Great job! You definitely look the part and the timing is perfect.

I think the cigarette smoking is perfectly timed.
This is a real good dude.

This is definitely the best entry. . I could watch it again and again. I can't wait to see more!

this is very impressive. I absolutely love this show and you fit in perfectly. Your wife is correct in this matter

damn... this guy is good. Are you sure he isn't on the show already?

holy crap.
i signed up just to comment on this.
none of the other entries (no matter how well produced, acted, or presented) that i have seen fit as seamlessly in to the show as this one.
bravo sir!
hope to be laughing with you on the air.

that was absolutely perfect!!

Wow. Thank you all so much.

This is probably the fourth or fifth time I've watched this. If not the best of all of them, this is definitely my favorite Don of the whole bunch.

Mahany for Draper for president. Seriously... SERIOUSLY!

Okay.. You own your own company and have made it mandatory that everyone with a computer vote for you at least ten times. 700+ votes and a handful of comments.ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

By the way, congratulations...you've singlehandedly made this contest a joke.

RE: curtiscurtis, he's just that GOOD jerk. and has friends and random others that KNOW that too.

That was awesome. Good enough to hurt someone's feelings. Nice.

I guess it could be a joke if he hadn't been so damn good.

curtiscurtis - you can only vote for someone's video once, it logs your IP.

i also don't understand what the number of comments has to do with the number of votes. maybe not everyone wants to sign up to say what their vote for him already does?

LOOKS LIKE SOMEBODY IS BUTTHURT THAT HIS OR HIS FRIEND'S VIDEO DOESN'T HAVE AS MANY VOTES!

You have MY vote. I love your voice and could listen to it all the time.

open_a is right.
i only signed up to reply to you, curtiscurtis. sew up your vag.

Curtis I promise you I dont own a company. I barely own my car.

My number of votes comes down to a couple things.

1. My grandmother was opposed to contraception.

2. I have a lot of friends who have a lot of friends.
its like that fabrege commercial from the 70's

3. I was in a fantastic machinima called leet world and those fans are rabid. They want to help me.

I understand why you would think there is some shenanigans. But I promise it is just my network of friends and family who sincerely think I did well.

the votes dont really matter in the end, so there is no reason to cast aspersions.

I thank everyone who has voted for me.

You all rule.

Ty - Never said anything negative about your acting ability or video. It is pretty good actually. I've viewed all of the videos in this contest over the past few weeks and just found it somewhat strange that in one 24 hour period about 700 votes were cast. Good luck to you. For all of the bloggers whose feelings were so hurt-what can I say? Usually people get defensive for a good reason.
Have a great one everybody!

Curtis i didn't mean to imply that you meant any ill will to me personally. I was just trying to explain my high vote count which even I find astounding. My friends are just sticking up for what they perceived as a slight. I am just in this because I love the show. I never wanted to "make the contest a joke".

It looks good to me, but loose the cigarette. We do not have to help the tobacco companies in their advertising. They are not cool, they are an addiction. Otherwise I thought you looked convincing. By the way, anything out of the ordinary to one of our own kids looks 'goofy.'

At first I was impressed by the number of votes, and also by the performance itself. In all honesty, it's a good performance. Very believable. Uncreative in that it simply mimics the original clip, but still well acted. I really enjoyed it.

But I must say, I was a little dissapointed when I discovered that the votes were all coming from a posting on a blog. It kind of takes the sportsmanship out of the contest. No one can compete with a guy who puts his clip on a popular blog and asks hundreds, or thousands, of random people for his vote. Ty probably didn't break any rule, but he let me down. I think his video could've had a real chance without the extra help from the blog. Shame we'll never know.

Despite the controversy I think it is clear that this gentlemen did an excellent job.

I don't think anything could tarnish his performance and his clear love for the show.

RE: smokerdrinker. Do you honestly believe that everyone on here is collecting votes on merit alone; that no one sent out an email to all of there friends asking to help them? I don't know Ty but I was asked to vote for him (after what appears to be several forwards). I did vote for him because it was very good not because someone I know knows someone who might know him. So good work Ty, and even better work TY'S friends, you appear to really support him and that is great.

