Mad Men

I never understood the point of Megan or why she was brought onto the show. She and Don had zero chemistry. Her teeth annoyed me. And Weiner seemed to have a hard-on for her and put her in every scene he possibly could.

I don’t get the hate for Megan. She seemed sweet. And she was brought on because she is Dons new woman. Not hard to get.

Some couples seem cold but they love each other.

I think the point was that Don was doomed in all his relationships until he came clean about his true self.

Could never stand her. I liked they dynamic of Don and Betty. They should have kept them as the dysfunctional couple. Betty's second husband also had zero chemistry with her but I think that was planned to show her just wanting security.

[quote] Megan and her teeth arrive

We LOVE them.

The fainting couch, my favorite character.

Betty is an awful character

I liked Megan at first, she was VERY much what a second wife would have been at the time.

But I felt she was kept around way longer than she should have been.

Mad Men suffered from a similar fate as Downton Abbey. The show had about 3-4 seasons of juice but there's a middle part that got soft and boring when they were treading water until the end. MM wasn't quite as bad or boring but it did have some weakness in the middle.

Jon Hamm as Don Draper was devastatingly handsome. Jon Hamm as Jon Hamm is a butterface.

Zou bisou bisou

R10 That's what I was going to say. You stole my thunder. Best catch phrase in the whole show.

[quote] Betty is an awful character

I loved her. I totally knew that woman, she was our neighbor across the street.

January Jones was great during the shows second season. That was her season. After that she was useless.

It’s a shame I hate her.

Wearing white after Labor Day is the least of Jon Hamm’s problems.

Certainly he can afford clothes that fit.

Jon Hamm has a creepy smile but I loved him as Don.

R15 Probably because he's a creepy guy. He tortured some guy in college and yet it's never mentioned and he has a booming career.

Jon Hamm keeps doing these horrible commercials. He will never be a leading man in movies.

I agree Jon is only attractive as Don Draper, otherwise his goofy grin is repellent and he looks like he has FAS upper lip area.

Yes, his smile is weird and doofy.

He was only sexy as Draper.

I think Hollywood doesn’t know what to do with him, sort of a Taylor Kitsch syndrome.

I’m rewatching season 1 and forgot how creepy Glen was with Betty. Isn’t that Weiner’s son?

I forgot about the Glen character.

But she was just as creepy with him.

[quote] I loved her. I totally knew that woman, she was our neighbor across the street.

There was a whole thread devoted to Betty Draper. Every Datalounger's mother has at least a little in common with Betty Draper. She is the root of our collective dysfunction.

I get the premise of Meagan, but she was too goofy for my taste. I thought Betty was so beautiful and sleek. Oddly she ended up having more depth at the end than Meagan, who just became an LA party girl with pretensions. At least Betty never tried to be hip; she was a woman of her generation and had dignity.

Meagan was younger than Betty....

The guy in the background doing the dance moves is very good, including his facial expressions - he should have a career in show business.

Why couldn't Don stay faithful FFS?

Meghan served as unintended comic relief. That ridiculous scene where she's "erotic cleaning."

Betty was a loony bitch. Any man would cheat on her.

Don didn't only cheat on Betty.

[quote]There was a whole thread devoted to Betty Draper. Every Datalounger's mother has at least a little in common with Betty Draper. She is the root of our collective dysfunction.

Well, maybe for the eldergays. The rest of us had working mothers who were shaped by the feminist movement. They were nothing like Betty Draper.

January Jones' success as an actress baffles me. The Onion said it best:

January Jones is awful, a whore, and a racist.

Betty was annoying.

Don is a true testament to many men in that period with a lot of money in NYC.

R32 is either Claudia Schiffer or Olivia Wilde

Betty was a bad mother.

Betty was awful all around.

So handsome but a bit of a gayface.

His face isn’t even that handsome

You had an idea of what the show was and it changed - moved further into the 60s. Betty was very 50s/early 60s. Teefs was right for the times - think Jane Birkin, etc. Don was nothing if not "with the zeitgeist". Teefs grew on me, challenged Don, and her mother was a hoot.

Jon Hamm reminds me of Guy Smiley.

