sounds fun! hope the elevator works ( ;)

I am very excited for this event and think this is a great contest! Can't wait for Season 2.

Shows real good hope to see you all on the set

Okay! Since I didn't win the DVD set, maybe I can win tickets to the Paleyfest? Will there be a screening, too? Wow, Jon Hamm on that big Cinerama screen? That may be too much to bear. But I will. That's why my name is grinandbearit. Can we enter more than once?

My daughter and I love Madmen! Many, many times I have tried to explain the culture of my parents to her, and Madmen really nails it. She finds the amount of sexism to be unbelievable (she can see how much our culture has shifted since then).

I have to disagree with Grace Kelly's comments regarding Betty Draper and her sophistication... I don't think Betty is sophisticated at all! She IS rather dull-a Barbie doll or a Stepford Wife (reminds me of the paper doll-Betsy McCall, a roll model for very young women in the late 50s and early 60s), and I think that's why Don is attracted to Midge and Rachel-they ARE sophisticated-the opposite of his wife (and they are also both brunettes-like Don, even more unlike his blonde wife). I doubt Betty will stay the same.. big changes coming to American culture and the women Don seems to be attracted to are just the beginning! Give Rachel a few more years (maybe less) and she'll be frying her brains out in San Francisco :D Well maybe she won't go THAT far... maybe Betty will ;)

Anyway, we love you AMC for Madmen, one of the few best hours on TV, and they're getting harder to come by all the time now that HBO's The Wire is gone :(

I continue to be amazed and in awe of the attention to detail with costumes and set design. BRAVO!
This is the best show on TV and the Best thing on iTunes!
NT

@grinandbearit: It'll be a random drawing, so feel free to enter more than once to increase your chances!

I absolutely love this show and have been spreading the "gospel" of Mad Men since its premiere to everyone I know from my grandmother to my film school colleagues. I've eaten up every nugget of rerun and TWoP recap (once they caught on, of course), and cannot wait until the show comes back for a second season!

@Clayton Neuman: What?! You mean I can just leave any random comment about my favorite show and that'll up my chances of winning? Yeah, that's gonna be difficult... :-D

Is there a deadline for me to post all these comments? Like before 6am tomorrow morning?

And what about subject matter? Do I have to go on and on about how hot Jon Hamm is as Don Draper? How well written and nuanced the show is? How beautiful the sets and costumes are? How fantastic the performances are? You're saying there are no guidelines? I can say or ask anything to qualify?

I am glad I finally found this. I heard someone mention this thing on the radio this morning, but I wasn't playing close attention. I spent the last hour or so trying to figure out where the event was, thinking it was today. Good to know it's tomorrow and I may (hopefully) win a ticket.

I love the show, by the way. I really like the pace of the show and how scenes are allowed to 'breathe.' As a result, I was never terribly in the Don Draper back story. I know that by making it a mystery they had to go into it at some point, but I feel like it may have almost been better not knowing why he didn't want anything to do with his family or his past.

I guess that should read 'never terribly into the Don Draper back story.'

melformosa is right. With 'The Wire' gone, this is the best show, or drama anyway, on TV.

Aww, i live in the LA area, i wouldn't mind winning a pair of tickets! ;)

This is such a well done program. It really captures the essence of the ad agency culture. I was in the advertising industry in the '80s, and although much of the sexism was on the wane, it was still very much a male dominated industry, especially in the automotive marketplace. The male chauvinism was there but not as open, but certainly behind closed doors. Looking forward to Season Two, so that I can escape to the past.

I love how desperate the characters' lives are--even though it's hidden under a veneer of gloss and polish. On the surface everything looks shiny and wonderful, but it's just a masquerade that hides how sad and lonely these people are.

My husband loves Mad Men. He watces it on tv then on demand for days. He also tells the whole world about the show and how great the acting and story line is. Thank you for having a such a great show. I really hope to win him some tickets. This would be a wonderful night for him.

