S3 will open with footage of the Beatles landing at Idelwild Field- Feb 1964. Securing tickets to their Ed Sullivan appearance will be a minor plot point. The merger with PPL went through; Roger is COO for SC, Bert is CHB emeritus, Don is head of Creative, Pete is head of accounts. Duck is not around.

Don and Betty will be dealing with an 8month old child. Tension will be high in the Draper household. While pregnant and for several months after, Betty will have dealt with the acquisition and decoration of their new, larger house. They have also joined the country club and Betty has tried to become involved in club activities. Betty is still internally frustrated with her life in general and has expressed unspoken resentment towards Don and her children. Don and Betty have been good (no affairs) and Don has tried to be more open with Betty. Don remains stoic and brooding around the house and will be exhibiting increasing amounts of emotional detachment as the season progresses.

Pete and Trudy will have separated during the off-season, but have reconciled. They remain childless and will eventually divorce during the season. Pete does well as head of accounts, but his amorality and shifting ethics sometimes creates problems.

Sal and Kitty have had a child and Sal is deeper in the closet.

Joan and Greg have married, but Joan continues at SC. While Joan is still a secretary, her career will advance during the season, creating difficulties at home.

Peggy continues to do well at SC, but has become emotionally hardened and will be seen drinking more frequently and possibly engaging in reckless activity after hours.

Roger and Jane have married and Jane will be pregnant…causing Roger to have 2nd thoughts.

Harry and the TV department expand and become an important part of the firm as his department will handle media and TV responsibilities for not only SC but all of PPL's US interests. Harry will struggle to stay on top of everything.

Paul continues to trade on his Freedom Rider experience, but does begin to dip his toe into burgeoning civil rights issues in the NY area. He will suggest that they higher a minority.

Pete and Peggy's relationship will be professionally cordial and efficient. But they will go out of their way not to spend time along with each other.

Bert will be seen intermittently during the season as he increasing devotes his time to philanthropic activities in and around NY. He will try to introduce Don to this world.

Village: great reading!

My quick input to your ideas: How about instead of securing tickets to the Beatles, they get orchestra seats to see the '61 Broadway hit, "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" which won a Tony Award and starred the very popular gap-toothed fellow, Robert Morse! (A little irony here).

I'd also wish Mr. W. doesn't jump too far into the future and 8 months to a year would be very acceptable. I guess it all depends if AMC gives them the go ahead for more than just a third season. The audience numbers posted here show a great jump in viewship so we can only hope.

As to Don's discontent around the homestead, well, there's always that attractive divorce' down the lane. I think Betty will have a big problem with alcohol and tranquilizers dealing with the new baby. She'll never forgive Don and it will eat at her. She'll look for consolation in the way frustrated women did back then. (I should have bought stock in the company that introduced Prozac).

I'm not too convinced Don will share his new fortune with Betty. There is that secret bank account all business men loved to have. He may want to see how the talks goes with the new SC and his position there.

Trudy may want a reconciliation but I'm not too sure Pete is up for it. He's got so much mama-drama on his plate now. Peggy's news hit him very hard and he could go in any direction right now.

Maybe Joan and Mr. Handsome Doctor will NOT wed at all. I didn't like the transformatin from nice guy to tough guy Greg after he sensed some office rug-action between Roger and Joan.

I'm prediciting that Peggy gets fast-promoted to satisfy the notion at that time that there were no women advanced in business. Peggy could be their "token-woman" executive.

Roger, IMHO, is not paying attention to his health; he's in deep denial. All the new 'action' with the young trophy honey has to catch up to him and he could be headed for a brick wall in a wheelchair.

Harry will be in the front of the enormous advances TV makes in the '60s. His department will expand and SC will be involved in TV advertising - in a big way - because that's where the money is. It would be nice if he woke up and realized the value Joan could give his department from her past experience.

Paul will be the innovative hero he certainly is already, provided he doesn't meet with disaster on that bus ride for freedom........it was a very scary time for this kind of action then......some people disappeared and were murdered!

I'd also like to know just why Coop loves that rug of his. Unless I missed some explanation on an episode I didn't see, I'm speculating that he has fond memory of his own youthful trysts - and rug burns! Just how old is SC anyway?

rl1856......your great ideas sent me on a tangient.....should have included you in my compliment......

to silver minx the How to Suceed work in is brilliant!!!
Until we know for shur about season 3, and with our armchair analysis and insight,do I dare suggest that we compile a project for putting together our own season??? The opening in
'64 w/ Broadway production or Beatles landing sounds great but are we missing a fine opportunity to set the scene around the one event that marks any of us, no matter the age??? I speak, of course of Nov 22,'63 in Dallas....I'd be just as happy to stick around awhile in '62... But I'm hanged if I can remember enough about it to build a season...

Nana, that's a great idea. I was thinking the same thing myself. Like fan fiction perhaps?

I do think starting season 3 in 1964 would be jumping the gun too much, especially with regards to the Pete-Peggy situation. To just show general office tension would be very cliche. I want to see some arguments. I'd really like to see Trudy have a meltdown or some kind of emotional crisis. I want to see Pete hanging around his apartment, unkempt, unshaven and miserable, so unlike how we're used to seeing him. Trudy will have an affiar with that Charlie guy, her "first". She didn't look completely turned off by the idea they hook up, except for the fact that she was a newlywed. She even suggested to him they could when they were older, so it's not far-fetched that she would stray.

What I'd at least like to see is the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis scare- the days following where everyone realizes they're ok, they're not going to die and, holy shit what did I just do?!?! Is Pete even going to tell Trudy he fathered a child? Will he change his stance on adoption? You're right, there are so many possibilities with him.

As for Peggy, I don't think she'll get that far in the hierarchy at S.C. The writers have to be realistic. No woman rose that fast. There is a ceiling for a reason. At the very least, since Peggy is such a workaholic, I can see her smoking up a storm and drinking more often. And remember, Pete doesn't smoke and he's not fond of alcoholics, so you can only imagine his reaction is not going to be favorable. Inside, he will be glad she isn't raising their son because he'll be thinking, mom #2.

Peggy goes on a few dates with a guy she met through work (how else?) and she insists on paying which is a huge turnoff. She and Joan do become friends and Joan confides in her some pretty woeful tales of abuse at the hands of the evil Dr. Greg whatshisname. She shows up with a black eye and tries in vain to cover it up, using the old "I tripped and fell down the stairs" line.

Peggy will let whatever successes she has go to her head, though, and will get in over her head. We expect this of Pete, not her. Pete will begrudgingly help her out, likely because it's his career on the line as well. She will refuse at first but realizes she doesn't have a choice because there is a deadline. They spend a long night at the office together...they have an explosive argument because no one is around to witness it. And then they have explosive sex, up against that poor copy machine. They have a witness, and it's not the janitor. It's (dun dun dun...) Don.

Helen Bishop becomes seriously ill and asks Betty to watch over Glenn for her. Betty has a baby girl and names her Lisa (another variation of Elizabeth, like her and her mother). The baby is very demanding. Don, though, loves her and Sally starts to feel ignored. Sally is playing with her Barbie dolls with a friend and Bobby asks if he can join them.

Don sees Rachel again, by chance. She wants to sell Meinken's because she's moving to Israel. Don considers taking another "business trip" just to see her.

Roger and Burt have a major disagreement and are not on speaking terms because of it. Don has to play peacemaker. Pete, for once, offers sound advice on the situation. Don is being very cautious around him still.

Hildy is the first to show up in a mini skirt and can carry it off because of her swelt figure. Joan tries several on in a dressing room and none seem to fit. The days of Marilyn curves are over...so she tries to pursuade Roger to instill a dress code banning mini skirts (to her advantage of course). Roger asks her if she'd like to keep her job.

As for Jane, she wants to attend college. She befriends Roger's daughter, Margaret, to the disapproval of Mona. Mona embraces feminism and buys Margaret a copy of "The Feminine Mystique". Later in the season, Margaret undergoes an abortion. It doesn't go well.

Harry and his wife are pregnant again. He never seems to stop talking about his kid, and the guys find this very annoying. Especially Pete, who is envious of Harry's fatherhood.

Someone spots Sal holding hands with a dinner date, unbeknownst to Sal. They annonymously bring it to his wife's attention, but she doesn't believe them. They do have a child.

Paul tokes up...a lot. He starts writing very odd stories and makes several offbeat suggestions for ad campaigns. He directs a protest play and gets arrested during a demonstration. He considers leaving advertising altogether, for the greater cause...

Duck has joined a new agency and tries to pursuade Pete to join him, promising a more prestigious role for him. Chauncey is discovered wandering the streets by a pet-acting agent and lands a spot on a dog food commercial. Duck sees this and tears up.

Ken has a girlfriend. Or girlfriends...he's two-timing them both. One of them is a model. He lands an important account. Also, he gives a guest lecture at the college Jane attends. They spark up an out-of-office relationship. It's more intellectual than sexual, although there is definately an attraction. Remember, she reads her own poetry to Roger in season 2. Roger remains none the wiser about their connection.

Freddy returns during the second half of season 3, completely sober. He is shocked to see what has happened to Peggy and tries to help her avoid going down the same path he has. Like any addict, she denies she has a problem.

S.C. does hire on some minorities, with mixed reactions. Don welcomes them. Pete snubs them. Paul flirts with one. Harry is secretly afraid of them. Roger looks for any excuse to get them fired.

Burt Cooper's beloved copy of "Atlas Shrugged" is stolen during the night and bits and pieces are strewn around the office. For the first time, he loses his cool around the staff. Then buys a parrot and teaches it to speak, encouraging everyone to say hello to it everytime they enter his office, in addition to taking off their shoes. At this point, he has truly lost his mind.

Bobby needs braces, gets beaten up at school.

Sally becomes a klepto, gets caught shoplifting.

Father Gill is still around, annoying as ever. He has gotten more muscular in an attempt to gain Peggy's attention. But it's pointless, since Peggy has stopped attending services altogether, working 24/7. Her family pleads him to help her. He shows up at work unexpectedly, and things get weird.

Pete has his rifle mounted in his office in glass. He is often found staring at it longingly. He considers naming it.

Matt has said he will not focus directly on 11/22/63 but will have it inform the background of the MM world.

I see a gloomy early 1964. There was rioting in Panama,Muslins and Hindus were fightig in Calcutta, Johnson approved covert operations against North Vietnam, the Surgeon General released his report that smoking is hazardous to your health, the PLO was founded, Cuba blocked the water supply to Guantanamo etc.

On the other hand: "Hello, Dolly!" opened on Broadway, the Beatles first appeared on the Billboard charts, Dylan's third album "The Times They Are A'Changin'" is released, the GI Joe action figure debuts, the Beatles arrive at JFK to be greeted by 25,000 screaming fans (Feb 7) for their first live appearance on Ed Sullivan on Feb 9.

As with the rest of the U.S. things around SC will perk up considerably among the younger folk with the energy and good humor the Beatles brought with them. The older generation (Don on up) will not be amused.

BTW the first lottery drawing for the draft was in 1969. The last time the government had needed to do that was in 1942.

(For more on 1964 see http://timelines.ws/20thcent/1964.HTML )

Trudy you are amazing and any one of these is a great kickoff.. I'm drawn to a large blowout for Christmas '62 office dinner party which celebrates the successful merger of SC w/ PPL, sans Duck, thank you very much . Tho I thot his tatersall checked vest made quite a statement for a bean counter ..... My thinking is more linear and so many of your scenarios seem to head into later in the decade and project even into the 70's...
I'm hopelessly stuck in the 60's....an loving it.

suggest that Pete name his hunting rifle Daisy.
Can not for the life 'o me figure it's prominence in his life, gonna need sum 'splainin.... I look for guidence and know I will not be disappointed.

Really...the 70's? I can see all of it happening in one season in 1964-65. But you're right, I am definately an abstract thinker. But I hope at the very least season 3 will be a little more lighthearted than the last.

I am at a loss at exactly how to connect The Beatles' arrival to the show. The main characters are adults, not teenagers.

