Why not a Pan-Am Railways reality series?
There seems to be enough things happening on the Pan-Am Railways to fill a television season.
Somebody has to produce such a series.
Andrew Falconer
Please explain your premise.
Does PanAm Railways actually represent reality?
Some would say not.
Please show all work and assume no friction…
And solve for X.
A is a Free Radical variable…
Seriously, I would like to know why he thinks this would make a good reality story?
Lets face it; Railroading and Trains, are pretty much an esoteric interest. The Television Show “Trains Unlimited” I liked and watched, “Extreme Trains” was interesting, but only with the sound off, to me it was kind of Hokey with the narration on. But that’s just my opinion.
Movies about railroads can be interesting on the First viewing (my opinion] but they loose a lot to me on the second or third view. " Emperor of the North" with Ernest Borgnine, and Lee Marvin is a particular favorite. “Union Pacific” with Joel McCray and Barbara Stanwyck was cool for a movie from 1939. The 3:10 to Yuma (1957) was a pretty good movie. I have not seen the remake from 2007 yet.
Point being, the Hollywood and TV production types seem to have no interest or understanding in ‘things railroading’. Mostly, what they seem to know;, is to stop when the crossbar goes down in front of their car to wait for a train. Otherwise they have no interest, and it shows in the products they put out. [2c]
PanAm is not reality at all when it comes to modern railroading. Yes, I am one of them who say not. Besides, who wastes their time watching that garbage on the telly? Mindless drivel if you ask me.
For some reason the people at the television network ABC have an Hour Scripted Drama show called PAN-AM set in the 1960’s. What is going on at ABC since most of its programming is “Reality” contest and conflict shows. They are doing a fully scripted show with the setting being a former airplane line. Why not get the current Pan-Am Railways on the air at the same time for a bit of contrast.
A bright spotlight on them might get the railway some worldwide exposure and possibly some outside solutions to their problems.
Andrew
The people of Guilford Instustries bought the name Pan American several years ago when the name was no longer used by Pan American Airways, et.al. During the deveiopment of the airline industry, Pan American played a major part with flights between North and SOuth America especially. Their marketing was exceptional and through the 70’s at least it meant travel, romance, adventure, and class via some unique aircraft. ABC TV is using that image for the show and not a downgraded railroad track once bearing its own proud names of Boston and Maine and Maine Central…
YES IT IS MAINE not MAIN! I’m old enough to know better but too old to type write right! Esepcially when typing quickly as dinner is announced!!!
As if we need more reality shows, besides after watching the movie unstoppable clearly Hollywood and show a accurate presentation of railroading dose not mix.
The only thing is in order to make a reality show good there has to be a certain amount of “dysfunction” - let’s face it if it’s a smooth running operation with little drama that does not make good TV. My guess is a railroad, while it has problems, does not have nearly the required “drama” to make reality TV - when problems come up on a RR they are professionally dealt with and taken care of.
Take two shows - Ax Men vs American Loggers. The Pelletier company showcased in American Loggers had operational problems, but they were professionally dealt with and it was a tightly ran company. Result: American Loggers bored me to death. On Ax Men however, well this is probably my favorite part of the show - one of his employees calls the boss Jay Browning to tell him they just ruined a couple tens of thousands of dollars of equipment - so spontaneously Jay Browning goes into his truck, grabs his pistol, throws down his cell phone and blasts his cell phone with his gun. Just my favorite “dysfunction” out of many - the logging companies on Ax Men were much less organized than on American Loggers, thus resulting in much more drama and much better TV.
Railroads just don’t have the drama! If you want transportation drama, I suggest airlines (and not UPS or FedEx)…
Pan Am Rwys. / Guilford may be closer to the “Ax Men” paradigm than you might think. If you knew the history of all the lines over the last 30 years or so - such as using the Guilford subsidiary Springfield Terminal to force drastic changes to the union contracts for pay, crew size, work rules, etc.; the failed attempt to buy the D&H and do the same; the multiple fights over allowing the Amtrak Downeaster service to use their line, and then the scope of and paying for the upgrades and the allowable speed limits (79 MPH on 115 lb. RE CWR); boring out the Hoosac Tunnel to improve clearances; the pending “Patriot Corridor” joint venture “Pan Am Southern” - see: http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/pdf/patriot_corridor.pdf - with Norfolk Southern from the Albany, NY to Ayer (Boston), MA areas etc. - yep, there’s a lot of drama there, more so than on most other railroads.
But from the webpage linked above, I see that the Joint Venture, Pam Am Southern, will be responsible for operations, and will sub-contract with Springfield Terminal to actually perform them. [:-,] So NS likely won’t have to worry much about any possible impact on its exemplary safety record from that affiliation . . . [:-^]
- Paul North.
Wow. We don’t have drama or dysfunction? There are more than enough personalities to make a decent railroad “reality” show on TV. But in reality, any industry has personality, drama and dysfuction. Those are human traits… so any industry that employs humans…
But as you pointed out, any “reality” show that actually showed reality would be met with yawns. No, us americans don’t want to be educated or shown true reality - we want to be entertained with scripted stunts and drama, even in our “reality” shows.
So, while a railroad might not make a good subject for a reality show, a forum about railroads might? [:-^]
I’m with Zug, there’s plenty of dysfunction and friction to go around. I submit however, that if the total truth as to what goes on was catured on tape, the public wouldn’t believe it and think it was completely scripted. Not that everything that goes on would be captured or allowed to be aired. The carriers would never allow anything that put them in a bad light. (There may have never been gunfire, but there has been some screaming done. And some of that was just between company officers.)
Jeff
LMAO!! Yea ok, come to work with me and the cast of charactors I work with and you’ll see plenty of drama. Waaaay more going on behind the scenes than the general public can imagine. you have no idea.
Oh yes, there has been gunfire! Every man has his breaking point.
Is that an invitation? I may just take you up on your offer… [:D]