It was very much like MM ...and out in the hinterlands maybe even more sexist. I find the opening imagery fascinating...in that it captures the soulless-ness of the men. And how they eventually fall through the cracks...into an empty space. Frankly the women come off as rather pathetic, I'd love to see one or 2 of the female characters be portrayed as nobodys fool. Peggy may stand a chance if as she becomes less naive. And there's hope for Betty, she's asking some good questions.

The writers have effectively nailed the game playing that went on back then...and I'm sure still does. Since human nature doesn't change that rapidly.
JMHO

I am in London and would simply LOVE someone to tell me who the designer of all those fabulous sexy sweaters is. I enjoy mad men, BUT this is driving me crazy!! They are beautifully fitted and look gorgeous...........just my style....I await with baited breath.............:))

@Dixiegirl: I can certainly understand the mentality--I know a lot of people in the banking world right now who seem to me like a group of narcissistic alpha male a**holes. That being said, I would be offended, fifty years from now, if I saw a show about bankers that painted the illusion that all men were like this at the turn of the century.

So I guess I'm just wondering how pandemic this attitude was.

Yes, Peggy comes off as less pathetic--and she's punished for that with first the weight gain, now the illegitimate child (even though they turned out to be the same thing, I think the original message that you can't be both smart and beautiful was loud and clear). I guess I would love to see some other characters (besides wives) who are not part of this world.

Well no, not ALL men / women are are like the cast in MM. So hopefully 50 years form now...there would be a more inclusive group represented. But the stereotypes (both male & female) seem to still be in the majority. I do think those individuals who ar enot driven by the acquisition of power & who are not narcissists...tend to drop out of corporate America...

Well no, not ALL men / women are are like the cast in MM. So hopefully 50 years form now...there would be a more inclusive group represented. But the stereotypes (both male & female) seem to still be in the majority. I do think those individuals who are not driven by the acquisition of power & who are not narcissists...tend to drop out of corporate America...

My favorite Mad Men line was when Don was hanging out with the hippies and one of them asked him how he slept at night. Don responded, "On a mattress made of money." Hilarious!

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This series is a masterpiece and I am completely mesmerized and addicted.....

There is one glaring oversight though, which bothers me every single week.

In that era, someone coming from such a poor and troubled background, as desperately driven and "upwardly mobile" as Don Draper......

....and as carefully groomed (and equally desperate) from birth for sophistication and elegance as Betty Draper, would NEVER, EVER have a dumpy little house filled with early American furniture, tatty, gaudy knitted afghans, old-fashioned fixtures, etc.

A couple at that stage in their marriage, and he in his career, would already have an impressive, mid-century modern house filled with chic and elegant furniture.

The series is so detailed, well-crafted and lovingly wrought, it's hard to imagine how this got by all of them.....

Still, it is exquisite!

On another note: Elizabeth Moss' bio says she danced with "Susan Farrell."

I believe the name is the Suzanne Farrell Ballet.

I've seen many of these actors in other things, but incredible casting coupled with incredible writing makes it much bigger than its sum of parts.

Vincent Kartheiser is so seamlessly good as Pete, he makes me forget that Connor from 'Angel' ever existed, and I'm a hard-sell as far as 'suspending disbelief.'

Overall, this is a very accurate representation of the zeitgeist of the day.

Working in that environment today, I can tell you that things may seem different on the surface, but nothing has really changed.

With the odd exception, all executives cheat on their wives, their taxes, on God and on each other.

Finally, I was under the impression that Mad Men would be available On Demand....maybe after the DVD release....
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Oops - I meant "Elisabeth...." Sorry!