On another thread I read someone's thot's about the introduction of the Mustang at the '64 world's fair... I see Iacoca being pitched by Don and the fab campaign that follows ... Perhhaps after Macnamara leaves Ford for his Whitehouse position as Sec Defence, Don moves to replace him in Motown....That get's us to the summer of love in San Fran and evrybody regroups. By this epoch,Roger and his minions are passe',their time has come and gone.. Advertising is focused on catching the attn of Fast Food and sports fans. Life magazine is loosing ground and TV ads are where it's at...Harry's media dept is king of the hill now and calls the shots. I'm already sad.

Those are all really great ideas.
Did anybody watch the mini series, Brooklyn is Burning. It was about baseball and the conflict with Reggie Jackson and manager Billy Martin. Anyway it was set in the 70's and they did a good job. But Mad Men is set is the 60's and I love the job they are doing and prefer they keep it in this era also.

I agree this cast would be too old for the Beatles. I remember Dean Martin knocked the Beatles off the charts with his hit, "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime"

A blow out Christmas party is a good idea, if only there is a silver Christmas tree with a color wheel.

Peggy and the Priest with some sexual tension.

Trudy will find out about the baby and try to have Peggy fired. Don won't allow it.

I think Don will try to be good but of course someone always turns his head.

Betty is busy redecorating the house in a more post modern contemporary look aka Dick Van Dyke. I still think she will some how run into her fling.

Joan will get a divorice and come back to work. I like the idea that she will try to ban mini skirts.

I hope Weiner takes a few of the characters - out of character, like...

Peggy takes up smoking and drinking
Pete takes up smoking
Roger decides to "live it up" and starts drinking and smoking again
Jane becomes a whiny housewife and Roger tells Don, "what the hell was I thinking?"
Joan goes into depression about Greg
Betty ends up with post-partum depression and starts taking uppers! She finally "gets happy"
Sal becomes a Dad and grows a mustache
Mona takes Roger to the cleaners and comes in as a board member of SC
Don quits SC and starts his own Draper Ad Agency
Duck hits the sauce and goes postal at SC
Bert Cooper starts wearing shoes
Peggy starts wearing WOMEN''s clothes
Paul stops wearing ascots shaves the beard
Oh, the list is endless..................Cheers!

I think Mr. W should hire you guys! I really enjoyed reading this thread. It took care of my weekly Mad Men fix. Can you please write a weekly episode for me!!!!

Don and Betty will have a baby, a girl named Ruth (after Betty's mom) the baby is actually a mediator for the two of them. Betty is taking more interest in her children, but she still feels left out with Don.

Don on the other hand is more successful at work, and chooses to work more hours (he may have a plan on moving the Draper family to California, he has suggested it to Betty, that they should start a new and move forward, in which she agrees...she could use some more sun.) When a haughty woman client tries to seduce Don, he refuses. This new Don is all about family, but there will be much more darker secrets we dont know...maybe he was sexually abused in his childhood?

Pete will still be depressed over what Peggy has confessed. He feels awkward around her, and the guys notice.

Joan will confide more with Peggy, and eventually tell her that her husband beats her. Peggy will eventually stand up for Joan and ask her to move in. During one night, Peggy hears Joan sobbing. She goes over to Joan to comfort her, and while Joan cries in her arms, we see Peggy lift up Joan's head, and gently kisses her lips. Joan looks up, and whispers "Your sweet", and goes off to bed, leaving Peggy distressed and confused as to what happend.

Sal and Kitty also will have a child whom Sal adores. Kitty has several parties and becomes a hit at SC as the party wife. Sal decides to have a little fun in the village, and regrets what he has done.

Roger will be married to Jane, whom he finds out is just a bore as Mona. She spends like mad, and demands that Roger stop calling his daughter to check up on her. Roger out of frustration cheats on Jane with another hooker. When he sees Joan at the office he tells her she was right...he has lost something he truly loved. Joan turns her back on him, and we see Roger all alone like a baby, and he starts to cry.

You are all brilliant!!!

Starts on baby Draper's first birthday -- late spring/early summer of '64.

Bette discovers that Don is divorced and that his "ex-wife" lives in California.

PPL/SC hires a couple of Black people in positions other than janitor, elevator operator, and coffee cart attendant.

PPL/SC is threatened with yet another merger; may open a west coast branch in San Francisco or Los Angeles.

Don serves on a charitable board with Rachel.

Peggy gets recruited by one of the big shops: BBDO, DDB, JWT, Y&R, or McCann Ericson. Pete convinces her to remain with PPL/SC.

Cosgrove sells his novel, which drives Kinsey mad.

Roger is chasing twins again, but this time they're his own twin toddlers wreaking havoc in his life.

Mona purchases controlling interest in PPL/SC, and is now one of its directors.

Imaginations running wild.........LOVE IT ALL!!!
Keeping the dream alive......bravo!!!!

I have been thrilled to see that you all see Mona carves a partnership out of her divorce... Roger begins to travel to London office quite frequently and scores w/ luscious blonde stew from Icelandic Air.... thus interweaving a more cosmopolitan flavor to the scene... Roger, in an attempt to free himslf from Jane, encourages her to take a creative writing course at Smith. Her talent is cultivated and nurtured by an advisor who sees huge oportunity to make his reputation on her promotion... She throws Roger under the bus by writing a steamy novel based on what she experienced at SC.. It's a blockbuster, she is the darling of NY literary,becoming an intimate of Truman Capote, makes a large splash at his Black & White Ball, and is also a regular on Johnny Carson...
All of this brings new attention to Sc and they thrive..Mona, becomes a powerhouse, and the atmosphere takes a decidely progressive direction.

The Drapers sends Sally to boarding school in Switzerland. Betty buys a new house w/ guest cottage for her progressively failing father and begins to build some kind of relationship with Gloria . Betty grows from the experience and in the effort gains new insight into Don. Don sees the change, realizes that this newfound connection with family has helped Betty and in turn opens his eyes to it's value for himslf as well... He makes other inroads as he tries to find purpose more broadly defined than his position of power and respect at SC.. He stumbles but always redeems himslf..

As I suspected all along, many of you are seeing a new bond develop between Joan and Peggy.. Just like in real life, smart people always find a way to work together... Joan's old roommate who confessed her longings was politely ignored and I don't see her giving attention to Peggy in that vein, tho if Peggy were to approach Joan and felt remorse, it would be an excellent segway back to Fathr Gill who would simply melt to hear the details .
In new flashback episodes we find that Pete, while a student at Yale was recruited by the CIA and thru family ties was placed as a sleeper at SC.. It explains why Pete's dad was so pereplexed about his choice .. Dyckman-Campbells simply did not sully their existance in commerce...Pete is finally called to duty right after the Cuban Missle Crisis, the administration firmly convinced that Mad Ave is subverting something...
Pick it up and run somebody!

Season 3 begins with Don on the deck of a Frank Lloyd Wright designed split level hearing the waves of the Pacific Ocean crash upon the rocks. He and Betty are awaiting the arrival of a babysitter to look after the Draper brood, there are three of them now, with a new daughter Cathy. Don has parlayed his buyout into a Volkswagon dealership that is wildly successful. Don is tanned and buff and Betty has lost all her pregnant pounds, and nothing in California is a sexy as a a blonde model. The Drapers have sought the counsel of a sex therapist and she has brought to light that Don has trouble performing when Betty is the aggressor and Betty is just a closet nymphomaniac who never misses an opportunity for a good o, whether its the washing machine, or riding her horse. They have decided to join a swingers club and Don seems very happy with the submissive dark haired ravens while Betty wants the young hard bodies who can satisfy her. Yes, its difficult when both want to be in control, so the club makes it fun for both. Wait a minute, Im confused, that was TinMen, with Richard Dreyfuss and Danny Davito, maybe I shouldnt drink so much, so early in the morning

My God, Between Trudy and RL1856, Matt Weiner can take a nice long vacation! You guys are remarkable!

Season three............ok, in all seriousness, I'd like the show to skip-time only a few years at most, and since the woman's movement didn't hit stride until WAY later than the early sixties, I'll pick one singular person who's experience could help define part of season three: Paul.

Watching Paul, his girlfriend and the others on their freedom bus ride into the South, all full of optimism to make a difference, showed me something very nasty was coming their way. Believe me, he'll be fortunate if he comes out of it alive, and that's a given.

If he manages to survive and it becomes known that he works for staid, old, Ivy Leagued SC, the TV cameras/media will decend on the office like locusts on a Kansas wheat field.

The first to visit SC for a photo-op and lots of atta-boys for the SC Big Kahunas, will be the Mayor, then the Governor both wanting to show to the world that they stand in solidarity in the fight against race-discrimination with these great guys at SC.

Don will again prove his unique innovativeness and hire.....the elevator operator.......in keeping with the new situation.

(I'd also like to express my extreme disappointment in the episode in season two where Don punched that evil comic in the face. The reference to "Floyd" the boxer being there was insulting. Floyd would have been home with his sweet wife and not in that hooker dive or whatever the hell it was! This I KNOW!!! S.H., I pray you're still with us and I'll always be your best subway galpal)

I take Silverminx position but see Paul taking his grainy documentary to WGBH and parlaying the effort into some kind of political apppointment... He becomes wildly sucessful in his own right, leaves SC behind and in the process becomes a true believer which could never have happened had he stayed in Manhatten.
Roger uses Paul's sucess and transfer to another venue as a stepping off point and in an insightful interview in Playboy summer '63, it seems quite sage as MKL later leads the march on Washington .We see Paul's fingerprints on the effort to build awareness of the civil rights struggle by the inclusion of some of his old bohemian free thinking crowd.He convinces PP&M and other folk singers from McDougal street to lend their voices. He and Sheila have long since given up on a serious relationship but have remained great friends and work togehter on other innitiatives for the foreseeable future.. Paul, rekindles an old aquaintance w/ Mary Travers but her devotion to her art and the movement prevents them from forming a romantic connection... Paul knows all the right people but can not seem to find love..
He convinces Bob Dylan to go electric and hooks him up w/ a SC meeting to propel his recording career...Bob keeps the meeting but the MM can not relate, they schedule a press event, Bob scratches his head and decides his art will have to stand on it's own.

Can't add a thing...you guys amaze me! Thanks for helping ease MM Withdrawal Syndrome!

Oh...I would only add that I think Don and Betty will have girl/boy twins and name them Stuart and Samantha.

Nana, I love your insight into Jane's character. I think she's definately got more going for her underneath that model facade. But I still have this feeling about Ken being involved. It would also cause more tension at S.C. Kinsey will of course be jealous of him.

Ohhh, what if Ken meets Jane at a networking event or workshop?

And MM should go more international.

Who's for starting a fan fiction site? I, too, am going through the terrible withdrawal and I feel my brain cells shrinking little by little from the lack of exposure to such amazing writing.

Okay here goes:
MW hires us all to replace his writers. (we are cheaper). But while working for MM, Jon Hamm falls in love with me and we get married and live so happpily ever after... ooh me thinks I have to much time on my hands.

Chelsea, I think you'll have to do battle with Visan for Jon H! LOL

All us old timers on these forums have known for months that we are all going to have to take numbers and share! hee

Too funny you guys! This is the most entertaining reading I've seen in ages.......literally. The series will continue to revolve around golden boy Don and Betty, and it should. For a used car salesman, Don certainly has charisma and presence. Kinda holds our attention doesn't he?

He was robbed of that Emmy........well, maybe next year. At least the wonderful show won.

For this old gal, I'd just like to sit down with Coop/Bobby and have a cup of java and talk over old times. I have a strong feeling he would amaze me with all his stories from his rich history. I'm so happy he's having such a great time on the show.

I'd like to think he was the guy that Don sold a car to that started Don's career in advertising...."boy, that guy can sell anything!".....or maybe it was Roger and then they both went to the local good-time-girl bar.......they seem to know each other so well.

Trudy-I-A, if you do start something be sure to let us know. Right now, I think our being on this forum may be showing the powers-that-be, that there is still a strong audience/fan base for the show.

ITMT, haven't you gals got your Jon Hamm fix at www.Jon-Hamm.com yet? Get ready to swoon........

