"Mad Men" on AMC (US) - (Spoilers Within)

[scotrace]

By the way, we are a subgroup that has gained the name "Madicts."

 

[MrBern]

I got the Catholic aspect but I didn't get the madonna aspect of the advertisement. I thought the woman in the advertisement was wearing something that looked like a maternity dress. At that time wasn't it completely out of line to show a pregnant woman in the media?

I think that was the illustration's apron. Incidentally its extremely rare to see a painting of the Virgin Mary swollen w/ pregnancy.

The mother in the advert dealing out popsicles with both hands had part of a logo behind her head that made it look as if she had a halo.
like this. Peggy did make an earlier comment that the Catholic Church knew how to sell.

Its an interesting approach considering that in previous episodes Peggy had agreed that 'sex sells'.

 

[MrBern]

http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2008/10/alison-brie-interview.php#more

a snippet:

Alison Brie talks with AMCtv.com about accidentally absorbing the look of Mad Men and avoiding her character Trudy's problems.

Q: Has the show influenced your personal style?

A: I was just getting dressed the other day and I put on this dark lipstick and thought, "Gosh, I never used to wear lipstick at all." It's so funny: In the past I would just throw on jeans and a T-shirt and kind of schlep around and now I'm like, "Oh I should curl my hair today." I'm wearing more dresses and heels in the afternoon which I never used to do -- I was born and raised in California and I was all sandals, all the time. Now I'm like, "What bracelet would match this blouse?" I like that Mad Men is now an adjective I use to describe clothing when I'm shopping: "I like this top. It's very Mad Men."

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Draper drowned hisself, sez eye.

That may be what the writer or producers hang over Hamm's head to get him to sign a new contract. "Well, Jon, in the next-to-last episode, you were seen disappearing into the surf...and in the final episode, you weren't seen at all...so you know...it wouldn't be much of a surprise if you had drown and a new actor brought in for your type of role with the backstory he's management from the new British stockholders..." Sort of like they did with Larry Hagman on Dallas - he wanted a huge salary increase after the "Who Shot J.R.?" cliffhanger and was holding up production. They filmed an episode with the ambulance racing to the hospital and getting into a firey crash. After plastic surgery, the bandages are removed, and it's Robert Culp. After seeing that, Hagman re-signed.

 

[RitaHayworth]

And yet the show is so beloved. Go figure.

So true!!

Do we secretly long for days where a remark was either an invite or an ability to shoot someone down?

Nowadays its seems you have to censor yourself so much!

 

[PADDY]

Sadly folk are frightened to even compliment these days...

The days of Mad Men where a male boss would playfully pat his secretary's deriere are 'quite rightly' not suitable in 'these times' of ours, where quite rightfully the Peggy's of 'today' are respected and promoted on their professional ability as much as their male colleagues and applauded for it.:eusa_clap

But...sadly we also now live in overly PC societies (and we can even see it in 'here') where people 'hold back' on individual genuine, nice compliments between a man and a woman because it 'could be read the wrong way' or interpreted as being 'sleezy' and sexist[huh]
So, to play safe, folk would rather hold their tongue than have accusing fingers pointed at them by those unfortunates who are either too insecure or immature to recognise a compliment. [huh] And that is a sad and unfortunate inditement on today's modern society.

I agree that MAD MEN styled office parties where the women are forced to gallop around the desks with a Roy Rogers male executive on their back should be locked forever in the annals of unfortunate history books!

But, there should still be a place in this world of ours for well mannered and genuine compliments to be accepted graciously by both ladies and gentlemen with the respect and innocence that they were intended.:eusa_clap
And hopefully we can help to promote that on TFL.

 

[Beowulf67]

By the way, we are a subgroup that has gained the name "Madicts."

I'm NOT a Madict! I can stop anytime I want too. I just don't want too!!! lol

 

[MrBern]

The days of Mad Men where a male boss would playfully pat his secretary's deriere are 'quite rightly' not suitable in 'these times' of ours, where quite rightfully the Peggy's of 'today' are respected and promoted on their professional ability as much as their male colleagues and applauded for it.:eusa_clap

But...sadly we also now live in overly PC societies (and we can even see it in 'here') where people 'hold back' on individual genuine, nice compliments between a man and a woman because it 'could be read the wrong way' or interpreted as being 'sleezy' and sexist[huh]
So, to play safe, folk would rather hold their tongue than have accusing fingers pointed at them by those unfortunates who are either too insecure or immature to recognise a compliment. [huh] And that is a sad and unfortunate inditement on today's modern society.

I agree that MAD MEN styled office parties where the women are forced to gallop around the desks with a Roy Rogers male executive on their back should be locked forever in the annals of unfortunate history books!

But, there should still be a place in this world of ours for well mannered and genuine compliments to be accepted graciously by both ladies and gentlemen with the respect and innocence that they were intended.:eusa_clap
And hopefully we can help to promote that on TFL.

Overly PC times?
Maybe so.
But more often I've noticed its older people thinking this way because they cant fathom something they once commonly did or said is now considered improper.
I enjoy the comedy THE OFFICE for great examples of well intentioned boorishness. The oblivious compliments that end up insulting.

In the last episode, it was interesting that when Peggy cornered RogerSterling about Freddy's office, he accepted her argument, but called her 'cute' for asking. She backpeddled offering that she wasnt trying to be impolite. But to the modern audience, its Sterling who is impolite, denigrating her with this 'cute' compliment.

