History Series / PanAm

[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pan-am-cast_762.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:349:"Come fly with me, come fly, let's fly away..."]]

* FollowTheLeader: The show was essentially ''Series/MadMen'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY only]] ''[[TropesOnAPlane on a plane!]]''

* BigApplesauce: Subverted. The crew's home base is in New York, but every episode features a flight to at least one location overseas.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhof: The show was very popular [[http://deadline.com/2012/05/pan-am-honored-in-europe-what-is-its-future-in-america-270169/ in European countries but never found a US audience.]]

!!!Tropes found in ''Pan Am'':

* XMeetsY: This show can be described as ''Series/MadMen'' ''[[TropesOnAPlane on a plane!]]''

* FollowTheLeader: The show was essentially ''Series/MadMen'' [[XMeetsY only]] ''[[TropesOnAPlane on a plane!]]''

DuelingShows with {{NBC}}'s ''Series/ThePlayboyClub'' and both attempting to capture the success of ''Series/MadMen'' for primetime broadcast television. Neither attempt worked, though ''Pam Am'' barely "won" the duel by lasting a whole season before being quietly canceled. But it introduced audiences outside Australia to Creator/MargotRobbie (those who hadn't seen her on ''Series/{{Neighbours}}'', anyway), so something good came out of it.

** "That BobDylan will be famous, mark my words."

* DuelingShows: With ''The Playboy Club''. Both are considered to be knock-offs of ''MadMen'' to boot. And this show is the big winner, as ''Playboy Club'' was cancelled after just three episodes before the show had even premiered

* FollowTheLeader: The show was essentially ''MadMen'' [[XMeetsY only]] ''[[TropesOnAPlane on a plane!]]''

* XMeetsY: This show can be described as ''MadMen'' ''[[TropesOnAPlane on a plane!]]''

* TheBeard: How Amanda sees Ted if they get married.
* TheBechdelTest: Passes with [[IncrediblyLamePun flying]] colors. Inverted with the men on the show, for the first few episodes, at least. It seemed that whenever they talked to each other, it was always about the women. That changed in "Eastern Exposure" where a lot of their dialogue centered around how Dean was able to make flight captain despite nearly 50 first officers above him in seniority.

DuelingShows with {{NBC}}'s ''Series/ThePlayboyClub'' and both attempting to capture the success of ''Series/MadMen'' for primetime broadcast television. Neither attempt worked, though ''Pam Am'' barely "won" the duel by lasting a whole season before being quietly canceled.

* BillingDisplacement: Creator/ChristinaRicci, due to being the biggest star in the series, gets top billing, despite that her character, Maggie, is often sidelined or OutOfFocus. The show mainly offers up an EnsembleCast but if a main character had to be picked it would probably be Kate, whose actress, Kelli Garner, gets AndStarring status.

* FakeNationality: French-Canadian Karine Vanasse as the French Colette. Also Australian Creator/MargotRobbie as [[FakeAmerican Laura]].

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[{{Twilight}} Alice Cullen]] plays Ted's childhood friend.

* TheyJustDidntCare: During the pilot episode, as Clipper 22 approaches London, the wingtip navigation lights are swapped: the green one should be on the RIGHT wing, the red one on the LEFT. They got them backwards, which truly grated on this troper's nerves.

* TheBechdelTest: Passes with [[IncrediblyLamePun flying]] colors. Surprisingly inverted with the men on the show, for the first few episodes, at least. It seemed that whenever they talked to each other, it was always about the women. That changed in "Eastern Exposure" where a lot of their dialogue centered around how Dean was able to make flight captain despite nearly 50 first officers above him in seniority.

* FakeNationality: French-Canadian Karine Vanasse as the French Colette. Also Australian Margot Robbie as [[FakeAmerican Laura]].

* ColdWar: Discussed by the various CIA and [=MI6=] operatives Kate deals with; international flight crewmembers make great intelligence assets because their jobs provide them with built-in covers. Intercontinental flights during this era weren't exactly safe, though, and neither was spying. Bridget learns both lessons to her cost.

** It is remarkabl how well-known Pan American World Airways and its blue globe are, that twentysometing years after its demise people still know of it, speak of it, and cared enough about it to try to make a TV show about it. The end result wasn't what the creators wanted at all.

** It is remarkable to realize how well-known Pan American World Airways and its blue globe are, that twentysometing years after its demise people still know of it, speak of it, and cared enough about it to try to make a TV show about it. The end result wasn't what the creators wanted at all.

* ShownTheirWork: The stewardesses have to weigh in before each flight; girdles are mandatory, with Maggie receiving a suspension for not wearing hers.

* ForegoneConclusion: "New Frontiers" ends with the news that JFK has been shot, and people wondering whether he'll make it.

* BlatantLies: [[spoiler: Maggie's life turns out to be pretty much built on this.]]

