"Pan Am"

[VINMAN]

Anyone watch that new tv show, "Pan Am"? Watched the first two episodes.

Pretty depressing to realize what air travel has evolved to.

( or should I say "devolved.....)



.

[ODDJOB UNO]

i hope "SNOOKIE" is one of the "stews"..........................LOL!

[onewhippedpuppy]

I'd happily pay more for airfare if the stewardesses were all female and hot.

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by ODDJOB UNO

i hope "SNOOKIE" is one of the "stews"..........................LOL!

Besides the hot stewardesses ( yes I said stewardesses , not "flight attendants"!) I meant just the level of service, people getting dresed up to travel, etc, etc...

[Rick Lee]

My mom was a stewardess in the 60's when flying was glamorous, there were no matching sweatsuits allowed and it was just a "better, vanished time." That's her on the right.

[stevepaa]

I was there at the umbrella in 1969 working for PAA. My wife also worked for PAA. My aunt was a 'stew' for PAA in germany in the 50's and my uncle was PAA maintenance mgr at Templehof. I have a picture of him having drinks with Lindbergh. It does bring back a lot of memories. The men all wore suits and hats. The prime rib was cooked on board and sliced individually. Linen and silverware and real glassware.

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

My mom was a stewardess in the 60's when flying was glamorous, there were no matching sweatsuits allowed and it was just a "better, vanished time." That's her on the right.

Yes, weve come a long way baby..

[Hugh R]

We air it, but don't produce it. Sony produces it in a warehouse in Brooklyn. The airline terminal has got a few kiosks, and columns that are real, but the background is CGI. The inside of an aircraft on a set is the worst place to film, small, the extras sit in their seats for hours at a time, kind of like when you really fly.

[slakjaw]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

My mom was a stewardess in the 60's when flying was glamorous, there were no matching sweatsuits allowed and it was just a "better, vanished time." That's her on the right.

Dude ur mom is HOT

[RoninLB]

PAA and all other airline's women were all over this town. Plenty of 2 family houses in a beach town and mucho bars. LB is located 8 miles from Kennedy.

PAA women were a class act. The best of the best.

[911_Dude]

This show can only be good if aired on HBO or Showtime. Its not. Too bad, could be some good story's.

[9dreizig]

I liked it,, I'm old enough to have caught the last of the "good old days" of flying.
I used to fly in a suit, hell I'm usually in shorts and flip flops now!

[porsche4life]

Flying sucks now....

[stevepaa]

Originally Posted by RoninLB

PAA and all other airline's women were all over this town. Plenty of 2 family houses in a beach town and mucho bars. LB is located 8 miles from Kennedy.

PAA women were a class act. The best of the best.

I lived over there with some other PAA guys also. I think on Franklin. Can not quite remember.

[BE911SC]

As an airline pilot and airline hobby-historian I laughed out-loud during the first episode of Pan Am.

1. The captain is 30 years too young. PAA captains on the new 707s flying the NYC-Paris run in 1963 were not 25! They were 55! The First Officers were not 22, they were 42.

2. Where's all the smoke? No one smokes! Where's the fog of second-hand smoke on the flight deck--I mean COCKpit. There were ashtrays at all crew positions in the cockpit on 707s (I flew the KC-135R in the USAF and it had ashtrays) and the pilots had halitosis and smoker's hack (cough) and their skin looked like John Boehner's.

3. Not enough sexual harassment on the TV show. Male passengers grabbed ass constantly. The pilots, often married, grabbed and slapped a lot of stew asses back then. Yeah, some of the girls liked it but many did not.

4. The crew stays together trip after trip? Same crew all season long? NOT. I have three-leg days and often get a different crew on all three legs. Granted, the Pan Am flight schedule was different than my current west coast type of trip but no way the stews and pilots stayed together more than a trip at a time.

5. Hair. That captain has too much hair. Taper the back and sides son, you goddam hippie.

6. In the first episode, on takeoff roll, the pilots look at each other at about 120 knots and gay-ly smile. BWA-HA-HA-HA!!! Even my wife cracked-up at that one.