Hi...I, too, am enthralled with this "Mad Men" series...wow! I worked in exactly the same atmosphere in the 60's. Naive, young Executive Assistant in a Corporate Executive Office. Parties we had looked similar to what was portrayed in the series; however, didn't see the blatant sex stuff (I know it went on, though.) We danced the conga line and stood on top of the grand piano to show off our legs. Smoking--every office and everyone...(in fact, I opened the packs of cigarettes and lit them for my Vice President boss) and I took off his overcoat every morning and hung it up in his closet and helped him on with it every night. I served coffee and/or drinks from our bar in the office. I was young, trim and pretty then and it was appreciated by all the men coming in from all over the world. It was truly a sexist time and I could have gotten in trouble had I not had the morals I had. After one party in a private room rented at an upscale restaurant, things became a little wild and the next week, our president (who never attended) put the so called cabash on all future parties. Affairs went on though, and a few girls had to leave throughout the time I was employed. The men never were reprimanded, however. We dressed just like in Mad Men....great clothes, fitted to emphasize every angle of the body, dresses at just the right length, high heels, cute short gloves...great fabrics for the clothing. Once, one of the vice presidents came back from a trip and asked each executive girl to come into his office alone because he had a great "lay" for each of them--he had been in Hawaii and brought back beautiful orchid leys or lays and presented them to each girl probably with the hope of some kind of sexual thanks. The implication of this type of behavior was always in the air. Again, this show depicts the era as it was....AND it is so much fun to watch! I hope it goes on for a long time.

Hi again...forgot to comment on Elizabeth Kelly's statement. I totally agree...our executive's homes were huge tudor homes or large brick contemporary homes and I can say, without reservation, that none of them lived in an early american decor,especially those working in New York or Chicago. And, with Don Draper's wife's background, you would think Betty would be more sophisticated in the area of interior decorating. I agree with Elizabeth that everything is much the same today; however, I think back in the 60's there was a cat and mouse game played and it was not so "in your face sex" as it was then. For us, the "beatnik" phase was just that--a phase. The beatniks were not so prevalent in our lives...we were learning the twist and still enjoying the great music. The scenes in restaurants are so real...the drinks ordered were what we ordered, the music was the same. Can't wait for the new season...when is it going to start?

I think this might speak to several issues. First and foremost, I wouldn't presume that this fact had not occurred to Matthew Weiner, who so obviously considered every meticulous detail.

Why is Don's home not as ostentatious? Perhaps it is because of his humble backgrounds that he is reluctant to flaunt his wealth. He also isn't completely loaded. Remember he's not a partner, he's a hired gun for Sterling Cooper, which is referenced several times as being rather "small potatoes" in the Ad world. That changes towards the end of the season--he's given a raise commensurate with his skills, experience and duties, and he's essentially made a partner (perhaps to replace Roger Sterling?)

I would not be surprised to find at the beginning of season two that the Draper's are starting to flaunt their wealth a bit more -- perhaps they'll finally have that summer home, perhaps they'll have upgraded to better furniture/house. But it was not my impression that Don was a man who had it all at the beginning of the season. I thought he was a man who was on his way to having everything, provided his past, his indiscretions, his narcisissm didn't torpedo him.

What do you think? Am I off?

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Hi Tootsie and Clayton:

Thanks for the great, true stories. More, please!

I would love to know the writers' intentions there, and in several other places... I guess we'll find out!

My feeling about the style of the Draper house is based on the mores of the time, which my mother talked about incessantly. She was a very stylish girl, and right on top of the trends.

It sounds harsh in black and white, but the "Early American" style was considered very dowdy, old-fashioned and "square," for older, or lower-class people.

It was not a cheap investment, just old-fashioned, and a young, “hip,” ambitious couple were more likely to have something like Swedish Modern, Danish Modern or Mid-Century Modern furnishings.

To me, their personal fashion simply doesn't match the house, and I would think someone living on the edge like Don Draper does would want to distance himself from a potentially damaging (and painful) past.

I believe he would be more likely to “dress” his house “for success,” as he and Betty dress themselves.

Or not!

I had a hard time when they were entertaining Roger at their tiny, cheap “diner” style table in the kitchen. That just doesn’t gel for me as the way a rising star would entertain, especially his own boss who is a partner.

