Ok, that whole panty thing was disturbing. My goodness, today that secretary would get millions for her sexual harassment lawsuit. I hope that Kennedy wins before the episode is done. Don't leave us hangin'! You know Betty just might cry. A catholic in the White house. Perish the thought.

HA! That secretary's name would be in front of Sterling's and Cooper's on the door if that happened today.

Ken, is as unstable as Pete apparently, based upon;

A- The altercation with Pete;

B- The near altercation in episode 11, after comments about the vibrator;

C- The "panty" fiasco;

This guy could be a "time bomb"!!!

Posted the following earlier:

Ken in my initial observation added very little substance to the program. However, Ken's remarks about Peggy and the ensuing altercation(with Pete) has added a degree of substance to his character. There is something about Ken, he has rough "edges", that are surfacing. Could he be from a similiar economic background as Don, without the "polish".

Someone commented about Roger becoming religious - very good possibility!!!

There is much more to Adam's suicide than loneliness and depression. Clue's are in the "shoe box", Pete pilfered.

Pete will definitely blackmail Don with the package from Adam, although I think we will have to wait until next year to find out what's in it! Don is going to do everything in his power to make sure Pete does not advance until of course, the package comes into play - and it will! I hope the Rachel/Don things ends with her jumping out a window or soemthing; that relationship is boring to watch! Even their scenes in bed are one big drag! Peggy had better get off of The Pill before she ends up the size of a house! And whatever happened to Midge, Don's mistress in the Village? I thought their relationship had more interest than does the Rachel aspect. And poor Betty! That woman is so clueless, emotionally stunted, and infantile it's not funny. It seems as though her emotional growth ended about age 15! It also seems Don expects her psychiatrist to make her into more of a Stepford Wife than she is already! And he seems to be generally puzzled as to why she isn't gloriously happy! Their marriage was over a long time ago and now they are merely going through the motions. As for that scene where Ken chases down one of the women at the agency and "tackles" - then hikes up her dress - today that female worker would file a lawsuit and own Sterling Cooper instead of rather happily walking off arm and arm with Ken after the incident. That scene was distasteful to say the least.

I agree that a lawsuit would probably have been filed if Ken's panty raid happened today.

Back then... I suspect there was a challenge by the secretary that we didn't see. I watched her expression as he was chasing her. Like a high school girl being chased by a guy she likes. Which is why they ended by going off arm in arm.

I agree, the secretary seems to actually like Ken and his attention. They had probably both had several drinks by this time of the (victory) party.

Also back then, women had such bad options - she either takes it stride by taking his arm and is judged a whore by some or she walks off indignantly and she would be judged a bitch by others.

What does Don want from Betty? He tells her about being partner and she's very excited for him and wants to hug him and he's a cold brick or should I say "prick".

She acts like a child because he treats her like one. He doesn't even try to have a life with her.

Rachel, I agree is a total bore. I hope that ends soon.

I can't wait for Pete's wife to find out more creepy stuff about her husband. I don't think she will like it that he is stealing Don's mail even if it helps him at work. She made the mistake of assuming he was a respectable person before they were married.

That panty ending was something that used to happen in middle school. Stupid!

Does anyone know if the show was picked up and if/when it will return for a new season?

Rachel is the bomb and their scenes are so not boring if you understand how to read them. Her whole comment on how "this is hard for me more so because I can't imagine how hard it is for you" shows she actually cares for Don and he can actually look her in the eyes when talking to her. Midge was boring because all it was about was sex and Rachel is hot.

Oh yes, this is terribly hard for Don! I guess Rachel wouldn't know that cheating on his wife is about as hard as breathing.

Oh yes, this is terribly hard for Don! I guess Rachel wouldn't know that cheating on his wife is about as hard as breathing.

I like the Don & Rachel gig...A LOT !!!

"Oh yes, this is terribly hard for Don! I guess Rachel wouldn't know that cheating on his wife is about as hard as breathing."

That shows something about that relationship doesn't it.

Just another thought:

I find it interesting that when Don was cheating on Betty with Midge he would still have sex with her but now that he's with Rachel she has to resort to the washing machine. At least Betty was getting some action before poor thing.

Rachel's fabulous! She's glamorous and has fantastic nails! Anyway, it's obvious Don refuses to cheat on Rachel with Betty....Goes to show his intensity of feeling with Rachel.

AJ above hit the nail on the head. Don's emotionally attached to Rachel to the point that he doesn't want to sleep with his wife. It's a much different relationship than the one he had with Midge. Don probably never really loved Betty. She was the "kind of wife" a "man like him" was supposed to have, so he married her.

you gotta love Pete's crack about false weightloss claims!

I think Don has more of an emotional connection with Rachel. Remember when he told her about his mother and past family life? I seriously started crying. He obviously feels they are soul mates. I don't know how she 'feels' about him. I think she is very enormously attracted to him - I know I am (hee hee).

Does Betty known all about his past?? She does act very childish - almost like she is a newlywed, but they have two school age children. Anyone else agree?

I still feel Don and Rachel's sexual scenes are awkward.

Maybe they'll find out they're really brother and sister!!!

Peggy has a plan, so gaining weight was not an accident. Joan's strategies don't appeal to her. Peggy has a brain. And she's surreptitiously climbing the ranks, using excess weight as camouflage. That way, the men won't see her as a threat or a sexual object. Sterling Cooper is slowly becoming dependent on her feminine point of view to get and keep accounts. Once Nixon loses,

Peggy stand to gain even more importance. The book she was reading in bed - was it an Ayn Rand novel?

THis is by far the best show on TV. It is not advertised enough and most people I talk to do not know about this show. It is so well written and acted and so well done. It beats any of the other new shows that have been hyped. They pale compared to this one. I have enjoyed each and every show and find it so smartly written, and directed. Can hardly wait to watch it every week. I hope that it goes on and on and it should win an emmy.

i missed it thurs night, but can't find it on iTunes yet. anyone else find it online?

And what happened to the divorcee neighbor with the weird kid? She seems to have vanished.

BTW, I don't think The Pill was around before 1965.

Most people I talk to don't even know this show exists. A shame -- it indeed should have been publicized quite a bit more.

Kobe56,

In a previous episode Joan gave Peggy her Dr's name that prescribed birth control, and it showed Peggy go and get on them.

1960

The Searle drug company receives FDA approval for Enovid - the first birth control pill. "The Pill" revolutionizes contraception. It's 100% effective -- but has terrible side effects, including life-threatening blood clots. Eventually it's realized that the dose is 10 times too high.

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/71/81244.htm

Visan -

I don't think Don is refusing to cheat on Rachel by having sex with Betty. I think it's more along the lines that the house is hot and his, ahem, needs have already been satisfied. Trust me, if Rachel was in Europe on a buying trip in a cool month, Betty would be taking care of his "needs". I will say he and Rachel seem to be much closer emotionally than he and Betty.

Betty is the blonde goddess like Grace Kelly, the woman he had placed on a pedestal, the mother of his children. Rachel isn't and Midge wasn't.

I watched the episode again last night (thanks be to DirecTV's DVR). Don got on the phone to the shrink that evening AFTER Betty deliberately refrained from hugging him for his promotion to partner. He complained to the doctor that she'd been sent for a nervous complaint and now, after several hundred dollars in sessions, she was weaker, not stronger.

The doctor responded that she could go for psychoanalysis for up to five days a week. Don, who's given that kind of pitch before, doesn't believe that will solve the problem. Not that he ever did but he was willing to give it a shot.

In spite of shooting off the BB gun/air rifle a couple of weeks ago, Betty's not putting her foot down and insisting the kids need A/C. (Yeah, she needs it more but she shouldn't put it that way.) He doesn't know it, but she's sometimes in her nightdress through the morning. Her only genuine relationship is with their neighbor, Francine, who's got higher priorities (new baby) these days. Time to organize a bridge club, dear. Right now Betty's an affair waiting for a partner.

I love the picture of Joan and Sal as a preview to Episode 12. There's something about seeing those two together that just seems right. ;)

I love the picture of Joan and Sal as a preview to Episode 12. There's something about seeing those two together that just seems right. ;)

I watched the director and actors talk about the filming of Mad Men and the early 60's cultural context of the series. The director of this excellent show is right some situations have indeed remained the same even until this day. I worked in large corporate legal firms in Boston in the 1970's up to 2004. In very similar ways I can relate to a corporate environment which spanned decades. Much was like the machinations of the Sterling Cooper firm.

In one of my first comments about the series I sanctimoniously breathed a sigh of relief that thankfully I was working and living at a time in which those types of behaviors would not be sanctioned. The director, however, says yes, things changed but they also remained the same. This too is true. Still, I do believe profound changes have occurred so that heretofore powerless people now have at least SOME recourse.

Talk shows such as Oprah and many others make the once psychologically cornered person know that they are not alone and that they can exert at least some control to change their condition. The huge difference between the eras, I believe, is that we are allowed to at least TALK about things that heretofore were taboo. In the era of the late 50's and early 60's in which I grew up there was little talk or just a hint of talk but only on a psychiatrist's or analyst's couch which had just become fashionable and only for the well-to-do. Certainly there was not much introspection among persons in authority. Most definitely powerful men had to answer to nearly no one. Questioning authority is not the exception now it is the rule. Some of the absolutely vile, impertinent and condescending comments of those powerful men at Sterling Cooper towards especially the powerless women they work, have sex and live with would not fly. The courts are flooded with discrimination suits which attest to that fact.