Yes, silverminx...I did get my fix at Jon-Hamm.com...dat is one good lookin' fella, no?
Whew! ; - )

1. Paul Kinsey, desperate to write his first novel, volunteers for military service wishing to emulate his literary hero, Ernest Hemingway. Lieutenant Kinsey is killed in the battle of Ia Drang after being shot by his own troops.
2. Jimmy Barrett’s career seemingly goes into high gear when he is asked to appear on the Ed Sullivan show. Unfortunately, a new rock & roll group called “the Beatles” is the opening act. The live audience reaction overwhelms the production staff and Jimmy’s segment is cut from the show. Distraught at a party for his show the following week, Jimmy insults the wife of the President of ABC television asking her if she’d “like to earn $20 the hard way” Grin & Barrett is cancelled the following week.
3. Jane Sterling convinces her husband Roger to move to the coast so that she can pursue an acting career. She lands a role as an extra (girl reading poetry in harem) in the movie “Our Man Flint”. She is introduced to future head of Paramount Studios, Bob Evans and subsequently dumps Roger.
4. Roger Sterling, distraught over the loss of Jane, rents an apartment in Venice Beach. He spends his free time combing the beach with his metal detector.
5. Someone previously predicted that Salvatore will have a baby and grow a mustache. NO – he will have a baby and grow a BEARD.
6. Peggy Olson, concerned that her luck with Vatican Roulette may run out, decides to use a diaphragm. She is so happy with her Pfizer diaphragm, she wants to bring the pharmaceutical company on as a client. Her pitch includes artwork with a young, successful modern woman, whose head is surrounded by a halo and her arms outstretched with a diaphragm in one hand and spermicide in the other. The tag line is “Roll it. Spermicide it. Insert it. Love it!”. The rep from Pfizer says that the ad “looks familiar” and Ken Cosgrove deadpans, “Yea, it’s the Popsicle ad”.
7. Bert Cooper, discovers the work of Andy Warhol and becomes one his best clients. At one of the artist’s parties, heavy smoke from marijuana results in a police raid. Warhol and some of his guests, including Cooper, get arrested. Cooper, who is dressed in a kimono in full kabuki make up, is placed in a holding cell with Cletus “Big Hands” Johnson and Tyrone “Eight Ball” Green.

Cooper: Gentlemen, the Japanese have a saying, “a man is whatever room he is in”
“Big Hands” – Oh yeah? The brother’s have a saying too – “You mine, b*tch”
“Eight Ball” – “Yeah” (delivered deep baritone like Barry White)

8. Sally, having the discovered the joys of horseback riding, becomes obsessed with all things equine. Her mother becomes a bit concerned when she discovers Sally trying to mount her saddle on the Draper’s washing machine.
9. Betsy and Don have a beautiful baby boy with red hair and blue eyes named Adam. A blood test reveals that the father of Draper’s new child is, in fact, Chauncey.
10. Don/Dick can no longer stand living a dual life and start over again as a screen writer. After a severe case of writer’s block, Don/Dick runs back to Anna, his touchstone. Although he is very emotional and on the verge of tears, Anna tells him he needs to figure out who he really is. His response “I’m Don” causes her to slap him across the face and he then says “I’m Dick”. She slaps him again and he alternates his responses 20 or 30 times after each slap. Don/Dick suddenly exclaims “I’ve got it!” and bangs out the screenplay for “Chinatown” in one evening.

Does anybody know when season 3 might start? MM was the only show I looked forward to.

Come on now, secretly you all are perverts just like me.

If in Season 3 they are all happily married, never stray, Joanie Loves Chachi, all get rich, and Don says "I'm Dick", Betty will say "you sure ARE one".

One thing we can all count on, the stories will be filled with questions without obvious answers, the inuendos will be flying, and everyone might be everyone else's "friend" in times of need.

I can wait, but it ain't easy.

Greetings from insomniacville. Hey SC Fan who the heck is Visan? Tell her to bring it on. Just kidding. I'll share. I think I read in Parade Magazine that Mr Hamm had a lady.

I am an old B&W movie classic fan. I should have lived in the 1940's. (instead of being born in the 60's). So I think Jon Hamm reminds me a little of Dana Andrews, He was in the movie Best Years of Our Life if anyone remembers. So another prediction for MM could be that Don/Dick starts to have Post Tramatic Stress. Which will affect his life.

So what was the recipe for a dirty martini? I need to get to sleep....

Dear Polar Bear..........you're my kinda person......here's a great big (((O))) hug for you!

PolarBear, you cracked me up.

And speaking of Bob Evans, I recommend watching the documentary bio of his life, "The Kid Stays in the Picture." If you don't know who this guy is, he produced some great films of the 70's including The Godfather. He also married Ali McGraw.

And Silverfox, I agree with you that Roger Sterling should have an ironic set of twins. And he should get stuck babysitting!

@Trudy, I am glad I made you smile. I picked Evans purposefully - he was married 7 times! YIKES!

@Silverminx, right back at ya.

Polar Bear and Everyone---you guys need to be hired to write for MM! Utterly hilarious!

@Chelsea, Visan is our resident sophisticate/Don Worshiper---worse than the rest of us, believe it or not. She loves Don's indescretions/affairs and has the most enchanting way of phrasing her posts.

Check a few of these forums, you'll run across her posts...she's one of our favorites.

Just for you, SCfan - Prediction 11:
Duck Phillips, distraught over his release from the newly formed Sterling-Cooper, Putnam, Powell & Lowe, Ltd., goes on a three month bender. After waking up nude in Central Park with the Sunday edition of the NY Times for a blanket, he decides to form his own ad agency with his son, Duck Jr. He convinces an old associate out of San Diego to join his firm. Anthony Edwards (of E.R. and Top Gun fame) will be this new character. The new agency will be call "Duck, Duck, Goose".

Hey, what's with the moans?

Polar Bear, you rock! LOL

Thanks SCFan I'll check those out.
I agree pretty darn funny Polar Bear. I can't add another thing. Except maybe one:

While at work Peggy is notified that her apartment has burned down and she is temporarily homeless. The fire marshall determines the cause of the fire was from faulty wiring in her "Stimulator" that she forgot to unplug. (the girl can't help it)

@Chelsea, I like your idea (lol). I imagine the scene would go as follows:

In front of a burned out brownstone, the fire fighters and newly displaced residents congregate.

Battalion Chief: Ok folks, we think we found the source of the fire - this girdle with all the wires stickin' out of it (holds up the Relax-a-ciser).

Peggy: Actually, its the new and improved Relax-a-ciser II. (She goes into sales pitch mode) - With daily use and a sensible diet, the Relax-a-ciser II will help you lose weight, relieve stress, reduce frustration, prevent stretch marks and ease the heartbreak of psorisis. Did I say it relieves stress?

Battalion Chief: Boy, this thing is heavy duty. It looks like you it uses 220. (volts)

Peggy: 220, 221, whatever it takes.

Father Gill shows up to comfort his flock: Peggy, may I borrow your Relax-a-ciser?

Peggy: Not now Father Gill, you're making me uncomfortable.

Father Gill: Peggy, you don't understand, this Priest gig is killin' me. If I don't do something fast, I'm gonna bust.

Peggy: Father, that's your job!

Just off set, Sally Draper has taken one of the extra Relax-a-cisers and is working with an electrician trying to hook it up to her saddle.

End of scene - all of the women of the burned out apartment are huddled around Peggy asking "where can we get one?"

Footnote: Sales of the Relax-a-ciser II go through the roof in 1964. Politicians, utility executives and public safety officials blame the product for the blackout of NYC in 1965 - something about the simultaneous use on Saturday night by millions of women (and one priest) and the resulting overload of the East Coast electrical grid. The product is banned and many historians and sociologists think that this ban was the spark that ignited the women's rights movement.

Polar Bear, are you one of the MM writers by any chance? How would we know, right? It could happen! LOL

Anyway, you are very clever and fun to read.

Same goes for all of you Maddicts...fun to read!

@SCfan, thank you for appreciating my bizarro sense of humor. The only writing I do is for the Mad Men Blog (I make my living in commercial real estate, although at the rate things are going, I may need to consider a career change!).

I can hear my ex saying "don't do anything to encourage him. He won't stop until he pisses someone off". At the expense of sounding self-congratulatory, the thought of Bertram Cooper, wearing a kimono and kabuki make up while being stuck in a jail cell with two Black guys from the Bronx, still cracks me up.

Thanks for letting me share some of my "Madness" with all of you.

Dearest fellow MADDICTS-yes, that's what we are. . .

I, too, am jonesing for more info about these folks we've come to enjoy. And it is such fun to hypothesize about their future endeavors. Bravo to all of the above for your inciteful/insightful/ satirical/historical postulations. Terrific, really.

I again maintain, that because of the overwhelming response to a Show of this ilk, in terms of quality-intrigue-timeliness, the essential value is inherent : that in terms of what we baby-boomers wish to acknowledge/consider about our collective pasts and futures, is something that we need to act upon somehow. Also, something important to weigh in on as a functioning barometer in terms of where we are going, and what we will leave behind as an important (lasting) cultural legacy.

"WE INVENT WANT."

So very much has been happening in our country lately. In my mind it is positive, despite the economic woes in every socio-economic scenario. I am incredibly optimistic about our new President, in terms of being able to structure new models and new ways of thinking that will unalterably enhance our lives. Even tho' we may/must(?) face some arduous and confusing times ahead.

In the long view, I appeal to you lovers of of art and science and history therein, that are perfectly exemplified via the support and critique of such a (mere) TV show that is "Mad Men." It is an escapist (the guise) drama that is conversely a mirror of ourselves: our past: and where we are going. And where we really want to go ???! Where do we want to go?

As we all are well aware: TODAY is (increasingly) nihilistic/ superficial/ selfish. There exists a rather unpleasantly false sense of individualism and entitlement - "Me first: ME, ME, ME."

What is to follow?

I do not clamour to use this venue as a platform, yet as a forum in the best (Greek) sense of the word. I am a blogger ingenue. I have no interest in listening to ravaging philistines who exist in stasis and thereby accept the world as it has become. Change shd be our "raison detre."

Meanwhile, I shall go back to-after my long and difficult and
lucrative day- FOX News alerts, the new "90210" and "The Turner Classic Movie Channel." Fun, fun, fun. And so intellectually stimulating.

CHEERS,
Nancy
Thank the Gods for "Dewars" and soda!

Uh . . . huh?

Polar Bear you get my vote for the Zippo lighter. (I forgot it was called the Relax a sisor) That episode cracked me up.

Polar Bear, you are magnificent, I dont know what you do for a living, but quit today and start writing! I love the 220/221 from Mr Mom, I like your style

In the jail cell, with Bertram in a kimono, hears, mind if we dance wif you dates?

sorry, I meant yo instead of you, I need to brush up on my ebonics

Roger begins thinking about his mortality and has a conversation with Don about his hypertension and how the medication has had some negative effects. Roger thinks there is a way to produce a drug that controls the hypertension without the negative side effects. Roger makes good use of his chemistry degree from Princeton and starts experimenting with compounds to invent the best hypertension drug. After thousands of attempts, he finds one with a surprising side effect, boing! Roger invents a drug and he calls it micoxafloppin. The drug is quickly purchased by Phizer and renamed Viagra. Roger is an instant mulitmillionaire and leaves SC for a new life at the Playboy Mansion as head of Advertising and Promotions. However through continued use and over use, Roger has lost his sight and suffers from daily headaches and must use a seeing eye dog who humps everything in sight.

@chelsea, thanks for the inspration. As long as you guys enjoy this stuff, I'll keep mining the depths of my irreverent past and skewed views of the human condition.

@liquor, right back at ya - I wondered if anyone would get my Mr. Mom reference, kudos. The fun for me is to see other's skewed views so keep contributing. Shama-lama-ding-dong

Duck, Duck, Goose... One can dream, right?