Megan was such a buck-toothed phony baloney with all her acting aspirations-- and how Don saw her as trophy wife material is beyond me as he certainly had his pick. She would have been only suitable as the nanny he could pity fuck now and then in between affairs.

The homely copywriter bitch with the hairbands got on my nerves, too, but Don didn't fuck her.

As for Betty, I liked her character --and loved her clothes. Her icy demeanor conveyed just how repressed and angry she was inside.

If there is a Heaven then on day Jon Hamm WILL sit on our face!

MM made Jon Hamm and January Jones beautiful and interesting. They are both a total void without the show.

Megan took over the show when they brought her on. Weiner was obsessed with Jessica Pare. She actually made January Jones look talented.

I really loved Betty when she was sitting on the front steps of the cabin at Bobby’s camp, smoking a cig in her shorts. January Jones might not have acting talent, but she captured a picture postcard image of the 60’s housewife. She made heating up frozen fish sticks glamorous. She was like a little girl playing house.

I enjoyed the office shenanigans much more than the personal life BS.

Betty Rules!

I wonder if Betty represented to Weiner the beautiful blonde who wouldn’t give him the time of day and/or an icy, narcissistic, withholding mother figure. That character was treated pretty brutally — cheating husband, out of the blue weight gain, and early death.

[quote]Why couldn't Don stay faithful FFS?

I think, even more than the culture of the times, growing up in a whorehouse probably had a lot to do with that. A prostitute took his virginity when he was still a kid, then his stepmother beat the shit out of him for it. That would have left a lasting impression. Don had a love/hate relationship with women: he craved a mother's love because he never had that in his life but also wanted to dominate women as a way to rebuff his need for then. Once a woman gave in to his charms, he grew bored and restless. He married Megan because of the way she took care of his kids; he thought she would be a good mother. Betty, conversely, was a terrible mother. Recall the episode when she expected him to discipline Bobby with a spanking and he refused.

I actually liked Megan when they first got together. She challenged Don and his conservative attitudes a lot and she was stylish and sweet, but not a pushover. It was when she quit the agency and went into acting full time that she became an insecure insufferable mess. By the time she moved out to California, I was over her. But I agree that she brought Marie into our lives, so she added value to the story. I really liked her dad, too, and the conversations they had.

Marie is a datalounger.

If they'd set Mad Men in the present day, it would never have been made. The clothes and set dressing were WAAAAAAAAY more interesting than any plot or dialogue. Except for maybe when the guy got his foot cut off with the lawnmower. Otherwise it was boring as shit and don't tell me I need explosions or didn't appreciate its slow artful pacing.. They just dropped plots and jammed soap opera-y horseshit in where it didn't belong. That emperor had no clothes.

Betty's second husband was a snack!

Weiner was obsessed with Megan because Weiner was fucking Jessica Pare. Everyone knew.

Megan was boring, Don with her was boring, I kept hoping he'd toss her off the balcony. Her mom was great.

It was a genius show.

And I loved the little sinister things that crept in. Like Glen. And that black lady who broke into Don’s apartment and tried to convince the kids she was their old nanny and to go back to bed. And the whorehouse Don grew up in. And when Meghan lived in some canyon in LA and I kept waiting for the Manson Family to kill her.

[QUOTE] I kept waiting for the Manson Family to kill her.

Not that I wanted her dead, but it would have been an interesting storyline and it would symbolically end the 60s setting for them all. Well that, or dying at Altamont.

R53, I didn’t want her dead, either. I remember being on a discussion board when that season aired, and other people also picked up on that vibe. There was speculation that she’d encounter the Manson Family, I wasn’t the only one who felt that.

Anyway, it’s worth another watch to analyze why it felt that way.

Also, Henry’s house seemed sinister, too.

I really disliked Megan during MM’s original run, but mellowed toward her on rewatching the show a few years later. Megan was Betty’s opposite in many ways, bubbly and outgoing, and Don was no less of an asshole during his relationship with Megan than he was while married to Betty. This made it clear that changing his surroundings and the people in his life didn’t remove Don’s limitations as a person.

It was a soap opera. A stylish, nostalgic, DWR/Banana Republic tied-in soap opera.

