik! (My facial hair isn't an anachronism or beatnik; it's Eastern-rite semi-clerical. Rare but not unheard-of then. Long story.)

But I like it and not just for the obvious reason of beautiful 20-year-old women in beautiful clothes and hairstyles. (My favourites: Collette with Kate the spy a close second; unlike most of the world I'm not that attracted to Christina Ricci/Maggie the beatnik.) I like the CGI; sorry. The seepage of 2011 attitudes (men-bashing) isn't too bad. By no means 'Happy Days' bad in its errors.

Too many hats? Really? I like seeing the Pan Am terminal at Idlewild half-full of men dressed like me most days.

...as if the show itself was written/made in 1963

A reason I like it! And snobby critics don't. They want it dark, dramatic and preaching 2011isms.

Also, the show didn't rip off 'Mad Men' characters. I watched 'The Playboy Club' too with its Don Draper soundalike clone, Nick Dalton; not as good as 'Pan Am' but I didn't hate it. (The scab-Joan character, Carol-Lynne, whom they matched with scab-Don, was too skinny and 2011 to have been a bunny then.) I wanted to see a 'Crime Story' crossover episode on 'Club'. There was enough crossover: 'Mad Men'-ish characters put in 'Crime Story's world, complete with the Outfit, same city, same era. Torello and the MCU boys (younger actors now that the originals are too old for the parts) could have come in investigating the Outfit guy's disappearance, two years before 'Crime Story's story.

 

[cookie]

Wow Marc you are taking me back a while. On Qantas we still had the upper deck lounge when I joined in 1978 and there were passengers who insisted on getting it when booking. Of course being so "secluded" did have other impacts on flight comfort!

 

[Little lady]

I have read this thread, and I've watched both the Playboy Club and Pan Am (and Mad Men too, but that's not so recent). I agree with many things said here, but I'm not that familiar with history as some of you are, so I didn't notice as much. I have noticed a lot of innacuracies, such as with a pool scene, Laura takes of her bathing cap twice, the long hair Maggie had suddenly becoming short, or that it also seems that Laura's wedding hairstyle changes to a taller style from when we first see her in the dress, to when Kate and her have run away and have stopped to eat. And I also have spotted many reproduction dresses in the show so far, which I am not sure I like. I like reproductions, it's very convenient sometimes, but I am not sure I think a tv show should use them, I think that sometimes you can really see the difference.
I wouldn't watch either of the shows if it wheren't for the setting. I'm not so enthusiastic about the story all the time, I do like some parts, and some characters, like Maggie. I like the visuals too, I think Kate has beutiful colouring, and Colette is gorgeous. The Playboy club is about women in their underwear, I don't know how you can not enjoy watching that
I'll probably continue watching, at least out the season, and if the Playboy club is picked up by someone else and the rest of the season is sent, I'll probably watch that too (although I find Nick Dalton Don Draper like voice to be terribly annoying).

 

[ButteMT61]

That show's still on???

 

[MrBern]

LaGuardia ControlTower

Some 1964 NY airport history has been demolished

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/la-guardia-loses-swiss-cheese-ice-cream-cone-and-some-history/?hp

 

[Young fogey]

Oh, good; this thread like the show is still alive.

I'd read the show's ratings are poor; they seem to be moving away from nostalgia and more towards standard soap/action-adventure stories. Which is OK – it's like movies in the period. As long as the period detail doesn't slip too badly. In one New York scene I thought I saw a modern or at least wrong-period car.

I think Kate has beautiful colouring, and Colette is gorgeous.

Well put. They're my two faves.

I like the Kate-the-spy storyline.

Also good to see Goran Visnjic in a fedora. That should help their revival.

...although I find Nick Dalton's Don Draper-like voice to be terribly annoying.

I liked it because I like Draper.

I thought the black bunny looked familiar. Same actress, similar bunny part, in 'Mad Men'. Lane Pryce's girlfriend before his father beat him up.

 

[MrBern]

RIP a Woman with Wings

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/us/betty-haas-pfister-dies-at-90-wartime-pilot-with-passion-for-flight.html

WWII WASP passes away at age 90

In 1948, for Pan American, she became the first stewardess ever hired with more than 1,000 hours of flight time. “She got to travel all over the world,” her daughter said. “But she’d rather have been in the cockpit any day of the week.”

“I’d hate a 9-to-5 job with weekends off,” she told The New York World-Telegram and Sun in 1950. “I had one once, but couldn’t stand it.”

Pilot turned Stewardess...

 

[MrBern]

JFK terminal 6

Terminal 6 at Kennedy International Airport — a crisp island of aesthetic tranquillity by the master architect I. M. Pei — is being demolished.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/a-modern-masterpiece-no-longer-used-will-soon-disappear-at-kennedy-airport/

 

[MrBern]

Group fights to save JFK airport’s old Pan Am terminal

Pan Am Worldport

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/group-fights-save-jfk-airport-old-pan-am-223909140--finance.html

 

[dhermann1]

Airport terminals are notoriously vulnerable to the wrecking ball. They demolished the wonderful terminal at Newark, too. There was a great Art Deco tower at the BUffalo Airport that got knocked down. Damned shame.

 

[Widebrim]

^^It looks like the Pan Am terminal may be saved.