Actually, in the early days of ER I had a mini-crush on Anthony Edwards/Dr. Greene, so I wouldn't be disappointed to see him become part of the cast. However I could have sworn in the commentaries that Matt Weiner made it a point to hire unknowns. Oh well.

Trudy, Anthony Edwards/"Dr. Greene" will be guesting on ER tomorrow night!

Hope it's good. I haven't watched it in years and years. The first five years, I never missed it.

I hope MM doesn't go downhill like ER has after next season!

@liquorup...micoxafloppin??? Heavens to Mergatroid Dear Me and Lorda Mercy!

Not to mention, gawd.....

I knew it, I knew it , I knew it.... PolarBear as Realtor in Real life... Me too but only residential.. Who else has the kind of time to put imagination into action????? nobody methinks...I was thrilled to finally see some actual dialouge.. Nice work... I can picture the scene, dress the set , but I'm hanged if I can put dialouge in place... Looks like we need some colaberation here...
Seems like my strongest memories of the era were focused around the autos of the age, and it may be a midwestern thing. But it just doesn't play on the East Coast...
I feel that Pete is gonna see a lot more camera focus nxt season... He has cultivated a repore' w/ Duck, who is clearly a person non grata at the newly merged SC/PPL. He knows some of Don's secrets. The disappearence in Ca is just one more issue tho Don threw him a bone w/ the left handed compliment..He has this baby thing w/ Peggy, which I believe he will keep quiet and use as a weapon w/ Trudy, knowing that he in fact does have good swimmers. Trudy, for all her wanting a baby, is seen as deficient ... Perhaps to keep Trudy in line, he moves them from the apartment she so much wanted,( sold at a nice profit) to a home farther out in the burbs.. It increases his commute and lessens the time he has to spend there . We have to remember that Pete has the social connections that Trudy married him for.. She definately married up and no matter her disppointment, will not be quick to break that bond.Unless, she finds that there is no inheritance....I have doubts that Pete will rise much further at the agency and if he has to live on his salary alone... Well, it duzn look good...
write it up, can't wait to see what they say!!!
Like many of you, I'm fantasizing that our ideas are being audited and and are likely to be seen on the screen.... Aside to MW, as my business is slow, am available for further discussions...Could put a team in place as quickly as I can access the keyboard and this blog ...

Season three would start with the flashback of the Missles of October and The Mad Cast various situations as we are sadden by the loss of our dear President. While Don wants to come home and play house, deep inside he doesn't want to come home because it's boring and Betty would much rather go adrift like Don did when he went to California and might. Don knows he has to hang around until the New SC sets in. Duck has become a bit of a drunk since he found out that Don dosen't have a contract, leading him one step closer to the unemployment line & rehab. Pete really realize that he should be with Peggy, but Peggy wants her career and considers showing Pete the kid so that he can save his marriage and leave her alone. Trudy won't hear of it but will consider leaving him, when the truth of the baby slips out one night while Pete's talking in a druken rage. Joan realizes her doctor is like Dr. Jekyle and runs to Rodger for comfort and guidance. Rodger realizes he jumped too fast for Jane when Mona finds away to take everything from him and he finds comfort in Joan. Two characters are coming out of the closet because one has too and the other wants too! Guess who they are? Television is the future and someone has bitten off more that they can chew and finds himself working late and not spending time with the new baby and wife. Paul tries to get his girlfriend an office job and she lands an interview with SC from a tip at another interview. Duck does not become the President and Peter does not become Head of Accounts. Betty's one night fling decides to go looking for her and has no limitations of finding her!

Season three would start with the flashback of the Missles of October and The Mad Cast various situations as we are sadden by the loss of our dear President. While Don wants to come home and play house, deep inside he doesn't want to come home because it's boring and Betty would much rather go adrift like Don did when he went to California and might. Don knows he has to hang around until the New SC sets in. Duck has become a bit of a drunk since he found out that Don dosen't have a contract, leading him one step closer to the unemployment line & rehab. Pete really realize that he should be with Peggy, but Peggy wants her career and considers showing Pete the kid so that he can save his marriage and leave her alone. Trudy won't hear of it but will consider leaving him, when the truth of the baby slips out one night while Pete's talking in a druken rage. Joan realizes her doctor is like Dr. Jekyle and runs to Rodger for comfort and guidance. Rodger realizes he jumped too fast for Jane when Mona finds away to take everything from him and he finds comfort in Joan. Two characters are coming out of the closet because one has too and the other wants too! Guess who they are? Television is the future and someone has bitten off more that they can chew and finds himself working late and not spending time with the new baby and wife. Paul tries to get his girlfriend an office job and she lands an interview with SC from a tip at another interview. Duck does not become the President and Peter does not become Head of Accounts. Betty's one night fling decides to go looking for her and has no limitations of finding her!

I think it's time to explore Don in some depth. His response to Adam's suicide has been completely blocked, probly cause Matt W doesn't have the kind of time to devote to it, unlike the rest of us... Don had no inkiling that his strong arm tactic could provoke such a deep feeling in Adam and tho taken by total surprise, Don has used every rouse he can come up with to freeze out his emotions and guilt...
Where can he find a safe place to share? Will he seek professional help? He has no real friends, has worked hard to keep his aquaintences seperate from his sham of a life... Jane was one of the first and only persons who got a glimpse and Don had her taken off his desk .. This new season will bring a new secretary and perhaps she will have some kind of register that he can relate to... Will it be enough to bring him toward some kind of fully rounded human?? I'm thinking that this new secretary may be a bit older.. Don would like that, she'd be less likely to fall into the drama of the typing pool which is so likely and expected when there is a bevy of attractive young women all experiencing the same work woes... This older woman will be steady, the consumate professional yet with a bit of warmth which we've yet to see in any character to date... she's been around, ya know.. Don depends on her, she never disappoints , she does not pose a threat to Betty , is immune to Roger and tolerates the boys in Creative....
We see her as an empathetic guide who leads us through the turmoil of Big Biz with a steady hand... A role that few members of the team would ever welcome into their lives but secretly like having around....

AMC is targeting a 9/90 date for delivery of season two on DVD.......gawd awful wait for this MMaddict.......does anyone know about an AMC "MM marathon" that I read about somewhere on this site?

Also.....on a voice-over commentary by Jon/Don on a season one DVD episode, Jon talked about getting seven stitches on his head when the set fell on him and also that he broke his hand.......does anyone know how he broke his hand? My guess would when he slammed the beatnik gal against the post....such an impatient lad.....!!!!

MM office memo to FancyNan: you're holding the neck of that bottle of Dewars too tight; and 90210 is a sitcom; MM is THEATRE! MM is ART! Jeeze, why don't people get that right!

Anyone get their '09 MM calendar yet? The photos picked may give fans some clues where the series is headed.......possibly........??? Like the one of a very serious, comtemplative Betty smoking in bed while Don sleeps next to her with a little smile on his lips? I'd say Betty will be in the cat-bird seat next season - if she can keep her stud-secret-secret.

That's a 9/09 date, no, it's not Dewars, I need another cup of strong java.......lol

Polar Bear, I'm coming on to this thread too late. Too funny!! I'd like to add a section to Number 6 above....

Peggy Olson, concerned that her luck with Vatican Roulette may run out, decides to use a diaphragm. She is so happy with her Pfizer diaphragm, she wants to bring the pharmaceutical company on as a client. She meets with Don regarding her approach

Peggy: My pitch is - Sex Sells!
Don: say's who?
Ken: say's me - and I have a little black book with lots of numbers to prove it!!
Roger: yeah, and I have a copy of the invoice from the last little tart that over charged me!

Peggy changes her mind, her pitch now includes artwork with a young, successful modern woman, whose head is surrounded by a halo and her arms outstretched with a diaphragm in one hand and spermicide in the other. The tag line is “Roll it. Spermicide it. Insert it. Love it!”. The rep from Pfizer says that the ad “looks familiar” and Ken Cosgrove (still peeved that Don would not use the Jackie/Marilyn Maidenform ad holding the diaphragm) deadpans, “Yea, it’s the Popsicle ad”.

Hey everyone. Hope the economy picks up for the real estate people. I am at home for a few weeks recuping from minor surgery so have time to blog.

@pinkpen's ideas I'd like to include the children in the effects of the missle crisis. Remember the civil defense drills we went through? We could have the children really frightened about what has happened.

I had a teacher tell us how one of his students would never want to sit by the window for fear of glass hitting her when the bombs went off.

I even had a nightmare as a child of the bomb going off and seeing smoke come into our house. I really got scared and felt like it was all over. My Mom said it was because I watched the movie "On The Beach" But I still remember that dream to this day.

What do you guys think?

sorry for my drunken faux-intellectual rant/diatribe recently.

ya'll have been tolerant. just trying to stay connected to the only real thing displayed on TV these days.

i am not familiar with myspace/yourface-space so it is a new challenge for me to simply, and authentically, attempt to communicate with a select few that monitor MM as closely as i do.

i again remind you, the line from season one that Don utters, "we invent want," has impacted our culture-society-world in terms of creating demand for products/services which we may or may not need, irrevocably- c/o hallowed Madison Avenue. . .

so interesting to me and others, that matt chose to mine this fertile field. i deplore so much in this existence; MM gives me some answers and some questions. . .

very best wishes to my brilliant and passionate companions,

nancy

also, was that a whistle or a necklace that joan -used to- and now- sometimes wears?

Friend fancynancy - your answer from this ancient one: I had an identical necklace and it was a lead pencil - just decoration - too awkward to use. FYI, I actually wore some of the clothes I've seen on the show....it's wonderful to see it all again.

I hear you about 'inventing want', and we only have to look at our children and all their possessions to see the truth of that. And how quickly they get 'bored' and then want the next thing they saw advertised. Things are turning around in this new economy now. Ask our real estate forum friends about the new tight money....soon families will experience something I've known well over the years; living within a budget and learning not to use those damn credit cards! If nothing else MM is a great history lesson for us on how it all started.

HI all
Am thinking that MM, in bringing back the good old days, may be doing a secret service to any younger viewers who want to take a chance and learn some skewed history .. I have long believed that some serious cosumerism courses should have been made availalbe in school curriculim so that kids learn that "want sells"...
I'm betting our ecconomy is headed for the 50's-60's and cash will be king. Ponytails and poodle skirts??? I think that's a bit of a stretch... . The days of 100% mortgage financing is already long gone , buyers who want a decent interest rate will be expected to have 10%-20% down. Auto loans won't be much more generous...
So what would my fellow maddicts be willing to sacrifice in the spirit of less commercialism as we hunker down and start living in more restrained fashion?
I haven't written a snail mail letter in years, can hardly remember when I only checked messages on the home phone when I returned at the end of the day, totally unaware that calls had been made hours earlier ... Am I ready to simplfy my life?? Are you???

Unfortunately some of us may have no choice but to 'simplify'...........unfortunately.

The coming months/years won't be much of a change for me and my husband of 32+ years...we still live in the first home we bought (March of 1978) we have only recently done any major remodeling (kitchen, baths) and we cut up our credit cards after a near financial disaster 10+ years ago and have "lived within our means" ever since.

Nothing like a near bankruptcy to get one on the right track and motivate one to stay there!

Here is another opening for Season 3
-Peggy hasn't been sleeping well due to nightmares about the baby, missles and God. She finds herself reinventing herself AGAIN to get higher to the top, because "TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE" This time she going for the SEX APPEAL!! Pete goes crazy for her, and leaves Trudy.
- Betty has contracted an STD that interferes with her preganacy and miscarries leaving her once again MANIC! She finds herself confiding in Jimmy who can't keep his big mouth shut, because he still has it in for Don. Don finds out she had a fling because the man keeps calling the house.
-Paul decides to give up on Civil Rights because it's too risky and decides to dump his girlfriend who now has a job at SC. Ken shares his writing with Paul's ex, she likes it and they begin seeing each other. Johnson is being sworn in as president, Don has started taking walks in the evening and so does the lonely Single neighbor. Rodger and Mona are having an ugly divorce, Jane gets scared and leaves. The Rothka gets stolen, Cooper freaks out. Duck is the suspect and the British have second thoughts after finding that Duck lied. Mona & Joan run into each other in a department store. Yes, you're right The Beatles are coming. This is a great history and financial lesson too. Will we take heed?!

