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Pan Am is flying again — on TV

"Pan Am," the new ABC series debuting this fall, evokes "Mad Men" as a sexy throwback to the 1960s, with stewardesses and pilots replacing ad executives.
/ Source: msnbc.com

A new ABC drama is harkening back to the glamour days of flying, when the food was edible, seats roomy and the Transportation Security Administration didn't exist.

"Pan Am," which has been picked up by the network for the 2011-12 season, will focus on flight attendants — with all the passion, jealousy and spying that can be packed into a nighttime drama.

The series is set in the early 1960s, when stewardesses were admired and gawked at — and dealt with such requirements as girdles and weight checks. It's also the go-go, color-saturated period in which the Emmy-winning series "Mad Men" takes place.

In those days, Pan Am was the epitome of glamorous flying. Con man Frank Abagnale Jr. of "Catch Me If You Can" fame, who once famously posed as a Pan Am pilot, called it the "Ritz-Carlton of airlines."

Christina Ricci stars in the drama written and produced by Jack Orman, a former "ER" writer.

"Pan Am" is set to debut in September.

Information from The Associated Press is inlcluded in this report.