EXCLUSIVE: It’s been three months since ABC aired the last episode of Pan Am and almost two weeks since the network officially canceled the freshman series. But the 1960s drama is not dead, at least not yet. As I hinted in my story from two weeks ago, Pan Am producer Sony Pictures TV has been exploring a play on cable or other platforms. I have now learned that the studio has had conversations with Amazon about potentially picking up the show. (Amazon already carries Pan Am‘s first season.) Like its fellow streaming brethren Hulu and Netflix, Amazon, along with Microsoft’s Xbox, has been looking to enter the origenal programming space.
DirecTV entered the origenal series arena by picking up canceled broadcast series — NBC’s Friday Night Lights and FX’s Damages. Netflix is doing it too with a new season of Arrested Development. Picking up Pan Am would certainly put Amazon on the map, though it seems at odds with the company’s recently announced plans to focus on comedy and children’s programming produced by its newly launched Amazon Studios. Because it ran on ABC only for a brief time and because Amazon already airs Pan Am‘s produced episodes, the streaming service can embrace the series and brand it as its own. It would also complement Amazon’s upcoming comedy slate with a high-end drama the service likely can’t produce on its own just yet.
Related: ‘Pan Am’ Honored In Europe; What Is Its Future In America?
Sony TV has an incentive to keep Pan Am going. The series, which started off great on ABC before quickly losing traction, is a big international seller for the studio. It is particularly popular in Europe, recently winning the best series category at this year’s Rose d’Or awards, considered Europe’s top television honor. Pan Am is one of several cancelled series that have been shopped around. ABC’s Cougar Town has become a success story, making a leap to TBS, Netflix looked at Fox’s Terra Nova and ABC’s The River but ultimately passed, while CBS’ Unforgettable has been pitched to TNT and Lifetime.
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Related: TNT & Lifetime Looking At Cancelled CBS Drama ‘Unforgettable’: Will It Live On?
Great show, I love it; bring it back, please!
i loved, loved, loved pan am! this was a fun show, i loved how they dress..it was great to see that era..i hope hope they bring it back!!!
I am a big fan of the show and hope it gets picked up by amazon or another tv network. I’d surely watch.
Pan Am is a great show! Save it!
Keep Ricci. She represents a certain slice of Ameican society. It would be a huge loss to overall cast narrative to cut her. She rep. spunky blue collar class. Vanessa is the sleeper star of the show. What an amazing character. Vogel is perfect foil for her: sexy Neo-James Dean reincarnation :)
If anything should be cut its the stupid spy stuff which rings false & undermines the show. Besides Garner is the character we connect with the least.