While it is true human beings are human beings at all times, the social metamorphosis of the late 60's which encompassed the women's movement, the black movements, homosexuals and the like have given at least some voice and power over those strictly white men who once upon a time had usurped it all. Best of all at least in Boston one can barely find a place to smoke. That change saved lives.

I absolutely adore this show. It am transfixed!

I really enjoy the show. I normally just watch FOX or CNN. I have not engaged in appointment tv since "Frasier" or "Law & Order" with Logan & Orbach.

I am so happy I was not living during that time. I am a black woman. I cannot imagine having to be a maid and not have a college education. It would be a curse to be black and a woman during that time. I am so reminded of this each time I watch this show.

I am so grateful to all the people men, women, black, white and every shade in between who fought for me to have the same opportunity to achieve a wonderful life. (+:

When will Don finally buy an air conditioner? He got a nice bonus (which he gave to free-spirt Midge), he got a big bump in pay, and now he is a partner. What's with the suffering and sweating?

Peggy is gaining weight (much of it water weight) because of The Pill. back then, The Pill had just come onto the market and it was way too strong and carried many more dangerous side-effect than the modern BC Pill. The Pill puts a woman in a state of pseudo-pregnancy (water weight gain, additional poundage, etc.) and this is why poor Peggy is beginning to look like a blimp! She is not actually pregnant as so many have speculated in the past. Also, The Pill came along well before 1965 as another poster suggested, but again, it had not been perfected as it is today. There are still risks even with the modern Pill. Pete is his usual un-charming self and his desperate desire to get ahead really shows. Nothing wrong with getting ahead, of course, but he ought to see the handwriting on the wall; as long as Draper is around, Pete doesn't stand a chance of advancement (unless of course he can find a way to blackmail Don with the package from Adam - or a guy who somewhat resembled Adam). As far as Don and Rachel, their relationship leaves me stone cold; there just does not seem to be any chemistry there at all. He has more with Betty and precious little with her at that! Poor Betty Draper is caught in the 1960s Suburban Housewife Trap that so many women found themselves in back then: Nice house, nice clothes, a couple of kids, white-collar husband, wine, cigarettes, gossiping with a neighbor, cooking, cleaning and making dinner...and not much else. I think Betty will finally rebel or go completely off the wall! You can see the pressure is building both inside her and externally. As for Joan, something tells me that she swings both ways but has not yet come to terms with the fact, just like the guy at the agency (can't recall his name, although I think he swings only one way). After all, it's the sixties and homosexuality (and really, all talk and/or acknowledgement of sex - other than actually engaging in it was off limits). The things we all talk about openly today were just not discussed in the sixties; it was considered unseemly and in poor taste to discuss sex, birth control, pregnancy, homosexuality, and emotional feelings in general. I was a kid back then and I remember my parents having cocktail parties but believe me, everyone trod the straight and narrow at least as far as discussing anythng more than the weather or their jobs, kids, etc. People were not as politically-inclined back then either; that type of awareness really began (slowly) in the Kennedy vs Nixon debates. Anyway, I think Roger will eventually exit the show with the writers doing him in (but nothing predictable), and I think one of the creative team will be promoted into a fairly high position but it won't surely won't be Pete. Pete's wife will eventually make a reappearance and it won't be pretty when she does. Ken will knock-up someone, marry her, and eventually leave to become a full-time writer. Con will tell Cooper (the Robert Morse character) of his past and foil Pete's blackmail attempts. In fact, something tells me that Cooper has a few skeletons in his closet too, it's just that because of his age, appearance, and rank (owner and full partner) no one bothers with that sort of thing where he is concerned, as it would be pointless and not nearly as titillating as the affairs of Don Draper.

Fallingleaves,

I like and for the most part concur with your analysis of MM thus far. I find the on screen coupling of Don and Rachael dull and lifeless...for one this though I think Don is one of the finest (physically attractive) men alive..I don't think that he has the capacity for love....he considers Betty and his children property/props though he does have a certain level of care and affection for them; Rachael is his new "antedote for lonliness" as Midge once referred to herself. He is temporarily in "lust" with her...these two have enough emotional baggage between the two of them to fill steamer trunks ...both surviving children of mothers who died in childbirth- I am sure there is more than a bit of self inflicted guilt there; Rachael the younger daughther of a self made man who really had expected a son to leave his department store legacy to but got her instead.I think they displayed an amazing lack of vison about their store and resented being shown the vision Don had for it...but I digress.

Don seems caught between his WASP princess in the suburbs and his Jewish American Princess in Manhattan...both women are serious Daddy's girls. I actually think that Betty will leave Don because she is beginning to tire of being Don's prop/property ..

I doesn't make good sense for Don to be maintainig a sexual relationship with a client...at some point Rachael will be hurt and could decide to pull the account as a consequence

I think very soon Rachael will tell the truth of her affair with Don to her sister and that will cause an irrerapable (sp) split in their relationship.

Rachel fizzled for me - there is no chemistry with her and Don - End of Story

I think you're all wrong about Don and Rachel. They have tons of chemistry and a deep emotional connection and that's where the story is headed. There is much to be left to the imagination, if you actually have one. Don is different with Rachel. His emotional range is completely different from the shallow connection he had with Midge and the even more shallow one he has with Betty.

I'm not going to give any pompous suppositions about what will happen like so many posters already have, but I will say that any obvious solutions like Don leaving Betty or Betty leaving Don are completely ridiculous and not likely to happen. The writers aren't stupid. They've taken it this far and will likely continue to take it in a direction that none of us will predict. I'm thankful for that.

Cherbourg: Your welcome...I am an african american woman who was active in the later part of the civil/human rights movement and have many friends who were far more active...

What I find interesting is your comment that you suppose maids had no college education...I think that folks assume the elevlator, janitors, waiters, and bathroom attendants were of limited education. And that is the real tradgey of the late 50s and 60s...many of the black women and men that held service level jobs had not only one college degree but quite often and advanced degree and could not progress in their chosen professsion because of discrimination. I hope that in the second season of this program they deal with elevating one of the silent black characters to at least an entry level position in Sterling Cooper....

Betty won't be leaving Don anytime soon, even if she discovers a) his background or b) his affair with Rachel.

She has a horror of being divorced, being without a husband. Remember her discussions about Helen with Francine and later her description of Helen with the shrink? Helen's a much stronger woman than Betty.

Hmm, I wonder if the day of the birthday party when Helen was standing next to Don that Betty got worried about the classic "sexually aggressive divorcee." Which is why she immediately sent Don to get the cake. Midge might (probably) not have been his first affair. Not that Don would have had one with any woman she'd know. He's very good at compartmentalizing.

"Hmm, I wonder if the day of the birthday party when Helen was standing next to Don that Betty got worried about the classic "sexually aggressive divorcee." Which is why she immediately sent Don to get the cake. Midge might (probably) not have been his first affair. Not that Don would have had one with any woman she'd know. He's very good at compartmentalizing."

Ritt, I totally agree. Not only is he good at compartmentalizing, Don doesn't respond to sexually aggressive women (Joan, the young women in the bar, Midge calling him at work, the twins with Roger). He likes to do the chasing on his own terms. I think someone else said here that it's all about the hunt for him. He likes to be in control.

TJ writes:

I love the picture of Joan and Sal as a preview to Episode 12. There's something about seeing those two together that just seems right. ;)

TJ - I agree! I noticed that picture and the significant look passing between them. Joan is the one character savvy enough to possibly figure out Sal's secret. I wonder if they'll enter into "an arrangment?" It could benefit them both.

"And that is the real tradgey of the late 50s and 60s...many of the black women and men that held service level jobs had not only one college degree but quite often and advanced degree and could not progress in their chosen professsion because of discrimination."

Yup. There were ways around that mess. Going back to teach at an HBCU (historically-black college or university) was one. Confining your services to the black community in whatever city you were in was another (a choice that worked for self-employed types like lawyers or doctors.) But access to mainstream jobs was slim-to-none.

>I hope that in the second season of this program they deal with elevating one of the silent black characters to at least an entry level position in Sterling Cooper....

My bet is the young elevator operator Don paid off to pretend the elevators weren't working. He and Don have a real rapport--and he has the same kind of charm/salesmanship vital to an ad man...

Deering....I'm with you that Hollis, I think that's the elevator operator's name, seems to be on friendly terms with Don. It would be cool to see how the writers would approach such a storyline. It's one I'd love to see next season.

There is something definitely going on with Don and Rachel. I believe that Don hasn't shared any of his past life with Betty. I'm wondering what the connection is between Rachel and Don, besides sex? Is it because she's Jewish? Maybe Don is too. I'm looking forward to the development of this relationship.

I think that Don sees Betty as the "perfect" trophy wife and mother. He never had much of a mother, so she's his fantasy of what a mother should be.

Pete will certainly blackmail Don with the contents of the box. I can only imagine what's inside.

What about the gay character in the ad agency? I forgot his name? He turned down a man from out of town. There were many men "in the closet." I hope they explore his character with greater depth.

