# Pan Am, series premiere, (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606 "2011-09-26T00:50:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/41 "2011-09-27T18:50:36Z")
> [@MilTan](#): > > First class was four-abreast, but coach was 5. You could tell in the scene with the newlyweds kissing; there was a woman seated next to them in the same row. Ah, thanks. I wondered if it was a first class/coach thing. In that case the design people did a hell of a job (aisles maybe too wide, but aren’t they always in TV & film?). None of it matters of course, the show’s success will depend on its drama. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/42 "2011-09-27T20:52:39Z")
I’m very very suspicious that the supposed MI6 people who are giving the spy stewardess assignments are in fact not MI6 people at all. We never saw them show any ID, and the guy at the end was VERY paranoid about fingerprints for some reason. That would also explain part of what was going on with Bridget, potentialy. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/43 "2011-09-27T23:39:44Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Did anyone NOT think that wifey was going to tell Frenchy that she knew about the affair when they went back to get her purse? I assumed the wife would say something..which.. seriously..how did she find out again? Or Frenchy would have let something slip like a more intimate knowledge of the family then she would have gotten from the flight. Like knowing a pets name or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/44 "2011-09-28T00:28:16Z")
Hubby and I both really enjoyed this and will watch again. I don’t much care about period errors, and a good soap is fun once and a while. I agree, more Christina Ricci would be great. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/45 "2011-09-28T04:05:04Z")
I’m really surprised that this show is getting so much better reviewed than _The Playboy Club_. They seemed pretty equally lightweight fun. The females have a smidge better characterizations and personalities on Pan Am, but the men are better on Playboy. I caught the youth of the pilots too. I thought any commercial pilot in those days had to be a WWII or Korean War vet. The actors are in their early 30s, so technically Korea was an option, but they seemed younger than the stews. Both had melodrama added for tv, with an arc that can go over a season. _Playboy_ recreates the music, _Pan Am_ has a period soundtrack. Both are blissfully free of children, either teens or babies. That era was the last era of adults. Teen culture took over by the 1970s. You can’t have a successful nostalgia show about 70s adults. _That 70s Show_ got the period right; the show about wife-swapping that lasted about two episodes made them all look like fools. Adults did look like fools in the 70s. Took them a decade to grow out of trying to re-live the 60s vicariously. Only one 60s show will stay and that’s _Pan Am_. It got decent numbers, but more importantly it went higher than it’s lead-in, _Desperate Housewives_. _Playboy’s_ numbers are equal to _Community’s_. That’s death for an expensive hour-long show, I think. The only thing that might save it is that all of NBC’s Monday night is that bad, since _The Sing-Off_ is dying horribly, killing two full hours. They may decide to keep _Playboy_ around until after _Sing-Off_ ends in November in hopes of a better lead-in. But I wouldn’t bet on it. ---
**Author:** ![pinkyvee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@pinkyvee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkyvee)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/46 "2011-09-28T04:14:01Z")
I was hired as a Pan Am stewardess in 1970. I flew 6 years. I loved this show. Inaccuracies notwithstanding. To me, the most glaring inaccuracy … Pan Am pilots, and especially our Captains, were all WWII military trained. These pilots on the TV show were too young. But, I still did not care. I freakin loved it. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/47 "2011-09-28T22:53:19Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > I assumed the wife would say something..which.. seriously..how did she find out again? She put two and two together. Even before boarding, she knew Hubby flew Pan Am a lot, and that it was a small world there. She also must have known, or suspected, that he didn’t keep it zipped on all those business trips. Then she saw the looks Hubby and Colette exchanged. That’s why she invited Colette to talk a bit, to see if she got uncomfortable talking to the man’s wife - and she did. I didn’t recognize the woman in the pub window as Bridget, but that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/48 "2011-09-29T02:54:48Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I’m very very suspicious that the supposed MI6 people who are giving the spy stewardess assignments are in fact not MI6 people at all. We never saw them show any ID, and the guy at the end was VERY paranoid about fingerprints for some reason. That would also explain part of what was going on with Bridget, potentialy. Yeah, I thought the same-trusty stew’s going to be in a pickle. I liked, even though the men all look alike, and the women who aren’t Christina Ricci do too. Okay, Frenchie and Spy look alike, Blonde Runaway Bride is blonde, CR is a beatnik. But still, I liked it, but I think it’s going to get bogged down in overly complicated romantic attachments and some spy shit. Pregnancy scare within 3 episodes. ---
**Author:** ![tsm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/db5fbb/32.png) [@tsm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsm)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/49 "2011-09-29T02:58:44Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > … (and what’s a purser?). Lead flight attendant. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/50 "2011-09-29T03:50:59Z")
I hated it. The wide aisles and the enormous head room, and the unreal distance between seat rows just ruined whatever I might have enjoyed. Then the “high-school aged” cockpit crew, plus the waaay too long hair on the pilot (it reached his collar!) just burst the bubble completely. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/51 "2011-09-29T17:11:20Z")
There’s an excellent article in today’s Independent: [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/flights-of-fancy-a-new-tv-series-celebrates-the-swinging-sixties-era-of-pan-am-stewardesses-2362571.html](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/flights-of-fancy-a-new-tv-series-celebrates-the-swinging-sixties-era-of-pan-am-stewardesses-2362571.html) I love the quotes from a former Pan Am trolley dolly: “Life with Pan Am was very glossy in the late Fifties . . . We were the best-dressed, highest paid people in the airline industry. TWA stewardesses were looked down on as a bit raffish, Boac were a bunch of dykes and then there was us . . . You had to wear your hair off your collar, unlike the girls in the TV show, either short or twisted up at the back in a French pleat. ,No jewellery, except for a small pair of stud earrings. White gloves always. And high heels.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606/52 "2011-09-29T17:55:47Z")
The high heels bit is hilarious if you look at this [publicity still](http://www.matthoyle.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/PanAmplaneGround-500x376.jpg). Tall blonde Margot Robbie is wearing flats. Karine Vanasse and Kelli Garner wear moderate heels. And tiny five-footer Christina Ricci is tottering in four-inch stilettos. That’s so they can pose properly for [this picture](http://www.kleyrtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/pan-am-season-1-293x300.jpg) where they all look to be about the same height instead of Margot towering over Christina by a full head. VOW, you can search for 707 interiors as well. [Here’s a vintage shot](http://www.braniffpages.com/1954/images/707227int.jpg). Aisles were wider in those days, and especially in first class. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pan-am-series-premiere-open-spoilers/597606.md?page=2)