''LAX'' is an American

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

television series set at the

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

, drawing its name from the airport's

IATA airport code An IATA airport code, also known as an IATA location identifier, IATA station code, or simply a location identifier, is a three-character alphanumeric geocode designating many airports and metropolitan areas around the world, defined by the ...

, "LAX". The series premiered on September 13, 2004 on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, and aired through April 16, 2005.

Overview

''LAX'' is a drama focusing on the day-to-day operations of the

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

, with its runway manager, Harley Random (

Heather Locklear Heather Deen Locklear (born September 25, 1961) is an American actress famous for her role as Amanda Woodward on ''Melrose Place'' (1993–1999), for which she received four consecutive Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress – Television ...

), and its terminal manager, Roger de Souza (

Blair Underwood Blair Erwin Underwood (born August 25, 1964) is an American actor. He made his debut in the 1985 musical film ''Krush Groove'' and from 1987 to 1994 starred as attorney Jonathan Rollins in the NBC legal drama series '' L.A. Law''. Underwood has ...

). In the final episode, Harley leaves her job at LAX after she is told by Roger that he wants stability back in his life and no longer wants to be romantically involved with her. ''LAX'' premiered on

on September 13, 2004. Ten episodes aired before NBC announced in November 2004 that no further episodes would be produced. The show was moved to Saturdays at 8pm ET and the final episode aired on April 16, 2005. Thirteen episodes total were aired.

Cast

Main

as Harley Random *

as Roger De Souza *

Paul Leyden Paul Augustine Leyden (born 16 December 1972) is an Australian actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He is best known for playing the role of Simon Frasier on the daytime soap opera ''As the World Turns''. He played Simon in the 2009 mini ...

as Tony Magulia *

Frank John Hughes Frank John Hughes (born November 11, 1967) is an American film and television actor, and screenwriter. Hughes is best known for his portrayals of "Wild Bill" Guarnere in the HBO miniseries '' Band of Brothers'', Tom Fox in ''Catch Me If Yo ...

as Henry Engels *

Wendy Hoopes Wendy Hoopes (born 4 November 1972) is an American actress most widely celebrated for her roles on MTV's animated series ''Daria'', where she provided the voices for three different main characters ( Jane Lane, Helen Morgendorffer, and Quinn Mor ...

as Betty *

David Paetkau David Paetkau is a Canadian actor who has played Evan Lewis in ''Final Destination 2'' (2003), the customs officer in ''LAX'' (2004), Beck McKaye in '' Whistler'' (2006–2008), Ira Glatt in '' Goon'' (2011), and Sam Braddock in the CTV/CBS tel ...

as Nick

Recurring

Joel David Moore Joel David Moore (born September 25, 1977) is an American character actor and director. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Moore studied acting in college before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue a film career. His first major role was as Owen ...

as Eddie Carson *

Sasha Barrese Alexandra Barrese (born April 24, 1981) better known as Sasha Barrese is an American former actress and professional poker player. She is best known for her role as Tracy Billings in '' The Hangover Trilogy''. Early life Barrese was born on Apr ...

as Caitlin Mansfield

Notable guests

* Chad Todhunter as Mystery Man *

Tony Hawk Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documen ...

as Himself * Daniel Morton as a Serbian co-pilot *

Sam Doumit Samia "Sam" Doumit is an American actress. Early life Doumit is of Irish, French, Lebanese, German, and Jewish descent (mother's side). She was a Dean's list and honor roll student at Emerson College in Boston before attending the Californ ...

as Rachel, Senator's daughter *

Charisma Carpenter Charisma Carpenter (born July 23, 1970) is an American actress. She played Cordelia Chase in the supernatural drama series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–1999) and its spin-off series ''Angel'' (1999–2004). She also starred as Kyra in ...

as Julie, Harley's sister

Episodes

Production

LAX (originally titled ''HUB'', and then ''The Hub'') was announced on NBC's development slate on December 19, 2003, after being scrapped by NBC during the previous development season in winter 2003. On January 14, NBC greenlighted production on the pilot. Anthony and Joe Russo signed on as directors of the pilot on February 6. On May 17, 2004 NBC announced that they had picked up the pilot to series. This show was not renewed for a second season. Exterior shots for the pilot episode were filmed in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, although sources differ on whether

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport , also known as DFW Airport, is the primary international airport serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the North Texas Region in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the largest hub for American Air ...

Fort Worth Alliance Airport Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport is a public airport north of the central business district of Fort Worth, Texas, United States. The airport is owned by the City of Fort Worth and managed by Alliance Air Services, a subsidiary of Hillw ...

stood in for Los Angeles International. Many other scenes were filmed using a vacant terminal and a disused

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...

Ontario International Airport Ontario International Airport is an international airport two miles east of downtown Ontario, California, Ontario, in San Bernardino County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino. It ...

, interspersed with

establishing shot An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning of ...

s of the real LAX airport. The theme song for the show was the beginning of " Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra. For the opening sequence of the final episode, a different excerpt of the song was used.

Broadcast and syndication

On February 22, 2014, it is announced reruns of ''LAX'' would air on

Ion Television Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented enter ...

in fall 2014.

Reception

In a survey by

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

, ''LAX'' got 17% of the votes for most anticipated new series. The show was frequently the butt of comedic jokes due to its poor ratings, including

Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009 ...

, who remarked the show was "so bad that the actual Los Angeles Airport is thinking of changing its name to avoid being associated with the show." The 13 episodes of the program averaged 6.52 million viewers. ''LAX'' lost 19.09% of the viewers in its time slot versus the previous season, which was occupied by ''

Third Watch ''Third Watch'' is an American crime drama television series created by John Wells and Edward Allen Bernero that aired on NBC from September 26, 1999, to May 6, 2005, with a total of 132 episodes spanning over six seasons. It was produced by ...

''.

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, 0411003, LAX 2004 American television series debuts 2005 American television series endings 2000s American workplace drama television series Aviation television series English-language television shows NBC original programming Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in Los Angeles Los Angeles International Airport