With all the great ideas for season three posted here, I'm wondering if I'll be disappointed when it finally arrives.

You know what silverminx? I was thinking that same thing!

Peggy develops a her own smashing project: a deodorant just for women. And that's just the start. Her creative and successful campaign brings her right to the top. She considers trying to snag Joan away from Don to be her secretary, but rather puts Joan back in television script department after making an impassioned assertion to the men in power that women are really more in control of spending. Joan gets Peggy's old office. You go girls! Joan then kills pig doctor and Peggy brings in Perry Mason to prove it was justifiable homicide.

Don goes to Esalen and gets involved in a threesome with Joan Baez and Susan Sontag.

Betty steps into "Far From Heaven" territory when she becomes enamored of Carla's brother-in-law, who owns a furniture repair shop.

Peggy and Ken Cosgrove have a one night stand, sending Pete and Sal on a drinking binge, only to wake up the next morning together.

Joan is in the midst of a high-profile divorce from Dr. McRapist, and stands to get a great alimony settlement.

Duck is selling insurance.

Pete is upset Peggy is not interested in a relationship,but his blue blood upbringing is even more upset that a child of his is being raised by someone else. Being #2 with his own father he wonders what the fate of his child would be without him in his life. Just as he did with the photos of Don's past he again finds a friend who has access to Peggy's childs birth certificate and learns of where his son is and with whom. He plans to somehow adopt this child without Trudy finding out that the boy is his. Trudy's happy and Father-in-law keeps it cordial.. Pete doesn't tell Peggy that his adopted child is the one she gave up until the end of season 3.
Joan does marry the Doctor and and her career does take off when the clients who liked her input before come back requesting her again. She comes up with some inovative thinking in the Television arena and and spends less time at home and the Doctor is not thrilled and arguments get more heated. Peggy over hears her arguing with the Doctor over the phone and Joan downplays the call but Peggy's not buying it.

LIQUORUPTHEASSGUY-
I Love your comments.

Where are MADTV, Rubadon, Chopin47, Silverminx, racy, Nana Benz, and fav frequent others? I adore ya'll's input toooooooooooo.

Miss You as per "The Rolling Stones."
Cheers,
fan-nan

FanNan...........the old minx is still here.......cozying up to Polar Bear on another "older" blog......just the two of us....we're so lonely we're starting to look real good to each other.........he just promised to teach me something......not telling.

I guess it's just that time of year; holidays, family......yada yada.......so....wishes to you and yours......... Happy Thanksgiving ...!!!!

silverminx:
in 1982, I had a neo-post-punk band called "Ultra White Minx." (Named after a Sixties hair rinse.)
I was the drummer and the singer, but I can't sing so it was PURR-fect. We were truly an irreverent cacophony!

Anyhow, right back at you with your kind wishes. "Polar Bear" is really kind of the infrastructure of communique in this much mediated medium. I.e., I inadvertantly neglected to laud him in my earlier post!

I am determined to keep perusing the old and new threads of this lovely forum to keep my Maddiction appeased. I shall look for you all.

May we ALL be truly THANKFUL for what we have!
CHEERS!

great ideas! how about opening with the 'daisy girl' ad (1964) then the beatles, (or versa-visa)...

HI Silvrmx and all!
Took a little time for a quick trip to Leftcoast, San Fran is as spectack as always and am happy to report that grandaughers are thriving...Last time I went west during the holidays I took my dad w/ me . He was in midstages of Alzheimers and tho he faded in and out and got a little distressed at airport holiday traffic, he had a swell time .. He's passed on now so on this holiday I'm being thankful for the time we had and how fortunate I am for the life he and my mother made possible .
Polar bear how in the world do you find a clear spot to dive in? All around the piers I see seals sunning and they take up all the room. They have a strong scent in summer and I can understand the winter swimmng if only to avoid the overwhelming smell...
I finally went to Borders and got the season 1 box'd set... As I familairized myslf, it became all so more obvious that season 2 was soooo dark..
I'm hugely concerned that S3 is fading away from us . As time marches on, I get the feeling that we're going to be seperated from the scene...
All that may be left to us is re-reading the great scenerios that have played out here...
If anyone has words of encouragement, pls post immediately!!

Nana, glad to hear you made it to the City. I am sorry to hear about your Dad but I am glad the City brings back good memories. Next time you're in SF, go to the Top of the Mark and have a toast in his honor - give me advanced notice and the first round is on me.

Re: the "Eau de Bay" - yes, it can get pretty funky around Pier 39 where the seals sun themselves. Nasty creatures - they even bite swimmers in the Bay so they are not a favorite of this mammal. Oddly, sharks avoid the waters of the Bay, which is the reasons the seals like hanging out at Fisherman's Wharf. The best place for a swimmer to enter the Bay is just north of this tourist trap at Aquatic Park. The South End Rowing Club is located here, very close to Ghiradelli Square. You can jump right in and start swimmin'. The secret is learning to swim without letting water get in your mouth. Not that easy. Well, that and learning to not freeze your ass off.

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Howdy, Polar Bear! Great to see the rest of you here, too.
After a little break, I found myself craving a Maddict fix. Just bought Season One today, in a cool box that looks like a Zippo lighter!
HERE'S A PREDICTION-- just one-- I suspect we have seen the last of Father Gill. I don't think this character will be back. I'm not sure why but I just get the feeling that he has served his purpose.
I don't think we'll ever see Duck again, either.
In particular, I am REALLY looking forward to finding out how Pete learns to live with Peggy's revelation, and, whether Sal is going to have the courage to peek out of the closet. Two very promising storylines.

Maddicts,
FYI, it is interesting to see Jon Hamm in December's "VOGUE" magazine. He's featured in an editorial layout that is somewhat reminiscient of "The Jet Set " episode. He looks very sleekly Don. Hot, hot, hot.

As well, January Jones appears in Jan. '09's issue of "Town and Country" magazine. So lovely and intriguing and smart.

She says such nice things about Matt!

Happy extended T'giving weekend to all of us!
Cheers!

producerbonnie, great to hear from you. I, too, think Father Gill may have a crisis of faith (see my prediction above re: Fr. Gill and the Relaxicisor II).

You'll enjoy each episode more than once because of the commentary provided. Very interesting/enlightening. The 13 episodes are really 39, if you include the two sets of commentary/episode.

Don't be a stranger.

P-Bear

I've been rereading all of the predictions again to get my fix.
Mad Men-and Dewars are like heroin for me.

And once again, I am so blown away by EVERYONE's astute and clever forecasts. We all have our personal favorites, granted, but look at all of these highly intelligent people from all disciplines that are mesmerized so much that they are inclined to not only comment, but really THINK about the narratives and the corresponding pain, joy, and humour that these characters experience and might experience.

Great literature deals in universals: ways of thinking and living that unite us and feed the human spirit. To think that a genius named Matthew Weiner brings us this richly textured novel via our screens-a drama that is so lofty, yet made readily available to us through our humble televisions, is incredible. WONDERUL too.

High-brow to Lo-fi. Encyclopedia Brttanica comes to the proletariat. Hurray!

I, personally, am rather a bohemian bourgeois-I think they call my demographic "Bo-Bo." Mad Men is fabulous and enhances my Life.

Cheers and Thank You Maddicts for sharing something that is culturally IMPORTANT and even FUN!
Bo-Bo:
Fan-Nan

The now famous line "Duck, Crab, Crab, Duck" should win a Nobel unto itself. Wickedly cool.

Here's what I'd like for Series 3:
- Betty Draper gets "baby blues" and is put into a psychiatric hospital with post-natal depression. She meets a young intern psychiatrist who is the first man who has ever understood her and he hlps her to recover in spite of the stigma of mental illness.
- Because of Betty's illness, the Drapers need a Nanny. Their housekepper's daughter, a College student, agrees to help out and Don begins an inter-racial affair, an affair which could cost Betty her sanity.
- To make matters worse, Don's "Civil Rights Activist" Colleague learns about the affair and begins to subtly blackmail him.
- Sterling Cooper goes after BIG clients and signs up a major petroleum company. However a military coup in an unknown place called Baghdad means that the oil company is threatened. As a result, Sterling Cooper experiences cash-flow problems. (This can be tied in with the release of Lawrence of Arabia)
- Pete Campbell is desperate to have a child. He is seriously considering divorcing "Lovely". Peggy accidentally meets and befriends "Lovely". Peggy arranges for Campbell and his wife to adopt her baby.
- The movie "Cleopatra" is released. Peggy's parish priest denounces it from the pulpit. Then Peggy is offered a lucrative account - promoting the movie in New York. Her family - and the priest - are scandalized. The office itself is divided over the Liz-Burton-Fisher triangle. Then Elizabeth Taylor is announced to have died! (This really happened.)
- Roger Sterling and Joan Holloway are both disillusioned with their spouses. (In their intimate moments, Joan's doctor-husband likes her to pretend she is dead.) Joan and Roger resume their affair. Joan returns to her job in the script department - with Peggy as her boss!
- Peggy falls in love with her parish priest and her family are scandalized. They cut off all contact with her. At the same time, Don's affair with the Nanny disintegrates - and Peggy and Don drift towrads each other. And perhaps, for the final episode cliffhanger, Peggy and Don kiss. The cat has done a bit more than just look at the king.
Sorry this is so long but I could storyline this wonderful show forever. I even bought the calendar!

I predict the return of Freddie.
I think Peggy will start classes part time.
Don will adore the newest child. For some reason we will not understand at first, he will really bond with the baby.
Roger and his wife will stay married.
We will find out why Pete was cut out of the will.
I think Joan will stay about the same. I really hate that, but I think she will be an old maid secratary.
Sal, Ken and Paul will keep on being the boys.
Harry will be mature and act like he is twenty years older. But that will be okay, that is what he wants to be. He will irritate Don without knowing it because he will try to give Don Dad advise, forgetting that Don has two already.
Duck and Pete, I honestly have no clue.
I hope good things for pete..if he keeps growing like he has been.
Duck, I can not care unless the writers give me something to care about.

Someone will book Shindig as a client not knowing that someone else is booking the not on air yet Hullabaloo causing some turmoil.

wow,
i never even considered a romantic situation with Don and Peggy. seems incestuous since they've watched each other's backs for 2 seasons.

who can say; but it gives me a rather sick feeling.

i wish i knew who "Shindig" was/is. am i missing s'thing?

i promise that joan and pete and father gill are going to surprise us hugely. i cannot wait.

thanx for helping me to continue to fuel my maddiction.

yum-yum. . .

"Shindig" and "Hullaballoo" were popular dance shows on TV. Sort of like American Bandstand but a little less wholesome. More psychedelic outfits, dancing on pedestals. There were spinoffs everywhere, usually on after school. In Detroit, we had "Swingin' Time with Robin Seymour". My mom would watch it at 4pm while doing her ironing.

I wonder what Glen "the Barber" Bishop watches when he irons.

PolarBear, thanks for so many big laughs on a very gloomy day.No lie, you have serious talent for parody.The skit on Saturday Night Live was not one tenth as funny as yours.

And Liquorupfront-"Mycoxafloppin'"?!! Now is that original?

Another set of events which caught the public's imagination was the initiation and steps towards the apollo project to the moon by NASA later in the sixties. Perhaps, there will be some mention of related products. SC will devise a marketing campaign for TANG!

flowerpower, I think an apropos pharmaceutical name would be "mycoxapointin". "afloppin" sounds like you should be purchasing from the primary sponsor of Madmen.

Well, we could have a lot of fun with that one! Mycoxastandin' comes to mind.

Know what I don't get - WHY do the man and woman end up in two separate bathtubs, outdoors? Is that some kinky thing I never heard of?? Is it metaphorical?

i think a flashback of roger would be definitely awesome. i was thinking something like world war II. i am not proposing flashback crazyness like lost.
i predict a flashback of don and betty in the early stages of their relationship. being that in season 2 ends with their relationship on the rocks, i expect season 3 will lead to bigger, more definite consequences, and nostalgia.

does anyone else think someone is going to commit suicide? Pete, Duck?