This show is my GO-TO show for comfort. It used to be SFU or The Sopranos.

Sorry, but I truly liked Megan. She was a kind spirit. Nothing about her bothered me. (And Betty was my FAVORITE character, by far on this show!!)

And I agree with R56- It was a soap opera. A classy, well written soap.

I adore this show. It's lovely. (And I did not like Don's ending with the Coca-Cola shit) but I loved this show until the end...

Megan is the stereotypical 2nd wife: younger, and the complete opposite of the mother of his children. And in the things that attracted him to Betty to begin with, a bit of a downgrade (though he doesn’t realize that initially). And it was Betty’s class, social position, etc...that he was attracted to that also triggered his insecurities, cheating, etc.... I think what we sometimes forget is that his entire identity to EVERYONE was a lie from the time he stole another soldier’s identity just to try to be someone else.

Not to change the subject, but I always found the dynamic between Don and Joan interesting. They both were very streetwise, sometimes like brother and sister, and at other times there was a tone of sexual tension. And for all his other dalliances, why not Joan? Except that I think he deep down he knew she’d eat him for lunch and floss her teeth with his ribs. And for Joan’s part, she knew his number from the beginning.

Loved mad men. This thread has inspired me to rewatch. I loved Betty and hated Megan. Trudy was great. Almost perfect until the end (which I loved) if it were not for too much Megan and the awful season 6. Betty dying her hair brown and accusing Henry of wanting to rape Sally’s 14 year old runaway friend? Good thing the show got back on track. Wiener must of really had it out for January.

January is a known cunt. Not shocked he hated her. Most do.

Did Peggy really not know that she was pregnant? Wouldn’t she wonder why she stopped having her period?

Watched a great three part documentary on the history of advertising in America, (fuck Bernays) and gays and women were everywhere, and in lead roles.

have no idea why fuckwit show runner made it all about men and cut the women and gays, (actually, is obvious that was the narrative that interested him), but it is a bullshit depiction of the advertising industry

Bobby Draper #3 actor said January was "mean" in some interview, only person that came to her defense was John Slattery, lol, silence from everyone else.

Didn’t Seth Rogen or Jonah Hill also speak out about how awful January Jones is? They said she was a complete bitch when they met her.

R62 I don’t know what you watched but gays were far from running the show of advertising in the 60s. That’s a lie. Same with women.

Betty Draper Francis is not stupid, she speaks Italian.

R64- It was Zach Galifanakis- (sp)

R64 No, there were women in positions of power, and gay men. You are wrong.

Sweetie. Most gay men were closeted then. Even in NYC. And there were not many women in power at all.

I started rewatching because of this thread. I Love Jon Hamm.

R68 Oh OK, you are so wise

I'm surprised Joan doesn't get more mention on DL and in this thread, specifically. I found her a fascinating character.

The episode where she sleeps with the guy from Jaguar was pretty shocking and polarizing, and changed Joan's character for the rest of the series.

That the agency would even consider it was disgusting and but even worse when they - with the exception of Don - allowed her to do it was unfathomable. And even worse, the father of her child was okay with it.

It was hard to root for them after that episode. I get what Weiner was trying to portray but one thing I didn't like as a result of this story was that the friendship between Don and Joan pretty much ended. When he looks at her knowing what she did, he seemed to have lost any respect for her.

When "Mad Men" was still airing, January Jones said that one thing she had to do when playing Betty was not to judge her.

OP, funny, because I just wanted to FF on all things Megan related.

Ugh.

And those 😬 !

R72- I like that actually. A good actor really needs to become the character (and you cannot judge the character you are playing, you need to embody it)

She was quite good as the seasons progressed- Perfect actress for that role.

And I LOVED Megan. Sorry all. I really enjoyed her.

There really wasn't a character on that series that I did love watching.

Glen got on my nerves. There was no point in bringing him back after Season 1 except for the fact that the actor's father was the producer.

Goddamn Megan and her oversized chompers were awful in every way. Betty was always my favorite character. She had depth and nuance that Megan severely lacked.

