Posted Oct 6th 2008 9:29AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E10) This seemed an oddly structured episode, with the emphasis more on Betty than Don, with a splash of Pete and Kinsey thrown in. The idea that life was simpler in the old days, should anyone still think that adage applies, is disproved with every hour of
Mad Men that unfolds.
For Betty, the impending death of her father has shaken her to the core. A series of strokes has led to dementia and when Don accompanies Betty to visit him in her childhood home, she has to come to grips with not only the fact that he's slipping away, but also be reminded that nearly every vestige of her mother has also gone.
Continue reading Mad Men: The Inheritance
Posted Sep 15th 2008 12:33AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E08) "Crab, Duck. Duck, Crab." - Roger, introducing Crab to Duck.
I have a 12-pack of
Heineken in my fridge right now. I don't drink it, but my roommate does. So it's fun to see the Sterling Cooper gang going after the beer company.
But can I say that I don't get Betty's reaction at the party when it came to the beer? Sure, this is just one more thing that she feels Don "deceives" her about, but I don't think he was doing anything particularly bad to her. What is nasty are the boldfaced lies that he tells her when she confronts him about his affair with Bobbie. Though I wonder, what else can he do? I know, I know, tell the truth. But given what the truth is, he probably feels that he has to lie or he's going to be that guy in the credits, falling from the sky as his world collapses beneath him.
Continue reading Mad Men: A Night To Remember - VIDEO
Posted Sep 12th 2008 5:26PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Web, Reality-Free, Mad Men
AMC.com has been holding a contest for the past few months where they asked fans of
Mad Men to send in video tapes where they re-enact a scene from the show. The network supplied the specific scene and script and you had to film your version of it. They got tons of entries.
Here are the 18 finalists.
Almost all of them are quite good, and you can see that many of these people could be actors (not that a few of them aren't already). My favorites are actually the ones where a male will take a scene featuring a female like Betty, Joan, or Peggy and really recreate the scene. Jacob Crumbine's video is in the lead right now, and it's great. Even if
Mad Men didn't exist, I'd watch whatever show this was. Rebecca De Ornelas recreates one of Betty's psychiatrist office scenes and does it very well. Mike Kimmel does the same scene and he's a natural. Valerie Long's drunken chat with a lamp works too. Sabina Maschi's entry is very, very clever.
Continue reading Vote for the best Mad Men impersonator
Posted Sep 8th 2008 12:22AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E07) "You're not like everyone else around here." - Ken, to Sal
So Don Draper used to be a car salesman?
I guess it fits with the career path of an advertising guy, and ties in nicely with the plot of Don getting a new car because he's moving up in the world of business in general and Sterling Cooper specifically. There's a big unresolved issue in this episode though. I'm really glad they brought it up but a little disappointed that they didn't follow through with it, though I'm sure we'll see more of the plot in later episodes this season.
It could actually change the entire direction of the show.
Continue reading Mad Men: The Gold Violin - VIDEO
Posted Sep 1st 2008 9:05AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E06) "If we were to take you to see some women in their underwear, would that be too much like work?" - Fred, to the Playtex guys
Is it just me or is Don's affair with Bobbie nastier than his affairs with Midge and Rachel from season one? Not just that it's rougher and more blunt, but the
way that he's doing it. With Midge and Rachel, it seemed like a natural part of his life and it happened away from home and it was separate. This year it seems like he's making a lot of excuses to Betty about where he has to be, like tonight when he lies to her in the middle of the country club bash to call Bobbie. And there's also a meanness and a sadness to the entire relationship.
Having said that, I think I laughed more in this episode than any other episode of the show so far.
Continue reading Mad Men: Maidenform - VIDEO
Posted Aug 26th 2008 2:40PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Web, Reality-Free, Mad Men
If you're a fan of Twitter, the site where you microblog using only 140 characters max for each post, then you might have heard that several
Mad Men characters have been on the site too. At first many people thought that this was cool marketing by AMC or the producers of the show, but actually they were accounts created by fans and AMC didn't like that.