Is it really safte to say that everyone in the picture will be back for season 3? Do the actors all have multi-year contracts?

when does season 3 begin?

Please help me! I can't find any information on Mad Men! I LOVE Mad Men...it's beyond smart, informative, and entertaining and I truly miss this series! The show abruptly disappeared from airing during Season 2. Searches to learn what happened and current status lead to previously aired episodes. I would appreciate current information. Thank you very much for your time and help!

Hey EmilyRoyale, I heard your can rent it from Netflex or purchase it on Amazon.com. Yeah we all LOVE IT

When does Season Three begin? I can't find anything anywhere on this site.

Season three is going to be dealing a lot more with Don's secret identity.

I hope it doesn't get inot overcomplicated plot lines like Lost and Heroes or it will just be another great show ruined.

Oh man! I was happily typing my new predictions and it jsut disappeared. Anyone know how long a post can be? I was having fun.

I shall try again.

I wanted to get it on so I could read the other posts. I saw one that mentioned GI Joe and did not want to do too much repeating on other's musings.

Polar Bear....

I devour every witty word. You have a remarkable talent!

And yes, I agree with you -- the new baby should be named Adam.

Polar Bear:

I devour every witty word. You have a remarkaable talent.

And yes, I agree with you. The new baby should be named Adam.

Sorry, guys --my first double post!

I thought I read or heard that one of the characters on Mad Men would be killed off in Season 2, I'mHooked2MM. I thought they said it would be Harry since his character was not getting good ratings/reviews. Harry is a rather boring/whiny character - but the TV dept idea saved him. Maybe they will go the suicide route instead? Has anyone heard anything along these lines in Season 3?

I thought that before we see the new season, Peggy would be on a casual date with Paul at Harry's house. The men would be watching the AFL championship. Peggy knows that CBS is buying the rights to the NFL and later has a brainstorming session with harry about product placement for guy stuff during games.

I also think Joan will be moved to a position in the TV department and will supervise people reding scripts for the same reason as before , plus to get an ideas for product placement for different shows.

( I can dream)

I also will dream of spell check or me proof reading what I type...sorry all.

Cole Porter dies in '64. I feel that is more important to NYC than the Beatles at the time. I predict one of the episodes in season 3 will use a Porter tune in the title or to close the episode. I may be wrong because I was raised in horse country, but Cole Porter feels more like Joe Dimaggio. Dimaggio was more New York than Monroe.
The Boston Strangler might be mentioned in passing. The Clay/Liston fight must be compared to something. The plans for The World Trade Center were announced. Many great plays, but "My Fair Lady" seems like a Peggy theme. And since she lost her pony tail to see Dylan in concert "The Times They Are a-Changin" should be on the list of tunes for season three. 1964 is a very big year. Ford made a Mustang! Maybe the World's Fair will come to town.

I hope we do jump to '64.

I hope Matt Weiner treats the Beatles like he did the JFK Assassination...just let it go - it's been done too many times. Most parents who lived through the Beatle craze hated it. It was the teenagers who loved it. Since most of the characters on Mad Men are not teenagers (well except for Jane), I would really rather not see the Mad Men characters sitting around bitching about the Beatles. It's about advertising and the Beatles never needed ANY advertising. Cheers! ;o)

Drink&Smoke, your Dean made me think of something. On top of that it made me think of Roger and that child.

He said something when Frank Sinatra married Mia Farrow about having a bottle of Scotch older than she was. I remember I thought that was so funny. Wonder how old I was? Maybe I'm a Sally instead of a Joan or Betty. : - }

I agree with most of trhe predictions of rl185(am i right?) but i don't think Roger will marry Jane. Jane is too young and though Roger is impressed with youth, i have hope that he will see Mona as the good wife and mother that she is. That being said,i think that Jane will continue the affair, end up pregnant, and become Peggy part two.

I agree with rl1856 (?) and here is my HUMBLE opinion:
I hope the third season will live up to the pilot's potential, which I believe was sidetracked by the success of January Jones as Betty. As beautiful and good an actress as she might be, the main female character in the show should not be Betty, or at least not as versatile as she has turned out to be (you can't be Marnie and a sexual bomb at the same time). She should either have sexual hang-ups (more in tune with the repressive 50's), which would make Don's philandering more "understandable," if not "forgivable;" or, she should have some sort of "perversion." As she stands right now, she is just too perfect in every respect and does not leave any room for sympathy toward Don.
I believe Don is being “judged” by the standards of our time and not by what would have been socially “acceptable” then. He is in many ways also a "victim" of the times. Betty should be back to where women where at the time (at home in the kitchen, stuck with the children, etc) and not have this retroactive redemption given to her by the creators of the series.
The main female characters of the show as they were introduced in the pilot should be the 2 extremes in the office (the smart, but turn-off (ish) Peggy, or the sexually uninhibited Joan). Betty should get back in track (stuck at home by the pregnancy, or the baby) leaving room for Don to seek more interesting women like the beatnik of the first season (forgot her name), or the natural woman for him: Rachel. That is the affair that seems more in tune with him. She can understand his condition of an outsider as a Jewish woman trying to get by in the men’s business world of the 50's. Making Betty almost a saint does not leave much room for Don to move on and experience the world as it was back then.
And Don IS the main character after all. Our sympathies and identification should be mainly with him. We should see the world through him. If Betty (or Jones) should have more room, it should be in the world where she was confined to be as a woman with 2 or 3 children and without a career: the suburbia of the early 60’s (as it has been so masterfully portrayed by David Lynch or, more recently, Sam Mendes). In literature Richard Yates nailed it sown beautifully in Revolutionary Road. The frustrated housewives, the gossip, the jealousy, the competition, the lives of “quiet desperation” lived behind the green lawns and white picket fences of the suffocating, closed universe of suburbia.
Back at the office there is so much material that has not yet been fully exploited. The homosexual Salvadore’s agony at trying to pretend to be just as “manly” as his colleagues is only one example. This is my HUMBLE opinion. I apologize for any grammatical mistakes. English is not my mother tongue.

I would really like to see more office backstories explored than Don's homelife. I am speaking specifically of Sal and Kitty, Joan and the rat dr., and the intermingling at the office of all the guys and gals. Will Lois get sprung from the switchboard? Will Harry stay faithful or will another office party be his undoing? Will Joan ever get to work with the soaps again? Will Freddie come back? Will Peggy find romance at the office? Will Kurt find romance at the office? Will the couches be working overtime? Will the alcohol ever run out?

I love the action at the office, and I hope they concentrate more on these "characters" and less on Don and Betty.

"Peggy Olson, concerned that her luck with Vatican Roulette may run out, decides to use a diaphragm. She is so happy with her Pfizer diaphragm, she wants to bring the pharmaceutical company on as a client. She meets with Don regarding her approach"

Didn't they actually show her being among the first women to get the Pill? That it either failed, or she went off it was never addressed.

- I think Joan could totally pull off a mini-skirt! Between that and her cleavage, no one will get any work done.

- Starting it with the 1964 Beatles landing makes sense. Even though the characters are adults, it was a major pop culture event.

- Chauncey will return to a shocked Duck, with a female dog and puppies in tow.

Mad Men won best international award in Britain at the RTS Awards last night

http://www.rts.org.uk/Info_page_two_pic_2_det.asp?sec_id=3747&art_id=7594

Peggy didn't go off the Pill, she just wasn't on it long enough for it to have taken effect.

Hi everyone! So, does anyone know when Season 3 will start? This summer sometime? I sure have missed it!

Everyone is shocked by the Kennedy assassination, especially our Catholics, Peggy and Salvatore.

The Putnam takeover does not take place, for some reason.

Sterling Cooper wake up to the new "Pop" sensibility which spawned the cheeky Ogilvy ads like "The Lemon". It is definitely a step outside of their comfort zone, but it proves a surprising hit.

Sterling Cooper do some math and wake up to the stunning buying power of the Baby Boom demographic; in one episode they wonder if they can use the new media infrastructure to create a "pop idol" overnight. They can.

Embedded subliminals become secretly discussed at SC.

The Robert Morse character dies or retires... suddenly his gentle Asian modulating influence is gone, and the whole SC floor becomes a more venal place.

It would seem sunnier if Betty were to find a new work or self-empowerment via eduaction or something... yet frankly? I don't see it. It's not in her mettle. At least not yet.

Sally Draper is emerging as a a chubby child... a source of great angst for Betty, who buys her a child-sized fat-girdle... and takes her to a doctor who puts the child on amphetamines.

The neighbor boy Glenn is so strange, and now we find out why: he has been prematurely sexualized by sexual abuse by an adult... probably homosexual and probably incestuous.

Don goes from strength-to-strength within SC. His dalliances and intrigues abate not one whit.

Crane goes to the 1964 NY World's Fair in Flushing... and is dazzled by the pavilions showing new technology... thought to be in the pipeline by the year 2000. Many seem quaint today, or misguided.

Peggy's priest enlists in the military and gets shipped to Viet Nam... here he experiences horrors beyond measure.

Peggy keeps her usual level mouseburger head, and goes from strength-to-strength also within SC. Her pal Kurt introduces her further into the emerging counter-culture, and Peggy's life is changed forever when the two drop LSD together.

Peggy's mother contracts cancer, basically all alone, and dies a long, slow painful death. Peggy is infuriuated with her God, and starts to further question more assumptions of the Catholic church.

Salvatore does NOT divorce Kitty or seek an annulment. He still leads her on, unfortunately. But at the same time, circumstances lead him to dip his toe in the emerging gay movement in NYC. He finds himself doing things he never thought he would. while this brings him an inner (if unspeakable) new pleasure, he shoots himself in the foot by hitting on Cosgrove overtly, not subtly. Either Cosgrove is freaked out and makes a big deal out of it; or the two have a one-night stand.... which is never repeated nor ever discussed again.

Joan is beaten up once too many times by her thug of a husband. She leaves him. At one point she toys with the idea of joining the Playboy Club... but, to her horror, she is turned down by them--- because she is too old, and maybe her body style is a little too zoftig now.

Rachel Menken Katz is not out of the picture: perhaps, of her own accord, she alights quickly on the new Swinging London and Pop Art sensibilities... suddenly MENKEN'S is a chic NYC place to be.

Jimmy Barrett goes from strength-to-strength within the TV biz... but at the expense of watering down his blisteringly frank comedic style. He gets mixed up in coke and heroin. Bobbie tries to stand by him, but with the best of intentions, she is the ultimate "enabler". She accidentally kills him.

Paul, theater. Don Draper assigns new outfit to a week in film archives. Peggy considers enrolling in a graduate program in literature. Harry takes notice, later runs into William Holden. Pete flies to Atlanta, Georgia on business.

Season 3 - to open on the day of JFK's funeral. Tight close-up of Betty, weeping. Cameras pans back, to reveal a baby on her lap, the other kids on the couch next to her, and Don standing behind them. They are watching JFK's son salute the coffin...
Season 4 - jump to 1966... Sterling Cooper is struggling as youth culture explodes and the mores of the 40s and 50s come under siege...
Season 5 - jump to 1969 and the moon landing...
And at the end of it all (1970??) - a half-hour coda to the Mad Men experience. A slide projector is whirring in an empty room. Don's Kodak presentation speech is heard as the carousel clicks and the images flash up. We see each character over the decades... Peggy's 60th birthday; Roger's retirement party; Betty with her first grand-child; Pete on vacation in the 1980s; Sally Draper's wedding day; Glen graduating from college; and so it goes on, familiar faces ageing, and deaths being revealed, and survivors in their 70s and 80s making brief appearances. And finally, images of Don, and of Don with the love of his life...who will it be?

The best of Mad Men are the bits where the viewer is invited to get into Don's mind. A momentary pause while we stare into his eyes and try to read his thoughts..and never, ever quite making it pass the entry point. Leaving you with just one word: "oh" throughout some sensual number while the credit rolls. Hmm...a clever piece of direction which serves to highlight the victim-abuser that is Don.

