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Monday, 19 September 2011

Mad Men 1


Supporting characters


Lane Pryce (Jared Harris); recurring season three, regular season four to present: 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 that of a strict taskmaster who brings 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 Lowe 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 his firing the three of them, then getting fired himself, thus voiding the non-compete clauses in their contracts and freeing all of them to build a new firm. Beginning with Season 4, Pryce serves as a partner and de facto Chief Financial Officer of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.
Paul Kinsey (Michael Gladis); regular seasons one through three: 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. 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. 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 his becoming angry when Don chooses Peggy for the new agency over him. He has not been seen since the third season finale.
Kenneth "Ken" Cosgrove (Aaron Staton): A 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 a source of some envy by his co-workers, particularly the competitive Paul Kinsey and jealous Pete Campbell. Pete uses his wife Trudy's ex-boyfriend to have his short story published. According to his bio in The Atlantic, Ken attended Columbia University. He has one admirer, art director Salvatore, who secretly has a crush on him. Ken was promoted in the beginning of Season 3 to Account Director, a role he shared with Pete Campbell. Later on, the more easy-going Ken is promoted over the more ambitious Campbell to Senior Vice President of Account Services. However, at the end of Season 3, Draper and Sterling choose Pete over Ken for their new agency. During Season 4, Ken joins SCDP after working for McCann Erickson (which bought Sterling Cooper) and BBDO. When Pete learns of Ken's return, he is initially upset with Lane Pryce for not telling him, since Pryce had authorized Ken's previous promotion over Pete. However, when Ken agrees to serve under Pete as accounts manager at SCDP, the two reconcile over lunch and Pete comes to realize that Ken is a practical choice to help bring new business to the firm.
Harold "Harry" Crane (Rich Sommer): A bespectacled media buyer and head of Sterling Cooper's television department, which is created at Harry's initiative. Unlike his mostly Ivy League fellows, went to the University of Wisconsin. Harry joins his colleagues in drinking and flirtations, though he is a dedicated husband and father. However, he does have a drunken one-night stand with Pete's secretary in Season 1, which leads to his being briefly kicked out of his home by his wife, Jennifer. He is ultimately coerced by Draper and Cooper into joining the new agency, although he realizes it is the right move. When Sterling Cooper was in the process of being sold, Harry mistakenly thinks they are considering opening a West Coast office and believes that he would be the person to move to California. Harry later becomes a bit of a braggart, who is overly fond of discussing his Hollywood connections.
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, 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-chewing 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 their forming the new Sterling Cooper firm. In Season 4, Don and Peggy stumble upon an audio tape recording of Roger Sterling's memoirs that reveals that Bert received a war injury that caused an injury to his groin (possibly explaining him having no children). Later in Season 4, in the episode "Blowing Smoke", when the agency is forced to radically downsize its staff following the loss of the Lucky Strike account, Bert tells the others that he is quitting the business, he isn't seen for the rest of the season.
Salvatore "Sal" Romano (Bryan Batt); seasons one through three: The Italian-American former art director at Sterling Cooper. Sal is 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 begins to realize that something is amiss in their relationship. 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. 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. 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 accidentally 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." Later in Season 3, Sal rebuffs the sexual advances of Lee Garner Jr., the drunken playboy son of Lucky Strike's founder and a key client. Angered by the rejection, the client demands Sal be removed from the campaign and Roger fires Sal in order to appease the client and his $25 million account. In a conversation right after the firing, Don shakes his head at Sal, saying "you people," implying that Don is not sympathetic to homosexuality and Sal is at fault for not keeping his proclivities out of sight and mind. 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 that night. Sal did not appear again during the rest of the third season, and does not appear in the fourth season.
Dr. Greg Harris (Samuel Page): Introduced during Season 2, Greg begins dating Joan Holloway, and they eventually become engaged. Handsome and embarking on a successful medical career, Greg sweeps Joan off her feet, and she is excited at the prospect of resigning from her job and marrying a physician. It soon becomes apparent that their relationship is not a healthy one. Greg, unhappy with Joan's sexual self confidence, rapes her on the floor of Draper's office one evening shortly before their marriage. Despite this, Joan goes ahead with the marriage. However, Greg's medical career does not come together the way he'd hoped it would when he fails to obtain a residency position at a major New York City hospital. He later receives a commission in the Army to pursue his desire to become a surgeon, and is shipped to Vietnam by the conclusion of Season 4.
Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley): Introduced during Season 3, Francis is the Director of Public Relations and Research for New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. He is called upon by Betty Draper and some of her friends to get involved in a civic project, but develops a personal connection with Betty, which she reciprocates because she feels no such connection with Don. In Season 4, he and Betty are married and living in the house that she formerly shared with Don. They eventually sell the house and in the season finale are preparing to move to a new house in Rye.
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. 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. 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. By Season 4, Duck has returned to heavy drinking and has been fired from Grey. Later in season four, in a drunken stupor he shows his hatred for Draper by attempting to defecate on the floor of his office, though Peggy stops him, as he is actually in Roger's office.
Gertrude "Trudy" Campbell (Alison Brie): Pete Campbell's upscale East Side wife. She is unaware of her husband's liaison with Olson prior to their marriage. Trudy wants to be a mother but in the early years of her marriage was unable to conceive despite seeking fertility counseling. Her attempts to adopt a child were refused by Pete, whose own upper class family frowns on someone 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 become closer in the third season (in the aftermath of the JFK assassination) and she encourages his move to the new Sterling Cooper firm. In Season 4, she is pregnant and gives birth to a daughter, Tammy Campbell.
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 afterward, she begins an affair with Roger and he leaves his family for her, further straining his already tenuous relationship with his wife and daughter. 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. Roger's daughter, Margaret, openly resented Jane, who is only two years Margaret's senior.
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. 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 her some personal advice.
Dr. Faye Miller (Cara Buono): First seen in Season 4, she is a market research consultant who is retained by several agencies, including Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. After some initial reluctance, Don takes an interest in her and the two begin a secret romantic relationship. Their relationship becomes tested on a few occasions, one in which Sally shows up unexpectedly at the office and Don imposes on Faye to keep her occupied, and another when Don asks Faye to divulge confidential information about clients of rival advertising agencies. In the episode "Hands and Knees", Don has a panic attack while with Faye and tells her about his real identity. However, by the end of the season, Don's personal and professional relationship with her has ended.
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, 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 the third season as she approached adolescence. Her relationship with her mother is often strained. 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 was distraught 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.
Anna Draper (Melinda Page Hamilton) is the widow of the real Don Draper, the soldier killed during an accident at the isolated post he and the young Dick Whitman manned during the Korean War, and first person with whom Don/Dick has shared the darkest secret of his original identity, the sole person who has accepted his duality, and perhaps the only woman that Don/Dick really loved. Anna lived in California during the years after the war, and dies of cancer in May 1965 as revealed in the Season 4 episode "The Suitcase". Don referred to her, upon learning of and mourning her passing, as "the only person who really knew me."
Megan Calvet (Jessica Paré) is Don Draper's secretary during the latter part of Season 4 and becomes his fiance during the final episode "Tomorrowland". Megan is an intelligent, quietly ambitious young French-Canadian woman, the daughter of a McGill University professor. Megan manages to get close to Don without being too inquisitive or possessive; she seems surprised by his sudden proposal but readily says "yes." She is unique among Don's paramours because of her immediate rapport with his children and because he tells her that he loves her.
Midge Daniels (Rosemarie DeWitt) is Don Draper's extramarital lover in season 1. A bohemian artist, she exposes Don to the then-emerging 1960s counterculture. She makes a brief appearance in season 4, where it is revealed she became involved with a heroin addict and later became one herself.




