Advanced search

Period drama about the pilots and flight attendants who once made Pan Am the most glamorous way to fly.

A behind-the-scenes look at a fictional sketch-comedy television show.

In 1943 Los Alamos, New Mexico, a team of government scientists is working on the top-secret Manhattan Project in a race to produce an atomic bomb before the Nazis. Meanwhile, their families adjust to life on the military base.

Ben Donovan manages The Sunshine Centre, a second-rate sports arena in San Diego.

The early life of Bobby McCallister, a progressive President of the United States from 2041 to 2049, is explored.

When Missy tells Bobby she's pregnant of his baby, all Grace's feminist obsession simply subside to tell him there's no greater burden then raising a child alone, except doing so with a girl like Missy. Reverend Belknap could equally have spared himself the trouble to preach about Christian duty, atheist Jack feels it's up to him to do the right thing and wreck his life. Courtney finally manages to make Missy admit to her and ultimately to Jack the father is not him bur her irresponsible ex Randi... Meanwhile Bobby's exploration of religious services has concluded he wants to be baptized into the Episcopalian church, but he has a hard time finding a suitable god-parent while his fanatically atheist ma keeps pretending it's just a phase he'll quickly outgrow, till she learns he has been devout there for five months and considers Peter the right man for the job...

Jack's wrecked knee has also wrecked the family budget; Mindy almost lost interest in him, drags him to her ex Randy's party, where the rivals have a fist-fight. In the doctor's waiting room Jack gets blatantly lectured by inconspicuous scoliosis patient Katie, just for never noticing her before. Grace accepted to spend the weekend naked in Tom's parents' St. Louis property, without even remembering the annual meteor shower camp she promised Bobby six months in advance; Tom decides to go camping there 'coincidentally' instead. As their endless unrelated tattering makes the fun turn torturous for Bobby, and she blatantly dismisses his plea to get rid of Tom, he exposes cleverly the man's utter astronomical ignorance and her hypocritical crush. Both pa the chancellor and Nate himself see trough Courtney's 'mandatory invitation' for a Negro students event, he tells her his girlfriend back home was invented to prevent an accident with a minor, yet turns up the next morning to invite her...

Mad mother McCallister drags poor Bobby out of bed for breakfast three hours early in the morning invoking some study the brain learns better in the morning, but his tutor, her friend professor Steven Feltz, realizes a thirteen-year old boy's grades go down because of girl-troubles, standard, Jack adds the magical ingredient for kid bro's upcoming exam: his lucky cap; alas the Goth girl convinces him to use a cheat-sheet he didn't need... Chancellor Peter Benedict offers Grace a seat in a committee to decide about student Sara's claim of damages from the university for sexual harassment of a student by- professor Steven Feltz, which will only go away in case the teacher resigns, he claims Sara wouldn't leave him alone and kissed him... Courtney still can't handle her ex Jack being with class-mate Missy, who is determined to bring them together and succeeds in making them all friends.

Bobby and Warren's odd jobs firm's first customer, an old bag, hires them for a mean job: carry from her garage, reeking of her cats' piss, the boxes stored for months by her cousin Timmy Swain, to put with the trash. When Warren drops a box and goes trough it with dubious motives which Bobby rebukes, they find several wallets, including the one stolen from Jack, who thus is able to identify his violent robber in the hardware store where the fiend works, but is told by police officer Burke prosecution isn't realistic, so he asks Marcus to make sure he doesn't 'get away with it', starting a curious series of lies and difficult choices after Bobby finds out and refuses to stand by... Nate wisely refuses to take Courtney to a formal frat party where the chancellor would probably learn they still see each-other, she still buys a fancy dress for it and learns another twist... Professor Roger Hennessy formally files a complaint against Grace for willfully disregarding the department policy against professor-student relationships the hypocritical feminist helped draft, chairman Merle's attempt to sweep it under the carpet because Tom is consenting results in a formal disciplinary ethics commission chaired by Peter. After it is lifted without pronouncing, Grace who now has lost everybody's respect, even the student representative's, dares doubt Tom's love because of his reluctance to start over his entire 'tainted' thesis but is baffled by the real consequences and driving force.

Emotive hippie professor Grace McCallister continues to make life impossible for everyone. She fights chancellor Peter Benedict for executing administrative staff cuts imposed by board budget choices, meaning Vera Vaughn is also out, and because he refuses to continue the unbroken tradition of the Moonlight address to the student body at midnight before the new college year- he gets her to discuss it at dinner, walks out tired of her constant and ill-considered abuse, but still offers her an alternative: she may hold the address. At home, Grace rages to assembled students to arouse crazy fanaticism her style for the Democratic electoral campaign, till Jack tells everybody to leave realizing she's smoking marijuana in public, again. Now Jack is suspended from the team after taking the blame for ma's pot which Bobby brought to school, he dates chancellor Benedict's daughter Courtney, but misreads her accepting to go bowling with the brothers. Bobby bravely goes own up to principal Farber, which nearly gets both brothers suspended for at least a whole term; Jack steps in just at time, but is so scared that he gives Bobby heaps and tells the poor kid brother to butt out of his life. After finding ma stoned that evening, Bobby runs away, actually to Courtney, trying in vain to make her reconsider Jack, who guesses and finds him. The shock brings Jack and ma closer together again, realizing Bobby is too good to stay mad at.

