Mad Men

Robin Richesson's Storyboards for Episode 2

2008-04-30T21:48:01Z

Alan Taylor was already a highly accomplished director before he began work on Mad Men. Having helmed episodes of Big Love, Deadwood, Sex and the City and The Sopranos, he knew the importance of preparation. With the help of Robin Richesson's meticulous storyboards, Taylor came into every scene with a plan on how to get the job done.

One of the more memorable scenes that Taylor directed was Betty's car accident in Episode 2, "Ladies Room." In ten pages, Richesson mapped out every shot and character in a beautiful series of illustrations.

To check out Robin Richesson's storyboards for Episode 2, click here.

Who Will Rise to the Top at Sterling Cooper?

2008-04-30T21:47:01Z

The Sterling Cooper offices are a fiercely competitive environment where every executive and secretary jockeys to gain power, prestige and the almighty dollar. Take our Mad Men Versus Poll and vote for the employees you think will rise to the top in Season 2, which begins in July.

Hollywood Life Names Vincent Kartheiser Breakthrough Star of the Year

2008-04-29T17:59:56Z

Some awards shows make it a point to pair two unlikely celebrities as presenters and honorees for some forced moments of levity. But Vincent Kartheiser didn't have to venture too far outside of the Mad Men universe when he received his prize at Hollywood Life magazine's 10th Annual Young Hollywood Awards on Sunday night. There to crown him as Breakthrough Star of the Year for Television was his co-star Jon Hamm. The whole affair must have felt like some sort of reunion for Vincent. Right after receiving his award, Emmanuelle Chriqui, a fellow winner who appeared with him in Ricky 6 (one of their first films) gave him a shoutout from the podium. Also on hand to show support were fellow Mad Men cast members Elisabeth Moss, Aaron Staton, Bryan Batt and Michael Gladis. After the ceremony, Kartheiser and company adjourned to an after party, conveniently located upstairs at the Spider Club.

Inside Mad Men - The Makeup

2008-04-28T04:00:10Z

Mad Men's makeup department head explains how you can tell the age of the women by the way they apply their lipstick and recalls the day she had to buy 100 tubes of it for just one scene.

Put this video of Inside Mad Men - The Makeup on your blog:

Vincent Kartheiser to Be Honored With Young Hollywood Award

2008-04-25T22:15:24Z

Adman Pete Campbell may bristle when his talents aren't being appreciated at Sterling Cooper but this Sunday, the actor who plays him will be getting praise aplenty at the Avalon in Los Angeles as Hollywood Life magazine recognizes the performer's work on Mad Men with a Young Hollywood Award. The ceremony will be hosted by actress Aisha Tyler. Kartheiser's award will be presented by none other than his series co-star Jon Hamm.

Other presenters and recipients include Donald Sutherland, Chris O'Donnell, Rob Schneider, William Baldwin, Abigail Breslin, and Tony Hawk.

Q&A: Darby Stanchfield (Helen Bishop)

2008-04-24T05:24:11Z

Being talked about may be devastating to some, but actress Darby Stanchfield admits wearing fake nails might have been the greater challenge... greater even than playing mother to the boss's kid.

Q: Was it tough to play someone intensely gossiped about?

A: It wasn't hard. It creates really good drama and interesting storylines. From a personal standpoint, playing someone judged negatively by her friends is not difficult. It made it really interesting to come to work to tell that story. It's really phenomenal how art can reflect life and I was able to draw on situations from my own life in which I've made choices and have been judged very negatively for them.

Production Begins on Season 2 of Mad Men

2008-04-23T22:16:27Z

The second season of the Golden Globe and Peabody Award-winning drama Mad Men has officially moved from the planning stage into reality this week with the beginning of production in Los Angeles. The series which will be broadcast in both high definition and standard definition will make its bow this July. While series creator Matthew Weiner has been customarily coy about divulging potential plots points for the upcoming season, he has revealed that John Slattery will be returning to the show as Roger Sterling.

Reminder: The first season of the series will be released on DVD July 1 and is available for pre-order for $10 off the retail price in the AMC Store. Fans can also look forward to the release of the compact disc Mad Men: Music from the Series, Vol. 1 on June 24 featuring thirteen songs featured in the show.

At Kate Mantilini's in Hollywood, You Can Dine in Mad Men Style

2008-04-23T18:48:31Z

At first glance, the Hollywood restaurant Kate Mantilini's seems an unusual backdrop for life-sized pictures of Mad Men, a show set in 1960s New York. That is, until owner Marilyn Lewis provides the back story.

Q: What's the history behind Kate Mantilini's and why did you put up the Mad Men display.

A: It's been 21 years since we opened Kate Mantilini's, which I named after my Uncle Rob's mistress. My mother wouldn't let me speak to her, nobody would allow us to mention her name, but she was a very strong woman and I wanted to name my restaurant after her. My husband was under contract with Warner Brothers, and he did 50 films in the 1940s before we went into the restaurant business. The studios loved Kate Mantilini's because it had excellent comfort food, and they did their premiere parties there. We have a proscenium wall that goes about thirty feet high, and we had pictures of these very sensuous faces of actors from a premiere show. I never changed those pictures, even when other studios begged me to let them put up different pictures. Then one day I heard Matthew Weiner describing Mad Men, and I couldn't wait until I saw it. It was love at first sight. I said, "We've got to get those faces up on Kate Mantilini's wall, all of them!"