Over 900 votes!... that's awesome. Good luck and nice work :)

Hatred comes from jealous thoughts : (

Great job!!!

"No one can compete with a guy who puts his clip on a popular blog and asks hundreds, or thousands, of random people for his vote. "

smokerdrinker: Why be disappointed in Ty when all he did was enter a great submission. HE didn't put anything on any blog. The creator of the blog, who has worked with Ty previously, probably heard about his submission and decided to give him a shout out on his blog to show his support. As Fat Tony said, there is nothing illegal or evn shady about friends supporting their friends. If people decide they want to vote for Ty after seeing a little shout out on a blog, that is their decision. Ty isn't forcing anyone to do anything.

also, as mentioned, the votes don't matter in the end as the final decision is made by the show editors. You could have 3 million votes and still not necessarily win the contest so I fail to see how a posting on a blog "takes the sportmanship" out of it. The public doesn't pick the winner.

None of this is suprising to me, great video Ty and good luck!

I applaud your substantial number of votes, Ty, but your video and acting are just okay. I'll put my money on Robert Manning or Don Pugsley.

This is SO good. You really catch the mood. Your voice and look are terrific. Good Luck!

I guess I need to read the rules. I did not realize the number of votes makes the winner. I thought the editors will pick the one they like the best when all is said and done. Whatever...it's all good!!

I hesitate to say anything for fear of defensive backlash from the 1100 + voters of this video but...I agree with Lou Al Cinder up there...
This is just...okay. In fact, personally I think it's a bit campy and contrived. I hope the people who checked out this video have also checked out some of the others...Robert Manning, Jaime Tintor, Don Pugsley, Kristina Vanni, and Justin Zell's to name a few--not only are they well acted by they're also unique, and make this competition fun and exciting to watch. This video makes me feel like...what's the point? I'm glad the decisions aren't based on voting though--for the folks I named above particularly.

I did watch several other videos and felt they were all over complicated and filled with really forced acting.

Some relied on cheap gimmicks to distract from poor acting, I like the clean delivery of this submission. It's well timed and very smooth. It's clear he's a natural.

Ty,

You are absolutely a natural. I would tune in every week just to see you act. Great job! You have my vote.

Ty,

Great job! You are absolutely convincing. You have my vote.
I would definitely tune in to watch you in a regular role.

I'm so late on this, god I feel like a Dick! Great job buddy!

You did a great job. I was so disappointed in the Don videos here that I was about to embarrass myself by attempting to make my own until I saw this one. You got the eyes and pacing down. Everyone else has stared straight forward and seemingly been afraid of the pauses as if the silence and facial expressions aren't as important as what is being said.

I totally think you'd be a great addition to the show. It was pretty funny though, I showed my dad Mendoza on the leetworld and he thought it was garbage. Then I showed him this clip and he was like "Damn he was really good".

Not to mention, on a critical note, Your timing on your pauses, along with simple things such as the wave of the cigarette really helped carry the feeling during your presentation. Not to mention the way you said your lines were just excellently presented. I really hope you win.

Hey Ty. Really well done. I can see you on the show. As a matter of fact, your clip seems lifted right out of the show. I'm adding to your vote count.

Clearly a man with lots of friends. But I think he would be more suited for The Sopranos as an actor.

Thanks for uploading this, Ty. Nothing fancy, nothing pretentious: just a good old-fashioned, straightforward, leading-man style of acting. I appreciate that.

It's no wonder you have so many votes.

I'd like to hear what you think of my Don, if you wouldn't mind taking a look at it.

Thanks and good luck,
Colin

It feels like your acting. A little stiff and stilted, its not the way people naturally think and talk.

People can complain all they want about how votes are gotten. But let's be realistic here. This contest is ENTIRELY and exclusively a marketing tool. The goal is webpage hits for the purpose of promoting the show. AMC wants people who have a lot of friends/contacts to enter and then spread the word via mouth, email, blog or any other means necessary.

This contest has gotten the show exposed to thousands of people who were otherwise unfamiliar with it. That was the goal and people like Ty are exactly what AMC was looking for.

