Mad Men
Encyclopedia
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner
. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network
AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television
. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each season has consisted of 13 episodes. The fifth season is scheduled to premiere in March 2012.
Mad Men is set in the 1960s
, initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency
on Madison Avenue in New York City
, and later at the newly created firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The focal point of the series is Don Draper
(Jon Hamm), creative director
at Sterling Cooper and a founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and the people in his life, both in and out of the office. As such, it regularly depicts the changing moods and social mores
of 1960s America.
Mad Men has received critical acclaim, particularly for its historical authenticity and visual style, and has won multiple awards, including fifteen Emmys
and four Golden Globes
. It is the first basic cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series
, winning it in each of its first four seasons in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.
, Matthew Weiner wrote the first draft for the pilot
of what would later be called Mad Men as a spec script
. Television producer David Chase
recruited Weiner to work as a writer on his HBO
series The Sopranos
after reading the pilot script in 2002. "It was lively, and it had something new to say," Chase said. "Here was someone [Weiner] who had written a story about advertising in the 1960s, and was looking at recent American history through that prism." Weiner set the pilot script aside for the next seven years — during which time neither HBO nor Showtime expressed interest in the project—until The Sopranos was completing its final season and cable network AMC happened to be in the market for new programming. "The network was looking for distinction in launching its first original series," according to AMC Networks president Ed Carroll "and we took a bet that quality would win out over formulaic mass appeal."
, the director of a half-dozen episodes from the show's first two seasons, called Mad Men a "very well-run show".
and various locations around New York City; subsequent episodes have been filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios
. It is available in high definition
for showing on AMC-HD and on video-on-demand services available from various cable affiliates. The writers, including Weiner, amassed volumes of research on the period in which Mad Men takes place so as to make most aspects of the series—including detailed set designs, costume design, and props—historically accurate, producing an authentic visual style that garnered critical praise. Each episode has a budget between $2–2.5 million, though the pilot episode's budget was over $3 million. On the scenes featuring smoking, Weiner stated: "Doing this show without smoking would've been a joke. It would've been sanitary and it would've been phony." Since the actors cannot, by California law, smoke tobacco cigarettes in their workplace, they instead smoke herbal cigarettes. Robert Morse
was cast in the role of senior partner Bertram Cooper; Morse starred in two 1967 films about amoral businessmen, A Guide for the Married Man
(1967), a source of inspiration for Weiner, and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying
(1967), in which Morse recreated his role from the 1961 Broadway play of the same name, (and which was itself based on a satiric novel by a former executive at the now-defunct New York ad agency, Benton & Bowles, Inc.).
Weiner collaborated with cinematographer
Phil Abraham
and production designer
s Robert Shaw (who worked on the pilot only) and Dan Bishop to develop a visual style that was "influenced more by cinema than television." Alan Taylor
, a veteran director of The Sopranos, directed the pilot and also helped establish the series' visual tone. To convey an "air of mystery" around Don Draper, Taylor tended to shoot from behind him or would frame him partially obscured. Many scenes set at Sterling Cooper were shot lower-than-eyeline to incorporate the ceilings into the composition of frame
; this reflects the photography, graphic design and architecture of the period. Alan felt that neither steadicam
nor handheld camera work would be appropriate to the "visual grammar of that time, and that aesthetic didn’t mesh with [their] classic approach"—accordingly, the sets were designed to be practical for dolly work.
receives an estimated $2.71 million from AMC for each episode, a little less than the $2.84 million each episode costs to produce.
In March 2011, after negotiations between the network and the series' creator, AMC picked up Mad Men for a fifth season, which will premiere in early 2012. Weiner reportedly signed a $30 million contract which will keep him at the helm of the show for three more seasons. A couple of weeks later, a Marie Claire
interview with January Jones
was published, noting the limits to that financial success when it comes to the actors: "We don’t get paid very much on the show and that’s well-documented. On the other hand, when you do television you have a steady paycheck each week, so that’s nice."
Sales from home video and iTunes
could amount to $100 million in revenue during the show's expected seven-year run, with international syndication sales bringing in an additional estimated $700,000 per episode. That does not include the $71 to $100 million estimated to come from a Netflix
streaming video deal announced in April 2011.
features credits superimposed over a graphic animation of a businessman falling from a height, surrounded by skyscraper
s with reflections of period advertising posters and billboards, accompanied by a short edit of the instrumental
"A Beautiful Mine" by RJD2
. The businessman appears as a black-and-white silhouette
. The titles pay homage
to graphic designer Saul Bass
's skyscraper-filled opening titles for Alfred Hitchcock
's North by Northwest
(1959) and falling man movie poster for Vertigo
(1958); Weiner has listed Hitchcock as a major influence on the visual style of the series. David Carbonara
composes the original score for the series. Mad Men — Original Score Vol. 1 was released on January 13, 2009.
In a 2010 issue of TV Guide
, the show’s opening title sequence ranked #9 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.
At the end of almost all episodes, the show either fades to black
or smash cut
to black as period music or a theme by series composer, David Carbonara, plays during the ending credits; at least one episode ends with silence or ambient sounds. A few episodes have ended with more recent popular music, or with a diegetic song dissolving into the credits music.