Having watched the series a few times (I use it on Netflix sometimes as a bedtime story), I think the best parts of the later seasons are the continuing glimpses into Sally's experiences growing older. Her outrage at the adults moment of lightness after Grandpa Gene died. Asking to eat dinner with the adults. Hopping a train into the city to see her dad. Getting to know her young stepmother and calling out her (perceived) hypocrisy. Icing out her dad for so long, after catching him cheating, then that heartbreaking confrontation with him about it in the car on the way back to school. Taking on the caregiver role after Betty was diagnosed.

January Jones is interchangeable with Andie McDowell. They both must have trick jaws.

Loved Sally- In a way, she became the soul of the show-

...

A Sally series would have been interesting: teen going into her twenties as feminism is affecting daily life and she realizes how messy her family is. No matter what job or school she went to, it was have been cool.

I loved this show. I have heard that Matthew Weiner was a nightmare to work with though. I was unsure if he had used the casting couch as such, or if the show was more of a proxy way for him to live out his fantasies of being someone much better looking and being able to get any woman he liked, with Don as a very obvious stand-in for the kind of guy he wanted to be. And when multiple characters lined up to talk about how attractive a woman was, it was clearly a way of saying that Weiner himself was hot for the actress who played her: see the way characters gushed about Betty, Megan and Roger's second wife Jane.

But I also wouldn't be surprised if he had used the couch, or at least hired someone in the hopes that they might eventually sleep with him. The allegation that one of the writers made, claiming he said she owed it to him to let him see her naked, sounded very plausible. When she left the show back in 2009 just a few weeks after she won an Emmy, and Weiner talked about their relationship having reached its full potential or something like that, there was a lot of speculation that he had crossed the line in some way. I also read a book about showrunners in 2000s TV which had lots of anecdotes about how badly he treated many of the other writers and directors on the show.

Curiously, I remember in the early days of the show, Vincent Kartheiser talked enthusiastically about what a great experience it was on set, especially compared to how toxic working on Angel with Joss Whedon had been. I don't know if that means things declined from there, or if even someone as difficult as Weiner was still preferable to the nightmare that was Whedon.

Jessica Pare was awful. I would probably have warmed up to Megan eventually with another actress playing her.

Any gossip about cast members hooking up with each other? I was surprised not to hear more rumors over the years, given how close many of the actors were.

I'm one of the few who actually liked Megan and Pare 's portrayal of her. I thought that her looks and character were a fit for the rapidly changing late 60s.

I think they should have done more with Salvatore's character. They dropped his character too abruptly and there was a great deal of potential.

I also thought that Vincent Kartheisers performance (and his character ) were seriously underrated. He had many finely acted moments that illustrated the complexity of his character. There's a scene in an elevator after Lane Pryce (poor guy) punches him out and he says tearfully "I have nothing " and you can't help but feel for the guy while still disliking him. Great writing and acting.

I heard that the real reason Salvatore was written out was because of contract negotiations, Bryan Batt wanted a salary increase and Weiner was annoyed and chose to get rid of the character altogether. Then when Batt was vocal about wanting to return, and gave an interview in which he encouraged viewers to express the wish to get Sal back, Weiner became even more angry. He basically took every expression of disagreement with story and character choices as a personal attack. Most of the cast had to tiptoe around him and be very cautious of what they said. For example, when Christina Hendricks said she was sad about Lane leaving, she was careful to point out that she wasn't criticising Weiner or his writing, just that she missed the character.

R82, I can't stand Matthew Weiner for the shitty way he treated the Betty Draper character after S3.

If you listen to the DVD commentaries, it feels like the only actors who really enjoyed working on the show were John Slattery and Jon Hamm. At least on the discs, they have terrific chemistry. (And they'd make a handsome couple, wouldn't they?)

The others are funny and tell good stories, as you'd expect, but it doesn't feel like they're buddies, if you know what I mean. I tend to think that MM was not a happy set. Not that people weren't grateful for being in such a successful and highly esteemed series or that they all hated each - just that they didn't have any particular bond with their castmates, which I find weird for a show that lasted 7 (really 8) seasons.

R86 Interesting. I was not aware of the backstory around Batts exit.

