Mad Men

Mad Men
Title card
Genre	Period drama
Created by	Matthew Weiner
Starring	Jon Hamm Elisabeth Moss Vincent Kartheiser January Jones Christina Hendricks Maggie Siff Bryan Batt Michael Gladis Jared Harris Aaron Staton Rich Sommer Kiernan Shipka Robert Morse John Slattery
Opening theme	"A Beautiful Mine" (Instrumental) by RJD2
Composer(s)	David Carbonara
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	46 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Matthew Weiner Scott Hornbacher[1]
Location(s)	Los Angeles
Running time	47 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	AMC
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV)
Original run	July 19, 2007 – present
External links
Official website

Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The show is broadcast on the American cable network AMC and is produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its third season on November 8, 2009.^[2] Season 4 premiered on July 25, 2010.^[3]

Mad Men is set in the 1960s, initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City, and later at the newly created firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.^[4] The show centers on Don Draper (Jon Hamm), creative director at Sterling Cooper and a founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, as well as those in his life, both in and out of the office. As such, it regularly depicts the changing social mores of 1960s America.

Mad Men has received critical acclaim, particularly for its historical authenticity and visual style, and has won multiple awards, including thirteen Emmys and four Golden Globes. It is the first basic cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, winning it in 2008, 2009, and 2010.^[5]

Production

Conception

In 2000, while working as a staff writer for Becker, Matthew Weiner wrote the first draft for the pilot of what would later be called Mad Men as a spec script.^[6][7] Television producer David Chase recruited Weiner to work as a writer on his HBO series The Sopranos after reading the pilot script in 2002.^[6][8] "It was lively, and it had something new to say," Chase said. "Here was someone [Weiner] who had written a story about advertising in the 1960s, and was looking at recent American history through that prism."^[8] Weiner set the pilot script aside for the next seven years – during which time neither HBO nor Showtime expressed interest in the project^[6][7]—until The Sopranos was completing its final season and cable network AMC happened to be in the market for new programming.^[8] "The network was looking for distinction in launching its first original series," according to AMC Networks president Ed Carroll "and we took a bet that quality would win out over formulaic mass appeal."^[6][9]

Pre-production

Tim Hunter, the director of a half-dozen episodes from the show's first two seasons, called Mad Men a "very well-run show".

Filming and production design

The pilot episode was shot at Silvercup Studios and various locations around New York City; subsequent episodes have been filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios.^[1][11] It is available in high definition for showing on AMC-HD and on video-on-demand services available from various cable affiliates.^[12] The writers, including Weiner, amassed volumes of research on the period in which Mad Men takes place so as to make most aspects of the series—including detailed set designs, costume design, and props—historically accurate,^[7][8][13] producing an authentic visual style that garnered critical praise.^[14][15][16] Each episode has a budget between $2–2.5 million, though the pilot episode's budget was over $3 million.^[6][7] On the copious scenes featuring smoking, Weiner stated that "Doing this show without smoking would've been a joke. It would've been sanitary and it would've been phony."^[13] Since the actors cannot, by California law, smoke tobacco cigarettes in their workplace, they instead smoke herbal cigarettes.^[6][13] Robert Morse was cast in the role of senior partner Bertram Cooper; Morse starred in A Guide for the Married Man (1967), a source of inspiration for Weiner,^[8] and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1961) — two Broadway plays about amoral New Yorkers.

Weiner collaborated with cinematographer Phil Abraham and production designers Robert Shaw (who worked on the pilot only) and Dan Bishop to develop a visual style that was "influenced more by cinema than television."^[11] Alan Taylor, a veteran director of The Sopranos, directed the pilot and also helped establish the series' visual tone.^[17] To convey an "air of mystery" around Don Draper, Taylor tended to shoot from behind him or would frame him partially obscured. Many scenes set at Sterling Cooper were shot lower-than-eyeline to incorporate the ceilings into the composition of frame; this reflects the photography, graphic design and architecture of the period. Alan felt that neither steadicam nor handheld camera work would be appropriate to the "visual grammar of that time, and that aesthetic didn’t mesh with [their] classic approach" — accordingly, the sets were designed to be practical for dolly work.^[11]

Episode format

The opening title sequence features credits superimposed over a graphic animation of a businessman falling from a height, surrounded by skyscrapers with reflections of period advertising posters and billboards, accompanied by a short edit of the instrumental "A Beautiful Mine" by RJD2. The businessman appears as a black-and-white silhouette. The titles pay homage to graphic designer Saul Bass's skyscraper-filled opening titles for Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) and falling man movie poster for Vertigo (1958); Weiner has listed Hitchcock as a major influence on the visual style of the series.^[13] At the end, the episodes either fade to black or smash cut to black as period music or a theme by series composer David Carbonara plays during the ending credits, although at least one episode ended with silence. A few episodes have ended with more recent popular music, or with a diegetic song becoming the credits music.