, head writer
, and an executive producer
; he contributes to each episode—writing or co-writing the scripts, casting various roles, and approving costume and set designs. He is notorious for being selective about all aspects of the series, and promotes a high level of secrecy around production details. Tom Palmer
served as a co-executive producer and writer on the first season. Scott Hornbacher
(who later became an executive producer), Todd London
, Lisa Albert
, Andre Jacquemetton
, and Maria Jacquemetton
were producers on the first season. Palmer, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton were also writers on the first season. Bridget Bedard
, Chris Provenzano
, and writer's assistant Robin Veith
complete the first season writing team.
Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton returned as supervising producers for the second season. Veith also returned and was promoted to staff writer. Hornbacher replaced Palmer as co-executive producer for the second season. Consulting producers David Isaacs
, Marti Noxon
, Rick Cleveland
, and Jane Anderson
joined the crew for the second season. Weiner, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Veith, Noxon, Cleveland and Anderson were all writers for the second season. New writer's assistant Kater Gordon
was the season's other writer. Isaacs, Cleveland and Anderson left the crew at the end of the second season.
Albert remained a supervising producer for the third season but Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton became consulting producers. Hornbacher was promoted again, this time to executive producer. Veith returned as a story editor and Gordon became a staff writer. Noxon remained a consulting producer and was joined by new consulting producer Frank Pierson. Dahvi Waller
joined the crew as a co-producer. Weiner, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Veith, Noxon and Waller were all writers for the third season. New writer's assistant Erin Levy
, executive story editor Cathryn Humphris
, script co-ordinator Brett Johnson
and freelance writer Andrew Colville
complete the third season writing staff.
Tim Hunter
, Phil Abraham
, Alan Taylor
, Jennifer Getzinger
, and Lesli Linka Glatter are regular directors for the series. Matthew Weiner directs the season finales.
As of the third season, seven of the nine writers for the show are women, in contrast to Writers Guild of America
2006 statistics that show male writers outnumber female writers by 2 to 1. As Maria Jacquemetton notes:
representing several segments of society in 1960s New York. Mad Men places emphasis on recollective progression as a means of revealing the characters' past.
, sexism, feminism
, adultery
, homophobia
, and racism
. Smoking, far more common in the United States of the 1960s than it is now, is featured throughout the series; many characters can be seen smoking several times in the course of an episode. In the pilot, representatives of Lucky Strike
cigarettes come to Sterling Cooper looking for a new advertising campaign in the wake of a Reader's Digest
report that smoking will lead to various health issues including lung cancer
.
The show presents a subculture in which men who are engaged or married frequently enter sexual relationships with other women. It also observes advertising as a corporate outlet for creativity for mainstream, middle-class, young, white men. Along with each of these examples, however, there are hints of the future and the radical changes of the 1960s: Betty's anxiety, early stirrings of the feminist movement (as seen through Peggy), the Beats
(that Draper discovers through Midge), drug use, and talk of smoking being harmful to health and physical appearance, which is usually dismissed or ignored. Characters also see stirrings of change in the ad industry itself, with the Volkswagen Beetle
's "Think Small
" ad campaign mentioned and dismissed by many at Sterling Cooper, although Don Draper spots the nostalgic value and market potential of renaming the Kodak 'wheel' slide projector as the Kodak Carousel.
Themes of alienation, social mobility and ruthlessness also underpin the tone of the show. Draper in particular walks a tight rope when contemplating his rather humble beginnings and the deceitful life he has led as against the power and affluence he wields as a captain of industry, and frequently relieves that pressure by way of excessive and sometimes uncontrolled drinking. At times, Draper is utterly oblivious to the pain he dishes out in condescending confrontations with Betty, Peggy, care providers, in-laws and a rotating crew of secretaries, including those with whom he has had sex; yet at others, particularly when involving Anna Draper and her family, he is wholly solicitous of others' feelings to a fault. In season 4, the Vietnam War
becomes much more prominent, especially when Joan's husband, Greg, accepts a commission in the U.S. Army and is to ship to Vietnam after basic training.
. The cumulative audience for the three airings of the episode Sunday night (at 9pm, 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.) was 2.9 million viewers."
The third season premiere, which aired August 16, 2009, gained 2.8 million views on its first run, and 0.78 million with the 11 PM and 1 AM repeats.
In 2009, Mad Men was second in Nielsen's
list of Top 10 timeshifted
primetime TV programs, with a 57.7% gain in viewers, second only to the final season of Battlestar Galactica
.
A New York Times reviewer called the series groundbreaking for "luxuriating in the not-so-distant past."
The San Francisco Chronicle
called Mad Men "stylized, visually arresting [...] an adult drama of introspection and the inconvenience of modernity in a man's world".
A Chicago Sun-Times
reviewer described the series as an "unsentimental portrayal of complicated 'whole people' who act with the more decent 1960 manners America has lost, while also playing grab-ass and crassly defaming subordinates."
The reaction at Entertainment Weekly
was similar, noting how in the period in which Mad Men takes place, "play is part of work, sexual banter isn't yet harassment, and America is free of self-doubt, guilt, and countercultural confusion."