R49 the lawn mower episode, A Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency, was one of the most darkly comedic episodes of television. I couldn't stop flinching at Guy's howling. Fun fact, mad TV alum Krista Flanagan plays the dipshit secretary who runs over the guys foot.

I heard other gossip that said Batts made fun of Weiner's son's acting, it got back to Weiner, and that really soured the relationship.

I missed Sal when he left. There was so much potential. But I do remember Batts leaving on not-so-amicable terms.

Weiner seems like a real asshole.

I've always wondered how Hendricks felt about Joan sleeping with the Jaguar guy. It was such a change for the character. And the Jaguar character was creepily reminiscent of Harvey Weinstein.

Love this thread. I've been re-watching Mad Men also. New York City was at its most glorious and was ACCESSIBLE then to the working and middle classes. No more. The costumers were so crisp and lovely.

I noticed many of the actresses seem to be wearing contact lenses (you can see the outline). Is that why their eyes are so blue?

Weiner is a miserable little shit midget in real life. Anyone know if his own marriage survived?

So many phenomenal episodes. Commissions and Fees is one that sticks with me. Jared Harris was excellent, you could see Lanes increasing desperation and finally resignation. Very intense episode.

Interesting to hear about why Sal left the show. The last episode he was on was so good with his wife watching him sing to Bye Bye Birdie, I was really looking forward to where that storyline would go. He was a great character.

"I don’t get the hate for Megan."

Gay boys and fraus YEARN for Don and Betty to get back together - just like in a daytime soap opera. So sad.

I'm watching this for the first time.

I'm digging Jon Hamm's voice.

The curse of season 4

Did January ever ride the hamaconda?

Very enjoyable show. Well written and acted with gorgeous costumes. One of the few mistakes I thought the producers made was in making Don's childhood and background so over the top melodramatic and convoluted. The whorehouse upbringing was a bit much for a show usually great with subtlety. I thought it would have been much better for Don to be the product of a more generic rough and tumble childhood (maybe just a poor white trash family and an alcoholic father ). But all the prostitute flashbacks combined with the War flashbacks added up to a bit too much. And I sometimes found myself wondering what a stronger actor with more depth might have done with Jon Hamms role.

the moronic January jones ruins ev scene she inhabits......as usual.

Has the director/creator done anything since? Seems to have slipped tween the cracks....

R101 Yes he did a show on Amazon called the Romanoffs. I've only seen a few episodes but I highly recommend the ep. that centered on an American couple adopting in Russia. Surprisingly nuanced and powerful in my opinion.

MISS JONES IS NOW A HOOKER????

R98 I would be surprised if she hadn't but who knows.

Weren't January Jones and Ashton Kutcher BFFs and prosties when they arrived in Hollywood?

I read a interview with Jon Hamm recently where he said the character died a few years later. That Draper died a miserable person. He hates that people ask about a reboot. Sorry, but you still be a out of work actor if it wasn't for that role. He's box office poison right now.

He's not box office poison because he is NEVER hired to STAR in or OPEN anything.

That's kinda pathetic.

I don't know why every says he is hung, he is in many love scenes and underwear shorts in the series, there is no hint of anything...

It really looks like he has big balls. But he's such a alcoholic, doubt he could if he did.

Gee I wonder why people think he is hung?

[quote] I read a interview with Jon Hamm recently where he said the character died a few years later. That Draper died a miserable person.

Has anyone explained to Hamm that a fictional character can’t die outside the boundaries of the storytelling, because he’s not real?

I fast forward when January jones comes on.....

Don Draper would have married at least twice more, as his wives always embodied the zeitgeist of the decade in which he married them: There would have been a sunny 70s Farrah Fawcett type and helmet-haired 80s dragon. The dragon would have buried him.

I think that’s not far off, r114. Lung cancer or liver failure. And he would have lived right up to the last second as he had his whole adult life.

I think Don would have married a 70s earth mother type--the therapist/Esalan woman in the last episode had the right vibe, particularly as he would have looked for someone who could take over mothering his youngest kid.

The surreal moments were always my favorite in the series. The one where Don hallucinates after nearly drowning, Bert Cooper dancing a showtune after his passing, even the strange methamphetamine fueled tap dancing by Cosgrove were all highlights for me. Such a unique show.

