Bryan Batt: Sal Romano on "Mad men"

I hope things worked out for Sal!!!

That was one of the many shitty things about Mad Men. So overpraised

Was he written off?

Didn't he just disappear?

I heard he got in a fight with Matthew Weiner and was written off as punishment

R3 Sal turned down the advances of the Lucky Strike guy and was fired so the agency could keep the account.

I've always found him really sexy.

MAD MEN is my favorite show ever, but it did piss me off that they never brought back Sal.

I have met Bryan a couple of times through a mutual friend. He's a nice guy.

I remember reading that Batt made a crack about the young kid who played the neighbor's son with whom Sally had a very odd friendship. The kid was TERRIBLE, and seemed very creepy in all his scenes. Batt apparently said, "Gee, that kid really is strange." The actor was/is Matthew Weiner's son (and, according to Weiner, was not supposed to be "strange" or "weird" at all). Batt was written off soon thereafter.

I don't know if that's ever been confirmed, but that's the tale.

From what I remember reading, Weiner wanted to make it “authentic” and it wouldn’t be “authentic” to bring him back into the loop after he was outed as he would have never been accepted by any of the other characters at the ad agency

I always thought Sal's sexual moments were so erotic on those couple of times he's "goes there".

There was no need for Sal to return. We all knew how Sal's story ended. There was no way to wrap that story up in a neat little bow. Sometimes the audience does not need to see everything.

Mr. Batt was obviously a great actor, and he showed his skill in almost every scene. The scenes with his wife (where he acts out a commercial he's filming) in the horribly creepy scene where that tobacco company scion comes on to him, and where he reacts to Draper's advice ("Limit your exposure")... and if he made the comment re: Weiner's kid, it's hilarious: a one-eyed gill-breathing mutant couldn't be any weirder. They should keep an eye on that kid anyway. He's strange. Interestingly enough, as big a hit as that show was, I doubt that Weiner will pop up as a show runner in the future. He seems kind of complicated, let's say, also.

o, I see from wiki he's gone on to film and novels. I guess he won't get in any trouble that way...AHAHAHAHA

Laffing at Weiner, not Mr. Batt.

[quote] The actor was/is Matthew Weiner's son (and, according to Weiner, was not supposed to be "strange" or "weird" at all). Batt was written off soon thereafter.

Matt Weiner's son appeared in the first season (and many seasons thereafter) as Glenn Bishop, and Batt was on "Mad Men" for another two more seasons after that, so that seems unlikely.

I love Mad Men and I love Sal's storyline and Batt as an actor. I do wish Sal would have shown up again when SCDP was tits up and Lucky Strike fucked off. It would have been perfect. I dont think any of the staff would gave cared.

I saw him in ‘Grey Gardens’ with Betty Buckley at the Ahmanson a few years ago, and he was really very good. Turns out Batt is a good singer with a strong stage presence.

He put on a one man show here in Austin a few years ago - he is a very talented man. I believe he owned an antique store in New Orleans at one time.

I think many long-time viewers expected him to pop up in one of the last episodes, as a commercials director. It seemed to be the direction his character was heading in, thanks to Don.....

What I thought was so wonderful about Batt's storyline: Don Draper spotted Sal when he was seduced by the bellhop. He knew but never held it against him. Don was many awful things, but I think Weiner wanted to show he was not homophobic. It was sort of made clear that Sal would have been better off had he given in to the client's advances.

Poor Kitty, still wondering why Sal spent so much time in the park bathrooms....

Silly, he was a queer on a show set in the 1960s. He's dead of course, to demonstrate how such moral deviants always come to tragic ends. Just like in all the films of the time.

Batt was awesome as Patrick Stewart's partner in Jeffrey.

Better NOT call Sal.

What I thought was so wonderful about Batt's storyline: Don Draper spotted Sal when he was seduced by the bellhop. He knew but never held it against him. Don was many awful things, but I think Weiner wanted to show he was not homophobic.

You're misremembering a bit. You're right about the bellhop story; but when Lee Daniels of Lucky Strike made Don fire Sal (for not responding to Leee's direct pass, although Lee did not tell Don that), Don assumed Sal had flirted with Daniels, and disgustedly said to him, "You people..."

The idea was that Don was less homophobic than many straight people in the 1960s, but still had stereotypical (and negative) ideas about gay men. He thought gay men like Sal were bad at being discreet enough.

R23 "you people"?

I do not remember that. I wonder if that scene is on YouTube.

Poor Sal. I don't know what he was thinking. The Lucky Strike guy was sleazy-hot.

Draper's a user and abuser Don didn't give a shit what anyone did or was as long as they played the game and were useful to him and didn't impact him negatively. Don believed Sal that Lee was the aggressor, but now the jig was up. No way Sal could be on the DL at Sterling Cooper anymore. And it forced Don to act, so he was petulant. So he blames Sal by saying "you people" when he's really just pissed that he has to fire him.

He was in Cats on Broadway as the lead cat.

He committed the cardinal sin on a Matt Weiner show — being gay, he simply could not help but spill a little tea about something that was coming up on the next season of the show.

HUGE HUGE NO NO on a Weiner show.

This ENRAGED Weiner and Batt got the hook.

His family owned an amusement park on Lake Ponchatrain in New Orleans.

He's always been a flamer, r17.

That picture of him was from before the war..

The Lucky Strike guy was a creep - I'm glad Sal rejected him.

Reading Mark Harris’s Mike Nichols bio, I learned that Mike Nichols was a huge Mad Men fan, who befriended Matthew Weiner, & was responsible for Don Draper’s quick second marriage. He told Weiner that a “divorced guy in the 1960s is going bro want someone to put that steak on the table.”