Now they've forced Twitter to take down the accounts.
The accounts affected include
Don Draper,
Peggy Olson, and
Joan Holloway, though several other Twitters from other characters on the show seem to be safe (for now). The official word on it is that it was a copyright infringement problem.
This is really too bad. Some of the most creative, fun posts on Twitter are being done by fictional people (not just
Mad Men but others as well). I would hope that AMC would hire some people to take over the accounts for each character, to be the official Twitter bloggers for the show. It's a great way to market it.
Update: AMC and Twitter have
restored the accounts!
Posted Aug 25th 2008 3:04PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, Mad Men
Recently, when
I interviewed Matt Weiner, the creator of AMC's Mad Men, we talked about the movies, books and television shows that influenced the inception of the show. The 1960 Oscar-winning best picture
The Apartment was one, so were the sitcoms
Dobie Gillis and
The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Of all the television shows he mentioned, though, there was one that was the most influential. "You can't have the '60s without
The Twilight Zone. It is a mind opening experience for a generation," said Matt. "It was not just science fiction, it dealt with social issues. It's filled with the texture of real life. Just the idea of having a show every week where you don't know who is going to be in it and what it's going to be about, to have this acceptance of the fact that we don't know everything about the world. That in itself was something."
Going through
The Twilight Zone episode guide, there are quite a few shows in which you can see where
Mad Men could find inspiration. Here's four that reminded me of Don and Betty and Pete and Sterling Cooper:
Continue reading The Mad Men-Twilight Zone connection - VIDEOS
Posted Aug 25th 2008 12:04AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E05) "This is America. Pick a job and become the person who does it." - Bobbie, to Don
Is there any other show on TV right now that packs so much stuff into one episode? So many revelations, so many character developments, so many nuances? People who only have the attention span for music videos have complained that "nothing ever happens" on
Mad Men, but I say that more happens in an episode of this show than three or four of most other shows on the air right now.
This episode was amazing. Not only did we get the background story on one of the big mysteries of the first season (if this was
Lost the message boards would be going crazy right now), we got to see a different side of a few characters and the very welcome (if quick) return of an old favorite. Though I wonder how her new situation will affect Don in the upcoming episodes.
Continue reading Mad Men: The New Girl
Posted Aug 18th 2008 1:30AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E04) "That was beautiful. Are you going to say Grace now?" - Peggy's mom, to the priest
This episode brought a big smile to my face for one reason: Pete was wining and dining the
Gorton's people! I grew up a few blocks away from the Gorton's headquarters, so it was great to see them as the latest client of Sterling Cooper. Hopefully we'll see them in the future too as we've repeatedly seen Belle Jolie, Utz, and Mohawk Airlines.
The rest of the episode shows how intricate this show is. It sort of worries me in a way. How can people who didn't see the first season get into this show, the characters, the rhythms, the seven different stories that each character is carrying around with them? How does the show grow in viewership? I don't know. I just know I love it and other dedicated fans do too, and I hope that's enough for many years to come.
Continue reading Mad Men: Three Sundays
Posted Aug 11th 2008 11:01AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E03) "Some glib ad man, in that suit, cigarette perfectly in hand, not a hair out of place...here to tell him he's a bad boy?" - Jimmy's wife Bobbie, explaining to Don while Jimmy hates him
I was eating a sandwich (late dinner) while watching this episode of
Mad Men, and you know what I was eating with it? Utz potato chips! I actually bought them specifically for the episode today because I knew that one of the plots had to do with an Utz account that Sterling Cooper was handling. This could be a trend, eating/drinking/using a product that a
Mad Men plot revolves around. I'm not saying I'm going to be wearing Belle Jolie while watching an episode, but if there's one show that could make me do it it's this one.
Now, who does everyone think Jimmy was modeled after?
Continue reading Mad Men: The Benefactor - VIDEO
Posted Aug 8th 2008 4:23PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Interviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
When Matt Weiner was a successful sitcom writer -- CBS's
Becker -- he had this idea for another kind of show. He couldn't figure out how to pitch it, so he wrote a sample script.