Crew

In addition to having created the series, Matthew Weiner is the show runner, head writer, and an executive producer; he contributes to each episode – writing or co-writing the scripts, casting various roles, and approving costume and set designs.^[6][7] He is notorious for being highly selective about all aspects of the series, and promotes a high level of secrecy around production details.^[6][7] Tom Palmer served as a co-executive producer and writer on the first season. Scott Hornbacher (who later became an executive producer^[1]), Todd London, Lisa Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton were producers on the first season. Palmer, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton were also writers on the first season. Bridget Bedard, Chris Provenzano, and writer's assistant Robin Veith complete the first season writing team.

Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton returned as supervising producers for the second season. Veith also returned and was promoted to staff writer. Hornbacher replaced Palmer as co-executive producer for the second season. Consulting producers David Isaacs, Marti Noxon, Rick Cleveland, and Jane Anderson joined the crew for the second season. Weiner, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Veith, Noxon, Cleveland and Anderson were all writers for the second season. New writer's assistant Kater Gordon was the seasons other writer. Isaacs, Cleveland and Anderson left the crew at the end of the second season.

Albert remained a supervising producer for the third season but Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton became consulting producers. Hornbacher was promoted again, this time to executive producer. Veith returned as a story editor and Gordon became a staff writer. Noxon remained a consulting producer and was joined by new consulting producer Frank Pierson. Dahvi Waller joined the crew as a co-producer. Weiner, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Veith, Noxon and Waller were all writers for the third season. New writer's assistant Erin Levy, executive story editor Cathryn Humphris, script co-ordinator Brett Johnson and freelance writer Andrew Colville complete the third season writing staff.

Tim Hunter, Alan Taylor, Andrew Bernstein, and Lesli Linka Glatter are regular directors for the series.

As of the third season, seven of the nine writers for the show are women, in contrast to Writers Guild of America 2006 statistics that show male writers outnumber female writers by 2 to 1.^[18] As Maria Jacquemetton notes:

We have a predominately female writing staff — women from their early 20s to their 50s — and plenty of female department heads and directors. [Show creator] Matt Weiner and [executive producer] Scott Hornbacher hire people they believe in, based on their talent and their experience. 'Can you capture this world? Can you bring great storytelling?'^[18]

Characters

Mad Men focuses mostly on Don Draper, though it features an ensemble cast representing several segments of society in 1960s New York. Mad Men places emphasis on showing each character's past and their development over time.^[19]