And how hot was he when he fainted at Palm Springs from heat exhaustion.

The fact that Pete does not want to adopt "someone else's baby" has been emphasized many times. Wonder if he might try to adopt his own baby, now that he knows about it? Can't see him coming clean to Trudy about being the child's father, but he might try to pursuade Peggy and her mom to let him adopt the little boy. He might tell Trudy some story about feeling a bond with the boy or something so she wouldn't be suspicious. Wonder how Peggy would feel about that? She obviously seeks no connection with the child at all. Would she want Pete raising him? Hmmm...-

All of your predictions are right on. I have decided to wait and see. But I am still keeping notes. So much happened in the '60s, my head is spinning just thinking about it. Do hope that the Beatles figure into this next season..

A flashback to the years between 1944-1945 when he would have graduated from high school and his arrival in Korea ~1952. (Lt. Draper had been there long enough to get rotated out) is something I'd like to see this season.

Likewise, Juanita Carson could back into Betty's life as someone Don and Roger meet "professionally" when out on the town. Roger gets her number. He's had a fight with Jane about Mona and her divorce settlement. He's back in the chase. Jane gets dropped about mid-season and Juanita becomes her replacement as a possible trophy wife even though he knows her past. He does it to spite Mona and Joan who's now married.

i think we should all stop wondering what the 3rd season should be and start talking to AMC about the new season will start. whatever it will take - letter and or emailing. i am going through some serious withdrawal!! i need to watch some good television again. bring back mad man!!!!
madgirl22

The conflict between the old views and modern ways will dominate the next season. We'll see Paul become more into the new views, and there will be much controversy in advertising campaigns. Pete will at first want to stand with the old guard, Ken and Peggy will be torn between the old ways and the new incoming modern world. Don will buck the new trends at first, then try to embrace them, but it's going to really mess with his head. He'll bomb an idea or two and start to question whether he is relevant any longer, then probably have a new breakthrough, if he's with SC at all or even working at the beginning of the season. He may take some time off to try to figure out what starting out anew means. It will confuse him, and there will be lots more flashbacks and insight into his upbringing.

Everyone will be puzzled by the success of the Beatles and Harry's growing department will have to figure out ads for the Ed Sullivan show that will push this old guard/new guard line even more. Harry won't understand the new trends, but perhaps he'll recognize its monetary value and bring in some off beat people who do. New characters like this will shake up the office, and having everyone question their identities and places in this new world. This will be especially hard for Joan, who feels she has to decide between subjugation or old maidism. She's over 30, and that's bad news for a woman trying to land a traditional husband, so it's the bad doc or no one. I think tension might actually increase between Joan and Peggy, as Joan resents Peggy's freedom and power. Joan is due for a meltdown, and because Peggy represents everything Joan is not, and has become successful in the process, an eruption will occur. Joan may try for a more serious career at SC, but some may have a hard time thinking of her as anything more than a great secretary and office nanny. I think it's going to be a very hard season for Joan, but she'll weather it but perhaps not really reinvent until the end of the season.

My gut feeling is that the Barretts won't be back, but if they do show up, it will be through SC's growing TV dept (Harry's baby). Bobbie chooses SC to try to gain Don's attention and respect, which she won't get. Don saw his own ugliness in her, and rejected it. There isn't anywhere to go with that, but the Barretts could wreak other havoc in the process.

Pete may try to adopt his baby, but Peggy will want nothing to do with it and wants that to remain distant, as Don told her, it never happened. Her friendship with Down will grow, but it will be a relatively quiet one.

Trudy and Pete will continue to fight, Pete will throw himself into his work and make some strides and losses, trying to reconcile the modern and old. He still thinks Peggy is right for him, and yet they have nothing in common. Peggy is going to become part of the modern world, as we've already seen the beginnings of with her interest in Bob Dylan. I hope her friendship with Kurt grows, as having a fabulous gay friend would be a really great thing for her. It could also lead to the Village and drugs and she'll probably decide that lifestyle isn't for her and be more confused about her identity and role in the world. She's continue to turn her confusion into great advertising, and she'll subtly reveal intimate things about herself through it that people in the office don't notice, except maybe Don.

As everyone has said, Roger will quickly tire of Jane, and college makes sense. She'll leave him for some intellectual professor and probably do something illegal. Her amoral streak will rear its head a few times too many. The split will be complicated, and no one will come out as a "good guy" because they all have dirty hands. I like the ideas others have said about Mona making a role for herself. Embracing feminism and reinventing herself in order to channel out her anger makes sense, but I don't see her buying out part of SC, but somehow becoming involved through a big new client, one of the modern world, someone she meets through a yoga class or other new agey type thing, and maybe an advertising connection through Bert and his philanthropic ways. No one realizes it yet, but Bertram, the old man, is actually part of this new guard. I agree with whoever said he'll go ga ga over Warhol, bringing in a whole new flavor and air of confusion to the generally old fashioned younger mainstays of SC. The new finance guy from London will probably play into this somehow.

I agree with the other predictions about Sal. He'll do something and forever be torn between regret and desire. Kitty will feel lonely and left out and either make friends with one of the other boys or wives and a "Mother's Little Helper" coffee clatch might grow among the bored housewives of SC execs.

I don't know how Betty and Don will do. Betty has grown so much and stared down into the well and come back. Don has done the same, but will they want the same things? I think the beginning of the season may have Don out of the picture at SC, perhaps trying out some new life with Betty, the kids and that buyout $$, but he'll get wooed back and by the end of the season, he may drift back into his old ways as the Mad Ave high roller, but the world will have really changed by then. He'll change with it, but how he'll do it is the real mystery and where much of the excitement lies.

First I believe we'll see more regarding Don's past and the sticky wicket he occasionally finds himself in when the past tries to come into his present.

Betty and Don will stay together, but there will continue to be tensions between them -- inevitable given the fact that Betty has no clue that she's married to someone who isn't the person he claims to be.

Duck has to be out -- and probably in a dramatic fashion. He's a thoroughly undesirable character (one of the very few in the whole cast) and such folks never last for long in ongoing story lines -- a character can be bad, but not despicable, as Duck clearly is.

Sal will remain in the closet. Historically it's too soon for him to have the courage to come out, unless he leaves the obtuse wife and moves out west.

Peggy and Joan form some sort of professional alliance -- they are both respectful and supportive of one another, and would work well together. As a team they would be powerful at SC.

Roger dies (sob) while in bed with the new wife. She inherits part of his business and attempts to return to SC.

Pete is so creepy it's hard for me to focus on him or guess what his next scheme will be. But clearly Peggy's confession to him about the baby will continue to be a story line, whether he tries to adopt the kid, or what. Since he's the one in the marriage opposed to "tainted" adopted kids, a kid he fathered would be the only kid he'll accept.

Absolutely riveting program -- each and every one. Watched this season's finale last night and saw stuff I'd completely missed the first time around!

Betty and Don's relationship remains strained. She shows increasing resentment and unhappiness as baby 3 sucks the life out of her. She turns to "mother's little helpers" and lots more wine.

Don becomes more absorbed in his duties of PR for SC and continues to try and find himself between the sheets. (Could we stand it any other way?)

Peggy continues her climb up the corporate ladder pissing Joan off all the more because she won't sleep her way to the top and is actually starting to get a fashion sense. She finds comfort in Smith because he only wants to take her to concerts and fix her hair. The complications of sex scare her. She becomes the first fag hag.

Sal continues to try and deny his feelings toward men and finds refuge in redecorating he and Kitty's apartment. Kitty grows restless in her sexless marriage and pressures him for a baby after talking to Trudy. Sal runs to the arms of Smith after stalking him outside of a Bob Dylan concert in the Village. Peggy then joins them for drinks.

Joan becomes increasingly bitchy as her wedding approaches giving new meaning to the word bridezilla. She trips Jane when she comes in to see Rodger at work claiming not to have seen her.

Rodger begins to suffer from ED after having to take meds for his high blood pressure making Jane wonder if the silver fox's money will be enough to entertain her and get a cabana boy on the side.

Pete continues to make an ass of himself and crawl deeper up Duck's butt by finding Chauncy, who he teaches to retreive expensive bottles of burbon. Chauncy gets his revenge by biting Duck in the crouch and pissing on his desk.

Paul continues to try and be hip and cool in the Village giving poetry slams a try only to be booed off the stage.

Ken still can't get a steady lay and starts to see Sal and Smith in a new light.He hears rumors about the good music at gay clubs and decides he's in for the action.

Fr. Mc Gill makes a comeback pleading with Peggy to get herself to a nunery and stop hanging out at private gay clubs all of which he himself is familiar with. Shhhhhhhhhhh!

Can't wait to have a dirty martini and get the real scoop! 8-16-09!

season 3 will open after the ending to the Cuban missile crises. and after JFK gets killed so mostl likely asometime after 1963.

Don and betty will have already had the baby and don I belive will try and pull his act togeather not having any affairs during season 3.

Sal will of course remain in the closet and stay married to kitty and will begin having an affair with a man.

Joan will struggle with her marriage to the doctor staying with him though at times beats her. and forces himselff on her sexualy

Roger though still with Jane will struggle with his feelings for Joan and most likely find out how Joan's husband has been treating her and will beat the crap out of him.

Peat now knowing that Peggy had his child will pester her about seeing him and will struggle with his relationship with Trudy and by the end the season will take that shot gun out of his office and go postal killing people or himslef.

Paul will of coarse continue with his playboy life style but his girlfriend finds it hard to love him if he continues acting like he dose. but by the end of the season he wont change and she will leave him. also he will continue to grow jelous of ken who has his work published while his keeps getting rejected

Ken will in the time between season will have written a book and will become a published author.

Harry will get a new haircut that makes him look less like Hitler,

Peggy will start seeing more of father gill and start a relationship with him. this causing allot of tension threw out the season with her mother and sister. and will have peat constantly pressuring her to see his son.

I won't be surprised if the season starts somewhere in 1963 and ends in '64 with the Beatles Invasion...

The season starts in 1964.

What song do you think will be playing in the opening scene of Season 3 - Episode 1? I still think the JFK assassination will be ignored except perhaps as passing comment, but I think Episode 1 opens with the Beatles landing at IdylWyld and Roger or someone complaining about traffic and the throngs of girls outside CBS Studios. I don't think we'll see any Beatles footage, but that will set the stage for the month/year we're in.

Song: She Loves You - ???

I'm still waiting to see how Juanita Carson (call girl at The Savoy) and Sarah Beth Carson (at the stables) are related.

I reckon that Don and Betty will get divorced, Betty has an abortion and Don and Ducks relationship gets more strained. Roger Sterling has aother heartattack. Joan doesnt get married. Pete gets the baby and his marriage becomes more strained. Peggy will find someone that she loves and maybe marry and Sal will come out of the closet

I am a later-comer to this blog and the show – did not have AMC available on my old cable system. Just finished watching the first 2 seasons On Demand and am hooked. In last month’s GQ, MW said the show would move forward in time, but I don’t think it will go too far. Here is my humble prediction.

Season 3 opens as a flashback to Christmas 1962. The holidays are a reflective time and the Missile Crisis is over; we see the SC crew at a holiday party drinking, laughing and generally happy to be alive. We also see Don at home with the kids and Betty, who is looking more pregnant. Don is sincerely trying to be attentive to her, although Betty is skeptical and at times it’s a tough act for him to pull off. They have purchased a new, bigger house and have live-in help.

The PPL/SC merger did not go through. Bert Cooper recognizes the merger for what it is – Duck’s attempt to solidify his own standing in the company and screw Don in spite of SC’s clients, who have been with the firm for years. He is not happy that Duck’s focus was all about selling advertising, and not the client’s products, and he comes to appreciate further the value that Don brings to the company. Initially PPL wants to make it work, as they know Don has no contract but has a great reputation on Madison Avenue. However, he is an unknown entity and the one person who was supposed to make the merger work, Duck, is unstable and not fit for the job. Ultimately they are spooked enough to walk away both from SC and Duck. We see Duck packing his things and leaving, perhaps to sell insurance.