Mad Men episodes


Season Episodes Season Premiere Season Finale
Season 1 13 July 19, 2007 October 18, 2007
Season 2 13 July 27, 2008 October 26, 2008
Season 3 13 August 16, 2009 November 8, 2009
Season 4 13 July 25, 2010 October 17, 2010
Season 5 March 2012 




Themes


Mad Men depicts parts of American society and culture of the 1960s, highlighting cigarette smoking, drinking, sexism, feminism, adultery, homophobia, racism and antisemitism. 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. 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.
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), drug use, 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. Draper in particular walks a tight rope when contemplating his rather humble beginnings and the deceitful life he has led as against the power and affluence he wields as a captain of industry, and frequently relieves that pressure by way of excessive and sometimes uncontrolled drinking. At times, Draper is utterly oblivious to the pain he dishes out in condescending confrontations with Betty, Peggy, care providers, in-laws and a rotating crew of secretaries, including those with whom he slept; yet at others, particularly when involving Anna Draper and her family, he is wholly solicitous of others' feelings to a fault. In season 4, the Vietnam War becomes much more prominent, especially when Joan's husband, Greg, accepts a commission in the U.S. Army and is to ship to Vietnam after basic training.




Reception


Ratings
The first season's premiere attracted 900,000 viewers, a number which more than doubled for the heavily promoted second season premiere. A major drop in viewership for the episode following the second season premiere prompted concern from some television critics. 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."
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.
Season Broadcast dates Premiere viewers
(in millions)
1 July 19 – October 18, 2007 0.90
2 July 27 – October 26, 2008 2.00
3 August 16 – November 8, 2009 2.80
4 July 25 – October 17, 2010 2.92
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.




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