And the longing. I love that this show is about yearning. The yearning imbues their misery with a glint of hope, making us root for the characters, and involving us more thoroughly in their world. Peggy had it right when she told the truck driver "those people want things they haven't seen." It's why their stories are so compelling.

Yeah, $45 dollars for a panel discussion? That's kind of out of my price range. So here's to hoping I win a ticket.

BTW, congratulations on all the awards. They're well deserved.

Re:grinandbearit: Right on about the silent desperation of the characters. The longing and desperation remind of how great Far From Heaven with Dennis Haysbert and Julianne Moore is.

Walter, it looks like you and I are in it to win it. LOL. I wonder if there'll be a screening as well?

Yeah, Far From Heaven. One of my favorite movies in recent years. So much in common with Mad Men.

So many wonderful moments in so many wonderful episodes. My favorites...?

"Mr. Campbell, who cares?" Probably the best thing ever said in a TV show. Ever.

Betty shooting at the birds in a negligee, cigarette dangling from her mouth. Such a fantastic image--like a David LaChapelle photograph, surreal, sublime, stunning. Ditto the scene with Glenn holding her daintily gloved hand in his little mittened paws.

Don and Pete--the great Dane and the chihuahua, nipping at his heels--wending their way through the office to tell Bert Cooper about Don's past.

Harry Crane in his skivvies traversing the maze of desks carrying a smoking trash can. Nothing out of the ordinary about that...

Don and Rachel making out on the roof at Menken's. So hot. I loved Rachel's response when she found out he was married--like someone suddenly flicked the on/off switch and she became a statue.

Rachel reaching across the table to clean the spill off Don's tie. One of the most erotic, non-sexual things I've ever seen. Ditto her gifting him with a new pair of cufflinks.

Rachel saying "Yes please" on the couch with Don. Because what else could she do at that point? She knew she was done for when she answered the door wearing a Loretta Young-style peignor, and sporting tousled hair. Just saying.

Joan saluting the men behind the two-way mirror. No explanation needed.

Don's pitches: the carousel pitch to Kodak; the "it's toasted" pitch to Lucky Strike; and the "Kabuki/Jesus" speech to Belle Jolie. Such a way with words, that man.

Pete being scolded by Trudy while hugging his gun. What a great dressing down that was. Pete looked like he shrank five inches for every word that Trudy uttered.

And little Adam running after the train when he sees Don on it. Heartbreaking. As much as I love Don Draper, I really wanted to reach through the TV and slap him into next week over that one. Sigh. This show has way too much power over me.

What I love about this show is what I also loved about the movie "Far from Heaven," which is that both this film and Madmen tell very vintage stories, but show us the hypocrisy of our nostalgia for those times. The themes are challenging and contemporary, and yet the show seems very true to its setting...that late fifties, New York aesthetic. Perhaps what that means is that the time and place were more contemporary that we like to remember it, or than it really was. I've heard it said that "the fifties were a more simple time," and it seems to me (as a woman in my early thirties) that the fifties and early sixties were anything but "simple." I love that Madmen seems to foreshadow everything that happens in the decades to follow...the closeted gay man, the ambitious secretary and the secret childbirth, the affairs, the heavy drinking and smoking, the generation gap between the men who've returned home from WWII and the boys who think they are men, the international business deals, the beatniks challenging Don...all these things hint at the issues that eventually bubble up into a full-tilt boil by the time the sixties get into their swinging stage.

Not to mention all the stuff that everyone else has talked about...the sets are amazing, and totally accurate. The characters are fully realized. I love that the writers are so brave and portray this time period in it's glory and also it's brutal reality, defying stereotypes and telling like it was. Sometimes it hurts a little to see the men treat the women in their lives with such disregard. I wince when I see Salvatore's precarious identity teetering on the brink.

I'm riveted. Give me more.

I hope they continue the storyline with Joan and her room mate; it is such and interesting perspective to see. It must have been hell back then to be gay, and not be able to talk about it or show your feelings. You can obvioulsy see that that character is not conflicted, because she says "think of me as a boy." She has already come to terms with her sexuality.