Welcome to the 60's

Mad Men is one of the most successful shows of the past few years... and of course if wasn't going to be long until other networks wanted a piece of that success. Thus spawned ABC's Pan Am and NBC's The Playboy Club.

Both are shows are about very different, but very glamourous settings in the 60's era with some very strong women protagonists. I'll confess now that I'm hooked on both of them even thought The Playboy Club has already been cancelled!

Pan Am has a better promise though. It's about the Pan Am stewardesses and their dreams of seeing more of the world than the contemporary housewives of the time. There's romance, adventure, mystery, glamour, and a touch of Cold War spies. The pilot opens with a real pilot (punny i know) tipping his hat to a little boy who looks on with wonder, and it ends with one of the stewardesses waving at a little girl looking on with that same look, "maybe I could do that too". They had me eating out of their hands! I'm such a sucker.



As for The Playboy Club... not as great writing and the whole Playboy Bunny murdering the mob boss doesn't go over so well. Still, the setting, costumes, and characters I think are great. I especially love the "Bunny Mother". She plays her role perfectly. Too bad all that wasn't enough and it's already cancelled!

There's a great article from The New Yorker about how the two shows show television's transition from strong male leading roles to strong women leading roles... and whether that's going to work or not. You can read that article here.