* CreepyChild: Charlie has shades of this when breaks into Colette's hotel room in the middle of the night while she's asleep and stands over her bed.

* FaceHeelTurn: In the first season finale, [[spoiler: Anderson]] betrays the CIA and MI6.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[{{Twilight}} Alice Cullen]] plays Ted's [[spoiler:lesbian]] childhood friend.

* IAmSpartacus: The girls pull this when asked which one of them brought the Haitian girl aboard

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Amanda deploys an...unusual variation of this trope when she [[spoiler: asks Laura to be Ted's mistress]]

* LieDetector: Kate has to pass a polygraph test to prove that she [[spoiler: didn't shoot the man she shot in the previous episode. She passes.]]
* LipstickLesbian: [[spoiler: Amanda]], apparently.

* LoveTriangle: Dean/Colette/Bridget [[spoiler: once she returns]].

* MaleGaze: Inverted in 'Genuine Article'. The camera zooms in on Maggie's hip but it came from woman's eye view.
* MilitaryMaverick: Ted when he was in the Navy. It backfires horribly when he crashes the test plane. he claims the plan had a defect, the Navy ruled that he made an error.

** Also no one freaks out when Maggie mentions that [[spoiler: Amanda]] kissed her on the lips, in a time period where gay people were generally thought to be predatory perverts.

* PublicExposure: [[spoiler: Laura admits during a game of Truth or Dare that she had the photographer that was following her around take nude photos of her.]]
* RansackedRoom: Kate finds her hotel room in shambles and thinks [[spoiler: that someone was looking for the camera she's supposed to deliver.]] It was actually Laura and Maggie discovering that ReptilesAreAbhorrent (see above).

** How Kate gets the East German courier into the same party, and Collete singing [[spoiler: the Nazi national anthem]]

* RunawayBride: Laura, with Kate's assistance, pulls one of these, escaping what's heavily implied to be a StepfordSuburbia to see the world as a stewardess.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Kate's reaction to the other courier's plight. Collete bringing the Haitian refugee aboard
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: ABC aired Pan Am on Sunday at 10PM against the Super Bowl Sunday and the Grammys.

* ShipSinking: There probably won't be too many fans of Kate and [[spoiler: Anderson]] since in the finale [[spoiler: he betrayed the CIA and MI6 and threatened to kill her]].

* StealthPun: What's the first episode of a television show called? A pilot. Who is one of the main focuses of the first episode of Pan Am? The pilot.

* TheStoolPigeon: [[spoiler: Maggie appears to rat out Dean and Ginny in order to leverage a good word to her superiors.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: Maggie gets called out by her English professor, [[spoiler: who has figured out that she is not who she says she is. She took the place, and name, of a student who was dropping out. She did brilliantly, but he couldn't give her the grade she earned because she wasn't even his student]].

** Meanwhile, the pilot has no qualms about sleeping with his boss's "secretary" (read: mistress). On more than one occasion.

* BerserkButton: Colette really does not like Germany [[spoiler: given that her entire family was killed by the Nazis]]. Of course, given that she's the most outwardly calm stewardess of the lot, she only shows this indirectly, such as by [[spoiler: singing the Nazi national anthem at a party honoring US/West German partnership]]

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Colette seems to think its the primary United States which try to wash the Germans of their WW2 guilt (See Quote). At the time she says this, the Treaty of Élysée of French-German Friendship had been signed for 6 months in order to finally move beyond the century long feud between both nations.
--> '''Colette''': "Your president tries so hard to lift [the Germans'] shame, but they should feel shame. I came to Germany to forgive, but I still hate them. And I don't know how to stop."
** On the other hand, having your parents murdered by the Nazis would leave anyone having a grudge, even if their government officially was trying to extend the olive branch
* TheBeard: [[spoiler: How Amanda sees Ted if they get married.]]

DuelingShows with {{NBC}}'s ''ThePlayboyClub'' and both attempting to capture the success of ''MadMen'' for primetime broadcast television. Neither attempt worked, though ''Pam Am'' barely "won" the duel by lasting a whole season before being quietly canceled.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In-universe example. Had Ted not crashed his test plane, he [[ICouldaBeenAContender could have been]] part of {{NASA}} instead of an airline co-pilot.

* BillingDisplacement: ChristinaRicci, due to being the biggest star in the series, gets top billing, despite that her character, Maggie, is often sidelined or OutOfFocus. The show mainly offers up an EnsembleCast but if a main character had to be picked it would probably be Kate, whose actress, Kelli Garner, gets AndStarring status.

* [[spoiler:HoneyTrap]]: [[spoiler:Kate gets "promoted" from courier to this with regards to her target, a Yugoslavian diplomat. Leads to...]]
** [[spoiler:InLoveWithTheMark]]: [[spoiler:As it is the first time she's ever tried to turn a target into an asset, Kate's feelings for Niko are genuine.]]