Diva wrote about Don: "I don't think that he has the capacity for love....he considers Betty and his children property/props though he does have a certain level of care and affection for them."

Awesome comment. And awesome reading about your life, too, and the lives of all the posters who have chosen to tell us a bit of their history. Please continue! It's fascinating to me!

When I read what you wrote about many blacks having college degrees but being forced to work in service jobs, a memory flashed into my head from 1966, which fills me with deep guilt and sorrow.

At that time my family was living in Nashville, Tennessee, before finally settling in Connecticut. I don't know why, but for a time we had a "maid" (a black woman) who would come a few days a week while my mother was out somewhere. I don't know the details because I was only five. But I do remember that she was referred to as "the maid."

Once, and only once as I recall, my mother drove her home in the late afternoon. I was so shocked and horrified when we arrived at her house in the middle of nowhere, on a mud road, that I remember this with crystal clarity: Her house was a literal SHACK, constructed of miscellaneous pieces of tin and plywood, more like a lean-to than a house.

There were several of this type of house on that road, with children outside playing and some chickens walking around the dirt yards.

My mother wanted to get out of there quickly after the "maid" got out of the car, and made us kids lock the doors as we drove off.

I tried to ask Mom some questions about the enormity of it all, because I just had never seen people living like that, but she refused to talk about it.

I don't think the "maid" worked for us very long after that.

What a sad, sad memory. It made me want to cry then and it makes me want to cry now.

I, too, thank all those who worked tirelessly and dangerously during the Civil Rights movement of the 60's.

It's been a quiet week in Lake Quonnipaug.

Two people tried to check out "Atlas Shrugged" at the local library. No copies were available.

A neighbor with satellite TV mentioned that he had seen Robert Morse, "How to Succeed in Business.......", on one of the channels. Happy to hear he is acting again.

By the way, will the person who borrowed my "Good Vibrations" by the "Beach Boys" please return it.

Deering, I was thinking the same thing about the elevator operator..he definately caught the nauance of what Don was up to and I thought then.."wonder what his back story is" ..I have all kinds of stories I could weave about him.

I find it interesting to hear of the disinterest/apathy toward Rachael. I find her character glamorous, and interesting. I loved it in the first episode when she refused to allow them to condescend to her..."A coupon?!" I liked the way she tactfully, but directly confronted them about the anit-semetic, and sexist attitudes they were conveying. In subsequent episodes, the conversations she has with her sister about what is going on are so well written, and acted. I think Rachael is sophisticated, frustrated, and slightly jaded with a sense of fashion that is first rate! I almost wish she hadn't given in to Don when he arrived unannounced, but then we might not have gotten the juicy details to add to what little we know of his mysterious past.

As if that weren't enough, there's so much good stuf about this show...I could go on all day, and can't get enough. It will kill me to have to wait so long for season two!

I think Rachel has quite a number of fans on this blog! I'm gladly, proudly one of them. She's gorgeous, glamorous and smart. As for her giving into Don, can't say I'd blame the woman! She'd been working hard and needed to blow off some steam!;)

Danny B, Don could have done the bit'o'self-revelation thing with Rachel, WITHOUT that boring, anti-climactic bed scene. Think of it: A closed-off guy like him just plain liking Rachel enough to meet heart-to-heart, without the rushed and cliched need for genital-to-genital. That would have been much, much more interesting.

Danny B, Don could have done the bit'o'self-revelation thing with Rachel, WITHOUT that boring, anti-climactic bed scene. Think of it: A closed-off guy like him just plain liking Rachel enough to meet heart-to-heart, without the rushed and cliched need for genital-to-genital. That would have been much, much more interesting.

Why is it that Rachel couldn't have just wanted to get laid in that moment?! Don comes a-callin' to rock out with his cock out and after some resistance, she handled business. Evidently, he knew how to put it down, with her lighting up literally and figuratively. Don was the one getting all Albert Camus/existential after!

I agree that Rachel's a great character and I like the relationship moving forward with Don. It probably won't last or end well, but at least we're seeing a different side of Don, thanks to how he his with Rachel.

On a completely different note, I found this link to a site that shows all the fab locations in Mad Men and thought I'd share it with all my MadMen buddies out there. Enjoy!

http://gridskipper.com/travel/new-york/the-mad-men-guide-to-new-york-303616.php

I wouldn't give up on poor little Betty just yet. She has another side to her that is just waiting to get out. Rachel will be the one to shut Don down. She is a strong business woman and knows what she wants and she won't have anything but a triss with Don. Spot on about Peggy packing the pounds on for power. She just may get the promotion over Pete. Don's past will come back to haunt him When? This is getting goooooood!

Hey,

I was watching Mad Men the other day, and I caught one of the montages, and ever since I've been searching like a mad man for it.

Can someone give me a link to where I can watch it, or the song that was played.

It aired early october, late september.

Thanks in advance

Interesting comments from posters wondering how the show can possibly incorporate additional cultural issues - especially dealing with the African American revolution of the 60's. Here's a thought: Sterling Cooper could hire a group of (college educated-qualified) African American ad men to target market their clients' products to African Americans. Novel idea, you guess? Guess again. Has anyone ever heard of how Pepsi revolutionized the ad world in the late 40's/early 50's by target marketing to African Americans?

Walter Mack, President of Pepsi-Cola in the 1940s, realized African Americans were an untapped market and the company's strategy of using advertising for a general audience either ignored African Americans or used ethnic stereotypes in portraying blacks. Pepsi stood to gain market share by targeting a portion of its advertising directly towards African Americans. Through his progressiveness, Mack hired Hennan Smith and Edward F. Boyd, two African American advertising executives, to lead a twelve man all-black ad team. They came up with an advertising campaign portraying black Americans in a positive light, featuring black families and influential African Americans. They also orchestrated a sales team composed entirely of African Americans around the country to promote Pepsi. Don't get me wrong, history proved that it wasn't all easy going for this team because of the discrimination of the time, but this type of nich marketing helped to cement Pepsi as one of the world's leading soft-drink companies and its market share as compared to Coke shot up dramatically during that time. After Mack left the company in 1950, support for the all-black ad team faded due to pressures from the industry.

Not to bore posters with this history lesson, but just a thought about a way the writers could intermingal African Americans into the show as it relates specifically to the "ad" world.

P.S. I enjoy the show and my post is not meant to champion a particlar cause - I just wanted to shed some light on what impact African Americans have had on the ad world, beyond being a part of the custodial staff.

Having now seen the "sneak peak" twice...

I really appreciated the way Betty allowed her daughter to stay up and watch the returns and even provided her with a question the ask her dad regarding the electorial college...not really indicative of the "mental midget" some posters accuse her of being..I thought that Don's response to this was that that was a question for adults not for a child to be answered... another indication that Don doesn't see his family a real people all the time only props to accompany his idealized life in the suburbs... and

....even though we all feel attracted to the romance, class and sexual intrigue that his budding romance with Rachael provides us...that will come tumbling down shortly...maybe as a result of the intersection between the knowledge of his early life provided to Rachael and that uncovered by Adam's death..things will be revealed that even the perfect Rachael with be unable to handle...

Nfromthe60s: thanks much for your information...I had actually attempted some research on this issue but could only find when the first Black ad agency was founded which was in 1969 so I assumed that the folk who founded it were employed at some majority agency prior to that time...

I do know that some industries did choose to integrate their work force from within meaning that many janitors and other service level empolyees worked their way up throught the rank..also many of these folks were college educated blacks who could not gain access to mainstream empolyment any other way. I worked for a bank during the 80s and their first black manager was a gentleman who was a porter when first hired...worked his way through college with a degree in business admin and worked his way thru the bank hirearchy (porter, night processing, clerk, teller, etc)...So if the writers choose to explore this avenue then I think it would be with a janitor...or maybe they'll find black ad man to work on clients for EBONY MAGAZINE one of the oldest Black publications in th country.

Also, the contemporary civil rights movement did not begin in the 60s but rather in the late 40s with the black servicemen returning from the war dissatisfied that they had "made the world safe for democrary" that they could not experience..first big civil rights action was the Montgomery bus boycott that gave us M.L King.

History lessons aside...I don't think that Rachael

I also wondered where the black characters' storylines were. In the second season (how wonderful to know there will be one!), I look forward to seeing these background characters move to the foreground.

There were too many good moments for this NOT to happen. From the scene early in the season, with the ladies' room attendants: "If those bags get any smaller, we'll starve"? I hoped for an episode about that woman's life. That was a terrific line.

Please add me to the rising chorus of Rachel fans. I'd love to see more of her. She's a quiet character, but magnetic, and the actress knows just how to pull this off. I can see Don being attracted to a woman who is watchful or a good listener. Rachel is both.

There are not enough still-water women on TV, if you ask me. I love this about Rachel. She's the standard-bearer for all of us ladies who know how to shut the hell up.

Finally, I loved Rachel's attempt to impose reason and moral standards on her late-night encounter with Don. There she was, all reason and standards ... in a midnight-blue negligee.

Yeah, Rachel! It was a swing and a miss, but at least you swung for the bleachers!

P.S. ... I think we'll see the return of Helen Bishop (divorcee neighbor) and her weird kid (Glen) pretty soon -- after all, Kennedy does win. She's the big Kennedy booster in the neighborhood. I think she'd seize her moment to rub that in ...