Bobby is determined to repay chancellor Peter Benedict for 'saving his life' by doing chores, even if it turns out harmful for him or the home, till Benedict discovers him as talented chess partner and promising pupil instead- until he's caught losing on too respectful purpose, but Bobby is soon back bursting with belligerent confidence. While Tom persists in asking Grace's pointless 'academic advice', Jack is furious to desperate when she insist to make his social nightmare come true: meeting girlfriend Missy's non-revolutionary parents reverend and Evelyn Belknap at their dinner table, a recipe for religious war, while disloyal Marcus asks Courtney to a frat party, only to be ignored there. Afterward Jack tells his high, haughty ma what an inept, inconsiderate cow she was, as always, and tells her to but out; next morning she asks him to help her stop smoking weed for real. When she tells Tom to take another tutor because she's romantically attracted, he replies he therefore already took another, they kiss.

Feminist fury Grace manages to blame Tom and his 'apathic generation' for signing up 180 girls in a Democrat election party she could only interest 20 students in, next pours her invariably useless haughty advice over Bobby, who is crushed by Dex's rejection, causing him to publicly embarrass himself and finds out Jack talked to the Goth girl, trying to save kid brother from social suicide. When Bobby retaliates by telling Missy about Jack and Courtney's kiss, ma finds them fighting and proves the pointlessness of her 'conflict resolution'. Fortunately the boys' good nature naturally reemerges before Bobby's asthma strikes at election night, luckily the chancellor can help...

Jack no longer considers Katie his dream-partner, wanting Courtney back, but she has also pawned her heart to another... Grace proudly accepts to make a speech...

Bobby wants substitute-father figure Peter Benedict to teach him deer-hunting, badly enough to blackmail hypocrite pacifist meat-eating ma Grace to permit it by threatening to tell Jack about her affair with Tom, who stops her wining about the 'bloody killing' by stripping for love-making- till they see Jack, still on crutches, staring at them in their underwear, most unamused, doubting she can love any more then be honest, disgusted Bobby had to hide it for her, worried he'll be left with the pieces when the age-difference explodes in her face. Courtney uses her dad's absence that Saturday to invite Nate at home, sweetly kissing on the couch till she insists it's time to go further- then unable to stop because they have no condom... Bobby enjoys the nature - and hunting lesson as well as the bonding, but is unable to kill, even as a mercy-shot, even Peter and Jack fail to console his bruised male ego.

When Grace drags poor Bobby along to Huntsville, the clever kid works out it's for the only notable institution there, a jail. He learns their Mexican dad, Juan Roberto Alba, is doing time there, she claims it's a mistake. Jack is furious that she took his kid brother there, and decides to come along to protect him. When Bobby, who first thanks Peter for being his de factor substitute father, wants to finally meet his biological pa, ma confesses she lied again: Juan may never be released as he was convicted for homicide. Now Bobby is disgusted and refuses to come, but Jack can't resist doing the brave thing and actually finds they see eye to eye.

The brothers are understandably suspicious when culinarily hopeless ma announces she's going to cook a Thanksgiving turkey for their guests. Jack's longstanding friend Matt Kramer has committed suicide, his class goes trough grief counseling. After seeing Tom hold hands with Leslie, an ex his age, Grace tells him no romantic involvement between them is possible and gets a surprise visit from her equally flippant, erudite, openly gay kid brother Jimmy, who is great with Bobby and can tell the boys more about their dad, which Grace avoids since he left them, but also has his own problems, especially with alcoholism... Only Jack knows Matt didn't break up with him and the team because of Missy, but was a closet-gay afraid to tell his bigot Missouri family and had a desperate crush on Jack, who is asked by the family to speak at the funeral.

(...) Hopeless mother Grace McCallister not only has a problem with Jack getting on with his dumb blond ex Missy again, she actually objects to her bright eldest son's choice to get back to church. Meanwhile the inconsiderate atheist gets embroiled in more disputes concerning religion at college herself. ...

In flash-forwards to the year 2049, White House staffers and the First Lady are interviewed, giving a midcentury perspective on the man who beat the odds and became one of the greatest leaders of his time.