Lead characters

• Donald Francis "Don" Draper (Jon Hamm): Former creative director and junior partner of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency and now a partner of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, he is the series' main character. His past is shadowy, but he has achieved success in advertising. He was married to Elizabeth "Betty" Draper and has three children with her, but his history of infidelity, along with his revelations to her about his past, led to her announcing at the end of Season 3 which was December 1963 she intended to divorce him.^[6][20] At the beginning of Season 4, which was December 31, 1964 in the show's timeline it was revealed that she did and is currently married to Henry Francis, but still lives in their old house. Draper's real name is Richard^[21][22] Whitman: he assumed the identity of Don Draper during the Korean War after the death of his Lieutenant, taking his name to escape from his undesirable past.^[23]
• Margaret "Peggy" Olson (Elisabeth Moss): Olson rises from Draper's secretary to a copywriter with her own office.^[24] She becomes pregnant with Pete Campbell's child, a pregnancy that neither she nor her family and coworkers seem to notice, until she goes into labor alone and goes to the emergency room^[25]; following the birth, she gives the baby up for adoption.^[26] She is approached by Duck to leave Sterling Cooper, but turns him down. Don eventually poaches her over Paul Kinsey to become a copywriter for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. While reluctant to show it, Don appreciated her talents enough to invite her to the new firm he started after he left Sterling Cooper and she accepted and has creatively come up with her own advertising ideas.
• Peter Dyckman "Pete" Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser): A young, ambitious account executive from a privileged background. Campbell tries to blackmail Don Draper with information from Draper's past. However, he and Don develop a grudging respect for each other, culminating in Don approaching Pete over Ken Cosgrove when forming a new agency.^[23] Campbell and his wife Trudy have been unable to conceive a child, and he remained unaware of his child with Olson until the second season finale, and as the series progresses, they become closer. At the end of Season 3 disasatisfied with his treatment at Sterling Cooper regarding a promotion, he secretly planned to leave the firm. Unaware of this, Don Draper then came to him with an offer to join his new firm as long as he brought a certain number of his accounts/clients that would total $8 million dollars for cash flow to start the new firm. Peter did so on the condition that he would be made a full Partner in the new firm. He was and Peter joined the new firm as an equal partner, although his surname doesn't appear among the firm's name of Sterling/Cooper/Draper/Pryce.
• Elizabeth "Betty" Draper Francis (née Hofstadt) (January Jones): Don Draper's ex-wife and mother of their three children, Sally, Bobby, and Eugene Scott. Raised in the tiny Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, she met Don when she was a model in Manhattan and married him soon thereafter. At the start of the series, they had been married for seven years (1953–1960). Over the course of the first two seasons, Betty gradually becomes aware of her husband's womanizing.^[6] Following a brief separation, Betty allows Don to return home when she learns she is pregnant with their third child, but not before she first has a one-night stand of her own.^[26] She leaves for Reno at the end of season 3 in December 1963 with the intention of divorcing Don. She flew to Las Vegas, Nevada to do so. At the start of season 4 in November 1964, she has divorced Don and married Henry Francis.^[27] She, the children, and her new husband still live in the Drapers' old house, ostensibly because Betty cannot find a new suitable place.
• Joan Harris (née Holloway) (Christina Hendricks): Office manager and head of the secretarial pool at Sterling Cooper. She is in a long-term affair with Roger Sterling until his two heart attacks cause him to end the relationship. In Season 2, she dates and becomes engaged to Dr. Greg Harris, with early signs the relationship is on rocky ground. By Season 3, they have married, and Joan quits her job at Sterling Cooper in the middle of the season at Greg's request. However, his difficulties securing work as a surgeon force her to return to work at a department store, with her ultimately calling Roger Sterling for help. Because of her invaluable managerial skills, she is ultimately hired by the agency formed by Don, Roger, Bert and Lane in the third season finale in December 1963. She is still working at the new firm happily even if there were some friction between her and Lane Pryce
• Roger Sterling, Jr. (John Slattery): One of the two senior partners of Sterling Cooper, and a good friend of Don Draper. His father founded the firm with Bertram Cooper, hence his name comes before Cooper's in the firm's title. A picture in Cooper's office shows Roger as a child alongside Cooper depicted as a young adult. In Season 2, Bertram Cooper mentions that "the late Mrs. Cooper" introduced Sterling to his wife, Mona, whom Sterling is in the process of divorcing in favor of Don's former secretary, 22-year-old Jane.^[24] Bertram Cooper's sister, Alice Cooper, babysat for Sterling when he was a child.^[24] Sterling served in the Navy and was a notorious womanizer (living like he was "on shore leave"^[28]) until two heart attacks changed his perspective, at least for a while. The heart attacks did not affect his drinking or smoking habits, which remained excessive. He retains considerable affection from both Sterling Cooper employees (with whom he has far more contact than Bert Cooper) and his family. By the second season, 1962, Sterling has returned to work and is seen to indulge in his old habits. However, numerous episodes in the third season imply he is genuinely happy with Jane, as shown when he turns down an old flame trying to rekindle their relationship. In Season 4 it was revealed that it was him who had hired Don Draper sometime in the mid to late 1950s when Don was a salesman at a furrier eager to break into advertising; although it is hinted at that he had never actually said to Don that he was hired but Don led him to believe so while Roger was drunk since Roger never did actually remember doing so.