DivaDeeJee60s: I enjoyed your post. You didn't finish the last statement (or maybe it cut off):

"History lessons aside...I don't think that Rachael..."

Would love to hear the rest. I'm a big Rachel fan as well.

People of madmen Blog,

I am from the PC-Police and just wanted to say your doing great-- no violations have been written yet and thanks to the Women's Studies rhetoric and Diversity-Training bullet-points we have a clean board. back to work. Thanks

I was going to say that I don't think Rachael will continue her relationship with Don because she will tire of being "the other woman" no matter how much Don appears to love/care for her. I think guilt will get the best of her...it will affect her relationship with her sister which appears to be very close and I would hate to see the stuff hit the fan when/if her dad should find out....

I was also wondering who Rachael's escort is/was to the many social events she has got to attend in the other aspect of her life...she's got to bring someone the "family dinner"; what about Temple and civic events...I know she works a lot but during the 60's folks didn't generally work 80-100 hour weeks on a regular basis...even Peggy has a somewhat of a life outside of the office...So I'm wondering who was she dating before Don?

P.S.

...I think that Don will discover that is mom was not a whore in the classic sense just that she was a single woman who had an affair with a married man in the context of a small community and thus was referred to as a "whore"...I think that will change a bit of how he sees himself and conversely his relationship with Rachael; I think they will both find the relationship very confining since they are social equals they will not be able to go out in the manner that he went out with Midge...though they might travel to Eurpoe or somewhere else they will be unlikely to meet actualy or potential professional associates.

eric...thanks for your highly enlightened comment and all your hard work >

I love reading everyones comments and assumptions about the characters. Keep it up! I like rooting for Don but somethimes it's hard to because of his infidelity and his inability to share his feelings and past with his own wife. It's obvious that he's an all around "do what's right" kind of guy, but I still find myself saying "tisk tisk" everytime he bedhops.

Besides the show being entertaining, it's also like watching a history lesson!

With my laptop breaking down, I haven't been able to write anything, but here goes. Don't you folks find it ironic that MWeiner & Co. were tops in "Sopranos" a heavily male driven storyline, while "Madmen" really shows how "mad" we as humans can become. Particularly in a male driven realm as SC is. My guesses for future behavior of this great show, I'll have to do it another time. Love the blogs, I have never been as hooked on a show as this one!!!

I too am looking forward to the introduction of black storylines. Although given the way gender differences are dealt with on this show, I have to admit I’m a little apprehensive about how race and integration will be handled at Sterling Cooper. This fascinates me to no end because this would have been my parents’ generation as they entered and adjusted to life in corporate America. I’ve heard their war stories of what it was like to work “for the man” in the 1950s and 60s, and how they both opted out of that scene pretty damn quick, but it will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the world of the Mad Men.

By the way, there were black people working in advertising back then. The Vince Cullers agency (which still exists today) was started in the 1950s, but I believe there were black agencies at least as far back as the 1940s. At that time, there was at least one very prominent black marketing consultant--David J. Sullivan. He worked with a number of organizations to help them effectively reach black consumers, whose buying power in the late 40s and early 50s was estimated at $4.6 billion dollars. By 1960, I’m sure this number was much higher. There were plenty of media outlets that catered to black audiences, so it’s very likely there were agencies that provided advertising for those outlets as well. By 1960, black newspapers like the Chicago Defender, New York Amsterdam News, and the Los Angeles Sentinel had been in business at least 25 years, and still enjoyed wide circulation--even far beyond the city boundaries in which they operated. There were black radio stations where the advertising reflected the tastes, wants and desires of their audiences. And then there was the big dog: Johnson Publications, whose Jet and Ebony magazines were so successful by 1960, that Johnson often receives credit for creating the black consumer market. Both these magazines had been around for years, and were supported by advertising revenues. I’m sure that a few black companies were responsible for at least some of those ads?

Oh yeah, count me as a Rachel fan, too. Unfortunately, I don't see anything good coming from her relationship with Don--although I think he'll be the one who hurts most from it. I keep hearing her admonition to him when they had tea that day: "One thing about the Israeli's...don't cross them." That's definitely going to wind its way back into the story.

Yes, that Babylon episode has turned out to be probably the most pivotal episode in the series as it portrays several issues that are developed later on...that conversation tnat Don and Rachael have where we puts the serious make on her but where she also lets us know that though she is Jewish in nationality she is not necessarily Jewish in religious or cultural practice..We see Don being very intimate and romantic with Betty but then putting her on chill whenever he is even contemplating being near Rachael; we get the first flashback of Don's youth and family life...and we get to see that Peggy is more than a secretary not to mention the hot physical and emotional relationship between Joan and Roger but we also see Roger trying to figure out the disfuncitioality in his own family life..he is really at that point caught between two existences until his heart attack forces hin to choose his family..of course the fact that his wife is not really to be trifled with didn't hurt his choice of family first.

Grinandbearit: Vince Cullers just died last week (Oct 4th...ironically the date of last MM espisode)...he did found the first Black ad agency in 1956. His philosophy was: to approached corporate America with the idea that rather than integrating black people into a white concept of advertising, advertisers needed to buy into the idea of creating messages that resonated only with black people,” ...at that time the buying power among U.S. blacks was 4.5 billon dollars Among his clients were Kellog and the U.S. Treasury. The company was taken over by his son Jeff last year and reorganized as the Vince Cullers Group.

"His philosophy was: to approached corporate America with the idea that rather than integrating black people into a white concept of advertising, advertisers needed to buy into the idea of creating messages that resonated only with black people,”"

Oh-_ho_. Sounds like Cullers was one of the first to realize the power in demographics and pitching to specific audience segments--a practice that has spread from advertising into movies, TV, book publishing, and onto the net.

Has anyone noticed that the "Nixon vs. Kennedy" title will reflect not only the election face-off, but Don and Pete going at their own personal smackethdown as well? ;) Don's comment that he liked Nixon because he was a self-made man like himself is interesting in this regard.

Yes but while I loved that Kennedy won...I will be truly despondent if Pete bests Don in their personal battle...Someone suggested a while back that Pete might be a Kennedy mole...not sure if they were serious or joking..if Pete is not a mole..he is certainly a rat :)

Nixon - Kennedy

It goes back to the first or second episode when Cooper brings up working with the Nixon campaign. Don may prefer Nixon because he's a self-made man but Don's not an enthusiastic voter. I may have it wrong but as I recall, he said he didn't vote. He got onto the Nixon "bandwagon" because of S-C and tries to promote Nixon for reasons that sound good to him.

I doubt that Betty would care one way or the other except that Helen put her into a bind by first asking her to babysit her kid while she worked for the Kennedy campaign. Then virtually accusing her of leading the kid astray by giving him a lock of her hair. Hey, at any age I would have kept it in my "treasure box". Not asked for it or barged into the bathroom, but if given, would have kept it as being from the ideal woman.

But Betty is more the Republican demographic anyway than the Democratic.

Always thought that scene where Helen Hishop's kid barged into the bathroom while Betty was on the throne (The room didn't have a lock?) was the creepiest thing! He just stared at her! Then the little Ted-Bundy-in-training asked for a lock of her hair...and she gave it to him!! Creepy as hell!!!

I'm hooked on the show and the posts. I enjoy reading posters' theories about the characters, insightful references about history, and enlightning comments about their experiences related to this time period. What I've noticed most about this blog/comment board is that posters are using it as a forum to discuss the show's attributes on a "thinking" man's level. This is truly a credit to the producers and writers of Mad Men. Whoever thinks TV creates a class of mindless robots glued to the tube, has never seen Mad Men. Most intriguing to me is that the show seems to be permeating through a variety of demographic categories (i.e. ethnic, racial, socio-economic, gender, etc.). Thanks for putting on a show that allows us to use our brain. It's like attending an adult studies course on "Advertising: the 60's era".

...I think that Don will discover that is mom was not a whore in the classic sense just that she was a single woman who had an affair with a married man in the context of a small community and thus was referred to as a "whore"...I think that will change a bit of how he sees himself and conversely his relationship with Rachael;

DiveDeegee: Whoa.... very thought-provoking, and I think you're right.

Eric -- Of course this blogboard is clean -- These are smart, classy people watching/discussing this show. Not a bunch of low lifes.

Visan,

I'm with you on the Helen Bishop's kid thing. That weirded me out too. What a creepy little bastard he was. What the hell was that whole scene about?

I never understood the significance of the lock of hair. Does this mean something that I'm not clued in on? I do remember a poem by somebody called "The Rape of a Lock" by Keats or Shelly or one of those Romance Period Poets but I didn't commit it to memory like I do poker hands. I never understood why Helen was mad at Betty for giving it to the little perv it's not like she striped for him. (Not that I would have minded watching that.)

I don't think Betty thought twice about his request. Some weird kid wants some of your hair, you've got plenty, OK here it is. No big deal. Is there more to this than I'm aware of?

Dennis, It's actually Alexander Pope, who came before the romantics. Interesting that you should bring that up though. The context of the poem and "rape" was very sexual, which makes sense here. I can't provide much in terms of how it relates to a boy asking for a lock of hair other than the fact that I think it was mostly the boy experiencing a first crush for a very pretty woman. If you're interested, here's the full text of the poem:

http://poetry.eserver.org/rape-of-the-lock.html.