Mad Men CD Set to Hit Stores June 24

2008-04-22T21:18:03Z

Mad Men fans looking for a music companion to the Season One DVD set scheduled for release on July 1 should have plenty to get excited about with the release of Mad Men: Music from the Series, Vol. 1 on June 24. The thirteen track compilation, from Alexandra Patsavas, the Grammy®-nominated music supervisor of Grey's Anatomy, The O.C. and Gossip Girl, will carry a retail price of $17.98.

Songs featured on the disc will include period tracks from Vic Damone, Ella Fitzgerald, and Rosemary Clooney, original compositions by David Carbonara, and the instrumental theme by Aceyalone and RJD2.

The complete tracklist of the disc will run as follows...

Q&A: Marten Weiner (Glen Bishop)

2008-04-22T04:29:09Z

He's not just the oldest son of the show's creator. Marten Weiner is also one of the actors in the cast. The 11-year-old performer talked with AMCtv.com about his feelings about his character and working with his dad.

Q: What do you think of your character?

A: He's a little bit weird but he's different than me. It's not like I don't understand his problems, but it's not like I would have those problems.

Q: What's weird?

A: Some of the stuff that he did like walking into the women's bathroom. That was not like me at all. I thought that was kind of weird, but it's not like it's impossible.

Inside Mad Men: Creating the Pilot

2008-04-21T04:01:00Z

Mad Men director Alan Taylor explains how even the camera techniques used to shoot the show adhered to the principles of 1960 aesthetics. Also, find out how he was able to infuse Pete and Peggy's first encounters with subtlety.

Put this video of Inside Mad Men: Creating the Pilot on your blog:

Talk Forum - What You're Saying

2008-04-18T20:10:15Z

The Talk forum finds fans making predictions about the upcoming second season of Mad Men. Testa Rosa thinks, "Betty will stay married to Don but start living her own double life (maybe she will sleep with the shrink out of revenge)." Kruschev, meanwhile, ponders the changing social mores under the Kennedy Administration: "I expect to see an end to the sleepy fifties certainties of characters like Pete Campbell." aj54 agreed: "Things changed FAST during the '60s. This is still in era of Ike and Elvis."

Twiggy also weighed on shifting societal norms, posting, "This show reminds us of why the women's movement started. Poor Sal reminds us of how gay people were closeted. The only blacks in the S-C building run the elevators. We take so much for granted today." Mad Woman empathized with Sal as well: "He totally reminds me of my cousin who was shunned by much of our extended Italian family in the late '60s for being gay."

Log onto the Talk forum to join in any of these conversations, or to start a Mad Men topic of your own!

Q&A: Anne Dudek (Francine Hanson)

2008-04-17T14:28:12Z

She's Betty's best friend. So what if she chain smokes while pregnant? Actor Anne Dudek gets inside the mind of Mad Men's neighbor with an edge.

Q: How weird was it to be playing a character that is smoking and drinking while she's visibly pregnant?

A: Super weird. I've grown up thinking that's the worst thing you could ever do. Playing the scene is not that weird because to Francine, she's not doing anything wrong at all. She's not knowingly harming her little fetus. That's the thing people comment to me most about my character. They laugh really hard, and they'll say, "Oh, that's so terrible!" They find it funny and sickening, and they really want to talk about it. That also speaks to people's wistful attitude. If only we could do things like that and they wouldn't have a negative effect on us. If only people could drink and smoke, and nothing bad happened. How horrible and sad and funny that it did happen and that people could ever live not knowing that.

Don Draper's Presentation for Kodak

2008-04-16T18:48:06Z

In the season finale, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is charged with landing the valuable account for Kodak's new slide projector which incorporates a new device which they're calling "The Wheel." Don advocates a different name: "The Carousel." His presentation, built around slides of his own family, reduces one of his own employees to tears and floors the Kodak representatives.

Re-experience Don Draper's presentation for Kodak slide by slide.

Q&A: Mark Moses (Duck Phillips)

2008-04-15T05:51:08Z

Actor Mark Moses talks about growing up as the son of an ad man and addresses the questions surrounding his character, the hard-charging new addition at Sterling Cooper.

Q: How difficult was it to put yourself in the mindset of 1960?

A: Actually, my father was an advertising man on Madison Avenue in the '60s. He sold advertising for the Chicago Sun-Times, and he kind of lived the life that those guys were living on Mad Men. I grew up with guys like Duck Phillips and Don Draper.

Q: What did your father tell you about that era and the advertising industry then?

A: I asked him about Duck Phillips coming from England, and he said, "Well, he's going to have a Tattersall vest," and I showed up on the set and I had a Tattersall vest. He knew about hats: how he wore his hat, what he did with it... He had to make sure that he could sit in the automobile with his hat on. It was one of the prerequisites for buying an automobile. My dad has so many stories of guys who couldn't make the sale and ended up just crashing. Their lives were ruined because they just couldn't keep up with sales. They couldn't keep up with the young bucks; they couldn't keep up with the advertising world. It was a hard world to live in. They drank a lot, they smoked a lot, and there were a lot of casualties from it. These were my father's colleagues, and they were very, very entertaining men. My parents would always say the best parties were either with actors or salesmen because they had great stories.