Supporting characters

• Lane Pryce (Jared Harris): The English financial officer installed by Sterling Cooper's new British parent company. He first appears in the first episode of Season 3. His role so far has been a strict taskmaster to bring spending under control especially by cutting out frivolous expenses. His efforts are so successful he was to be sent to India to enact cost-cutting measures, a move which Pryce was not looking forward to making after having settled in with his wife and child. An unfortunate accident at work debilitated his replacement, thus allowing Pryce to keep his current position. Pryce is warming to American culture, and foresees some form of cultural and societal changes in his observations on American race relations. When Putnam, Powell, and Low is sold, he realizes he has become expendable, and negotiates to become a founding partner in the new agency alongside Don Draper, Bert Cooper, and Roger Sterling, Jr., with him firing the three of them, then getting fired himself, thus freeing all of them to leave.
• Paul Kinsey (Michael Gladis): A creative copywriter and Princeton University alumnus, the bearded, pipe-smoking Paul prides himself on his politically liberal views. At some indeterminate time, he had a relationship with Joan Holloway which ended badly, largely because Paul talked about it too much. Paul tried unsuccessfully to date Peggy soon after she was hired by Sterling Cooper.^[29] Through most of the second season, Paul dated Sheila White, an African-American woman from South Orange, New Jersey. They broke up while in Oxford, Mississippi where they had gone as Freedom Riders to oppose segregation in the South.^[24] It is a source of pride for Kinsey to live in the low income southern section of Montclair, New Jersey. He is highly competitive, an attribute revealed to have soured a few friendships when he was in college, and which causes some friction with Peggy Olson, culminating in him becoming angry when Don chooses Peggy for the new agency over him.
• Kenneth "Ken" Cosgrove (Aaron Staton): The young account executive originally from Vermont. Outside the office, Ken is an aspiring author who had a short story published in The Atlantic, which is the source of some envy by his co-workers, particularly the competitive Paul Kinsey. According to his bio in The Atlantic, Ken attended Columbia University.^[30] He has one admirer, Salvatore, who secretly has a crush on him.^[31] Ken was promoted in the beginning of Season 3 to Account Director, a role he shared with Pete Campbell. By the end of Season 3, he has been promoted over Campbell to Senior Vice President of Account Services. However, Draper and Sterling choose Pete over him for their new agency. Ken later returns in season 4 and no longer working for McCann (which bought Sterling Cooper), but for rival BBDO as an unhappy employee. He is engaged to a woman, who is in the same Garden Club as Trudy Campbell, Pete's wife. He and Pete, who have had their share of long standing tension, bury the hatchet over lunch with Harry.
• Harold "Harry" Crane (Rich Sommer): A media buyer recently appointed the head of Sterling Cooper's newly formed television department. Although Harry joins his colleagues in drinking and flirtations, he is a dedicated husband and father. However, he did have a one night stand with a secretary in season one which led to his being briefly kicked out of his home by his wife. Harry's wife has been instrumental in motivating her husband to be more ambitious at work. He is ultimately strong-armed into joining the new agency, though he realizes it is the right move.
• Salvatore "Sal" Romano (Bryan Batt): The Italian-American art director at Sterling Cooper. Sal is the only "ethnic" in a high-level position at the agency, and is also a closeted homosexual. Reluctant to act upon his homosexuality, he twice avoided sexual encounters with different men. By 1962, Sal had married Kitty, who seems unaware of Sal's sexual orientation, yet is nonetheless starting to realize something is amiss in their relationship.^[31] The issue of being closeted for Sal is shown in brief but stark contrast against the newly evolving social attitudes toward homosexuality. Sal's secret crush on Ken Cosgrove comes uncomfortably and awkwardly close to being revealed during a dinner in Sal's apartment.^[31] Later, when a recently hired young advertising exec, Kurt, casually announces his homosexuality, Sal remains painfully silent while his fellow co-workers speak disparagingly about Kurt.^[32] In the premiere of Season 3, Sal has a brief interrupted homosexual encounter with a hotel employee while in Baltimore, the end of which Don witnesses. Don, who was in the midst of a heterosexual encounter of his own at the same hotel, finesses this uncomfortable situation through a coded conversation about their current client, London Fog. He suggests the tagline "Limit your exposure". In Episode 9 of Season 3, Sal rebuffs the sexual advances of Lee Garner Jr, the tipsy son of Lucky Strike's founder and a key client. Angered by the rejection, the client demands Sal be removed from the campaign and Don fires Sal in order to appease the client and his $25 million account. Don shakes his head at Sal, saying "you people", implying that both the client and Sal are at fault for not keeping their distasteful proclivities out of sight and mind.^[33] At the end of the episode, Sal is seen calling his wife Kitty from a phone booth (presumably in Central Park), in an area frequented by gay men cruising for sex. On the phone, Sal was explaining to Kitty he would be home late. Sal did not appear again during the rest of the third season, and will not appear in the fourth season.^[34]
• Bertram "Bert" Cooper (Robert Morse): The somewhat eccentric senior partner at Sterling Cooper. He leaves the day-to-day running of the firm to Sterling and Draper, but is keenly aware of the firm's operations. Like many of his executives, Bertram is a Republican. He is fascinated by Japanese culture, requiring everybody including clients and his sister (a shareholder) to remove their shoes before walking into his office (which is decorated with Japanese art). He is a fan of the writings of Ayn Rand and implies he knows her personally. Among his eccentricities, Bert frequently walks through the offices in his socks and intensely dislikes gum and smoking (an oddity for the time, especially considering Lucky Strike cigarettes is a major client). He owns a ranch in Montana and is a widower with no children. Don approaches him about buying back the agency at the end of the third season, which evolves into them forming their own.
• Joey Baird (Matt Long): Peggy's new assistant who has a playful and friendly attitude at the office (First appearance in Season 4's first episode).
• Gertrude "Trudy" Campbell (Alison Brie): Pete Campbell's upscale East Side wife. She is unaware of her husband's infidelity with Olson prior to their marriage. Trudy wants to be a mother but has so far been unable to conceive despite seeking fertility counseling. Her attempts to adopt a child have been refused by Pete, whose upper class family frowns on other than a blood relative as heir to the family name. Trudy's father is the manager of one of Sterling Cooper's accounts, Clearasil, an account Pete lost when he refused Trudy's wish to adopt. She and Pete get closer, and their marriage sturdier, as the series progresses.
• Herman "Duck" Phillips (Mark Moses): Former Director of Account Services at Sterling Cooper. He previously worked at the London office of Young & Rubicam, but an undisclosed fiasco caused him to leave. A tough, driven executive, he often clashes with Don Draper. Duck is a recently divorced father of two children. Duck engineered the sale of Sterling Cooper to a British agency that was seeking a foothold in America.^[32] An alcoholic who had been sober for several years, the stress of engineering his take-over of Sterling Cooper caused him to begin drinking openly.^[26] As a reward for his role in the sale, Duck was to have been promoted to company president under the new Sterling Cooper, but Don's opposition and Duck's intemperate display in a high-level meeting between the two agencies left promotion in doubt as season two concluded. After being absent in the first four episodes of Season 3, it is revealed that Duck now works at Grey, another New York agency. After trying unsuccessfully to poach Pete and Peggy at the start of the third season, he develops a sexual relationship with Peggy which continues through that season.
• Jane Sterling (née Siegel) (Peyton List) is a secretary at Sterling Cooper. She is assigned to Don in the second season. Jane clashes frequently with Joan and is about to be fired when Roger intervenes on her behalf. Shortly afterwards, she begins an affair with Roger and he leaves his family for her. He quickly proposes out of the blue one morning in the episode "The Jet Set", and as she accepts his offer of marriage, they become engaged towards the end of Season 2. By the start of season 3 she and Roger are married.
• Frederick C. "Freddy" Rumsen (Joel Murray) is a former copywriter at Sterling Cooper. He was the first in the office to notice Peggy Olson's talent for copywriting while working on an ad campaign for Belle Jolie Cosmetics. After that, he was supportive of Olson's copywriting efforts. Freddy was shown to be a heavy drinker which got progressively worse, to the point where it caused Freddy to lose control of his bladder and pass out immediately prior to an important client pitch.^[35] Roger Sterling then asked Freddy to take a paid six month leave of absence, with the implicit understanding Freddy would not be returning to Sterling Cooper; he is referenced in "The Fog" when Duck Phillips notes the apparent connection between Pete and Peggy. He returned in the Season 4 episode "Christmas Comes But Once A Year" bringing a new account to the firm as a freelance copywriter, which Peggy pushes for. His chauvinistic comments lead to clashes with Peggy, although their tensions are later mended and Freddy offers some personal advice for Peggy.
• Francine Hanson (Anne Dudek): One of Betty Draper’s closest friends and neighbors. She spends much time with Betty, gossiping about other neighbors. She becomes furious upon discovering her husband Carlton's infidelity,^[36] but she and her husband remain together. She is one of more supportive people of Betty, throughout her separation from Don in the second season, her pregnancy and helping with the children in the early part of the third season, and supporting her in approaching Henry Francis throughout the third season.
• Sally Beth Draper (Kiernan Shipka) is the eldest daughter of Don and Betty Draper (age 8 in 1962). Although Sally was a fairly minor character through the first two seasons, she started playing a larger role during season three. She formed a very strong bond with her Grandpa Gene when he came to live with the Drapers, but was devastated by his sudden death. She also took it hard when Don and Betty broke the news that they were getting a divorce, reproaching her father for breaking his promise to always be there, and accusing her mother of making him leave.
• Bobby Draper (Maxwell Huckabee, Aaron Hart, and Jared Gilmore) is Don and Betty's son, a few years younger than Sally.

