Crown jewel of ABC's fall lineup impresses
By Kathryn Karasek
"Pan Am" is one of the most anticipated new shows of the fall 2011 TV season. It is a captivating, if slightly melodramatic, time-period drama that does justice to the glamorous world of commercial aviation in the 1960's. Each of the many — almost too many — developing story lines has potential, from political to romantic to professional.
Pan Am was the largest US commercial airline from the late 1920's until its collapse in 1991. An icon in its own right, especially in the 1960's, was known for bringing a certain glamour to the skies, offering customers access to the luxury that characterized the so-called "Golden Age" of aviation.
Given its rich history, it seems inevitable that Hollywood would attempt to bring such adventures to life on the silver screen. "Pan Am," a TV drama that focuses on the pilots and flight attendants working for the world famous airline in 1963, premiered Sunday, Sept. 25 on ABC.
One of the most notable features of the Pan Am Airlines flight crew were the glamorous flight attendants. With specific physical requirements — namely, that they were attractive — flight attendants were subject to strict regulations, long hours, and exhausting work. However, if they could hack it, the rewards were plentiful; no other career for women in the mid-20th century offered more opportunity for adventure and excitement.
The show jumps into the drama right away. A young stewardess, Laura Cameron played by Margot Robbie, who has just escaped a dead-end marriage and is just starting out in the industry, is being scrupulously evaluated by her supervisor with regard to her uniform. This same stewardess has just been put on the cover of "Life Magazine" as a representative for the jet age: such attention makes for both jealousy and admiration among the other stewardesses.
It is at this point in the show that the drama gets just the slightest bit out of hand. The head flight attendant for the Clipper Majestic (the plane) is late and they have to call in another.
Aboard the plane, one of the more interesting plot lines begins to unravel. There is a suspicious Russian man aboard and one of the stewardesses, Laura's sister, Kate, played by Kelli Garner, has been instructed by a mysterious US intelligence agent to take his passport, edit it, and slip in the new one before his detainment when they land in London. She successfully takes his passport early on in the flight, but is almost caught when turbulence knocks her bag to the ground. When Kate arrives in her London hotel room, this faux Russian man is waiting for her and it ends up that he is her London contact for the intelligence agency, as the task aboard the flight was her test.
This occurrence, plus a look into the Pan Am crew's involvement in the Bay of Pigs prisoner release in Cuba, brings up the important political role that Pan Am played in the history of the US government. Pan Am was actually contracted to the government and its normal flight crews, alongside military specialists, were often called in for political, military, and rescue missions.
Contact Kathryn Karasek at mkarasek@scu.edu.