This thread is making me want to rewatch it. I loved it when it was on, but seriously can't remember much of the individual eps discussed on here.

I do know I loved Joan the best. She was the most interesting female character. Don is iconic of course. But Joan stole the show. Peggy is completely forgotten. Betty was great. Teefs was fine, but I get the ire.

I can see that, R116, but he might not have been so interested in another woman who leaned little too far towards the hippie side, as Meghan's newfound bohemian lifestyle in California seemed to really grate on him. Also, it seemed in the last few episodes that there had been a tacit agreement that Henry would finish raising Don's youngest son, as he'd always been more of a father to the boy than Don.

I can see the 70s Mrs. Draper as a tan, athletic,disco-dancing California girl with a deep tan and blinding white teeth: Again, high Farrah Fawcett. Likes to dance, drink, smoke, and do coke, but she'd be a bit too much for a Don pushing 60 and eventually he'd lose her to a younger man. Then the 80s dragon would step in and run his life with military precision until he succumbed to heart or liver failure.

His children would hate her.

Just finished season 4. Damn, Meghan is fucking ugly.

Christina Hendricks was huge by season four. Like 175lbs.

I think Pete and Peggy are the only ones who would still be living in the present day.

They are so right to hate Meghan and her teeth! Everyone she talks, it's all I see, so fucking ugly

I wonder how many women Jon Ham banged in that series...you know he fucked a few of them

R124 I wish there was video.

Weirdly, I find him hot *as* Don, smoking hot, mindnumbingly hot. As himself, still hot but less so.

I think the whole thing about Jon saying Don Draper died was something that came from Matt Weiner.

In your opinion, did Joan get raped by Greg, or not. I say yes.

Yes, marital rape is still rape.

Ol' Don would pick up a black tranny fuck toy in the 80s.

The only characters worth following were Christina Hendricks and Jared(?) Harris. There was that gorgeous gay guy but the writers didn't give him enough time. Jon Hamm played the awful Don Draper beautifully but he'll never make it beyond Mad Men. Oh - and back to the OPs opinion - YES, Megan and her teeth were a useless addition. The series could have ended a couple seasons earlier but the writers kept it on life support. The whole series is over-rated. It's no Sopranos or Breaking Bad or The Wire.

No, a woman of Joan's size can't be raped.

I found the women of the show to be way more interesting than the men. I know a lot of people hate January Jones but I thought she was fucking brilliant in this. She was kinda shafted in the latter seasons but I loved how they ended her arc in season 7.

Too bad about Bryan Batt. He was so good. I hope he did make fun of that awful son of MW, he was the worst distraction in the show.

R119, There isn't a tacit agreement that Henry should raise the youngest--that's what Sally suggests. Betty's suggestion is that her brother and his wife raise the kids. In other words, there isn't a single solution and Henry has his political career on which to focus.

And while Don tires of Meghan's 60's stuff, he's all in (for the moment) on the New Age 70s stuff--meditating on the cliff's of not-quite-Esalen and embracing Coke bottle guy under the tutelage of the Helen Slater character, who also brings him into the encounter group after he's fallen apart during the phone call.

Don marries the Zeitgeist woman--Grace Kelly-type Betty during the 50s, French cinema style Meghan. I think we'd have seen a Farrah-style woman if that was going to be wife no. 3, but we saw Don go Me-Decade instead.

R131 Fuck you.

I forgot about Henry. He was so damn hot.

I wanted to be tag teamed by Henry and Don.

And Roger too.

Truer words, R137. Truer words.

will they ever make a movie?

[quote] Wiener must of really had it out for January.

Oh, dear.

R136 R137 Oh yes! I forgot about Hot Henry also. I was thrilled and throbbing to see him in Zero Dark Thirty.

They probably won't ever make a movie, the whole story was concluded at the end of the series.

R139 What would the movie be about? Nobody cares about Don anymore. Peggy and Stan became boring. All the main characters were wrapped up. The series went on WAY too long. If you liked it that much, just be happy it dragged on for as long as it did.

