Posting today’s gonna be lax. “LAX”, in fact! In honor of tonight’s premiere episode of NBC‘s hour-long drama starring the forever-relevant Heather Locklear and the forever-handsome Blair Underwood, we’re throwing aside creativity and getting a bit—you guess it!—lax!
According to the press clippings for the show, it “explores the behind-the-scenes dramas and conflicts of both travelers and staff transpiring daily at the bustling Los Angeles International Airport.” The show’s characters are jockeying “to be named the new director of the airport while working together to solve everything from bomb scares, to VIP arrivals, drunken pilots and roaming pets—all beneath the din of a frantic “hub” with spokes that touch all corners of the world.”
We have such high hopes for this show we’re already holding our breath for the inevitable Law & Order/C.S.I.-esque spin-offs. To wit:
“SJC”: Slated for a mid-season replacement slot. Covers the trials and tribulations of customs agents working at San Jose International Airport, in Northern California’s little-known but most-populous city, as shady foreign businessmen try to steal trade secrets from Silicon Valley’s bustling computer and technology industry. This series, incidentally, is set in 1996.
“EWR”: Another mid-season filler. For those of you not well-versed in our nation’s many lesser-known airports, EWR refers to New Jersey’s Newark International Airport. This gripping boardroom drama concerns the NY/NJ Port Authority’s efforts to bring the consumer-class convenience of budget carriers such as JetBlue to little ol’ Newark. “You know how much traffic we’re losing to goddamned LaGuardia? We’ve got fucking Song and that’s it,” series lead Eric Roberts repeatedly barks to his underlings in the well-received pilot, which is, somewhat notably, the first drama about airports to feature heavily-excised language.
“EYW”: Air travel doesn’t come easy when you’re located amidst miles and miles of waterfront property with docks and piers extending as far as the eye can see…and the staff at Key West International Airport knows this firsthand. For years, a battle has been raging between local boat-rental companies and the cozy airport’s ringmasters, but that battle just got a little more even with the arrival of drug baron Raoul Mendoza and his posse of depth-charge-dropping small-bodied Sandpiper aircraft.
“IND”: If there’s one thing flight mechanics don’t like, its a nasty labor dispute. And when the fictitious USAirlineways, which is in no way related to the real-life USAirways, files for bankruptcy and threatens to reduce its nonstop service between the titular Indianapolis International Airport and Boston, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, N.C., and Philadelphia, these laborers get mad. But what they don’t know is that USAirlineways’ chief labor negotiator is from Baltimore, and has carried a nasty Eric Dickerson-related grudge since that fateful day in 1984 when the Colts left his city to head to Indiana. (This pilot currently only exists in script format and has yet to be filmed.)