I AGREE WITH THE ABOVE COMMENTS - AMEN :) I TOO TRIED TO VOTE & COULD NOT ENTER CERTAIN PEOPLE'S ENTRY'S - I NEVER COULD GET INTO THE PETE PAGE EVER AND STILL CAN'T. I HOPE THE MAD MEN PANEL SEES RECOGNIZES THE TRUE TALENTS - AND GRANTS THE WLL DESERVED PERFORMANCES A PLACE ON THE SHOW - B/C IF THEY JUST GO BY VOTES ALONE - AS PEGGY WOULD SAY "IT'S JUST NOT FAIR". ON ANOTHER NOTE; THIS HAS BEEN SUCH A BLAST AND FOR AN ACTOR - IT'S REALLY ABOUT THE WORK AND I THINK WE ALL WERE ABLE TO SHARE THAT HERE:)
AVIS WRENTMORE

Yes, it's Florida minus the "hanging chads"

I have something that needs to be said regarding the published rules of this contest. And before I say anything let me make a couple things perfectly clear. I'm posting this comment on Ty's page because:

1. He is the top vote getter.

2. I think he submitted a FANTASTIC entry .- I voted for it several times.

3. I believe every one of his votes is legit and that he has a lot of enthusiatic supporters.

4. And by any measure (votes, comments, editorial decision) he ABSOLUTELY deserves to advance to the final round.

Reading the official rules I just discovered that the finalists will be selected solely on the basis of vote totals.

THAT"S INSANE!

Why? First of all this site is so buggy that at times I've been able to vote for people multiple times within a few minutes and at other times I've been prevented from voting for my favorites for several days.

Second, I can't believe the producers of Mad Men aren't going to exercise some kind of editorial judgement going into the finals. After all they reserve that right when picking the overall winner. If anyone's opinion counts it's that of the producers of this outstanding series.

Selecting finalist soley on votes just doesn't make sense and, unfortunately, threatens to undermine the credibility of this contest.

Yeah, the voting on this site is erratic, I've had problems too.

It's Florida all over again!

I'm posting on this page since it has the most votes and there is no single community page on this site.

I find Ty's performance to be clean, concise, with excellent timing. I also feel it is "of one note" and "safe". That it garnered so many votes indicates a cyber campaign that successfully exploited the viral nature of the internet.

Personally, that's just FINE WITH ME. Such a campaign dovetails with "Mad Men" which, after all, is a fictional drama all about advertising and marketing.

And yes, there have been hickies. Early on when I was trying to get all my friends to vote, the site melted down for a good half day. Further, I still have the second highest comment total and for whatever reason, a week ago, was dropped from the "most comments" column, effectively excluding me from the front page.

Big deal.

This "contest" is, as NyChi has already stated, a brilliant marketing tool created by AMC&MM to generate interest in the show's second season. (A GF of mine in Wisconsin told me, "I'd never heard of the show until I voted for you. Now I watch it every Sunday night!")

I would hazard that the contest's creators did not anticipate such a large, extremely talented and creative outcome. A very happy accident.

Which brings me to this...it has been my absolute pleasure to be involved with every actor and film maker, (over 300 of us!) participating in this endeavor. There is a wealth of talent displayed on these pages and we should all take pride in being a part of that.

Before I sign off, maybe the following show biz joke will put things into perspective....

Q. How many actors does it take to screw in a light bulb? A. One hundred...one to screw in the bulb and 99 to whine, "I could have done that".

See you in the semi-finals. DON PUGSLEY

http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men-contest/2008/07/donpugsley-as-betty.php

I hear what you're saying Don but I have to agree with USCFilmGeek (and that's not easy because I'm a UCLA alum!)

Look at it this way, if everything always comes down to numbers, i.e. the same way ratings are used to measure a show's audience, then Mad Men would not have won two Golden Globes and a Peabody, and probably wouldn't even be back for a second season.

America's Got Talent has at least 5 times more weekly viewers than Mad Men. Do you think it's a better show?

If people want to recognize real talent and creativity then they have to move beyond simply raw numbers in evaluating whether something is outstanding or not.

And for the record yes, I have several friends in this competition, some who probably will make it to the final 18, and some who probably won't if vote totals remain the only criteria used to evaluate them.