The Real Stewardesses of Pam Am - Part 5

ABC has posted Part 5 of The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am. The videos are helping to promote their new weekly series 'Pan Am' which is broadcast on Sunday nights at 10pm eastern.

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Pan Am Episode 3: Ich Bin Ein Berliner

HitFix: A review of last night's "Pan Am" coming up just as soon as I get you some Cubans...

I'd planned on waiting a few weeks before revisiting this show on the blog, but "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" was such a significant step up from last week's episode - and the pilot, for that matter - that I thought it deserved mention. It did a much stronger job of making Kate's spy job feel like a part of the show (dressing the East German courier up in her uniform was a nice touch), it let the stewardesses be a part of history without making them too much a part of history (Maggie only gets a distant wave from JFK, and my early fear that Kate would somehow be responsible for the infamous "I am a jelly doughnut" screw-up were groundless), and it helped capture the excitement of the moment - not just Kennedy's speech to the Germans, but just this point in history, five months before Dallas and all the turmoil that followed).

Best of all, it gave the biggest showcase yet to Karine Vanasse, who's quickly proving to be the show's MVP. I didn't love her story in the pilot, but she provided the biggest spark to the otherwise flat second episode, and she was terrific here with a much weightier story. Given the flash-forward tease, I assumed Colette had done something much more impolite - say, pulling a Victor Lazlo and singing "La Marseillaise" - but her rendition of the German anthem was just the right touch: attention-getting, something to throw everyone off their partying game (because it was so odd, and so clearly sad, and so clearly sung by a Frenchwoman), but not something that would have had her dragged away from the piano by embassy security. (UPDATE: Or perhaps it would have; see the comments for some thoughts on why that particular verse is provocative.) She's terrific, and for however long this show is around(*), I want to see a whole lot of her.

(*) After having a strong debut, the show took a major tumble in week two's ratings. I don't think anyone has to be worried about it being pulled just yet, but depending on how last night's numbers trend, we may at least have to start worrying - especially since ABC has a ton of mid-season dramas needing homes.

My only concern is that this may not be the show figuring itself out so much as the show pulling the lone joker out of the deck. You can't dip into Colette's tragic backstory, or have the stewardesses crossing paths with presidents, more than once. (I'm still assuming we'll get some kind of assassination-related episode later this season, but I hope it's more about what it was like to be working a flight that day rather than the stewardesses somehow being in Dallas when they're an international crew.) When the episodes have smaller stakes, will they be this compelling?

One complaint: what Christina Ricci was trying to play as sheer joy at having a moment (even from a distance) with Kennedy mainly made her look like a crazy person whom the Secret Service would do well to escort off that tarmac ASAP. This was a good story for Maggie overall (the first episode that actually made it seem like there was a point to Ricci being on the show), but her expression seemed way off.

The Real Stewardesses of Pam Am - Part 4

ABC has posted Part 4 of The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am. The videos are helping to promote their new weekly series 'Pan Am' which is broadcast on Sunday nights at 10pm eastern.

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The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am - Part 3

ABC has posted Part 3 of The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am. The videos are helping to promote their new weekly series 'Pan Am' which is broadcast on Sunday nights at 10pm eastern.

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Real 'Pan Amigos' to Reunite in Miami

Jaunted: Pan Am is back in on the air and the real-life pilots and flight attendants who inspired the ABC show are coming out of the woodwork... er, retirement.

In this Miami Herald rundown of the airline's ties to the city, we learn that there is a group of former Pan Am-ers who stay in touch via the Pan Amigo newsletter. And it's not restricted to former employees either—'industry friends' who'd like to stay in touch can also become Pan Amigos.

The group of old-timers are having a 'Worldwide Family Reunion' October 20-23 in Coconut Grove—to celebrate Pan Am and the centennial of aviation in Miami. According to the Herald, they're expecting members to come from Norway, London, Australia and Germany. (Reckon they'll spend the first hour comparing notes on the abysmal state of flying today? Or will it be all: "I'm Christina Ricci," "No, I am!"?)

For the regular plane spotters among us, there's another way you can get your Pan Am on in Miami: The University of Miami’s Otto G. Richter Library has a collection of 1,600 Pan Am documents and photos. The library regularly gets calls from people interested in learning more about the storied airline, including ABC producers who studied photos and plans from the archives before designing the terminal set for the show.