The rift between Don and Roger grows. Don is angry that Roger justified his divorce on something Don said in passing, and Roger is angry that Don blew-up the merger and kept him from getting the buyout money that was rightfully his. There is tension between Bert Cooper and Roger too, as Roger is distracted by his health, divorce, and soon-to-be younger wife. Bert is angry at himself for agreeing to the merger, and he thinks that these distractions clouded Roger’s judgment as well. Cooper grows closer to Don, albeit in the awkward manner in which he typically does this. Don’s share of the partnership grows.

The new, bigger home, is beautiful, but rife with problems and in need of constant repair; it quickly becomes a source of tension between Don and Betty. They decide to send Sally to private school and Bobby continues to cause trouble. Betty has an awful pregnancy and requires many trips to see doctors in New York City. She is in and out of Don’s office more frequently and comes to resent the action and young people. Don has the opportunity to cheat, but doesn’t yet. He is too busy managing his larger share of the firm and attending to Betty’s health needs.

Pete manages to land some major defense / aerospace firms from the trip to California, and by mid-1963, SC is humming along nicely, in spite of the fact that the merger fell apart. Don rewards Pete’s loyalty by making him head of accounts; Pete gets Duck’s office and his head swells accordingly. He holds this over the other guys, but reserves much of his anger for Peggy. Things are not good in the Campbell household and Pete spends lots of time out on the town drinking, trying to live like Don, but always coming up short. Trudy still can’t get pregnant and is spending more and more time with her parents. Meanwhile Pete is angry because he knows he has a child and the inability to get pregnant is an issue with Trudy, not him. While he was initially grateful that Peggy did not blackmail him, be begins to use this against Peggy. Some of the guys start to take notice.

About mid-way though the season / mid-1963, Don gets a call from Annie Draper. She is coming to New York and would like to see him. Don initially relents because he is consumed by other things, but agrees and offers to put her up at a nice hotel. They meet and she tells Don she has cancer. The treatments at this point are primitive and the prognosis is not good. She came to New York because they have the best hospitals in the world, and thought it would be worthwhile to see what alternative treatments are available. However, she knows, perhaps better than anyone else, that her days are numbered and her real reason for coming to New York was to get a brief glimpse into the world Don has created for himself before she passes.

There is a foul-up at the hotel, and Annie leaves something behind with her name on it in the lobby. Since she is checked in as “Mrs. Draper” the hotel front-desk attendant, thinking she has already checked-out, will inadvertently call the Draper household to inform Betty that she left an item behind. Confused and not doing well with the pregnancy, Betty will assume Don is having another affair.

Don meanwhile is now attempting to tend to the health needs of both women, and it is draining him. Betty has the baby, a boy, and must spend extra time in the hospital in New York, as the birth was bad for both mother and son. During this time she gets curious and tries to find out why she received a call from the hotel where Annie Draper is staying. She sneaks out of the hospital, stakes out the hotel and discovers who Annie is; the fact that she is plain looking and has a disfigured leg prompts more self doubt as to why Don would have an affair again, let alone with someone less attractive than her. On the way back to the hospital she gets mugged.

Don rushes to find Betty bruised but OK. She ask Don who this woman is, and it looks like he is going to spill everything, but recovers quickly and says that she is a distant cousin who is here looking for medical treatment. Betty seems reassured, but says she wants to meet her to (to check the story out). She never has a chance; Annie dies two days later in her hotel room. All the Drapers are there to bury Annie; Betty still suspects something and the kids are confused why their father had a relative he never told them about. Don is particularly removed; Annie was the only living person he told his story to. Pete knows a few things, but doesn’t fully understand.

While everything is seemingly OK, Kennedy is killed and SC must come to grips with the reality of what has happened. Everyone will be somber and scared again, as was the case with the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, there will also be frustration with the fact Kennedy was ever elected over Nixon (harkening back to season 1) and SC tries to determine what the Johnson Admin and tensions on other parts of the world mean.

Peggy will continue her rise at SC, but will be held back in some ways by an angry Pete. While Don is distracted by his new baby and the passing of Annie Draper, someone drops the ball before one of the big new clients comes in to hear about their campaign. Pete throws Peggy under the bus, and Don, not knowing any better because he was away, sides with Pete. Peggy is distraught and feels alone once again at SC. She has been working, drinking, and smoking like mad to fit in and move up, and now the one person who believed in her has suddenly turned his back.

Joan will get married and stays at SC, struggling to find her way. She doesn’t have to work, but she isn’t ready to be a housewife, especially for an abusive husband. Harry’s responsibilities in the television department will require him to staff up more, prompting Joan to ask for a job reading scripts once again. It will be an act of asking that is atypical for Joan, but she will get what she wants. Meanwhile, an interim office manager is named, but things are slipping through the cracks with the support staff, impacting the work of Ken and Paul. When they complain to Pete he is entire aloof to the whole situation, telling them his girl “does her work just fine” and that they must figure it out for themselves, as he has bigger fish to fry.

Sal remains in the closet, but starts heading to gay bars. He seems to manage the pulling off the two-sided life until one night when he gets drunk and unknowingly suggests a bar frequented by the Ken, Paul, and Pete. He stumbles in with a crew of men who are clearly gay and the guys know the act is up. Sal is ashamed and unsure what to do.

Roger’s engagement with Jane will hit a rough patch as his health deteriorates. She will begin to wonder why she is with him, and likewise Roger with her. Joan will be spending more time at the office with her new responsibilities and Roger will convince her to go out with him for dinner and nothing more. However, the evening ends with the two of them, in their usual hotel room, wondering why they aren’t together.

As the show transitions into 1964 and toward the end of the season, the folks at SC have new challenges ahead. They don’t like LBJ, but should they back Goldwater, who was reluctant to accept the GOP nomination and doesn’t have the same upstart story that Nixon did? The US Surgeon General declares smoking may be hazardous to your health and the Lucky Strike people question if staying with SC is worth the money any more. Ford introduces the Mustang and IBM is developing the mainframe computer; both are seeking a firm to help sell their products, meaning huge possibilities for SC. Meanwhile tensions in Vietnam and Johnson’s Great Society mean the American public’s attention is focused not on consuming, making the job of advertising that much more difficult.

Pete is having troubles at home and he and Trudy have tentatively decided to get a divorce, pending some major change in their feelings toward one another and about starting a family. At this point we see how in many ways Pete’s life mirror Don’s – the rise at SC, becoming head of accounts, hard drinking and living, and the affairs and ensuing martial problems. However, unlike Don, who always finds a way to make it work, Pete appears to be falling apart at the seams. Major clients are calling Bert, Roger and Don complaining that calls to Pete are going unreturned and the work-product is sub-par. Meanwhile, new client deals that should have been a slam dunk are going for other agencies, and on one particularly bad day, we find out that Lucky Strike has decided that advertising is a lost cause, and that they have decided to focus their resources on lawmakers in Washington. In a bit of funny foreshadowing of the lobbying industry, Don says that perhaps SC could make money by helping their clients sell themselves to lawmakers to avoid future regulatory battles.

The season ends with SC seemingly headed toward the brink of collapse. The future, as far as they can see, doesn’t look bright.

Season 3 begins in April 1963 with Don pacing in the hospital waiting area while Betty gives birth to their third child, another boy, whom they name Adam. Later that evening, after being sent home by the nurses, we see him with his latest brunette. Betty who "doesn't need a book to tell her what little boys are like," didn't want this baby to begin with and is disappointed it is a boy. She suffers from post-partum depression. Don thinks Dr. Wayne did nothing to help Betty, so he finds another doctor who recommends hospitalization and electric shock treatments. These leave Betty little more than a zombie. The stunning Grace Kelly lookalike is just a shadow of her former self.

The Belle Jolie lipstick guy whom Sal turned down the first time, contacts Sal at work, and it is with him that Sal has his first gay sexual experience. Sal is desperate to stay in the closet and vows it will never happen again, but we see him involved in various encounters throughout the season. His true love, however, is Ken Cosgrove, who is gay and just doesn't know it yet.

Roger Sterling and Jane have the wedding of the century, but shortly after the literal honeymoon is over, the honeymoon is indeed over. Roger told Peggy last season "you young women are very aggressive" and he finds himself quite unhappy not being the king of the castle and feels emasculated by his young wife. He actually beings to pine away for Mona.

Joan was married at Christmas but has not opted for the station wagon and house in the country. Her doctor husband is an abuser and we see the dichotomy of this very strong woman at work who has to be someone else within the marriage. We sense her job is all that's holding her together. He "allows" her to work. Greg abuses her verbally, emotionally, physically and sexually (we saw a foreshadowing of this when he raped her in the office.) We root for Joan to break free of this man, but begin to see how insidious abuse really is.

Peggy Olson continues to the brightest rising star at Sterling Cooper, much to the consternation of Paul Kinsey. Peggy took the advice of both Joan Holloway (learn to speak the language) and Bobbie Barrett (don't even try to be a man) and is finding her way in a man's world. She does not become involved sexually or romantically with Father Gill. Peggy's friendship with Don Draper, her mentor, deepens. Her own sense of personal style gets even better, and her hairstyles and dress are always fun to watch.

Pete Campbell is the second brightest star at Sterling Cooper as the new head of accounts. He is very, very good at what he does. Trudy is ecstatic that Pete agrees reluctantly to adoption, and they welcome a new baby girl into their home. To his amazement, Pete is completely enchanted with his new daughter and is a doting dad who talks about giving her a little brother or sister in a couple of years.

Ken Cosgrove is working on a novel which is published at the end of the season

Just read all your predictions (I'm jonesing for the real thing) and I have to say you guys need to quit your day jobs and write for MM....amazing stuff! Only four days until we find out for sure!

Don's (Dick's) past has to catch up with him.

Hey Y&R,

Totally love the Betty character. That said, do you think Don is hanging on tight. I watched all of the episodes just to keep it fresh in my mind when the new season starts Sunday.

If Don figures out that Betty did the deed with that guy in bar his goose will be cooked. Can't see him recovering from that. He's a mess.

Betty can be his everything but he just can't seem to let himself get close to her. He hasn't learned anything from his past.

Loved it when Coop flips Pete.

Mrs Draper will decide to move forward with the pregnancy but will have severe insomnia and morning sickness. Her doctor will prescribe "new medication" to help, and ultimately she'll have a deformed, thalidomide baby. It will die shortly after birth due to severe deformities and the Drapers will remain a family of 4.

At Sterling Cooper, the new Brits in charge will make a mess of things causing Don to split off from the group. He'll take a few key talents with him --- Peggy, Campbell, Jonie, Sal, and Sterling.

Roger will get married to his 20-something bride during MM3, but I predict he has a fatal heart attack on his honeymoon night and is off the show before MM4.

A few predictions for S3

Less sexually experienced Greg will cancel his and Joan's wedding in order to marry a virginal nurse he meets while on call so that he can feel like the one in charge. Joan will be crushed and for the first time start to take her career seriously only to find that no one at SC sees Joan as a "career woman".
She will have to turn to Peggy for career and style advice!

Peggy will grow increasingly aggressive and angry even though she will be given more responsiblity because she can't figure out why she's still not happy. Drinking and smoking and working late nights will substitute for a love and social life.

Jane will be exposed for the "gold digger" that she is and for the first time we will have the pleasure of seeing Roger on the wrong end of the stick.

Betty will deliver baby # 3 and experience serious post-partum depression. Don will further drift from affair to affair.

Betty's Character in season three. Betty is in many ways a "Joan Kennedy" clone. (JK was married to Senator Edward Kennedy) she is blonde, beautiful and wants to be in a partnership with Don by helping to entertain SC clients and be his confidant. But Don is unable to reach out and value Betty the way she needs to be valued. As a result Betty will pull away from her husband and he will spend more time in the city. Betty will cope with more alcohol and the introduction of tranquillizers.

I predict that Mad Men has jumped the shark. If last night's show is any sign of what's to come, the season is going to be f'ing dismal. A big D- , Matt.

Federalist10, your predictions are fantastic, you are a great visualizer. I really enjoyed reading your post!