On another note, I agree with other posters about Don/Rachel and how it will not turn out well. I also agree that she will do the dumping but that they will continue somehow to circle around each other and make other attempts at a relationship to no avail.

RE: Don being a "whore child"

I too thought this was strange that if his mother was a "whore" in the true sense of the word (for a living) she would have no idea who Don's father was, and if she dropped him on the door of one of her "Johns," he would protest the same. Makes much more sense that they were having an affair, and his father knew full well that Don was his child. The stepmother just keeps calling him that to reinforce the father's guilt.

And I don't know where some of the posters are getting the idea that Don and Rachel are siblings or half-siblings. They definitely don't have the same father (Don's alcoholic farmer-father), and Rachel's mother's 2 children are from her husband, the respectible Mr. Menkin. They didn't even grow up in the same area. NY vs. Rural wherever.

Can't wait until tomorrow!

Interesting I've never read where anyone suggested that Don and Rachel were half siblings...that is just too Jerry Springer and soap opera-ish....

That is a complete stretch that Don and Rachel are related. Just because they both have dark hair and eyes? WTF?

Regarding the kid-and-the-lock-of-hair thing: it finally made sense to me when Betty revealed that she used to be a model. I think the reason she didn't hesitate to comply with the kid's request was that she couldn't resist the notion that someone considered her a superstar. Finally, after all this time in obscurity, she has a fan who wants a keepsake. Her dream come true. I think Helen recognized Betty's blatant narcissism and was outraged, hence the slap in the grocery store.

As for Don's secret past--could it be that his mother was black, or part black? In the early '60s that would doom his career and his chance to marry a Grace Kelly lookalike--and probably his relationship with Rachel, too.

OK Visan,

I was all ready to propose marriage to you, and was headed out the door to my lawyer's office to have the prenup drawn up, when you hit me with the best line of the blog: "Then the little Ted Bundy in training"

I'm super competitive and I know in my heart that I can't beat that. Just as the little weasel Pete would do I'm going into my office to sulk and have a drink. I think I'll yell at my secretary too just to recreate the complete effect. Visan, that was really good!!!

Well, Dennis....That's the nicest thing I've heard all day!

I have asked people around me @ work & other places & NO ONE seems to be watching this show!!!So I am very happy to see all the interest on the blogs. I believe Don & Rachel are really in love, I watched the last episode again last night and could seem much more heat & depth with them. I like to record & then re-watch during the week, esp., after reading alot of your posts.

Peggy, to me has always seemed very disconnected w/ her feelings. When she saw the gyn., it was all so clinical in her choosing BC. She didn't seem to be concerned about being a "bad girl" which I think would have been an issue in that era....Also, Joan gave an aside in the bird cage episode where she said, "I hate hospitals" and it stuck w/ me, I knew it was going to come up, & there it was w/ Roger! Again that scene where her roommate confesses her love was directly from the movie, and was just as heartbreaking. Joan is a clever woman, & wasn't about to alienate her friend, so she behaved in her unemotional blow off.............

Roger-That was the best he could come up with as a compliment, & I am sorry to tell you in '88 I had a boss who told me on his last day, that I had the greatest a** he'd ever seen (no I wasn't "doing" him!), so somethings don't change : (. Maybe it was a farewell, but Joan finally got "it" on her standing.

I wb very interested in what happens to Betty, & how she changes. I expect a massive change & I can't see her doing anything else but divorce Don once she "really" finds out. I don't think he will be upfront about it, I think it wb a really blatant mistake or error that reveals the affair.

Pete used to annoy me & still does, but in a different way. I don't think he'll ever be happy. I liked what someone wrote about being the office Pee Wee Herman.Except that PW was fun!!! The actor that plays him is great!!!

Don's voice does it for me!! His looks are icing on the cake. He's not a "man-ho", he's an emotional mess! This show is about flawed characters, like we all are, so enjoy the fiction that it is!!!

Zebra,

I can't agree with Rachel dumping Don. I certainly don't agree with Don dumping Rachel.

As long as Don's delivering "Da Meat" she's going nowhere. Actually, where exactly does she have to go, back upstairs to spend quality time with the dogs? This guy is the bomb and she knows it. He loves her and she knows it. He bangs her brains out and that she definitely knows that and appreciates it. I've got some experience with Career Chicks and this deal is perfect for her. She gets to run her company and get great sex from a great looking guy. I read a biography of Coco Channel while waiting in my Doctor’s office one day and Rachel seems to be of the same mold. I don't see Rachel changing diapers and neither does she. Getting screwed by Don until she can’t walk straight. Yea, I can see that.

Don’s not going anywhere either. Betty’s a good front woman for him. Betty might leave Don but Don’s not leaving Betty. What would be the point. Rachel takes care of the emotional and sexual business and Betty takes care of the home front mommy business. This guy’s a clever dude even if Betty picks up a boyfriend the deal works for the both of them. He ain’t pushing it. Nothing wrong with having a super hot and horny blond plan B. This affair could last years maybe decades.

Zebra,

I can't agree with Rachel dumping Don. I certainly don't agree with Don dumping Rachel.

As long as Don's delivering "Da Meat" she's going nowhere. Actually, where exactly does she have to go, back upstairs to spend quality time with the dogs? This guy is the bomb and she knows it. He loves her and she knows it. He bangs her brains out and that she definitely knows that and appreciates it. I've got some experience with Career Chicks and this deal is perfect for her. She gets to run her company and get great sex from a great looking guy. I read a biography of Coco Channel while waiting in my Doctor’s office one day and Rachel seems to be of the same mold. I don't see Rachel changing diapers and neither does she. Getting screwed by Don until she can’t walk straight. Yea, I can see that.

Don’s not going anywhere either. Betty’s a good front woman for him. Betty might leave Don but Don’s not leaving Betty. What would be the point. Rachel takes care of the emotional and sexual business and Betty takes care of the home front mommy business. This guy’s a clever dude even if Betty picks up a boyfriend the deal works for the both of them. He ain’t pushing it. Nothing wrong with having a super hot and horny blond plan B. This affair could last years maybe decades.

I hear you, Dennis, but Rachel's not going to succumb to f**kbuddy status like Midge did. I think she'll make him work harder for her (so to speak).

I could go on for years (and many do) so it gives the writers lots of leeway to develop the drama as Rachel and Don get closer.

AUTHOR: 'Sereno scribbler
EMAIL: tuh1015@earthlink.net
IP: 204.108.79.221
URL:
DATE: 10/10/2007 05:55:45 PM

“I still feel Don and Rachel's sexual scenes are awkward”

Perhaps that’s because their whole situation is awkward. Despite their very deep emotional connection, physically—-in the outside world-—there’s a chasm between them. He’s married; she’s his client. They’re tiptoeing around each other, trying to figure out how to make it work. That’s awkward.

Don wants and needs Rachel, but the only way he can fit her into the tidy, compartmentalized life he’s built for himself, is to take something out-—to break down the partitions, and remove the compartments. Like Menken’s Department Store, he needs a major redesign--to “throw out the baby with the bath water,” as Daddy Menken called it—-so he can move forward. Rachel’s planned remodel symbolizes the journey that Don must make himself. She is the catalyst that will ultimately change everything-—Menken’s, Don Draper, society (along with women’s place in it), and thus the world.

In the process, Rachel will be faced with her own dilemma: she’ll have to choose between Don and the department store. The place that served as the springboard for their relationship will also bring it to a screeching halt. Rachel has devoted a lifetime to making the store what she “always thought it should be.” Too bad that the man she hired to realize her dream, will also be the one who detracts her from it.

We’re uncomfortable because they’re uncomfortable. We know that nothing good will come of this relationship, as do they, despite moving full on into it. Both characters understand the challenges they face, which makes them cautious, scared, nervous--awkward.

OK folks check this out.

I really like Jim Creamer of Mad Money fame. Jim has this soundboard where he has different buttons to press to create different sound effects. I’ve decided to apply Creamer’s sounds to the various Mad Men characters. If you’d like to hear these sounds go to http://madmoney.cnbc.com.

Roger: Hogs

Cooper: Applause

Joan: House of Pleasure

Betty: Shotgun

Don: Bull

Rachel: Triple Buy

Pete: Baby

Helen’s Kid: OOOO

Peggy: Electric Shock (from the rejuvenator)

Midge: KA-Ching (Don’s Check)

If anybody else can find appropriate ones just pile on.

Grinandbearit...while I agree with you on some things...I hardly think that Rachel's character is capable of changing herself and certainly not the world....well she might effect a small change in herself when her relationship with Don takes a downward spiral...

If you're interested, we'd love to have you:

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/MadMenAMC/

I just had to share....friend of mine suggested the next episode be titled "Dick in a Box". Get it? I know, lame.

I posted this in the last thread, but perhaps it is more appropriate here:

Hmm, the next episode is titled 'Nixon Vs. Kennedy'. In one of the episodes, Don remarked that Nixon "reminds me of myself". Several people remarked that that made Pete like Kennedy. I was wondering what people thought about this.

