From Pan Am to Major Crimes, Phillip P. Keene Soars

By M. Sharpe and S. Youngblood



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Photo credit: MajorCrimesTV.net 

Comparing his career as a flight attendant with Pan-American Airways (Pan Am) to his current role as Buzz Watson on TNT’s Major Crimes and The Closer, actor Phillip P. Keene points out that these jobs aren’t as different as they might first appear. “That is really an aspect of it,” he says.  Both “have crazy hours, we go to different places all the time- not as exotic as when I was flying, but we’re all there for each other, and we have each other’s back, so if someone’s tired a little bit, or cranky maybe if that happens at the end of a sixteen hour day, you’re telling them ‘it’s fine, don’t worry about it’ and elbow each other, and it’s a great sense of family again, so it’s like I never left in a sense.”

Keene revisited his airline roots last month in Palm Springs, CA, where his collection of Pam Am memorabilia was showcased in “Welcome Aboard: The Pan Am Experience” as part of the city’s popular Modernism Week. The exhibit, featuring an impressive archive of materials from the iconic airline, has been a labor of love for Keene, who flew with the company from 1987 until its closure in 1991. “When we shut down, I had my uniform and my forms and my luggage and I was still in love with the company, and wanted to continue thinking about it.” He started by collecting advertisements, and over time branched out: “When more pieces came up, and I had a little bit more ready cash I bought lighters and ashtrays and dishes and it just kept growing. I got my degree in history in my thirties, and this is my history project.”

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As the first airline to fly to Hawaii, Pan Am was considered the “Gateway to the Pacific”. In the artwork from the poster from that time, Keene says, “to me, they’re linking the six continents across the sea. Lets all join together, and as everyone joins hands across the sea, the continents are linked as well. The jet is incidental at this point, it’s about the imagery of fun and excitement.”
Photo Credit: MajorCrimesTV.net

Explaining how this historical exhibit fits in with the theme of Modernism Week, Keene is quick to point out the impact Pam Am made as an innovator of the airline industry, but, perhaps more significantly, how Pan Am provides a unique window into American history and culture in the middle of the twentieth century. At a time when the United States was expanding its power both home and abroad, Pan Am was, as he notes, influential in its “exportation of the American ideals to the rest of the world, and bringing the rest of the world to the US, as an activism and ambassador, if you will, and everywhere we went we had a presence and we were capturing local color and embracing it and using it and sharing with everyone else.” In addition to cultural impact,the airline also had a vital role in some of the preeminent global event during its time.  “Pan Am was the last flight out of Saigon, helped to evacuate a lot in Beirut, in Tehran, all those places. Wherever Pan Am was, there was a presence, and whatever government was falling, or people needed to get out, Pan Am was there to help.”  At the same time, in its ever-changing uniforms, its representations of the world outside the United States, and its attention to air travel not just as a mode of transportation but as a cultural experience in itself, Pan Am highlights the politics and aesthetics of America across one its most turbulent and exciting periods.

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Smoking was a “social aspect of the experience. You’d see flight attendants lighting the men’s cigarettes, smoking in front of each other.”
Photo credit: MajorCrimesTV.net

These shifting aesthetics of Modernism can be clearly charted through the progression of stewardess uniforms, posters, children’s toys, and other items in the collection, while American politics writ large emerge through iconic structures like the Pan Am building in New York City, built on the site of Grand Central Station, which shows how the forces of social idealism can be quickly incorporated into the utilitarian values of commerce-driven aesthetics. The changes in the airline industry  - and thus in our experience of both domestic and international travel – are also on display, exemplified by fine china and dinner menus from in-flight meals, complete with lobster thermidor and Chateaubriand cooked to order in convection ovens on the plane. “We had seven carts of service in First Class.” says Keene. “Dinner took over three hours to serve.” The poignancy of this bygone era is impossible to miss, but what is more striking is how this collection brings together art and commerce in ways that seem far distant from current product-driven advertising media.

During our tour of the exhibit, Keene took time to talk about his other passion, his role of Buzz Watson on TNT’s The Closer, and now, Major Crimes.  After his role as a flight attendant ended, he took the suggestion of a friend (now his talent manager), who told him he should take some acting classes. Work on various commercials and student films eventually lead to an offer from another friend. “They called me and said ‘well, there is this tiny little part coming up on this show called The Closer, and you can have it if you want it.’ So I didn’t audition, and they just kind of gave it to me, and they said, basically, ‘if you suck we’re not going to keep you, if you do okay and continue to grow, then the part will grow as well.’ So after three seasons I became a series regular, and that’s kind of how that happened. They just threw me in there. And I had really no experience beforehand, and when I look back on the early years its really quite evident, but there’s no better training ground than being in it- so baptism by fire, and everyone was really great with me.”