 

[MrBern]

MM is doing exceptionally well in cable demographics. The days of Mash and Seinfeld are long gone.

But compare their viewership of 1.5 million to say Dancing with the Stars on ABC, that show drew in 18 million viewers this week.
StarTrek:Enterprise was considered dead when it went down to under 3 million viewers after its debut pulled in 12million.

 

[RitaHayworth]

Overly PC times?
Maybe so.
But more often I've noticed its older people thinking this way because they cant fathom something they once commonly did or said is now considered improper.
I enjoy the comedy THE OFFICE for great examples of well intentioned boorishness. The oblivious compliments that end up insulting.

In the last episode, it was interesting that when Peggy cornered RogerSterling about Freddy's office, he accepted her argument, but called her 'cute' for asking. She backpeddled offering that she wasnt trying to be impolite. But to the modern audience, its Sterling who is impolite, denigrating her with this 'cute' compliment.

I think we are a little over the top in PC.

I agree that when we are talking sleazy and potentially "dangerous" characters is a different story, but I think its a little sad these days, that a joke cannot be a joke.

 

[PADDY]

I think we are a little over the top in PC.

I agree that when we are talking sleazy and potentially "dangerous" characters is a different story, but I think its a little sad these days, that a joke cannot be a joke.

Or a compliment cannot be taken for what it's intended as...a compliment - rather than "sexual harrassment" or "he/she's stalking me "

I once worked in a very male Mad Men'esque environment (News Room) where it was fairly competitive and macho. But there were a 'few' women reporters and secretarys/reception staff.

Whenever the Brad Pitt/George Clooney clones made a remark to one of the girls about their nice hair and clothes - My Goodness that really made their day and they were beaming and chattering away about so-and-so saying..etc.

When one of the more 'geeky' guys did the same, complaints were made about feeling harrassed [huh]

Surely, a compliment is a compliment, whoever it is from - as long as there is no obvious underlying intimidation and purviness.

Otherwise we go from the extremes of a MAD MEN WORLD to a very SAD MEN WORLD [huh]

 

[Fletch]

I agree that MAD MEN styled office parties where the women are forced to gallop around the desks with a Roy Rogers male executive on their back should be locked forever in the annals of unfortunate history books!

In a slightly less cynical era—say, prewar?—the man would have had the woman on his back, to at least preserve the appearance of chivalry*. More blatant domination would have been, and was, saved for the private sphere.

*a word derived, after all, from horsemanship.

 

[MrBern]

Or a compliment cannot be taken for what it's intended as...a compliment - rather than "sexual harrassment" or "he/she's stalking me "

I once worked in a very male Mad Men'esque environment (News Room) where it was fairly competitive and macho. But there were a 'few' women reporters and secretarys/reception staff.

Whenever the Brad Pitt/George Clooney clones made a remark to one of the girls about their nice hair and clothes - My Goodness that really made their day and they were beaming and chattering away about so-and-so saying..etc.

When one of the more 'geeky' guys did the same, complaints were made about feeling harrassed [huh]

Surely, a compliment is a compliment, whoever it is from - as long as there is no obvious underlying intimidation and purviness.

Otherwise we go from the extremes of a MAD MEN WORLD to a very SAD MEN WORLD [huh]

I still work in newsrooms. Theyve changed a lot over the last few decades. Theyre more diverse and there are fewer clericals. So its less of a lockerroom. And theres far less screaming & cursing at the subordinates. Seems like an improvement. Im sorry that there are those who wish they could still smoke at their desk, but times have changed.

As for compliments...again social mores have changed. Its human nature to want to interact w/ co-workers on a personal level, but there are those who prefer a bit more professional detachment. If a woman prefers to get thru her workday w/o personal comments or compliments, then maybe that should just be respected.

Good looking people have advantages in life. We can accept that & move on. There were a couple references in Mad Men that women find it easy to look at Don. And that really seemed to irk Roger.

 

[RitaHayworth]

I had a discussion with my Doctor about this today.

She said it was funny, because when they brought the sexual harassment laws in to protect women in the workplace - 2/3 complaints are filed by men!

 

[Feraud]

I had a discussion with my Doctor about this today.

She said it was funny, because when they brought the sexual harassment laws in to protect women in the workplace - 2/3 complaints are filed by men!

The doc was pulling your leg.

 

[RitaHayworth]

The doc was pulling your leg.

No that was my chiropractor this week

Im not sure of the statistics, but one of the men in my office (married with one child) leaned over me one day and I made the comment "you smell good what are you wearing".

The other girls in the area laughed, and this guy blushed a bit, and was probably a bit taken aback, but in the end he laughed too - he knew I meant nothing sexual about it - and at the end of the day, if we cant giggle at this sort of thing - well, PC has gone too far!

 

[Tomasso]

2/3 complaints are filed by men!

The last I heard (from a lawyer in the field, circa 1995) it was 90-10 women over men, and the majority of male complaints were made by gay men against both gay and straight men. [huh]

 

[jake_fink]

Big Interview with Matthew Weiner

Variety has a big interview with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner. Link to the article on season three for a little information on how that is shaping up.

 

[flat-top]

John Hamm on SNL

It's currently on here on the East Coast, but everyone else needs to catch this. There's a couple of sketches you might dig.......

 

[Tomasso]

There's a couple of sketches you might dig.......

Very sophomorphic, dildos and butz...............