[quote] The series went on WAY too long

I feel like it was similar to Downton Abbey - it had a really solid first few seasons, and a compelling ending (for at least some characters), but you could tell at about 80 percent through that they were treading water/killing time until the end.

Jon Hamm is too busy doing commercials in Canada, doing shitty movies no sees, walk ins on SNL. He gets mad if someone brings up a reboot. He's a alcoholic, chain smoking, womanizer in real life. How about a Mad Men movie with Thomas Jane?

They could recast Don with Colin Ferguson.

Fun fact :Thomas Jane was the first choice for Don Draper but he turned it down because he didn't want to do TV at the time, even though he now does hbo 's Hung. Bet he majorly regrets it.

I could totally see Thomas Jane as Don.

Did betty really put on all that weight for season 5?

It was the show that dared to imagine people of Norwegian ancestry in Bay Ridge could be Catholic--which, acording to a very persistent Datalounger, is 100% physically impossible!

The actress was pregnant, R149.

I see your point, R134. The series does hint at a me-decade type woman for Don. Whomever he chooses though, she's going to look like a girl from an advertisement, or quite possibly BE a girl from an advertisement, as both Betty and Meghan did commercials, Betty for print and Meghan for TV. Maybe he'd go all in for a real yoga/jogging nut, someone who looks like Cheryl Tiegs in the Tab ads. Don always going for a wife that could have been ordered from Central Casting for that decade is why I went immediately to Farrah Fawcett.

Wife No. 4 would either look like Linda Evans or Alexis Carrington. :)

Don would take a male lover in the 70s.

[quote] even though he now does hbo 's Hung.

Well, no, not exactly now. That show ended before Mad Men did.

But yes, I remember hearing he was up for the role of Don.

[R150] I couldn’t figure that out at all! Whoever heard of a Norwegian Catholic?! Why didn’t they make her Polish or Czech?

Peggy's mother was Irish Catholic. This was explained in the series.

The bad casting was Peggy. We were supposed to root for her but the actress was so unlikable and odd.

R156

Is Elisabeth Moss still a member of the Thetan Cult?

aka The Church of Scientology;

Yes. She is still in the cult.

Oh, after all this time, I'd still do Jon Hamm. He's good looking and always prides himself on showing off going commando when he's out and about. Wouldn't be surprised if he's had a man down there at least once in his life. Out of nowhere to MAD MEN? Somebody gobbled him for sure.

He looked perfect for the part, of that era.

Yes, he's still very good looking.

However, back then they didn't have dick pills, I doubt he would have been able fuck around that much with the amount he drinks.

R157 Elizabeth Moss married Fred Armisen and then had it annulled after a week. Sort of like that Rene Zellweger/Kenny Chesney thing...what was that about? Sorry, I know that's for a different thread...

[quote] Elizabeth Moss married Fred Armisen and then had it annulled after a week. Sort of like that Renee Zellweger/Kenny Chesney thing

Except NO.

Moss and Armisen were married for about eight months.

I find Elisabeth Moss very likable in pretty much everything, save real life.

R159 Jon Hamm actually mentioned that when he auditioned (tho probably not for MM), someone tried to be very inappropriate with him.

He's aged so much since that went off the air. Booze.

R156, it's the lack of neck.

[quote] He's good looking and always prides himself on showing off going commando when he's out and about.

I think you've worded this a bit wrong. He doesn;t "pride" himself on it; he actually gets embarrassedand unhappy if interviewers talk to him about it. It may be that he just prefers the feeling of going commando (as many men do); or it may be he gets some sort of weird exhibtionistic thrill he finds it unseemly to talk about when he does it; or it might be some combination of the two.

I've never found Don Draper fuckable, which sort of ruins Mad Men. You have to be invested in Don's fuckability to fully appreciate the story.

R168 Yep, I didn't get the attraction either. I was always a Roger and Joan fan, they kept me invested in the series (at least in the beginning).

I was attracted to Cosgrove, Ginsberg, and Bob Benson.

I don't think this series is ageing all that well, judging by what I'm seeing from TV critics on Twitter. The focus on the straight white man's woes and his perspective to the exclusion of almost all others really does feel of another era at this point. Also dated is blaming all of his issues on having grown up in a whorehouse. I cringe just thinking about that, looking back now.