As to the office and sex, it is really no different today.

They have all the laws, and everyone pretends to be saying and doing the right things, but a big part of success in the workplace for women is still based on age, beauty, and the perception of her sexual willingness, even if she doesn't actually "sleep around."

It's the perception of willingness to play the game and be a "goer," as they say. I've lost plenty of opportunities because I believe the family unit is sacrosanct, and never bothered to pretend otherwise.

I am fun, but was always very professional, and STILL endlessly found myself in one awkward sexual situation after another. They all do it.

You know, dropping a memo to the HR Manager, who hits the emergency button under his desk, thereby slamming and locking his office door, who then proceeds to lay back in his chair and fondle himself. Yep. Not kidding.

Or the East Coast Contracts VP who grabs you out of nowhere after hours in the lobby and tries to stick his tongue down your throat. Uh huh.

Or the ones that come by your desk, stand behind you and rub their, er, SELVES against your back, or put their hands on your shoulders, or tell you that your lipstick is too dark.

Or the ones who, if you have a good long-term relationship, come on to you, COMPLETELY unbidden, YEARS after working together by dropping by your house at 8:00 in the morning for a booty call! Oh yeah.

I’ve BEEN in situations like the one with Roger and Don and the twins, and yes, they really are that crazy. Everyone is expected to play, and ignore the pink elephant in the room.

Although very much NOT, I would probably have been referred to in those days as “frigid!”

I have to say that I am surprised that a girl like Peggy, with a good head on her shoulders, would rush into promiscuity so blindly without even quantifying the situation.

There was a very big and very real “fear factor” there, since abortions were very hard, if impossible, to get.

Getting pregnant was a DISASTER in those days, and ruined more than one life.

I am getting the impression that a lot of good discussions might be taking place on other boards…interested to know what they are, if anyone out there knows. I got the two posted on this site….

As it is, my mouth is literally hanging open at the end of every episode.

Being a huge fan of darker programming and things like Six Feet Under, Dexter, Quentin Tarantino, and other edgy filmmaking, it takes a LOT to get me there.

What a pleasure for an actor to be able to say those lines!

Cannot WAIT for season two, and hope it’s equally provocative!

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Hi Clayton and Grace .... In reponse again to the Drapers' home....it seems their neighborhood has many like-minded residents (up and comers, etc.) but that it is in fact a normal family-oriented venue. I still agree that Betty would have to have better taste in the furnishings of her home. Let's hope we see a better display of interior decorating in season 2. I agree with you, Clayton, that Don will want to upgrade now that he will be in a different echelon in the company structure -- who knows---an upper east apartment in the city AND a sprawling home in the 'burbs.

In regard to Peggy...didn't you really know someone as naive as she portrays? I did. I don't think she thought she could get pregnant once she went to the doctor (wasn't he something else?!!) and was given the ultimate pregnancy deterrent. I don't believe she knew she was pregnant. I think she was in denial about a lot of things. I really enjoy her character and was thrilled to see that she was given more responsibility....and now this situation has arisen. So true to life...how many girls do we know have tread this path?

I laughed out loud at Grace's portrayals of the sexual escapades in which she was involved during "the time" as we know it. I can connect with many of the situations. Once, working late on a project, our international VP came into my office, came around my desk, picked me up and tried to lay me down on my desk all the while whispering that his wife was very "broadminded" and that there wouldn't be a problem if we started "seeing" each other. I pushed him away so hard he fell on his ass and then I threatened to quit and go to our CEO. He smiled, got up and left me alone for a while. Not too much later, I got an assignment to have our chauffeur take me to the airport to greet an incoming international customer and, when I got to the airport, it was not an international customer but it was this jerk international VP waiting for me...he had tried to finagle being with me and urged me to reconsider and start "seeing" him. I got into a taxi and went home. He was finally transfered to Australia and I heard later his wife divorced him. I used to think all the men were in cahoots along with our chauffeur. I, like you, Grace, did not invite these situations. I was totally uninterested in any married man. I was 22 years old and thought these married executives in their late 30's were old!