On the one hand, I can see the Don/Nixon Pete/Kennedy comparison. Don and Nixon are both self-made men. Pete and Kennedy were born with silver spoons in their mouths.

But, on the other hand, Don is the smooth talker who is really good with the women. He is a natural leader. He is good with words. He is the better-looking man. He has the trophy wife (that he cheats on) and 2 kids. Don is also straightforward. Pete is awkward socially, sneaky, not very good with the women. He is brilliant, but he does things behind people's backs rather than going through normal channels. Now he has a box containing (something) that many assume he is going to use to damage Don. Sounds a bit like the Pumpkin Papers.

Apart from their births, I see Don as more the Kennedy type, and Pete the Nixon.

Hey Divadee. When I said Rachel would change the world, I didn't mean that she personally would do it. I meant what she represents. She's a modern, independent woman. Powerful in her own right. She's responsibile for her own decisions, be they good or bad. She comes and goes as she pleases, and answers to no one. In 1960 she would be one of the few women who could do that. Today we would be shocked to find women (in the West) who didn't.

"As for Don's secret past--could it be that his mother was black, or part black? In the early '60s that would doom his career and his chance to marry a Grace Kelly lookalike--and probably his relationship with Rachel, too."

That would certainly do him in. He's not been as deft at it as Anatole Broyard...

http://web.princeton.edu/sites/english/NEH/GATES1.HTM

...but he's sure come close. However, it's a sure bet that his adoptive family would have reminded him of that in no uncertain terms--and he would remember it in the flashbacks he's having. Unless he can't bring himself to remember that aspect of their abuse...

And if you read more on Anatole Broyard, he was described as being irresistible to women the same way booze is to an alcoholic--the kind of man that "every woman" has had at some point in their lives. Dumping him was like "going cold turkey off a drug." And he was also his own greatest professional invention. Hmmmm...g!

As well...

"Harold used to say that a lot of men steal from women. They steal bits of their souls, bits of their personalities, to construct an emotional life, which many men don't have. And I think that Anatole needed something of that sort."

Paging Don Draper. Your karma is calling you... :)

And M. Broyard did time as an ad man in the mid-to-late-sixties...

Almost all of the relationships on this show stay right at the edge of chaos. That shouldn't be that much of a surprise as it's how a prgram keeps folks interested. However, what is somewhat unique about this show is that each character appeals to differing demographics. And each relationship is a collision between these differing sides. Rachel and Don and Betty as a triangle are a great case in point. Each individual teeters on the edge of crisis, and we as the audience root for our favorite. We see that much that is dangerous and distructive could happen to either Don or Rachel from their own positions/perspectives, while Betty and Don are developing a chasm of unspoken feelings that deepens with each episode in a pattern that can only get more and more alienating. Meanwhile some people see themselves in Peggy who has been described as a 1960 version of Ugly Betty. Her relationship with Pete and Joan also has interesting possibilties. Joan, the Rita Hayworth of the office will be developed in who knows what direction with Sterling backing out of the picture. Sal? Doesn't he have his own demographic? And of course lots has been written above about minority elements who are still jst on the sidelines, but should come into play when the show jumps two years next season. The opening credits can be seen as a central theme, with Don as the centerpiece in a world that is disintegrating from within. Even as he gets his promotions and side checks, Don's world is closing in on him in terms of his past, and his presnet entanglements. What is almost unique for teevee, however, is that the loyal audience that is growing (hopefully) for this story really cares about what is happening to these characters and see themselves (or their elders) in the plotlines. But shouldn't that be expected from the writer of the Sopranos?

Call me slow but I figured out why Rachel's been "wooden" in the bed scenes. Unlike Midge who called up Don because she wanted her "hair pulled out and ravished and left for dead," Rachel doesn't stop thinking. She says that she can't imagine how hard it must be for him and he replies, I don't think about it. He said the same thing to Midge after a similar remark.

There's no anticipation in Rachel's face but no look of happy look of love either. Just relaxation. But she's also realizing that if he can't/won't divorce his wife, well, what kind of future can they have? He's hardly likely to escort her to the synagogue for high holy days. Or even to the annual Menken's Christmas party. Unlike Roger and Joan on a weekend when "every wife in New York" is out of town, Rachel (or at least her name) is too well known.

She's a long way from being ready to dump him but there's an "either/or" ultimatum coming in the not-so distant future. That said, while Don enjoys the bed and conversation parts with her but all the rest - kids, daily living, etc., I doubt he wants to change.

I watched bits of 5G again and figured out that (yeah, again I'm slow) the reason she moved on to Dude was because she realized she couldn't be the initiator in their f***buddy game. (He didn't like her calling him at the office.) She had to wait for him to show up at her door. Time to move on.

I can't wait for tonight, Yay! I'm counting down the hours.

I am just sad that I didn't realize what a wonderful show this was until the 7th episode. I remember seeing the commercials on cable and thinking "this could be a good one", then I totally forgot about it until I ran into it channel surfing. Ahhhh! I hope they show reruns when the season ends.

I LOVE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DON DRAPER AND RACHEL!!! The rapport that they share, their chemistry and their entire interaction is SO HOT, so real and so incredibly special for some reason...I wait for more that! It's like the she is the first woman who has affected him at some deeper/more fundamental level..perhaps it was her difficult upbringing, the fact that her father was a hard working man and her mother died at childbirth etc....but something about their relationship strikes a tone like none other!

Gail Klein - 'And Don is just too HARD to resist, let's face it. She'll learn (the HARD way). Cut the girl some slack!'

"Hard way" Was that a "pun intended", Gail?

I envy you - Upper West Side NYC - Love it, Love your city, love your neighborhood. I always said if I could live NY, that's the 'hood I'd want. Maybe someday we can have a MadMen party in NYC. DiveDee, you, Roger, Dennis, Deering, Visan, Blue Dogg and all other regular posters. What fun! Who's in?

I am such a loser! So I intended to stay up last night so I could watch Episode 11 at 12:15 am. (Last chance to see it). Made some tea, slapped myself a couple times. Well.... last thing I remember is the music and the pretend men falling from the building in the opening credits. Snoooooooorrrrre. So NOW, I have to take 1/2 day off today, go over to my friend who has DVR and watch it. Pathetic. I have to get DVR I guess. I am positively addicted to this show. Can't wait for 10pm tonight.

Check it out:

http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/

This is a riot!

To those of you waiting for Episode 11 to be available on iTunes: This is the note I received after writing to AMC:

Thank you so much for bringing this matter to our attention. You'll be glad to know that episode #111 (Indian Summer) of "Mad Men" will be available on iTunes some time this afternoon. There was a technical glitch that could not be avoided which caused the delay in uploading.

We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused. We are proud of "Mad Men" and want to be sure to make it as available as possible to our viewers. We appreciate your patience and cooperation.

Sincerely,

AMC Viewer Services

200 Jericho Quadrangle

Jericho, New York 11753

516-803-4360

email: info@amctv.com

website: www.amctv.com

Laurie B.

Now I've got to ask. Is there some relationship between the zzzzzzzzing off and moderdrunkardmagazine posts. Could the latter have caused the former? Was that really tea you were making?

Laurie B, that sounds like fun. I travel a lot for business and could work that out pretty easily as long as everyone else is on board.

Wouldn't it be interesting to see what we regular bloggers are "really" like? My husband recently met a bunch of people he's been corresponding with on a business-related blog for over a year. Not one of them was what he expected. (He was mostly pleasantly surprised).

Don't know what the rules are on this post but I wonder if they'd let us start a common Group where we could all post our e-mail addresses.

Laurie B -

Now *that's* funny!

Particularly under Columns, You're a Drunk - "You know you're a drunkard when:

This may seem strange but:

Did anyone else think that when Peggy looked in the mirror and when the camera went back to her that she resembled Wynonna Judd?

MadMen party in NYC? Yeah, Baby!

Ritt,

That was cold about Wynonna and does start that weird song "Big Brown Beaver" playing in my head. Just for the record I don't smoke and I don't drink. Which is why I can watch an episode of Man Men in about 30 minutes. I do like hot women however which is sole reason I can't watch it in 15 minutes.

Dennis ... thank you! Amazing matches. (I might argue for something different for Don -- he's more of an Alpha Dog to me, but everyone hears something different when they see the big guy walking down the hall, no?) Big props for your suggestions on signature sounds for Betty, Helen's Kid and Pete. Those are perfect.

Helen Bishop: Punching Bag

For Salvatore: maybe "Nothing"?

lyndon, I read exactly the same thing into Don's comments about Nixon vs. Kennedy ("I look at Kennedy, I see a silver spoon; I look at Nixon, I see myself"). I expect him to be doubly p*ssed off at Pete when Kennedy wins. To Don, Pete's a prime example of that protected class of soft little men who feel entitled to things they'll never have to earn. Yeah ... we'll see a crack in Don's cool contempt for Pete tonight.

Ritt: thoughtful comments. I think the Don/Rachel relationship raises some good questions. Would a successful woman at the helm of a very public business WANT a man to leave his wife for her? I saw ambivalence in her face last week. I don't think she's expecting Don to move in: she may be figuring out how to see him in her life.

From a very harsh perspective: Rachel does not need Don's financial support. The scandal of a Gentile executive leaving his wife could attract unwelcome attention to her -- attention that could hurt the store.