The Sopranos' creator David Chase read it and hired him. After copping a couple of Emmys for his work on that HBO drama, Weiner finally got his spec script sold. Now,
Mad Men has earned 16 Emmy nominations and Matt Weiner is working on the second season of the show.
Recently, for
TV Week, I interviewed Matt about the Emmy nominations. Here are some other thoughts he shared with me about
Mad Men:
TVS: What's the show all about to you?Matt Weiner: A lot of the episodes are about "who am I." A lot of the shows are about what's embarrassing. A lot of it's about denial, about how we juggle our work and our private lives. A lot of the issues that came up in the early 1960s are really hitting us right now.
Continue reading Matt Weiner of Mad Men: The TV Squad Interview
Posted Aug 8th 2008 3:25PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Weeds, Reality-Free, Mad Men
Would you like to see more nudity and profanity on network television?
It's no secret that the networks are losing ground to the cable channels when it comes to original scripted programming, especially dramas. Just take a look at the
Emmy nominations for Best Drama this year and you see that three of the six nominated are from cable:
Mad Men,
Damages, and
Dexter). And the three that
are from the networks are shows that have been a while and are (arguably) on the back nine when it comes to their life:
Boston Legal,
Lost, and
House. While the network shows obviously get more viewers than cable, cable (and online) is the place to go for more creative content and buzz.
Wired's Epicenter blog has a piece about how the more free world of cable television is hurting network TV.
Continue reading Network viewership dropping? Nudity and swearing to the rescue!
Posted Aug 5th 2008 7:33AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Weeds, Reaper, Reality-Free, Mad Men
Hey, let's all mark our calendars, because it's a big day in the TV world. Now all the people who aren't watching
According to Jim on TV can
not watch it on DVD.
Season one of the
ABC comedy (it's a comedy, right?) will be released on Oct. 21, 2008. It's part of a deal ABC Studios inked with Lionsgate Home Entertainment to distribute select titles on DVD. Season one of
Reaper is next on Nov. 4, followed by
Boy Meets World (which was
discontinued in 2006),
Hope and Faith, and
8 Simple Rules.
That's interesting, because I've got Season one of
8 Simple Rules here (no, I didn't buy it, a publicist sent it to me), and it's from Buena Vista Home Entertainment. So Lionsgate must be taking over distribution.
Continue reading According to Jim on DVD. Yippee.
Posted Aug 4th 2008 12:15AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E02) "Supermarket checkout girl? The conversation must be stimulating." - Joan, to Paul, about his new girlfriendIt must be hard to deal with the death of an actor on a current show. Not just the death itself, of course, but how to deal with the fact that the actor won't be playing the character anymore. On some shows, one of the leads dies, and you're left with either replacing the character with another actor, ending the show completely, or having the character die on the show too. I didn't think
Mad Men would even deal with the character of Pete's dad (played by
Christopher Allport, who died in January), since he was only in one episode of the first season. They could have easily referred to him, sight unseen. But they've chosen to have him die in the
American Airlines plane crash in Jamaica Bay, and this could actually prove to be an interesting catalyst for future Pete stories.
Continue reading Mad Men: Flight 1
Posted Jul 31st 2008 12:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free, Mad Men
Part of the fascination with
Mad Men is the way it plunges the viewer into another time, another place. In the
second season premiere last week, the story of Don Draper picked up about a year and a half after the end of the first season. It was February 14, 1962, and while everyone was celebrating Valentine's Day, on the TV was a documentary special in which First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gave a tour of the newly redecorated White House.
Interest in those few clips shown on Mad Men has resulted in a response.
AMC is showing the entire Jackie documentary on their web site.
By the way, you might be interested to know that
Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner didn't just arbitrarily choose to show this as a backdrop to the episode, even though it was the main thing on TV that night on February 14, 1962.
It was being shown on both NBC and CBS (like the first Super Bowl was broadcast on both networks!) and ABC got to rebroadcast it four nights later.
Continue reading Inspired by Mad Men, AMC showing Jackie Kennedy White House tour
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