I love the scenes in restaurants because it brings back so many memories. The song "Shangri-la" playing while sipping a great martini. We had in our area, a surge of Polynesian restaurants (did you guys?) and they were always fun....they have been replaced with Mexican restaurants....so sad.

Mad Men has such critical acclaim so I am hoping we will be able to enjoy the series for a few years to come.

Please keep commenting...I enjoyed your views and writings! xoxox

You guys have some of the craziest experiences I've ever read! Office culture has certainly changed since then, I guess which makes the show all the more delicious.

Like you I look at certain scenes, like the Nixon Kennedy office party, with my mouth agape.

I wonder when things started to change. I read books like Bonfire of the Vanities, and Tom Wolfe portrays things as coming to an abrupt halt--hence the bonfire. But I wonder if this culture in reality just sort of fizzled out, if women just stopped responding to this level of misogyny, and men just grew up.

Perhaps Grace and Tootsie can enlighten us further.

Clayton, I think the Eighties began an enlightenment by women in the workplace. More women attending college were interested in marketing, business, etc. instead of the Sixties women who became nurses, teachers and the women who attended college to get the proverbial MRS degree hoping to meet a guy with great earning power and become his wife. As more and more women earned their degree in the business fields and were hired in the workplace, they began to demand equal opportunity to apply for the same jobs as young male executives. Many females achieved being promoted to like positions but their salary was never commensurate with their male counterparts and, ironically, this still is the fact in many companies. I think the hanky-panky still goes on; however, it is on the terms of the females now as much as the males. In the Sixties, the executive male approached his female subordinate as though it was his right to do so. The term "sexual harrassment" really didn't exist. Now, there would be law suits abounding if scenes as shown in Mad Men took place.

Did you see the movie "Disclosure" with Michael Douglas and Demi Moore? I think there are powerful women who demand their places in society, both sexually and in their livelihood positions. It's a whole different ballgame now. I don't think the men "grew up" -- I just think women want more now and aren't the demure, naive, obsequious women of the Sixties. They can call the shots now as much as the men. Abortion is legal and getting pregnant out of marriage is not the "sin" it was in the Sixites. Unwed women can keep their babies and not be criticized or looked down upon and can continue to work.

In the Sixties, not that many women I knew "slept" with someone immediately. There was a whole ritual that had to be played out before you did that. Now, as soon as a couple meet, they immediately head for a hotel. I guess the media plays a large part in this fact and the sexual revolution also.....but I liked it better back in the day!

Like you, I find each MM episode "delicious" and can't wait for the new season. xoxoxo

I totally agree with all of you about the attitude of men in the workplace of the '60's--I recall an interview (for a secretarial position) I had where the hiring fellow (this was a small public relations firm) came right out and asked me if I would be willing to accompany clients on flights on the company's small plane and serve drinks and "entertain" ---I asked if he meant by "entertain" to do "more than just 'serve the clients drinks'"...and he answered bluntly "if need be" I said if it involved anything "physical" then no,I would not. He said right there "That's too bad...you look great coming and going, honey, but don't call us, we'll call you" and as I was leaving he told me I needed to "get with the times" ...I never heard from him which was fine with me. I got a job with a larger company (his competition) two weeks later and worked there for seven years...just doing secretarial work only--- with no "extra curricular activities"---for a very nice, genuine "family man" who never expected anything of me except my best work in the office. There were a few like that, but in my experience, not many.

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.

I have thoughts on 2 lines of this thread.
"back then" was like now in some ways, only more so.
There where 2 worlds the east & west coasts and
everything in between. But the regions were more sharply defined. We are more "homogenized after 50 yrs of tv & all shopping in same stores and eating same places just with different addresses.

i.e. more people smoked, especially women in big cities than did rural women. etc.
So even though I lived in the vast middle I recognized everything in this series, it was just "more" in nyc on Madison Avenue.
an example of this is there were 2 kinds of women, whore/madonna. We still had not decided which working women fit in. It was often "assumed" that all the "good" girls would have landed husband just out of High School or if you did not graduate to MRS then you went to college for MS til you could get your MRS. that was way of middle and upper class, lower middle and upper, if not Mrs out of high school often went to nursing, seceretary, etc. and worked "til they found husband"
yeah, it was really like that.
this is just one example of how well this show depicts the way it was.