The Richter is a private research library, so unless you're a student or alum of The U, you'll have to call ahead and make an appointment to visit and gawk at the Pan Am ephemera. (Info on all that good stuff here).

Finally, if your Miami travels take you to the Opa-locka airport, you can feast your eyes on the restored 1958 DC-7B that was used in the filming of the show. It was actually operated by Eastern Airlines, but whatevs. There's nothing a little TV magic can't fix...

Fact Checking ABC's 'Pan Am'

MSNBC: How does the "Pan Am" television series compare with real life travel?

If you watched the Sunday night premiere of "Pan Am," you might be wondering if the idyllic version of 1960s air travel matches the reality of those who worked for the iconic airline.

Overhead Bin wondered, too. So we asked two former Pan Am flight attendants to watch the show and tell us if their experiences were anything like those portrayed on-screen.

Bronwen Roberts was hired at Pan Am in 1958 shortly after graduating England’s University of Leeds with a degree in French. She flew until 1989 and kept in a scrapbook the advertisement listing the 15 qualifications required of flight attendant applicants. “You had to have a pleasant personality and speaking voice, excellent health and you had to be single,” said Roberts. “Really single. Not widowed, divorced or separated.”

A weight between 110 and 135 pounds was another qualification. Roberts said the pre-flight weigh-ins and grooming inspections depicted on the show were true-to-life.

“When you checked in for a flight you’d go into the office and there’d be a grooming supervisor on duty all the time,” said Roberts. “She could say, ‘Your hair is too long’ or ‘You are overweight’ and send you home until you fixed it. Just like the TV show, you could get grounded for uniform violations.”

Helen Davey also found the on-screen grooming checks familiar. Now a psychotherapist in Los Angeles, she was hired as a Pan Am flight attendant in 1965 at age 21 and flew until 1986.

“Yes, we had to wear girdles,” said Davey. “And if you were one minute late for a trip, they’d send you home.”

In the first episode, a child is escorted into the cockpit mid-flight to visit the pilots. Passengers are also offered ashtrays so they can smoke. Roberts and Davey both said that those in-flight activities were once very common.

“We definitely took children into the cockpit so they could sit in the pilot’s seat,” said Roberts. “And in terms of smoking, we’d have little packets of cigarettes and matches that we’d go around with.”

“Even flight attendants could smoke,” added Davey. “But when they did, they had to be sitting down.”

In the episode (spoiler alert), two of the flight attendants are shown doing work for the CIA. If this seems like the least plausible story line, Roberts and Davey both said it was realistic.

“That is definitely a true story,” said Roberts, who during her tenure heard rumors that at least one flight attendant was involved with the CIA. “At one point she just disappeared. No one knew what happened to her.”

In fact, Nancy Hult Ganis, an executive producer for the show and a former Pan Am flight attendant, told wired.com that her research turned up stories about the airline’s involvement with State Department operations on behind-the-scene missions in dangerous locations.

The TV program also shows flight attendants with plenty of time to chit-chat, and at least one crew member involved in an off-duty affair with a passenger.

“Some of those flights were quite long – 15 or 20 hours – and there were fewer people, so you could get to know them,” said Roberts. “People weren’t glued to their laptops like they are now. And some people did end up marrying passengers they met on flights."

Roberts and Davey had only a few quibbles with the first episode. Both said their uniforms were a warmer, more subdued shade of blue than those worn by the TV actresses and that flight attendants in their day would never be allowed to have hair touching their shoulders.

But there’s one moment that Davey said was spot on. “I liked the scene when they were ready for take-off and one flight attendant says to the new hire, ‘Buckle up. Adventure calls.’ That’s how it was. We all thought we had lucked into the best job into the world.”

The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am - Part 2

ABC has posted Part 2 of The Real Stewardesses of Pan Am. The videos are helping to promote their new series 'Pan Am' which debuts Sunday night at 10pm eastern.

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The REAL Stewardesses of Pan Am

This Sunday night is the premiere of ABC's new TV show Pan Am, a retro look at the 1960's airline à la Mad Men. To help promote the show, ABC posted a video with stories of the REAL Pan Am stewardesses.

Oh… how times have changed!

ABC says they will post new videos every Friday.