Peggy Olsen was an insufferable cunt.

I know many fans hated Meghan, but Mike Nichols was right: a wealthy Manhattan player like Don who had been forced to get a divorce his wife would have married a new trophy wife ASAP.

Basically, it was very hard to be middle-aged and single in that world and time unless you're widowed or considered deeply eccentric but powerful (Bert Cooper was all of these).

Don Draper shading Sal for being too sexually indiscreet? That is rich.

I never loathed Megan but the name was ridiculous. Very few women were named Megan in that era and the few that were were certainly not of Franco descent.

[quote]He put on a one man show here in Austin a few years ago - he is a very talented man. I believe he owned an antique store in New Orleans at one time.

He and his partner still do. Bryan is a very nice man.

Up to that point in the series, none of his peers at Sterling Cooper knew for sure that Don was fucking women on the side (his secretaries knew, but they kept it quiet).

Also, Don did not shade Sal the first time he discovered he was gay: he simply indirectly warned him, "Limit your exposure." Only when Lee Garvey, Jr., insisted Sal be fired for not sleeping with him did Don say anything shady, and then it was clearly projection for Sal allowing himself to be discovered.

Don’t forget Don grew up in a whorehouse and was in the Army during Korea, I’m sure he’d seen it all sexually

[quote]There was no need for Sal to return. We all knew how Sal's story ended.

At least no one took a tire iron to his head.

I follow Bryan Batt on IG and he's literally one the spokespeople for NOLA tourism. He narrates a lot of the airport videos and announcements. January Jones comments on a lot of his posts, so they're still friendly.

Didn't Don see Sal with the bellman when the hotel caught on fire during their work trip?

Yes, r42. That's why he told Sal soon after (in the same episode) to limit his exposure.

[quote] I believe he owned an antique store in New Orleans at one time.

It's not an antique store, but more of a gift / home furnishings store. Some expensive things, but mostly moderately-priced. It's in the Garden District, well worth a visit after a boozy lunch at the Commander's Palace.

He literally is, R42? Thank God you qualified this point. Without that useless filler word, we may have languished forever in confusion.

Since when were bellboys promoted to bellmen?

[quote] Don Draper shading Sal for being too sexually indiscreet? That is rich.

Well, from the perspective of 2010 (or whenever that episode aired), sure. But from 1962? Homosexuality was still a crime in many states, and considered a perversion nearly everywhere.

On the other hand, married successful men were virtually EXPECTED to be having affairs.

To be perfectly honest, I thought Don was actually (for his time period) rather enlightened when it came to homosexuality. Instead of judging Sal, he ignored the evidence that Sal was gay. He treated Sal the same before that discovery as after. That makes Don’s live and let live attitude perfectly clear.

Sal’s firing I see a little differently. There isn’t anything wrong with that scene in and of itself, and I think Don himself might actually have sucked Lee Jr’s dick to keep the business, but it’s tonally off from the way Don later reacts when Joan is propositioned by that Jaguar fatty. If he was fine with Sal sleeping with Lee Jr to keep Lucky Strike, he wouldn’t have objected so strongly to Joan doing the same thing to get Jaguar.

r46, I think that can be explained by the fact that he knew much more of the details of the plan to have Joan fuck the Jaguar dealer, and knew Joan didn't want it. he knew very little about Sal's love life other than that he was gay, and Lee Garner was not that much older than Sal, and was tall and attractive. Don is a total looksist when it comes to sex, so he might have suspected that Sal had led Junior on, or that they had a lovers' quarrel.

"If he was fine with Sal sleeping with Lee Jr to keep Lucky Strike, he wouldn’t have objected so strongly to Joan doing the same thing to get Jaguar."

OR - the real reason he objected was because he wanted the campaign he created to win the account, NOT the fact that Joan slept with the guy. It was more about his own ego. Probably both.

Or, R46, it could have been good old double standard, Sal being male and Joan being female. And this same double standard was the real cause for Joan anger with Don later on. Him coming to her rather patronizingly, trying to prevent her from sleeping with Jaguar gay (and not only securing the account but also her financial future) in the name of some galant chivalry, was not welcome by her. Joan was acting as Don's secretary at the time, so she knew he did the same - sleeping with Bobbie Barrett to keep the Hutz account. Her saying to him "You're the good one" was perceived as praising Don for being decent while the other partners were willingly whoring her out. What it really meant was - if you're the good one, I, Joan, must be the bad one. And this was the thing she couldn't forgive him for.

MAD MEN is my favorite show of all time. I appreciate the insight into the Don/Sal and Don/Joan situations. I have been angry at Don for years for seemingly being angry at Sal for NOT sleeping with a client, and angry at Joan because she did sleep with one. As much was on MM, I guess it wasn’t so black and white.

Matt Weiner did plan on bringing back Sal eventually as Sal was included on the list of loose threads he wanted to tie up before the end of the series. He just got timed out; Sal wasn't the only character that fell victim to this as I recall Dr. Faye was another one on the list.

Dr. Faye was such a useless character. She reminded me of a cross of Dr. joyce Brothers and Shari Lewis.

Bryan Batt played the bartender at the Mona Lisa on As The World Turns

I would have loved to have seen Dr. Faye come back.

Another reason Don was upset when Joan sold herself out to the Jaguar guy is that he had a bit a virgin/whore complex: although he liked the nasty stuff with the women he saw on the side (which was due to growing up in a whorehouse), he was would usually treat the women at work he respected in a courtly way.

Of all Don's side pieces my favorite was Rachel Menken. And I love the knight cufflinks she gave him. And she dumped him which was awesome.

Didn't Bryan originate Darius on stage in Jeffrey as well as do the movie?