7. Inaugural revenue flight of new 707 in the first episode. The senior management or training captains come out of their caves to fly those trips. If there's any kind of glamour or excitement to the first revenue flight of a new jet then the senior guys come out to fly it. If there are local TV news cameras in the boarding area for a special type of flight then the glamour boys displace the regular pilots and step in front of the cameras.

8. Stews as Cold War spies? Uh, okay. Maybe that happened but I doubt it. Stews probably slept with Russian spies (and German spies and British spies and American spies and Italian spies and Japanese spies and Mongolian spies and everyone else) but that stew-as-spy angle seems a bit of a stretch.

Having crabbed about it, it's still kinda' fun to watch the show and at least have a good laugh at some of it. Obviously "Pan Am" is a HEAVY dose of revisionist history, just as the very good "Mad Men" series is, but as escapism TV it's fun so far.

[BE911SC]

Originally Posted by stevepaa

The prime rib was cooked on board and sliced individually. Linen and silverware and real glassware.

Then in 1979 the industry was deregulated and the Gordon Gekkos from Wall Street moved in and sucked-out all that high-cost service-with-a-smile. Glamour costs money and there's no reason after 1979 to spend all that money making air travel "glamourous." Low Cost has been the Holy Grail since 1979 and that's why service is often lean and mean and crabby and pushy and no more coats and ties and no more prime rib. The prime rib moved over to Mr. Gekko's Gulfstream V where it belongs. The GV he bought with a fraction of the windfall he got from gutting the airline industry. Farewell "friendly skies," hello Low Cost.

[RoninLB]

Originally Posted by RoninLB

PAA and all other airline's women were all over this town. Plenty of 2 family houses in a beach town and mucho bars. LB is located 8 miles from Kennedy.

PAA women were a class act. The best of the best.

Originally Posted by stevepaa

I lived over there with some other PAA guys also. I think on Franklin. Can not quite remember.

small world
The action was in the West End and East Atlantic Beach areas. I lived with a PAA stew for 4 years. I had friends who flew and maintained them. A general meeting place was the bar in Atlantic Beach on Troy Ave & Beech St after 11pm weekdays. All the locals could just walk there. Some pilots who were laid off built houses themselves in the area. Actually pilots of all brands were great guys and talented in many ways.

Franklin Blvd at Shore Road has the 6 story apt buildings

[cairns]

I don't agree flying sucks now. I flew on Pan Am in early 1970 (coach) and the service was reprehensible. The food was awful. They wouldn't even give any water to the women behind us and this was after five hours of waiting on the ground. First class accomodations were no better than today's outdated (non flat bed) business- and this was a 747-100.

Fly international first class on virtually any airline today (not business first or business elite) but on a three class airline and the food, service and amenities are unmatched. Singapore and Emirates will blow your socks off. United, BA and others are far nicer than you can imagine. And yes even coach on a lot of airlines offers far more than they used to. You can upgrade to a coach seat that offers far more legroom than you got in the 70s. And airlines are starting to offer fold down seats that equal a bed- in coach! Check out Air New Zealand.

Getting through the airport may suck, security may suck but I've experienced few things as luxurious as international first class. I wish I could do it more often.

Emirates


BA


Singapore


United



Thai
Thai first class menu image by gardkarlsen on Photobucket

BTW Rick your Mom is sizzling.

[Hugh R]

I've flown business class on Air France, NZ, and Lufthansa in the last year. I like NZ and Lufthansa the best. United has a long way to go with their seating and service.

[stevepaa]

Originally Posted by BE911SC

As an airline pilot and airline hobby-historian I laughed out-loud during the first episode of Pan Am.

1. The captain is 30 years too young. .

2. Where's all the smoke? .

3. Not enough sexual harassment on the TV show.

4. The crew stays together trip after trip? 5. Hair. That captain has too much hair. Taper the back and sides son, you goddam hippie.

6. In the first episode, on takeoff roll, the pilots look at each other at about 120 knots and gay-ly smile.

7. Inaugural revenue flight of new 707 in the first episode.

8. Stews as Cold War spies? .

.

correct. My wife and I both made same comments. Except #8 was and is true to some extent for both pilots and FAs.