The other thing is the furniture. I think the furniture is "right on" because he has his wife in the burbs, if they were "hip" couple they would likely be in city.
Also often in that era rich, especially old money did not buy the biggest or the "hippest" . It was consided low class to show off. Often the most modest homes had a cheaper verson of the same style of furniture of the richest. Upwardly mobile wives had "arrived" when they could shop at Ethan Allen type stores. early american, traditional.
this was era where you strove to fit in not stand out.
Just a few years later and what I have would not be true.
Things changed FAST during the 60's. This is still in era of "Ike" and Elvis. Just a few years later, 1964, Kennedy was already gone and the Beatles had landed.
At least that is how I remember it.

I find all the comments on Don and Betty's home very interesting. I too thought it was kind of odd that he would live in such a granny-looking house because when Don and Roger Sterling were talking about increasing Don's salary (in episode 9: Shoot)--I remember Roger saying something about 40, and I remember thinking "Forty thousand dollars?!" That's quite a chunk of change for 1960--Don wasn't hurtin' for moolah, that's for sure! And I recall a scene where Roger just hands Don a $5k bonus, which he gives to Midge after she refuses to go to Paris with him.

Perhaps I'll need to re-watch that episode to double check. When Pete and Trudy are buying that $35k apartment downtown, Pete mentions he only makes $3500 per year, and he can't afford it. Certainly Don could--he's loaded! Of course, Don didn't have any wealthy in-laws to help him out in the beginning, but you think he'd have moved on up. And Betty modeled high fashion--remember that teensy dress Giovanni made for her? You'd think she'd be really contemporary. Of course, she's kind of Don's little Madonna (i.e. the virgin, not the pop star...haha) now, so maybe she's not allowed to be so trendy.

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I don't know.... you are all making good points about the furniture, but I am still sifting all the data....

Maybe Matt Weiner has some very good reasons and we should just trust him, but some things are still nagging me.

The mixed styles in the house are Early American in the living room and kitchen or whatever, and sort of Chippendale or Regency style in the other rooms....mostly styles you would expect to be handed down to younger people from their ancestors, not purchased new in large quantity.

As I said before, these are very traditional styles, but certainly not cheap. It's a very big investment.

Don Draper is an orphan. He would not have inherited one stick of furniture from his mother or grandmother, for instance.

And Betty's mother recently passed, but her father is still living in the house, so Betty would not have inherited any of those pieces just yet.

That means they would have had to start pretty much from scratch to furnish that whole entire house.

Don and Betty are very stylish young sophisticates, wherever they are living....they dress as such, and one would fully expect their house to reflect some of that as well.

I might be wrong, but I just can't see them spending THAT much money on those very traditional styles at that point.

It might not have been "Bam! Zoom!" "Modern to the Moon!" but I have my doubts about the particular choices in that house.

My guess is that, as Clayton has said, Matt Weiner had strong story-building reasons for putting them in that exact household for the first season.

Gives them somewhere to "rise" in the next few seasons (notice how I slipped that in there?) to come. For all we know, the Draper lifestyle(s) will change entirely in Season Two.

As to the repeat episodes or possible marathon, I've seen that AMC is NOT going to be playing it again. Then they are. Then they are not.

And THEN hearing that they ARE, tonight, in fact, starting over with Episode 1.

Or is that a cable guide joke or mistake?

AND finding that it's NOT available On Demand, at least in my town, but hearing that it is in other towns.

"Breaking Bad" is all over the place, including every episode On Demand.

