Mad Men.....anybody watching?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Quasimodo, Aug 3, 2007.

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  1. Turnaround

    Turnaround Senior Member

    Location:
    -
    It's good to see new forum members posting in this thread (new to this thread, not new to the forum). Must mean more people are watching the show this season!
     
  2. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer

    Location:
    The West
    I was just chatting with a Mad Men fan here at work and he mentioned a snide aside Roger made about his office, something like 'My wife got the decorator'. :laugh: I totally missed that one. Roger was on fire last night.

    dan c
     
  3. yesstiles

    yesstiles Senior Member

    Well there's more to life than politics you know. Mad Men has always skipped large periods of time in their narrative. This is nothing new.
    They also skipped over Ed Sullivan/Beatles, the October Tokyo Summer Olympics, and tons of other stuff.
     
  4. 120dB

    120dB Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore, MD
    At this rate they'll probably also skip Andy Wharhol & The Factory, Dylan, The NY World's Fair, Tim Leary, the 60s TV spy/superhero fad and everything else cultural that would liven things up a bit, all politics aside. Must be a group of youngish (25-45) writers involved here...so no surprise.
     
  5. Roscoe

    Roscoe Active Member

    Location:
    Orange County, CA
    Mad Men has never attempted to incorporate the latest news events into its plots on a weekly basis. It occasionally utilizes well-known events (e.g. Cuban missile crisis, JFK assassination) and long-forgotten events (e.g. the American Airlines crash) as plot devices that impact its characters to varying degrees. But if it did this regularly, the "60s event of the week" would become gimmicky.

    Mad Men more often incorporates the changing times in a more subtle manner, such as Peggy's dispute with Freddy on the approach for Pond's Cold Cream (i.e. Peggy trying to tap into the emerging youth culture of the day, while Freddy wants a more traditional "adult" approach). To me, this more subtle approach creates a more realistic feel...other than major milestone events, we rarely recognize social/cultural changes in our day-to-day lives while they are in process.
     
  6. Marty Milton

    Marty Milton Senior Member

    Location:
    Urbana, Illinois
    I totally agree with your assessment. I was thinking along the same lines, but you have expressed my feelings eloquently.
     
  7. Ryan

    Ryan That would be telling

    Location:
    New England
    Freddy Rumsen FTW.

    And Creepy Glenn.
     
  8. Ryan

    Ryan That would be telling

    Location:
    New England
    Good to see Don at a typewriter actually DOING SOME WORK.
     
  9. F_C_FRANKLIN

    F_C_FRANKLIN Forum Resident

    LOL, it's so true, the guy is usually too busy getting drunk and laid to actually do any real work. :)
     
  10. Rando

    Rando Active Member

    And that red dress with the bow in the back. :D
     
  11. Ready Steady Go

    Ready Steady Go Active Member

    Location:
    California
    I caught that too, and gave the Mad Men prop and research departments a giant minus for that oversight.
     
  12. Chip TRG

    Chip TRG Senior Member

    Yeah....and only because they have been so damn SOLID with the vintage props all of these seasons so far. I'm a vintage Cola nut, and the whole PATIO COLA arc had me quite impressed. The only reason why I'm kinda saying "Really, guys?" is because their track record up until now has been WAY over the "great" mark.

    Enough of my geeking...time to get back to my normal life.
     
  13. yesstiles

    yesstiles Senior Member

    I'm confused. I don't remember anything about Eric Records. I just remember Don saying to buy some Beatles 45's.
     
  14. carrick doone

    carrick doone Whhhuuuutttt????

    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    I think they are referring to a quick shot at the party of someone putting 45's on a record stack. It's been a long time since I've seen a 45 stacker so that was fun.
     
  15. Marty Milton

    Marty Milton Senior Member

    Location:
    Urbana, Illinois
    Speaking of props for the show, a friend of mine sold a watering can to the Prop Dept of Mad Men this past summer. He had the watering can for sale on Ebay and someone from Mad Men wanted for this season's show. I haven't seen the prop in the show, yet.
     
  16. ChadHahn

    ChadHahn Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ, USA
    I wonder though how many men knew how to type back then? That was really woman's work.

    My dad was entering the law field back then and even with all the paperwork associated with law never learned how to type. It was painful to watch him at a computer.

    Chad
     
  17. misterdecibel

    misterdecibel Bulbous Also Tapered

    Don't most of the period props come from History For Hire? If Jim Elyea made that mistake (Eric Records...), I'd be genuinely surprised.
     
  18. Aunty Em

    Aunty Em New Member

    Location:
    Tampa, FL
    Interesting to, to see the reporter doing shorthand.
    Practically a lost art!

    Have been reading through this loooooong thread. I just started watching this show - have only see the 1st episode of this season so far. No previous seasons. It really IS intriguing in a way. Am curious now, to see the earlier seasons.

    One thing I think is a bit off....and I could be wrong...but I think that in a NY office, at that time, you'd be hearing stronger accents in the people's language. Whether a NY accent, or some midwestern thing or just some accent reflecting where the person is from. The other thing, I do remember women back then caking the base make-up on heavier. (unfortunate and very scary) Otherwise though, how eerie. It's like being transported back to early childhood days.

    It tickles me to see bottles of booze all over the office!
     
  19. Roscoe

    Roscoe Active Member

    Location:
    Orange County, CA
    Mad Men is set before my time on earth, but I have a feeling you may be right about the NY accents. My sense is that regional accents were more prevalent back in those days. They do occasionally feature characters with stronger accents, such as Peggy's mother.

    On a similar note, I think that eyeglasses were more prevalent than depicted by the Mad Men characters. I don't think contact lenses were yet the norm, so glasses were the only option for vision correction. Harry Crane is the only major character that regularly wears glasses (Roger is occasionally seen in glasses).

    Elsewhere, I have read that the ladies' hairstyles have generally been toned down from the extreme beehives that were common at that time.

    Most likely, the above are concessions to avoid unnecessary distractions for modern audiences.
     
  20. How exactly did the guys write back then? Was it more prevalent for them to have a secretary take dictation, or to write things out longhand and have it typed up? Certainly you see a lot of the "Take a letter, Maria"-type scenes in movies and TV, but this seems to be a real chore to me; I find it a helluva lot easier to manually write/type things up.
     
  21. Cheepnik

    Cheepnik Overfed long-haired leaping gnome

    While the Anachronism Police do their invaluable work, back to the show itself.

    Does anyone else think Don's and Freddie's paths will cross re their respective struggles with alcohol? Don seems to be slipping into a tailspin as his behavior gets more and more out of control.
     
  22. ringosshed

    ringosshed Forum Resident

    Location:
    san diego
    When is Don going to bang that cute nurse is what I'm wondering.
     
  23. Turnaround

    Turnaround Senior Member

    Location:
    -
    Hmmm ... when Don Draper talks to his secretary, the morning after they made out, do you think he completely forgot what happened ... or was he intentionally icing over the evening (as he has with his whole past)?

    I think the way the scene was played and edited, it could be taken as either way.
     
  24. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer

    Location:
    The West
    Nah. He knew what he was doing the next day. After she left his office...and after the most painful, sad and awkward moments in television history...his expression was one of pure regret and shame. Another quietly brilliant and powerful performance by Mr. Hamm.

    dan c
     
  25. Marty Milton

    Marty Milton Senior Member

    Location:
    Urbana, Illinois
    I am sure he remembered the night before, especially since when he first saw her down the hall he avoided going directly towards her desk. He took a long way around to his office, as though he was trying to figure out what to do when he got to her.
     
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