Keene as Buzz Watson, and Mary McDonnell as Captain Sharon Raydor on "Major Crimes".

Keene as Buzz Watson, and Mary McDonnell as Captain Sharon Raydor on “Major Crimes”.
Photo credit: TNT

About the decision by TNT to spin off The Closer into Major Crimes, Keene explains that the cast and crew were very comfortable with the transition. “We knew James Duff, the creator, was going to do something spectacular with it, truly. And I look back on that first episode with Rusty coming back, and where he says to Raydor ‘look, I don’t know you, and I don’t like you. And I want to talk to Brenda.’ He’s the audience, he’s saying these things for them, and she in turn says to him ‘I understand that, but you’re at the end of a very long line to see her, so you’re just going to have to deal with me whether you like it or not.’ So again, she’s talking to the audience, and I think that’s a really nice way of bringing everybody back in, because the fans who miss Brenda, who were voicing their angst, and you could see it on the websites and things, and so Rusty was that voice, and Captain Raydor got to turn it around and say ‘look, I understand this, but this is who you’ve got now, so stay or leave.’ And that’s what happened.”

That so much of the production team has stayed the same has also been a boon for the show as well.  “It’s the same crew, same costumers, same writers, so it’s as though a member of the family has gone traveling somewhere, and now it’s a little tighter group because we’re one less of that original family. So the continuity pretty much stays the same, we all have the same roles, and we’re excited about coming back to work. We wish for more than ten episodes, we want more than fifteen episodes, but it kind of kills the writers, because there is so much work for them to do.”

The tone of the show itself has also shifted from having a solo viewpoint on The Closer, to the more ensemble-based Major Crimes. “Well, it goes around with the title of the show too. Before it was THE Closer, so this is her point of view, and now we have Major Crimes, which involves all of us, which is a nice thing for everyone. Now we are getting a chance; it’s not just a single point of view, it’s multiple lenses.”

Looking forward to the upcoming season, Keene is hopeful for the continued and growing success of the show. “The thing that happened last year, it was complicated, because we were ending one show and beginning a new one, but they were so tied together you couldn’t promote the new show without giving away the ending of the old one, and how it was going to happen.” As for those viewers who swore they wouldn’t adapt to the new show as led by Captain Raydor (played by Mary McDonnell), Keene points out, “A lot of people forget they hated Brenda in the beginning. No one liked her. They didn’t like her accent, they didn’t like the way she dealt with people, and (over time) everybody grew to love her, so I think that same thing is happening to Captain Raydor.”

Though filming on season two won’t begin for another few weeks, and he has yet to see a script, Keene gave us a few tidbits about the upcoming season. Following with the way the latter seasons of The Closer, and then Major Crimes tended to tell longer, more sustained stories over their seasons, he feels that will continue in this next season, especially since they have fifteen episodes to work with, over the ten from last year. “Each season has an overarching theme throughout, and every episode plays into that. One year it was love, and all its permutations and what it means to people, one was identity, so this year it will have a similar feel to that.”

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Keene with co-stars Graham Patrick Martin and G.W. Bailey.
Photo credit: TNT

He’s also been enjoying the dynamic added to the show with the addition of new characters, in the form of Kearran Giovanni’s Det. Amy Sykes, and Graham Patrick Martin as Rusty Beck. About the mentoring relationship that has developed between Buzz and Rusty, he says, “I’ve really enjoyed being able to play off of him. I really do, because it gives Buzz more to do, and you get to see another side of him.  I think the relationship between Buzz and Rusty is going to continue, and you’ll see him more as a mentor throughout the year.”

In response to fan concerns about how the long hiatus will be handled in terms of story, Keene had no specifics to offer, but did say that  “I don’t think it can be too much time, because Rusty can’t really age that fast. I think all of that will be explained. The writers are really good about that.

Surveying his exhibit as new crowds of visitors continue to arrive, the intersection between art and business appears a vital part of Keene’s passions. “This is great. I get to play the actor and the flight attendant again in this, so it’s really quite wonderful.”

By M. Sharpe and S. Youngblood


 


Welcome Aboard: The Pan Am Experience was featured at the Saguaro Hotel as part of Modernism Week in Palm Springs, and more information about the exhibit can be found here. Phillip P. Keene can be seen next reprising his role as Buzz Watson on Major Crimes, when the hit show returns for its second season on TNT this summer.

 

One thought on “From Pan Am to Major Crimes, Phillip P. Keene Soars

  1. Pingback: MCTV Exclusive: Partners in Crime-Solving – Phillip Keene and Graham Patrick Martin Talk Major Crimes, Identity and More | MajorCrimesTV.net

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