Pan Am

I watched Pan Am last night, ABC's new Sunday night TV show this fall, and I rather enjoyed the pilot episode. The show offers a lot of nostalgic value for older viewers who remember a time when Pam Am was America's greatest international airline (TWA, another name from the past, being its major U.S. competitor).

A work in progress — this is how I would describe Pan Am. Like all new shows, it will take time to become acquainted with the show's main characters, four Pan Am stewardesses, and the show's ultimate success will depend on how well those characters are developed. Nevertheless, Pan Am has genuine potential. A cross between Mad Men (and its Emmy Award-winning re-creation of the 60's) and Sex in the City (also focused on a foursome of attractive women), various narrative threads were woven into a very simple plot structure — a New York to London flight. It will be interesting to see if the show's writers will continue to create plots around single cross-the-pond flights or whether more complex narrative structures will evolve.

What was most interesting to me, however, was the nostalgia that Pan Am evoked for a golden age of air travel. I remember a time when flying was an exciting and glamorous experience. No security lines, no being forced to take off your shoes, no being subjected to backscatter x-ray machines, nor having to pay to check your bags. Air travel was a much less stressful and more comfortable experience. Even the coach seats in the back of the show's Pan Am Boeing 707 looked comfortable, with adequate shoulder and leg room. Passengers got dressed up to fly, even in coach, and Pan Am stewardesses were expected to be not only efficient but glamorous. How different from today when Southwest Airlines flight attendants routinely dress in shorts and running shoes!

But as nostalgic as the 1960's might have been, modern travelers do have one advantage. Today's world-class international airlines offer lie-flat sleeper seats in business class, and First Class suites provide a level of space, comfort, privacy, and luxury that  the passengers on Pan Am's Clipper Majestic could never have imagined!


Pan Am (search here on Google)

copyright  (c)  2011 by David Ourisman LLC.  All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

.