MAD MEN -- Season SIX Official Thread

And even harder to get invested in her when she's wearing that nightgown that looks like it was made out of an ironing board cover.

 

Actress' name is Linda Cardellini from Freaks And Geeks and I think ER (although I never watched it.)

 

Wasn't Betty not fat in the promo shots?

EDIT: Just went back and looked, and she is indeed not fat in the promo materials. I guess they thought that they couldn't make her look glamorous enough if she was overweight.

 

Looks that way:

 

It seemed with reference to riots (and the soldier wanting to fight someone stateside thus making it all seem anti Viet Nam) that it was Christmas '68 just after the Dem Convention.

 

It's December 1967.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Newark_riots

Just a few...

 

I agree, it looks like a year and 8 months' changes. Maybe we are all to used to the glacial pace of fashion these days

 

"Motor City is Burning" - John Lee Hooker, 1967


Oh, the motor city's burnin'
It ain't no thing in the world that I can do
Don't ya know
Don't ya know the big D is burnin'?
Ain't no thing in the world that Johnny can do
My home town burnin' down to the ground
Worser than Viet Nam
Well, it started on 12th and Clairmont, this mornin'
I just don't know what it's all about
Well, it started on 12th and Clairmont, this mornin'
I don't know what it's all about
The fire wagon kept comin'
The snipers just wouldn't let 'em put it out
Fire bomb bustin' all around me
An' soldiers was ev'rywhere
Well, fire bomb fallin' all around me
And soldiers standin' ev'rywhere
I could hear the people screaming
Sirens fill the air
I don't know what the trouble is
I can't stay around to find it out
I don't know, I don't know
What the trouble is, this mo'nin'
I just can't stay around to find it out
Takin' my wife an my family
And little Johnny Lee is clearin' out
The motor city's burnin'
Ain't a thing that I can do
Well, the motor city's burnin'
Ain't a thing that I can do
I just hope, people
It'll never happen to you
Yes, yes, I could hear the fireman
FADES-
Said, 'Look, get outta here'
It's too hot.

 

Has to be. The reference was to the Super Bowl including Green Bay and either Oakland or Houston. However, I don't think that game was referred to as The Super Bowl back in 68, just the NFL-AFL championship game. This show is usually a stickler for detail.

 

Yeah I thought that was strange too: were commercials aired during the Super Bowl (or whatever they called it at the time) already a big deal at that time?

 

Yeah, I never get her name correct. Thanks for looking out. She's not Velma here, that's for sure.

 

Poor Betty is being dressed like someones 80 year old grandma

 

Good episode for a beginning. Lots of threads that will wind out over the season. It took me to this morning to realise the impact of Don's missing / swapped lighter. His lighter had his real last name on it. When the other PFC(apologies if I don't have the designation right) goes to find him, Don will have to confront his past again in some new and possibly more serious manner.

Thought Jon Hamms' acting was fantastic. He is a man trapped and wanting to escape in oh so many ways. His only escape is the fleeting thrill of sex. He is so out of touch with his reality that even his ads refelct his personal situation over what is happening for others. He is out of touch and stuck up in his own mind. Much like Roger in some ways I guess.

Roger's breakdown at the shoeshine box was a great moment. Of course it would happen at that time. We all have those delayed reactions to situations in life.

Last season, someone used to post a link to an excellent blog / article written by a reporter after each episode. I hope that comes back. I loved reading it but I don't have the link.

 

http://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...e-recap-don-cheating-20130407,0,2939813.story

I thought it was interesting that in the first 5 minutes you had Don in a lot of the shots but he does not utter 1 word!
All the way thru he hardly says anything.....reminded me of the tough guys of the 60's - Steve McQueen & Clint Eastwood .....very little speech just a few words, gestures etc.

 

I usually post The A.V. Club's articles. Somebody else does post an excellent blog.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-doorway,95964/

 

this is very funny

http://jezebel.com/5992383/1970s-bloomingdales-was-a-sexual-meeting-ground

 

Thanks for the link and to the otehrs who posted. I'm looking forward to going through them.

Spot on about Don's lack of speaking until far into the episode. It was all facial and body reaction until he spoke to the army officer. My girlfriend commented that he always just looks so pained. Like he's constantly in pain and trying to hold it in.

 

No they were not. Ironically the first one (GB and Kansas City) was televised on both NBC and CBS. The game was almost considered an exhibition game, with the real league vs the upstart AFL. It was not until the NY Jets beat Baltimore in #3 (1969) that the game started to take on its stature. This is odd considering the attention to detail that Mad Men is noted for.

 

This is why owning sports' teams by massive corps has become even more important today. Content (advertising). Sports is the only medium left where 99% of people prefer to watch it live, and in the context watch the ads in between the game action.

 

Good interview with Matthew Weiner regarding the season premier:

http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/mad-men-matthew-weiner-on-the-season-6-premiere.html

 

It was called the Super Bowl in media coverage before the first one was even played, but that wasn't adopted as the game's official name until SB3. And as someone pointed out, commercials that debut during the Super Bowl are a recent phenomenon.

 

But Don's ads, going all the way back to the famous "Carousel" ad in Season One, have always reflected his personal situation. That's what made him the advertising genius that he has been portrayed as. I thought it rang false that Don's Hawaii ad was portrayed as a failure: it's exactly the kind of ad that, in earlier seasons, would have served as evidence of Don's genius. As Don pointed out to the hotel execs, if they just want the ad to be a picture of their hotel, why are they hiring an ad agency at all?

 

How 'bout the Hawaiian band playing "The Stripper" while Megan was on stage?

 

From the creator
By the time we get to the Hawaii pitch, certainly.When he talks about heaven, and later that something horrible has to happen to go to paradise... I mean, he is shocked in that Hawaii pitch at what he has actually said. i do hope there’s no discussion about him losing his mojo or something like that, because that is an amazing ad. I determine whether the client likes it or not, so it’s rigged, and I will let you know when Don is doing a bad job. You’ll know when he’s lost his mojo. In this case, the clients have failed to recognize. I was talking to one of our advertising consultants Josh Weltman about it, and I go, “Am I wrong? This is a great ad, right?” And he goes, “They’re going to pitch that work for five or six years, but by 1975, someone will do that ad.”

 

Okay - just who were the photographers? Who did they work for? Hired by SCDP, or for an outside source like a magazine? Wouldn't Don smoking in a promo photo go against "The Letter"?