Ed Martin Live at TCA: Sexy Stewardesses Help ABC Take Off at TCA

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Cover image for  article: Ed Martin Live at TCA: Sexy Stewardesses Help ABC Take Off at TCA

As I write this column, I'm near the end of the last full day of a media marathon that began 19 days ago at Comic-Con and continued through the Summer 2011 Television Critics Association tour … and during that time I don't think I have seen any broadcast network do anything so effectively to support a new show as ABC with its eye-catching promotional efforts on behalf of its fall arrival Pan Am.

As critics yesterday entered the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the first of ABC's two days at the tour they were greeted by two stunning stewardesses (as they were known back in the early '60s, when Pan Am takes place) poised behind a ticket counter and handing each critic a bag emblazoned with the logo of the long-defunct airline. Behind the counter was a screen with the scheduled start time for each of the network's press conferences and otherevents.

This display took me back to the massive San Diego Convention Center last month at Comic-Con, where a much larger Pan Am display drew a steady crowd of fan-boys and –girls who wanted to be photographed with a stewardess or in a replica of a Pan Am cabin. I thought at the time that an appealingly nostalgic drama like Pan Am, which likely won't resonate with viewers 40 or under, was an odd choice for floor space that had been occupied in previous years by such recent ABC science-fiction series as FlashForward and V. Nevertheless, beautiful young women in the sky-blue Pan Am flight attendant uniforms of the Mad Men era proved an irresistible draw.

Similarly, the Pan Am display in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton snapped critics out of the stupor they were in Sunday, it being the morning after the TCA Awards ceremony the night before and the final full day of TCA press conferences. It didn't hurt that the smiling stewardesses were handing out those Pan Am carry-on bags, either. All in all, a classic example of a network skillfully propelling one show out in front of dozens (including those of its competitors) and creating some much needed buzz.

This extra effort by ABC made Pan Am stand out in a long day of panels that began with ABC Entertainment Group President Paul Lee introducing his network's new fall shows, taking questions from the press and then sharing the stage with Marc Cherry, the creator and executive producer of Desperate Housewives. Cherry was brought in to field a few questions about the upcoming eighth and final season of his iconic primetime serial. This was another smart move yesterday by ABC. The cheery Cherry has been a favorite of TCA since 2004 when Housewives made its debut.

Lee had much to say about his new fall series – and the shows ABC is holding to midseason, including the adventure mystery The River and the comedy-drama Good Christian Belles. (Overall, critics appear to be far more impressed with those two shows than with ABC's fall freshmen, though there is growing support for Pan Am, and not only because of the sexy stewardesses and the nifty bags. This show actually has something to say. One of its executive producers noted that after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, the very first case filed was by stewardesses. Who knew?) Most interesting were his comments about the strange fantasy-based mystery Once Upon a Time, about a small New England town inhabited by fairy tale characters. (It's actually way more complicated than that, but it doesn't lend itself to brief summation.) The premiere of this show will be later in the fall (Sunday, October 23), "to make sure we can really throw the network at it as we used to do in cable," Lee said.

"I think it's an extraordinary piece of storytelling," he continued. "My only worry was how do we sustain it in series? We've had episodes two and three, so I'm now fully confident we can sustain it for three episodes, because they're brilliant." (Many critics were already confused about a number of plot points by the end of the pilot, so ABC has its work cut out for it with this one.)

Lee was similarly candid later in his session when he responded to a question about the upcoming midseason comedy series Work It, about two men who dress as women to find work, which has critics hissing.

"You know, when you pick up pilots, there are many reasons that you decide, why am I going to pick this up?'" he said. "You think, 'Who is the show-runner? What's the slot going to be? Where's this going to go? Does it fit my brand?' And sometimes you pick up a pilot because it makes you cackle with laughter. So I make absolutely no excuses for that show. It makes me cackle with laughter, and I think it's going to get noticed."

"We didn't think this room would like it, and there's some pleasure in that," he added.

"Did I say that out loud?" he asked, once the laughter subsided.

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