And it's 1960, not 2007: women then were near the end of a cycle of home-and-family fantasies, not in the middle of one. Our time is somewhat closer to the immediate postwar period than it is to theirs. We're much more about having stuff and keeping it, not about evaluating whether "it" is limiting our other options. A woman of Rachel's time might not see marriage as a destination. She might look around and see what her friends' marriages had done to them: not much "happily ever after" in evidence there. Rachel's very smart; she may have something else in mind.

Anyway. Submitted for your approval.

Finally, I realize (like others here?) that I'm spending way too much time thinking about this show. Why? Why why why? What the hell is wrong with me? Why do I read the post about a New York City convo for us rabid fans and think, "hot damn, that's the place for me"?

I need some help. Think Don would give me the number of Betty's creepy doctor? That couch looks really comfortable ...

Anne, it is sad. What this basically says is that there is so little of merit on television that when we see something of high quality we appreciate it to such a degree that we become rabid fans of it. My television viewing is:

High Stakes Poker

Mad Money

Mad Men

Poker After Dark

Golf

All the rest is shit.

You are correct it is fine entertainment and we are folks who have evidently been searching for civil discourse on a topic of common interest

There is a comment that I want to make on the Don/Betty relationship..After viewing episode "Shoot", I realized that what we are looking at is not a disintergreating relationship but one that is suffering through the "7 year itch" syndrome. ... Betty has obviously not always been this emotionally detached...at one time Don had the serious hots for her just as he has now for Rachel..I recall her telling the shrink that she met done while modeling fur coats for the furrier he wrote ad copy for ...he noticed her ask for a date and she turned him down. he also noticed that she really liked the coat she'd been modeling so ...three weeks later he sends her the coat along with another note requesting a date....they begin dating and she has a few more modeling assignments before they get engaged. At somepoint after that they get engaged and she (1) gets preg. and they get married or (2) she gets married and then preg....at any rate 7-8 yeaers later they are both experiencing exenstinal(sp) angst and not happy with their lives...both want a change and is not really certain how to affect it.

What was interersting to me was that boyfriend got the coat just to get the date....that's kind of romantic

In this same episode Peggy basically tells us that she is eatting and gaining weight so as to be taken seriously in her quest to advance her career...check out the conversation she has with Jpan that end's with her saying "oh i just realized that you think you are trying to be helpful...Peggy is really clear that she knows where she wants to go and that she does not want to become a "Joan"...

Also I think that the women who changed the American workplace were more Peggy's (working their way from the bottom up) than Rachel's...Rachel has more to gain from maintaining the status quo than from changing it.

s

You're right, Dennis. Utter crap out there.

Showtime is necessary for my other indulgence: watching a suburban mom sell pot in her spare time ("Weeds"). It's the opposite of Mad Men -- light, painless, continuously funny.

I never watch network TV. Every year, all they offer are reality shows and reworks of the past year's hits. Pathetic. Mad Men sounded different, so I decided to check it out.

I thought I had issues before? Now! My God!

The first step is admitting you're powerless, that your life has become unmanageable. I've snuck almost 4 hours in here today. Hi, my name is Anne; I'm a Mad Men-oholic.

Okay ... that's out of the way ...

BTW, Helen's Kid is named Glen: Glen Bishop. If he's destined to be a serial killer (I have no doubt), maybe we should give him a middle name. Something to help him get started.

Suggestions?

Hi DivaDee,

Just had to slide this one in before I sign off ... yes, I thought the thing about the coat was interesting. Don "bought" Betty -- in a way. Or that's what got her attention. I think the scenario that got them hitched was (1) (pregnant first), not (2) (pregnant soon after). Betty might have sealed the deal that way -- who knows? She's clearly no idiot when it comes to manipulating men.

And I too loved the exchange between Peggy and Joan ... especially the way Peggy's face changed before she commented about Joan's efforts to "help".

It must have been so hard to be a working woman then. Such a barren field, so many assumptions about your motives for being there. Imagine not only having to defend your choice to go to work -- but your reasons for being in the office once you got there.

Today? ... So much easier. I work for the same reasons men do. Everyone knows that.

Unfortunately THIS looks like working ...

Why, Glen Wayne Bishop, of course.

Nickname for Glen, future serial killer:

Glen "The Barber" Bishop

Yes, that's it, Ardilla!! And he takes a lock of hair from each of his victims...all of whom happen to be blondes!

I love Hildi. She has that librarian look in her eyes at the office and the eyes of lust after hours.... That scene with Harry in the office was great, give us more of Hildi

Many of the astute members of our "passionate fan base", have noted that Don is not attracted to sexually agressive women. We are also seeing a cooling of Don's physical ardor with Betty.

Don is reacting to Betty the same way he reacts to other sexually aggressive woman.

Even before Don walked in on Roger coming on to Betty in the kitchen, Betty had been displaying more initiative with Don when she wanted sex.

The look Betty gave Don when he came home unexpectedly to watch the election was challenging. She gives him the look after she gets up off the couch and is walking past him into the kitchen.

The showdown between Pete and Don was exciting. Pete hates looking the fool in front of even a lowly secretary, he has to be madder than a wet hen after the confrontation with Don in Cooper's office.

Pete is not going to stop until he brings Don Draper down, or ruins himself, whichever comes first.

I also think Pete's wife did look, at least superficially, and knows the box belonged to Pete's boss.

Interesting hints of a simmering attraction between Joan and Paul. You can see the strong chemistry between them when they are talking at the end of the party.

And speaking of Joan, when Sal kissed Joan in his role for the play, she immediately noticed something "odd" and probably realizes he is gay. Especially considering her experience with her roommate.

Don has got to be feeling strangely free right now. His big secret all these years finally out in the open and what he hears is, "who cares"?

Don may have been gambling that Coopers' response to Pete's tattling would cancel out any negative response to Don's alternate identity.

And really, advertising is not about reality, it is about what you say reality is.

Pete may have done Don a favor...on the other hand, how is this going to trickle down to his wife? And, how, when, and where is Don going to learn that his brother attempted to hang himself?

Since we did not see the body or any proof of death I won't assume Adam is dead. If Adam is not dead, will Don be contacted by the authorities as next of kin? This would make it almost impossible for him to hide his past from Betty.

I wonder how this is going to affect Don's extra-marital activities? Rachel, Midge, [fill in the blank],... they are a part of how he distracts himself from himself.

The preview for last show of this season has Betty commenting unfavorably on Don's family skills and his lack of family. Betty is already feeling resentful of Don for his withholding of sex since the Roger incident, and the way he talked to her after the air conditioner salesman incident.

I almost think Betty was trying to make Don jealous when she told him. I can understand that... sometimes any strong emotional response is better than being politely and coldly ignored... especially when basic primal urges are clamoring for satisfaction.

ANNE:

"Finally, I realize (like others here?) that I'm spending way too much time thinking about this show. Why? Why why why? What the hell is wrong with me? Why do I read the post about a New York City convo for us rabid fans and think, "hot damn, that's the place for me"?

I need some help. Think Don would give me the number of Betty's creepy doctor? That couch looks really comfortable ...

"

LOLARAOTF...

Other than the fact that the show is FABULOUS!, the fans are interesting and smart. I enjoy reading and responding to the posts almost as much as I enjoy the show.

Conversation. Ideas and comparisons that incite my curiousities are abundant in delicious quantities in Mad Men and from my fellow fans.

I'd like to be on that particular creepy psychologist's couch too ... but for a diferent reason. It would be fun to play with his head and see what makes him react.

Something just hit me...as much as I wanted to judge "Don" harshly for stealing the real Don's identity, I couldn't once I saw how one after the other (the officers presenting the Purple Heart, the lady on the train...) showed him how different his new life could be...I found myself thinking "In his shoes, I'd probably have done the same" Anyone else feel the same way??

I didn't quite understand why those at SC would have suddenly decided to do the play, other than they were drunk and had nothing better to do. That play sequence was dull, uninteresting and seemed oddly out of sync. Also, Don running to Rachel and asking her to leave for good and all with him. Come on, that was a real stretch. Not only had he not thought it through (as he accused Pete of doing when Pete threatened blackmail), but the entire scene with Rachel was startilingly reminiscent of the one with Midge a couple months prior. Apparently, when the heat int he kitchen gets too hot, Draper bails with the most available woman at that moment! But that he would leave his wife and kids like this, I don't think so. After Rachel wisely tells him to leave, he goes back to SC and confronts Pete and then marches into Cooper's office, fairly secure in the knowledge that Cooper will back him up over Pete. Pete is a little creep and he will end up hanging himself with his own rope! Peggy needs another job in another line of business far away from the world of advertising. I am wearying of Joan, Ken, Sal, Rachel, Betty, and a couple of other characters. Don/Dick took advantage of the moment when he switched dog tags with the real Don Draper; I don't think it was something he planned ahead of time. Finally, the series needs John Slattery as Roger Sterling, as he is the embodiment of the quintessential ad man of the 50s and 60s. Tonight's episode illustrated the fact he is an integral and necessary part of the show even if he was billed in previous episodes as a "Guest Star." Now that we know Draper's secret, that suspense has vanished into thin air. It will take more than just Draper's good looks and his extra-marital affairs, and all the other office intrigue to carry this show to the top next season.