Episodes

Season 1 is initially set in March 1960,^[37] and closes on the evening before Thanksgiving that year. At the start of Season 2, it is Valentine's Day, 1962. The season ends around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October 1962. Season 3 begins in spring 1963 and ends on December 16 of the same year, with Don, Roger, Bert, and Lane Pryce engineering their departure from Sterling Cooper.^[38] Season 4 starts during the week of Thanksgiving 1964, as the new ad firm of Sterling, Cooper, Draper and Pryce struggles to establish itself.

Themes

Mad Men depicts parts of American society and culture of the 1960s, highlighting cigarette smoking, drinking, sexism, feminism, adultery, homophobia, racism and antisemitism.^[13][39] Smoking, far more common in the United States of the 1960s than it is now, is featured throughout the series; many characters can be seen smoking several times in the course of an episode.^[13] In the pilot, representatives of Lucky Strike cigarettes come to Sterling Cooper looking for a new advertising campaign in the wake of a Reader's Digest report that smoking will lead to various health issues including lung cancer.^[40] The show presents a subculture in which men who are engaged or married frequently enter sexual relationships with other women. It also observes advertising as a corporate outlet for creativity for mainstream, middle-class, young, white men. Along with each of these examples, however, there are hints of the future and the radical changes of the 1960s: Betty's anxiety, early stirrings of the feminist movement (as seen through Peggy), the Beats (that Draper discovers through Midge), and talk of smoking being harmful to health and physical appearance, which is usually dismissed or ignored. Characters also see stirrings of change in the ad industry itself, with the Volkswagen Beetle's "Think Small" ad campaign mentioned and dismissed by many at Sterling Cooper, although Don Draper spots the nostalgic value and market potential of renaming the Kodak 'wheel' slide projector as the Kodak Carousel. Themes of alienation, social mobility and ruthlessness also underpin the tone of the show.