^^ Yes, Cosgrove was interesting. This series will never hold-up. It managed to capture the era in set decoration and clothing but the story lines were abysmal.

I'm digging Roger too.

Breaking Bad was also all about white man problems, but I bet it will age much better.

Breaking Bad will last as long as meth. It's ageless.

It was a throwback mentality even when it was on.

Weiner will never do anything else of merit.

Worth revisiting the 2008 review of the show in the London Review of Books:

Mad Men is an unpleasant little entry in the genre of Now We Know Better. We watch and know better about male chauvinism, homophobia, anti-semitism, workplace harassment, housewives’ depression, nutrition and smoking. We wait for the show’s advertising men or their secretaries and wives to make another gaffe for us to snigger over....Mad Men is currently said to be the best and ‘smartest’ show on American TV. We’re doomed.

R175 How true. Wiener was riding off a minor credit on The Sopranos.

And he wrote for Becker, which....well, speaks for itself.

The thing he did for Amazon was unwatchable.

I loved the show, but Peggy's story line was one I could not buy. This savvy, up and coming young woman in the advertising world had no clue she was even pregnant until she had a kid?!!!!!!

Puhleeze.

Weiner had a relatively major role writing on The Sopranos in season six.

I think Peggy's response was supposed to indicate some kind of psychological block--that's why they committed her after she had the baby, as she wouldn't admit what had happened. It isn't until Don showed up and talked some sense into her that she was able to face it and move on.

I just finished season 1-season 7. The whole series in a week. I enjoyed it. I got emotional when Don was talking to Betty about cancer and the kids.

overall, I enjoyed the show. Sally pings to me.

R182 the cancer storyline was the best acting January Jones ever dead. Her letter to Sally had me sobbing like a Mary

Whoops, best acting she ever did*

Did they ever figure out who was the father of Jones's baby?

R179 I forgot about Peggy having a baby!! Whatever happened with that storyline? I have no interest in watching the series again but your comment is going to drive me to some synopsis website.

Peggy gave her baby away. She tells Pete what happened to the baby in the season two finale.

Bump! Feed my beast!

R179, Peggy was ambitious, but she wasn't savvy or worldly in Season 1. She was presented as naive and sort of lost. I do think the denial of being pregnant strains credulity given that she wasn't overweight to start with.

I did not like her either.

me three.

Betty was a perfect part for January Jones because anything else I have seen her in she wasn't that great. I think Weiner had a thing for her and when she got pregnant it pissed him off so he punished her by writing fat Betty and making her more of a bitch. Then his new crush was Jessica Pare who played Megan and he overdid it with her, her character would have been great in a smaller dose.

Is January Jones as dumb as she looks?

Single for 4 years, no girlfriend in sight. He's about to come out.

Jessica must have pissed him off too, because he really torpedoed Meghan in the last seasons.

Is Jon Hamm sober now? Did he go to rehab?

Did any of the stars from Mad Men go on to a career in film or TV? Did they all fade? I know Jared Harris moved on in Chernobyl but I'm talking about the main characters. Jon Hamm was in that stinker about The Joneses and did some SNL. Mad Men will never hold up vis a vis The Sopranos or Breaking Bad.

Ironically the most successful is the actress who played Peggy

And Sally Draper.

Doesn't she play Sabrina the Witch ?

does January get $ from the phantom daddy of her kid???

Last Chance to see: series pulled from Netflix (Streaming) on 9-10 June.

Finally finished the whole shebang with Series 7, after 5-6 years. It holds up, despite anachronitic distractions like non-60s dialogue ("Are we done here?") and insane breast implants and botox.

[quote]Mad Men will never hold up vis a vis The Sopranos or Breaking Bad.

Respectable bronze though in a tough field.

[quote] Mad Men will never hold up vis a vis The Sopranos or Breaking Bad Respectable bronze though in a tough field.

They are each great.

I loved the show, although I thought it made some mis-steps towards the end of its run. Elevating Megan in season 5 and Ted in season 6 to main character status did not work and took too much attention away from more interesting material. But the final season wisely moved them both back to the fringes of the story and got the focus back where it should be.