Very curious about the marketing of this series and departure from the way other series are marketed. Is this strategy or mismanagement?

I mean, "hard-to-get" is one thing, but if "never heard of it" is more prevalent, then it's not working.

I also agree with Deb and Roberta Lipp that the AMC website needs an overhaul. It's very dysfunctional as far as navigation. You can get lost, go round and round, get side-tracked and potentially never get back to where you were, let alone get to where you wanted in the first place.

If it were more linear, say like PerezHilton.com, for instance, it might attract and keep more traffic.

There are a couple of good and busy blogs out there about Mad Men....this should be one of them.

Anyway, just my two cents for now.....
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In glaring opposition to my earlier assertions regarding the Draper home decor, there is the Stephens household on 'Bewitched.'

Darrin was also a New York City ad executive, living outside the city in the suburb of Westport, Connecticut.

While the offices of McMann & Tate were very much like the sets of Mad Men, the Stephens house was rather traditional and relatively modest.

In light of that very concrete example, the validity of other viewpoints has to be acknowledged.
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On the OTHER hand, if you take a look at Rob and Laura Petrie's house (and they ALSO live in the suburbs ouside New York), it's rather modern and chic.

Rob is in television, which is not that unlike advertising, and his offices are also modern and chic.

Both he and Laura dress stylishly and elegantly, congruent with their station, and the style of their home.

The only person who knows why the Draper house looks the way it does in Season One is Matthew Weiner.

Long story short - as far as that, and many other questions, I guess we're about to find out!!
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Maybe it was decorated that way (traditional as opposed to modern and chic) because Don was always squirreling (sp?) away all those thousands in his "emergency blackmail stash" in that desk drawer in his home office! I imagine five thousand was a lot of money in those days before inflation and all. It's possible there wasn't any extra for Betty to decorate with! (Remember the 5 grand payoff he gave to poor shocked Adam to get lost...)

I graduated from High School in the early 80's and suffered the same sexual harrasment stories as the ones listed on this blog. I was young, cute and petite. I had interviews where the chair was placed at least 10-15 feet from the interviewer's desk. I later realized it was for those wearing shorter skirts. Quiet a birdseye view for the interviewer. As a secretary (administrative assistant was not even a word) I was invited to the boss' house at late evenings, driven around during the day to get familiar with the clients and list goes on. I fetched coffee, picked up dry cleaning, took their cars to the carwash, washed dishes for everyone in the office and made sure I never complained about any of these duties. There were no "job descriptions" - you did as you were told. Complaining got you fired. Playing stupid got me out of many bad situations. I always knew that when the advancements got less subtle, it was time for me to hit the want ads. This was the 1980's and women really felt they were making progress. Look at Forbes magazine and you can see the disparity of men CEOs to women CEOs today...pretty sad. I think Mad Men throw us a bone every once in awhile to make us think womens rights are starting to emerge. The key word here is "starting". Since this is 1960's Manhatten, they could be considered the leading edge to emerging feminism. However, the mid-west and west coast will not feel this for several years. Thanks to Mad Men they are giving us a good picture of how women struggeld in the workplace. I hope they continue to stay true to that era to let everyone know how difficult it was like for a career woman in the 1960's.

Two comments for this blog....
First I agree with Clayton's assessment of the Draper household interior. As a professional in the interior design field I am usually pretty observant of such things and not once did I question the look or mode of the Draper home furnishings. Don's humble beginnings may indeed have made him more cautious with money and since he makes all the spending decisions, Betty would not have much input. Yes he is upwardly mobile and on track, but he has to be sure it's the fast track.
As to the episode with the Beatniks; yes the mattress line was good, but the comment that really rocked was when one of the guys warns Don that he should not leave the apartment amid a police investigation, after having smoked pot. He says something to him like, 'you can't leave now'. And Don, master of the cool retort says, "No, YOU can't, I can." And cucumber cool, strolls down the hall, tips his hat and bids the officer a good night on his way out the door. Smooth................loved it.