Bobby has a school preparation on his ancestry, which requires help from ma about her and pa, but as Jack warned it's hard enough to get her to start talking at all, about pa she sticks to the utter lie the Mexican busboy was a Chilean archaeologist. Instead of behaving like an educator she even insists Bobby either goes along with her fake family history or takes a failing grade 'for once'. Because of a suspicious classmate's questions he's found out and utterly embarrassed, but still she expects him to accept 'she has a good reason', so finally he breaks open the box she keeps mysterious keepsakes in, and finds pa Juan's letter to 'Querida Grace', to her fury... Meanwhile Tom is sweet enough to show his convention text to Grace, who claims it needs a complete work-over but promises to do it- poor Tom, and of course it's all his fault if she dumps him somehow for expecting her to keep her promise... When Katie sees Nate kissing Tiffany at arrival in the station, she makes Jack risk his friendship by telling to his ex Courtney, who viciously turns on Nate without any consideration and blames him for her own deceptions...

After his cowardly roughing-up by a gang while putting out the trash at his restaurant job, Jack decides to return to daily athletic team training, leaving Bobby without a jogging partner, but refuses to involve the police just for suddenly pseudo-maternal Grace's sense of 'civic duty'. Courtney meets charming Sig frat pledge Nate Edmonds by freeing him from the tree in the chancellor's home front lawn which he was tied to naked by way of hazing, albeit cupping. When Nate invites her to a frat party, she lies to be a Sig(ma), but the real problems are the age-gap and his girl-friend back home... Bobby notices Jack's knee is killing big brother, and takes the chancellor's chessboard-advice to courageously do what's best at the risk of being despised for it, but Grace isn't nearly so brave; Bobby still gets her to drag Jack to the doctor before the match, but even knowing he risks permanent damage seems less pressing to Jack then 'conquering his fear'... After Grace's lame patronage was probably he last straw for the colleagues assessing Tom's graphic novels thesis progress, she realizes to have given their romance game away to a student, and unlike him feels like giving in to subtle threats by sparing her a failing grade...

After the accident, Jack wisely refuses Grace's 'help', but decides to tell the police he was driving, so his drunk teammate Marcus avoids criminal prosecution. Bigot reverend Belknap tells the boys to stay away from Missy's funeral and delivers a grim sermon without any compassion for the sinful kids coming to Old Testament justice, even her, which his wife Evelyn leaves him for. Warren makes a big production out of a prankish collection for a time capsule to commemorate their transition from junior - to senior high school with Bobby, but when he hears from Grace that's because dad Feide's new job is in Chicago so they move, Bobby is so hurt he wasn't even going to say goodbye he pretends no longer to have a best friend, but Jack makes him realize that's wasting his chance to say goodbye, which goes well. Jack makes a stand against parental urgency to tell the truth, Peter reconsiders and carries the day. The four boys make and bury a videotape in a time-capsule.

Eternal social activist Grace decides when Vietnam veteran Jonah Babbage, who since 15 years drifts on the Plains State campus writing obscene Hippie 'poetry', looses his shack to construction of sports accommodation paid for by a major donation, to take him in as 'house guest' till she finds him a permanent home -nothing Christian!-, despite both brothers' strong protest- Jack is furious, Bobby initially terrified by the dirty, ugly, grumpy nut-case. Meanwhile Goth girl Dex decides to shamelessly abuse the boys toilet at school as her dirty 'office' and scares Bobby and his mate Warren into silence even there, yet the bitch's gang blames them wrongly when she gets expelled and demands they turn up at night 'for a beating', luckily her filthy mouth proves larger then her bite and cup... Grace's young friend Tom Wexler Graham's tycoon father Henry 'Huck' Graham obliges her by finding Jonah a spot, so she must accept to attend the party in his honor for the Graham Sports and Recreation Center at the president's new official residence; Jack attends, to Missy's anger, at lonely Courtney's plea, she makes a public spectacle of herself, is sent to her room and tells Jack she has her ma's crazy gene. At home, Bobby catches Jonah stealing the TV to move to a hotel from the thieving shelter- and covers for him -Jack guesses- and goes to Ellen "Dex"'s 'boring bourgeois' home, her only frustration, and bravely makes friends with the freak rebel.

Bobby is admitted to the Challenge program for the academically gifted, but the 'cool' friends he makes there are vindictive vandals who drag him along into trouble, even wreck the kind janitor's shrine for his son who died in war. Ever-selfish ma expects Jack to drop everything and mind Bobby for her while she leaves in a hurry for an inter-faculty bonding event, but Jack decides instead to host the team party which he would have missed when it loses its venue, allowing even the water-polo team to join in. The brothers can't enjoy it much, mounting guard on door and phone in case ma checks up, but just when Courtney and Jack's other ex have them both aside talking she phones, so a party animal tells her it's an open door party; the chancellor stops drunk ma from returning but has her call the police. Ma finds her own student assistant committed blatant plagiarism, yet changes her disappointed feminist mind on making her loose the scholarship she denied a better qualified man 'for social advancement'. Bobby decides to leave Challenge, telling ma it never was his idea anyway; only now she listens to the program mentor, who was surprised she pushed to get Bobby in, after showing no interest when Jack was offered a place two years earlier, then finds out he even forged her non-permission to duck it, his pertinent reasons hit her even harder.