Longing for the good old days when travel was glamorous, involved wearing gloves (not the latex kind), and espionage was as common as a girdle? Then tune into ABC’s new fall television show “Pan Am.”
Photo courtesy of Sony Television
In this period show, the world’s foremost international luxury commercial airline of the 1960’s is revived to take us on flights of fancy dating back to the days of mandatory shape-garment wearing stewardesses and Cold War tensions.
“Passion, jealousy and espionage… They do it all—and they do it at 30,000 feet. The style of the 1960s, the energy and excitement of the Jet Age and a drama full of sexy entanglements deliciously mesh in this thrilling and highly-original new series,” claims the tagline for the new TV series.
Much has been made about the new period television shows being somewhat misogynistic; that the days when women were relegated to offer “coffee, tea or me” should be left in the past and not conjured up again.
Is it a coincidence that a few shows premiering this season revolve around women? Blame it on the wake “Mad Men” created about those outwardly proper times when boys were just being boys. Now, it seems the networks decided it’s the girls' turn to show them what they’ve got.
The crew aboard the nostalgic Pan American World Airlines flights features Christina Ricci, Michael Mosely, Margot Robbie, Mike Vogel, Kelli Garner and Karine Vanasse. The women of “Pan Am” are strong characters and though they are the main attraction in this 60’s style show, it’s not only for their beauty but for their brains.
The pilot show, which had a “Mad Men” sort of flair, depicts these tough women living the jet-setting life serving customers in the air while dishing up high-flying melodrama discovering love, uncovering spies, and communists’ plots — a life most could only dream of when flying was considered the epitome of glamour.
The Sony Television Productions series, written by Jack Orman (ER) and directed by Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing), is based out of JFK, and also gives us a view of the political state of the world through the eyes of the men and women who criss-crossed oceans and continents in the Jet Age — and when women began to realize they too could have an important role in shaping society’s outlook of the female working-class … and doing it while suffocating in a tight-fitting undergarment.
“Pan Am” will air on ABC Sunday nights at 10 starting September 25.
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