Music

The opening theme is an instrumental version of "A Beautiful Mine" by producer RJD2. The original version can be found on the Aceyalone album Magnificent City Instrumentals. David Carbonara composes the original score for the series. Mad Men - Original Score Vol. 1 was released on January 13, 2009

Reception

Ratings

The first season's premiere attracted 900,000 viewers,^[41] a number which more than doubled for the heavily promoted^[42] second season premiere.^[43] A major drop in viewership for the episode following the second season premiere prompted concern from some television critics.^[42][43] However, "the second season finale [...] posted significantly higher numbers than the series' first season finale, and was up 20% over the season two average. 1.75 million viewers watched Sunday night's season finale, according to fast national data from Nielsen Media Research. The cumulative audience for the three airings of the episode Sunday night (at 9pm, 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.) was 2.9 million viewers."^[44]

The third season premiere, which aired August 16, 2009, gained 2.8 million views on its first run, and 0.78 million with the 11 PM and 1 A.M. repeats.

In 2009, Mad Men was second in Nielsen's list of Top 10 timeshifted primetime TV programs, with a 57.7% gain in viewers, second only to the final season of Battlestar Galactica.^[47]

Critical reception

Mad Men has received highly positive critical response since its premiere.^[48] Viewership for the premiere at 10 p.m. on July 19, 2007, was higher than any other AMC original series to date.^[49] A New York Times reviewer called the series groundbreaking for "luxuriating in the not-so-distant past."^[39] The San Francisco Chronicle called Mad Men "stylized, visually arresting [...] an adult drama of introspection and the inconvenience of modernity in a man's world".^[14] A Chicago Sun-Times reviewer described the series as an "unsentimental portrayal of complicated 'whole people' who act with the more decent 1960 manners America has lost, while also playing grab-ass and crassly defaming subordinates."^[50] The reaction at Entertainment Weekly was similar, noting how in the period in which Mad Men takes place, "play is part of work, sexual banter isn't yet harassment, and America is free of self-doubt, guilt, and countercultural confusion."^[51] The Los Angeles Times said that the show had found "a strange and lovely space between nostalgia and political correctness".^[52] The show also received critical praise for its historical accuracy – mainly its depictions of gender and racial bias, sexual dynamics in the workplace, and the high prevalence of smoking and drinking.^{[8][15][52][53]}

However, Mad Men has become the subject of much race and gender based discussion, particularly with the treatment of women characters and characters of color. In Salon, Nelle Engoron explained that while Mad Men seems to illuminate gender issues, its male characters get off "scott-free" for their drinking and adultery, while the female characters are often punished.^[54] Amy Benfer, also writing for Salon, used Oprah's fawning segment her on the show (which involved Gayle King visiting the Sterling Cooper offices) to explore how nostalgia for 1960s fashion and social norms obscures most discussion of the rampant racism and sexism during the period, asking "But isn’t it a little odd that a show that, among other things, warns about the dangers of seeing the past in too amber a light has spawned an industry devoted to fetishizing nostalgia for that same flawed past?"^[55] Latoya Peterson, writing for Slate's Double X, argues that Mad Men isn't confronting racial issues, but glossing over them.^[56] The Root's Michael Ross points out, the continued lack of black admen is rapidly becoming ahistorical.^[57]

The Washington Post agreed with most other reviews in regard to Mad Men's visual style, but disliked what was referred to as "lethargic" pacing of the storylines.^[58] A review of the first season DVD set in the London Review of Books by Mark Greif was much less laudatory. Greif stated that the series was an "unpleasant little entry in the genre of Now We Know Better" as the cast was a series of historical stereotypes that failed to do anything except "congratulate the present."^[59]

The American Film Institute selected it as one of the 10 best television series of 2007,^[60] 2008^[61] and 2009^[62] and it was named the best television show of that year by the Television Critics Association^[63] and several national publications, including the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, TIME Magazine, and TV Guide.^[64]

On June 20, 2007, the consumer-rights activist group Commercial Alert filed a complaint with the United States Distilled Spirits Council alleging that Mad Men sponsor Jack Daniel's whiskey was violating liquor advertising standards since the show features "depictions of overt sexual activity" as well as irresponsible intoxication.^[65] Jack Daniel's was mentioned by name in the fifth episode.