I actually thought this episode wasn't going to be as good as the others but I was in for a surprise. The party at SC was just a little much, I don't understand why they decided to "act out" the play. The scenes between Don and Pete were absolutely fantastic!! I loved it when Pete ran after Don like a puppy on the way to Mr. C's office.

I was thrilled when Pete told Mr. C that Don was actually Dick and then was told to mind his own business. The look on Pete's face was priceless.The when Mr. C told Don her could fire Pete if he wanted --OH WOW, was that ever great! So glad that Pete's "blackmail" attempt blew up in his face.

Glad to find out even more of Don's past and the military scenes were fabulous. I think I can actually understand why Don switched the dog tags. His childhood was an absolute nightmare and as long as he was Dick Whittaker he was never going to go anywhere in life. He saw this as a new start on life and putting his horrible past behind him.

Never thought I would say it but I'm actually starting to enjoy Peggy. Was glad that she didn't allow herself to get caught up in the antics at the office party. She's making herself indispenable to Don. Glad that she finally stood up to Pete.

Can't believe the season finale is next week. Mad Men is like an addiction and after next week, I'll have to wait till next year to get my "fix" again. Why only 13 episodes??? Please give us a full season of this spectacular show.

KITRALOO:

"...as much as I wanted to judge "Don" harshly for stealing the real Don's identity, I couldn't once I saw how one after the other (the officers presenting the Purple Heart, the lady on the train...) showed him how different his new life could be...I found myself thinking "In his shoes, I'd probably have done the same" Anyone else feel the same way?? "

Absolutely! I could see myself doing the same thing. People who have not lived the kind of life as Don's early life, have no conception of how desperate a person can be to make a change. Don did not actively hurt anyone, he just took the opportunities in front of him. No doubt, a lot of that happens in every confusion of that sort.

Don (Dick Whitman) was willing to die to get away from his past... he enlisted and even the real Don Draper thought enlisting was a drastic choice just to "get away".

AUTUMN:

"...the series needs John Slattery as Roger Sterling, as he is the embodiment of the quintessential ad man of the 50s and 60s...Now that we know Draper's secret, that suspense has vanished into thin air. It will take more than just Draper's good looks and his extra-marital affairs, and all the other office intrigue to carry this show to the top next season."

Thinking back to some of Roger and Don's office interactions, I am thinking that the interaction between the two will provide some interesting twists.

Roger appeared to act like he is getting more "family" oriented as a result of his heart attack. Of course, that will probably not last for too long, the temptations of the job combined with drinking will lead Roger back to old habits I bet.

The information Pete dug up on Don will no doubt make the rounds of everyone in the office and will also give Roger something on Don. Remember the conversations early on between Roger and Don regarding war service?

DIVADEEGEE60S:

"What was interersting to me was that boyfriend got the coat just to get the date....that's kind of romantic"

I guess it was romantic, but Don works in a flashy business and was trying to impress a model, not a sedate young librarian.

"...I think that the women who changed the American workplace were more Peggy's (working their way from the bottom up) than Rachel's"

Change usually occurs from the bottom up, or via infiltration, you might say.

A THOUGHT ON PEGGY'S SECOND CAMPAIGN:

I was instantly turned off by the Rejuvinator because it looked like the rubber pants you put on over a baby's cloth diaper.

The dryer is an esthetically better option, and it's heated!

Sure hope that this guy doesn't leave us hanging the way he did on the last episode of the Sopranos! I'll be pissed off for sure!

If Slattery and Bobby Morse don't win Emmies fo this, there is really no justice. Paddy Chayefsky would be damn proud..

I started working at Y & R in 1960 and this show is incredibly authentic and engrossing. But I have to nit-pick just a little. Because it's so exactly right on every detail, I think whoever checks the scripts should be aware that when on eof the guys in the agency says he and his wife were getting tickets to "Can Can" in 1960, they should know that "Can Can" closed in 1955. For a show that's so right on, I'm sure they will want to be sure that every little detail is right even though they are at 99.9% right now.

re: he and his wife were getting tickets to "Can Can" in 1960, they should know that "Can Can" closed in 1955.

Possibly talking about the film version (1960). Believe it or not, back then, there were advanced ticket sales to A-list movies like Can-Can, Ben-Hur,West Side Story. It was a big deal to get advance sale seating for these in NY. They should bring this back as a funny retro idea.

What happenned to the $5K that Don gave Adam? Did I see Adam put it in the box before he hung himself? And them when Peter looked inside it was missing....

Did Pete take it? Great show....I wish they'd make some reference to the Edsel marketing flop and how the consumer is not as dumb as they once thought....Also, the disgust on Peggy's face during the "office date rape" was very telling; her weight gain clearing is on purpose to distinguish herself from the office "skirts".

Enjoy the blogs almost as much as the show.Really nice to have something intelligent on televison that gets people thinking. It seemed to me that Adam was handing the money over to a teller or something like western union.

I'm wondering if Rachel may end up pregnant,thinking back to the conversation she had with her sister in the restaurant about the movie where the mistress gets pregnant and the guy kills her, You don't want to be that woman, the sister warns...it would make Don rethink his mothers situation.Loved Cooper putting Pete in his place, almost as if he already knew!!

"Paddy Chayefsky would be damn proud.."

Rod Serling would have loved this, too...

Lonecia: Loved your post. I never thought about Adam not actually succeeding with the suicide. That would make an interesting twist!

One thing you mentioned about Don's withholding sex from Betty: I think that occurred after he started up with Rachel, not from the time Roger made a pass. (That epi was "Red in the Face," which came before the one where she's modeling and they have a really hot sex scene in the living room.)

Anyway, great insights. I posted before on Don's lack of interest in sexually agressive women, so I totally agree with your take on this.

Re: the coat Don got Betty.

It wasn't a good, Republican cloth coat like she's wearing next in episode 13 - it was a blue fox. He noticed she didn't want to give it back.

From what I understand (not that I know from personal experience) the giving of a fur coat in those days was... the way to some women's heart. Or something like that.

Rod Serling would have loved this, too...

Yeppers. And anyone intrigued by this show should go back to its 50s movie roots, films and plays like "Patterns", "Middle of the Night", even entertainments like "Executive Suite" and earlier ad films like "The Hucksters." And just for fun, watch Robert Morse in How to Succeed in Business.., the film where these folks got their set design inspiration from.

Ah, the memories! I was Peggy. He was Don. But in reverse. I was married, he the company's most eligible bachelor, 17 years my senior. Without too much coaxing, he convinced me to leave my husband. Scandalous. Had to transfer to another department just prior to our marriage in 1955, ten days after my divorce. He progressed through the ranks, as did I. On my own, with the assistance of night school, I broke through that mythical 'glass ceiling' in only five years. Had 33-1/2 years of married bliss before I lost him to cancer.

C'mon, Peggy, you can do it. I'm pulling for you. I want to see you put that twerpy Pete in his place again.

I think I wrote the story.

There is likely living family members of the real Don Draper. Someone recognized "Dick" in one of the earlier episodes. Maybe in the next season, a family member of the real "Don Draper" will come forth. Surely, they wondered what happened to him. Did I miss something about that aspect of the story?

I LOVE READING ALL THE COMMENTS. I AM

MOST RILED UP ABOUT PETES CHARC. BECAUSE

HE IS THE GUY I LOVE TO HATE HE'S SUCH A SNAKE, AND EVIL. HE

WOULD ALLOW HIS WIFE TO SCREW AN EX, SO

HE COULD GET A BETTER MAG. FOR HIS ARTICLE. AND NOW HE TOOK DON'S MAIL, AND

HAS TRIED TWICE TO BLACK MAIL HIM WITH

GETTING A BETTER POSITION. AND THINK ABOUT HOW HE TALKED TO HIS FATHER. IF I HAD TALKED THAT WAY TO MY FATHER IN THE 60'S OOOOO. NO WONDER

HIS DAD REFUSED HIM MONEY. HE CAN SEE WHAT

A AWFUL BRAT HIS KID HAS TURNED IN TO. I

CAN'T BELIEVE DON HASN'T GONE TO S@C, AND

TOLD THEM ABOUT THE BLACK MAIL, UNLESS, HE

JUST DOESN'T WANT TO EXPOSE HIS PAST TO THEM, AND FEELS TOO ASHAMED THAT THEY MIGHT FIND OUT SOMETHING HE IS REALLY HIDING. MY FAVORITE SCEENS HAVE BEEN WITH PETE AND DON, ESPECIALLY WHEN, PETE IS HELL BENT ON TELLING ROGER AND COOPER

THAT "DON IS A FRAUD," AND THEY THROW IT

RIGHT BACK ON HIM. HE IS SUCH A LITTLE SNITCH. I BET KIDS HATED HIM IN GRADE SCHOOL. YOU DON'T DEVELOPE THAT KIND OF

CHARACTER DISORDER OVER NIGHT. HE IS CRASS TO HIS SECRETARY, AND PEGGY? NO POLISH WHATSOEVER. ANYWAY, KEEP THE SHOW

GOING, SOMETIMES THE BEST "SUPER COUPLES"

ARE TWO MALES, OR TWO FEMALES.