=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/c/a/2004/02/14/DDGGH50MN6= 1.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, February 14, 2004 (SF Chronicle) Fly the unfriendly skies -- new reality show exposes painfully rude passeng= er behavior Rona Kobell, Baltimore Sun Air travel isn't what it used to be, what with the cramped seats, bag-of-peanuts meals and security pat-downs. But if you think your last trip was bad, be glad you weren't on the flig= ht where the teenagers returning from a BMX biking convention in Las Vegas passed around Playboys and ran down the aisles. Or in the terminal with the drunken girls who caused such a ruckus that the airline barred them from boarding. Thanks to "Airline," the Arts and Entertainment network's new docu-soap that films real adventures in flying, you can experience these horrors from the comfort of your couch. And though you might wonder why anyone would want to watch, executives at the network say about a million viewers have tuned in each week since the series began last month. This season includes 18 half-hour episodes; two run back-to-back each Monday night starting at 10 p.m. "There's a bit of a train wreck aspect to each of these shows," said Patrice Andrews, "Airline's" supervising producer. "A lot of reality shows are focused on celebrities. What I love about this show is that it shows a common experience that we share." Based on a successful British show of the same name, "Airline" documents airport goings-on in real time. The show films on location at Los Angeles International Airport and Chicago's Midway Airport, following Southwest Airlines crews as they deal with passengers that are at turns fretful and irate, helpless and rude. A&E and Southwest are in talks to renew the show for another season, possibly expanding filming to other Southwest hubs. But, she added, "Airline" could very well have gone the other way. "Although we have a terrific record for customer service, we do make mistakes, and customers make mistakes as well. Airline travel is not utopia. There was a risk factor." But when you have employees such as Mike Carr, Colleen Bragiel and Yolan= da Martin, the risk is pretty low. In addition to helping the Alzheimer's patient from Albuquerque without = so much as a crease in his all-in-a-day's-work smile, Mike (the reps all go by their first names on "Airline") coolly handles LAX's drunken, angry passengers. During a recent episode, Yolanda helped country singer Randy Travis navigate Southwest's boarding procedures so he could have a hassle-free trip to Santa Fe, N.M., then proceeded to deal with the drunken girls kicked off their flight to Las Vegas. Most of the time, "Airline" episodes are downright painful to watch. Does that man really need to swear at the poor baggage-claim clerk at Midway because of a mistake made somewhere else? Doesn't the woman who arrived at the airport late realize it's not Southwest's fault that she missed her flight to San Diego? "Airline" is that most real of reality television -- the characters remi= nd us of people we know, places we've been. Sometimes, they even remind us of us. Andrews said she's not surprised that people are watching and wincing. "I used to travel a lot, and I watched a lot of people fly off the handl= e, " said Andrews. "People take for granted what it really takes to keep an airline running. And when it doesn't go right, they get mad at the first person they can mouth off to." --------------------------------------------= -------------------------- Copyright 2004 SF Chronicle