Among people who worked in advertising during the 1960s, opinions on the realism of Mad Men differ to some extent. Jerry Della Femina, who worked as a copywriter in that era and later founded his own agency, said that the show "accurately reflects what went on. The smoking, the prejudice and the bigotry."^[6] Robert Levinson, one of Weiner's advertising consultants, who worked at BBDO from 1960 to 1980, concurred with Femina: "What [Matthew Weiner] captured was so real. The drinking was commonplace, the smoking was constant, the relationships between the executives and the secretaries was exactly right."^[6] Allen Rosenshine, a copywriter who went on to lead BBDO, called the show "a total fabrication," saying, "if anybody talked to women the way these goons do, they’d have been out on their ass."^[66]

Period references in the series have also had modern repercussions. Don Draper's rendition of the Frank O'Hara poem 'Mayakovsky' from Meditations in an Emergency at the end of season two, episode one, led to the poet's work entering the top 50 sales on Amazon.^[52]

Awards

In 2010, 2009 and 2008, Mad Men won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series - Drama and in 2008, Jon Hamm won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama for his performance as Don Draper. Mad Men received a 2007 Peabody Award from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.^[67] In all three seasons, Jon Hamm was nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series while the cast of Mad Men won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2009 and 2008.^[68] Additionally, Vincent Kartheiser was honored with a 2007 Young Hollywood award for his work as Pete Campbell.

The show also won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best New Series,^[69] and the first-season episode "Shoot" won the Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design for a Single Camera Television Series.^[70] Mad Men also received a special achievement Satellite Award from the International Press Academy for Best Television Ensemble.^[71]

Mad Men was the most-nominated drama series and the third most-nominated series overall at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008, receiving 16 nominations total – behind the NBC comedy 30 Rock and the HBO miniseries John Adams, with 17 and 23 nominations, respectively.^[72] Alongside the concurrently nominated FX drama Damages, it became one of the first basic cable series ever to be nominated for the award for Outstanding Drama Series,^[73] an award that it subsequently won. Series creator Matthew Weiner also won the award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his script for the premiere episode, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". In the technical categories, Mad Men won Emmys for Outstanding Hair-Styling for a Single Camera Series (episode: "Shoot"), Outstanding Art Direction for a Single Camera Series (episode: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"), Outstanding Main Title Design, and Outstanding Cinematography for a One-Hour Series (episode: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes").

In 2009, the show also won Best International Award at the British Academy Television Awards 2009.

On September 20, 2009, Mad Men won its second Primetime Emmy for Best Drama series, along with its also second Primetime Emmy for Writing in a Drama Series.

On January 14, 2010, the series was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 21st GLAAD Media Awards.^[74]

Also on January 23, 2010, Mad Men won its 2nd consecutive Screen Actor's Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Mad Men won its third consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series on August 29, 2010.

Parodies

Jon Hamm was the host of Saturday Night Live on October 26, 2008, an episode during that show's 34th season. Two skits from that show parodied how the men in the show drink and smoke constantly and often engage in adultery. In one skit, "A-Holes: Pitch Meeting," Hamm is joined by two other Mad Men cast members in cameo appearances, Elisabeth Moss (who was called the morning of the show and asked to play Peggy, since Amy Poehler, who was going to do it, went into labor) ^[75] and John Slattery.^[76] In another skit, "Don Draper's Guide to Picking Up Women," Hamm pokes fun at how easily his character picks up women.^[77]

The Simpsons' episode "Treehouse of Horror XIX", which first aired in the United States on November 2, 2008, included a segment called "How to Get Ahead in Dead-Vertising"^[78] The segment, an adaptation of the Mad Men animated title sequence, was the "inspiration" of executive producer Al Jean; it featured a "rotund, lunchbox-carrying figure, undoubtedly Homer Simpson, enter[ing] a living room and then float[ing] past windows bearing Springfield-centric displays that include a Duff Beer ad," with the theme music of Mad Men on the soundtrack.^[78]

The children's television show Sesame Street ran a parody of Mad Men, a child-friendly skit that lasts 2 minutes and 15 seconds, sometime in late 2009. Muppet versions of Don Draper and two other advertising professionals are shown going on an "emotional rollercoaster," becoming "mad," "sad" and "happy," as they sort through pictures of an ad campaign featuring a cartoon bear.^[79] Sesame Street's plans for having its own parody of Mad Men were announced in August 2009 before its 40th anniversary season aired.^[80] When Miranda Barry of the Sesame Workshop was asked how such a parody is possible "given the drinking, smoking, and womanizing that's a big part of the AMC show", she compared it to their parody of Desperate Housewives: "You may have seen our parody called 'Desperate Houseplants.' It was about a houseplant not getting its needs met by the gardener. So it always works on two levels."^[80]

On 30 Rock, Liz Lemon's mother mentions working for Sterling Cooper after graduating secretarial school. In the episode "The Ones", Kenneth Parcell has an allergic reaction to strawberries and says "My real name...is Dick Whitman"

The comedy series 'Community' features Abed, an avid television and movie critic, doing an impression of Don Draper. In the episode 'Physical Education', Abed's peers encourage him to change his personality. He practices a conversation with Annie (incidentally played by Alison Brie, who plays Trudy Campbell in Mad Men). He offers her cigarettes, while putting on a deep voice and a flirtatious charm. As Annie leans in to kiss Abed, he quickly turns away and says, 'Don Draper from Mad Men'. While many of his friends are impressed, Shirley suddenly shouts, 'Don't be him! He cheats on his wife!'

