Back to Reality

Posted in General, In the News | 5 comments

It’s no secret that life at 35,000ft is entertaining, fun and also hard work. I write about my experiences here and talk about them on The Crew Lounge Podcast, but what we saw on TheCW this past Wednesday night was anything but reality.

Meet Fly Girls, a new reality show on TheCW which claims to follow the glamorous life of five flight attendants. Based in San Francisco, but “crash padding” in Los Angeles (huh? I know, it doesn’t make any sense!) these girls allow cameras to give us a peek into their job and their lives. But what we actually saw was a whole lot of awkward, scripted, drama.

Looking the like “The Hills” from the start, the show opened with an introduction to the five flight attendants as they got dressed and ready for work. Later, we follow Mandy and Louise as they board a flight with oversized, heavy bags and one semi-cute-has-snake-eyes-guy. You guessed it, the guy hit on one of the flight attendants, Louise. As this SnakeEyed stud asked for Club Soda, and Louise hands him coffee, we learn that its not uncommon for flight attendant’s to get business cards and get invited to cocktail parties at random peoples houses. Hmm, good to know. Hasn’t happened to me yet.

It gets interesting later when the shows villain Nikole moves in to the crashpad with two puppies. The show is very quick to point out that Nikole and Mandy do not get along (are you feeling “The Hills” now?) and we have to prepare for drama and tears. We get it, at the end of the show after a firetruck stealing and man handling Nikole finally pissed off Mandy to the point of, what appeared to be, a real argument or very good acting. The show ends with Mandy doing a model walk through the corridor of a hotel in Fort Lauderdale to some high beat dance dramatic music.

In this episode, we learned:

• Flight Attendant’s have to stop drinking 12 hours prior to work. (This happened at the cocktail party at Mr. SnakeEyes house)
• People bring heavy bags
• People bring big bags
• Flight Attendant’s get business cards

That’s about it. Nothing else about the job, more about the pseudo-drama between these five girls who live in a million-dollar Marina Del Ray house.

The dialog seemed fake and scripted, almost seemed like the girls were told “we’re going to end up at the party.. but you have to stop and talk to Nikole along the way.. how you get there or what you say is up to you.. and ACTION;” the girls seemed uncomfortable in what they were saying.. which wouldn’t be the case if it was, truly, reality.

Overall, I was disappointed. It didn’t portray a flight attendant in a positive light, but rather as a party goer with a lot of drama and neglected to send the message of the long hours we work and the people we meet.

I hope one day a true reality show can be made, like AIRLINE, that follows Flight Attendant’s and sees what we really go through: check-in, boarding, inflight, service, landing, deplaning, hotel transport, sleep. Trust me, there is no need for scripting it is entertaining on its own. Just look at the posts I’ve written here since I started this blog and imagine what it would look like in TV form.

For now, if you’re looking for a place to find entertaining information about what being a flight attendant is like please continue to check out this blog, The Crew Lounge Podcast, and all of the blogs under my “Other Blogs” section on the left hand side. Fly Girls simply isn’t factual nor entertaining.

Listen to the Flight Attendant’s of The Crew Lounge
review and talk about what they thought of Fly Girls.
TCL: Episode 12 | Fly Girls