Marketing

In promotion for the series, AMC aired multiple commercials and a behind the scenes documentary on the making of Mad Men before its premiere. The commercials mostly show the one (usually brief) sex scene from each episode of the season. The commercials, as well as the documentary, featured the song "You Know I'm No Good" by Amy Winehouse.^[13] The documentary, in addition to trailers and sneak peeks of upcoming episodes, were released on the official AMC website. Mad Men was also made available at the iTunes Store on July 20, 2007, along with the "making of" documentary.^[81]

For the second season, AMC undertook the largest marketing campaign it had ever launched, intending to reflect the "cinematic quality" of the series.^[82] The Grand Central Station subway shuttle to Times Square was decorated with life-size posters of Jon Hamm as Don Draper, and quotes from the first season.^[82] Inside Grand Central, groups of people dressed in period clothing would hand out "Sterling Cooper" business cards to promote the July 27 season premiere.^[82] Window displays were arranged at 14 Bloomingdale's stores for exhibition throughout July, and a 45' by 100' wallscape was posted at the corner of Hollywood and Highland in downtown Hollywood.^[82] Television commercials on various cable and local networks, full-page print ads, and a 30-second trailer in Landmark Theaters throughout July were also run in promotion of the series.^[82]

Inspired by the iconic Zippo brand, the DVD box set of the first season of Mad Men was designed like a flip-open Zippo lighter. Zippo subsequently developed two designs of lighters with "Mad Men" logos to be sold at the company headquarters and online.^[83] The DVD box set, as well as a Blu-ray disc set, was released July 1, 2008; it features a total of 23 audio commentaries on the season's 13 episodes from various members of the cast and crew.^[84]

In the spring of 2010, Mattel released a series of limited-edition collectible Barbie and Ken dolls based on the characters Don and Betty Draper, Joan Holloway, and Roger Sterling.^[85]

For the third season, Banana Republic has partnered with Mad Men to create window displays to be displayed at Banana Republic stores nationwide. The displays present clothing inspired by the famed fashion and style of the show. Banana Republic also offers a style guide with the intent to help the customer dress like their favorite Mad Men character. The style guide comes with a code that is to be entered into a competition. The competition is an opportunity to submit a picture in "Mad Men style" with a public voting component.^[86]

Another clothing promotion from the series' third season includes a "Mad-Men Edition" suit offered by American clothing retailer Brooks Brothers.^[87] The suit is designed by the show's costume designer, Janie Bryant, and is based on an actual style sold by Brooks Brothers in the early 1960s.^[87]

The third season also saw the creation of the web-based application "Mad Men Yourself" which enabled users to create avatars based on the outfits and accessories of the show, drawn in the sixties-inspired style of illustrator Dyna Moe.

The fourth season saw the announcement of a collaboration between Janie Bryant and Californian-based company Nailtini to produce a limited-edition line of Mad Men nail polishes. The four shades are entitled Bourbon Satin, French 75, Deauville and Stinger and are reported to have been inspired by the fabrics used to make cocktail dresses in the Sixties. The Mad Men nail polish line is due to go on sale in the US in late 2010.^[88]

Product placement

Mad Men integrates product placement into its narratives. For instance, in a second season episode, the beer manufacturer Heineken is seen as a client seeking to bring its beer to the attention of American consumers. This placement was paid for by Heineken as an additional part of their advertising on the show. Cadillac has a similar deal with Mad Men. Other examples remain less obvious, like ads worked on by the firm, or companies sought as clients such as Utz potato chips, Maidenform, Gillette, American Airlines, Clearasil and others.^[89]

The closing episode of season two was broadcast (for its premiere) with only one brief commercial interruption: a short ad for Heineken beer.

During the fourth season, Unilever created a series of six retro commercials to be aired during the show. The ads are set at the fictional Smith Winter Mitchell advertising agency and take place during the same time period as Mad Men. The products used in the ads are Dove, Breyers, Hellman's, Klondike, Suave, and Vaseline.^[90]

References

External links

• Official website
• Mad Men at the Internet Movie Database
• Mad Men at TV.com
• Australian Site|http://www.mnc.tv/madmen
• "Mad Men Episode Guide". Clicker. http://www.clicker.com/tv/mad-men/. 
• "List of Mad Men episodes". TVGuide. http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/mad-men/289066.