The Los Angeles Times
said that the show had found "a strange and lovely space between nostalgia and political correctness".
The show also received critical praise for its historical accuracy – mainly its depictions of gender and racial bias, sexual dynamics in the workplace, and the high prevalence of smoking and drinking.
However, Mad Men has become the subject of much race and gender based discussion, particularly with the treatment of women characters and characters of color. In Salon, Nelle Engoron explained that while Mad Men seems to illuminate gender issues, its male characters get off "scot-free" for their drinking and adultery, while the female characters are often punished. Amy Benfer, also writing for Salon, used Oprah's fawning segment on the show (which involved Gayle King visiting the Sterling Cooper offices) to explore how nostalgia for 1960s fashion and social norms obscures most discussion of the rampant racism and sexism during the period, asking "But isn’t it a little odd that a show that, among other things, warns about the dangers of seeing the past in too amber a light has spawned an industry devoted to fetishizing nostalgia for that same flawed past?" Anna Kelna writing in Ms. Magazine
points out that "Mad Men itself might ascribe to the feminist agenda, but thanks to its pervasive impact on pop culture, the show is crafting a whole new generation of would-be Bettys (Draper’s stylish wife) not Peggys (the show’s ambitious “career girl”)." Also writing for Ms., Aviva Dove-Viebahn argues that "Mad Men straddles the line between a nuanced portrayal of how sexism and patriarchal entitlement shape lives, careers and social interactions in the 1960s (and, by extension, today) and a glorified rendering of the “fast-paced, chauvinistic world of 1960s advertising and all that comes with it.”" Melissa Witkowski, writing for The Guardian, argued that Peggy's ascendancy was marred because the show "strongly implies that no woman had ever been a copywriter at Sterling Cooper prior to Peggy, but the circumstances of her promotion imply that this was merely because no woman had ever happened to sound talented in front of a man before," pointing out that Peggy's career path bore little resemblance to the stories of successful ad women of the time such as Mary Wells Lawrence
and Jean Wade Rindlaub
, and argued that the show distorts history by erasing the stories of the successful men and women of color of 1960s era Madison Avenue such as Clarence Holte, George Olden, and Caroline Robinson Jones.
Latoya Peterson, writing for Slate's Double X, argues that Mad Men isn't confronting racial issues, but glossing over them. The Roots Michael Ross points out that the continued lack of black admen is rapidly becoming ahistorical.
The Washington Post agreed with most other reviews in regard to Mad Mens visual style, but disliked what was referred to as "lethargic" pacing of the storylines. A review of the first season DVD set in the London Review of Books
by Mark Greif was much less laudatory. Greif stated that the series was an "unpleasant little entry in the genre of Now We Know Better" as the cast was a series of historical stereotypes that failed to do anything except "congratulate the present." In a February 2011 review of the show's first four seasons, critic Daniel Mendelsohn
wrote that in comparison with similarly acclaimed shows such as The Sopranos
, The Wire
, Battlestar Galactica
, and Friday Night Lights
, Mad Men "shares virtually no significant qualities except its design. The writing is extremely weak, the plotting haphazard and often preposterous, the characterizations shallow and sometimes incoherent; its attitude toward the past is glib and its self-positioning in the present is unattractively smug; the acting is, almost without exception, bland and sometimes amateurish. Worst of all—in a drama with aspirations to treating social and historical “issues”—the show is melodrama
tic rather than dramatic. By this I mean that it proceeds, for the most part, like a soap opera
, serially (and often unbelievably) generating, and then resolving, successive personal crises (adulteries, abortions, premarital pregnancies, interracial affairs, alcoholism and drug addiction, etc.), rather than exploring, by means of believable conflicts between personality and situation, the contemporary social and cultural phenomena it regards with such fascination: sexism, misogyny, social hypocrisy, racism, the counterculture, and so forth." The American Film Institute
selected it as one of the 10 best television series of 2007, 2008 and 2009, and it was named the best television show of that year by the Television Critics Association
and several national publications, including the Chicago Tribune
, The New York Times
, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
, TIME Magazine, and TV Guide
.
On June 20, 2007, the consumer-rights activist group Commercial Alert
filed a complaint with the United States Distilled Spirits Council alleging that Mad Men sponsor Jack Daniel's
whiskey was violating liquor advertising standards since the show features "depictions of overt sexual activity" as well as irresponsible intoxication. Jack Daniel's was mentioned by name in the fifth episode.
Among people who worked in advertising during the 1960s, opinions on the realism of Mad Men differ to some extent. Jerry Della Femina
, who worked as a copywriter in that era and later founded his own agency, said that the show "accurately reflects what went on. The smoking, the prejudice and the bigotry." Robert Levinson, one of Weiner's advertising consultants, who worked at BBDO
from 1960 to 1980, concurred with Della Femina: "What [Matthew Weiner] captured was so real. The drinking was commonplace, the smoking was constant, the relationships between the executives and the secretaries was exactly right." Conversely, Allen Rosenshine, a copywriter who went on to lead BBDO, called the show "a total fabrication," saying, "if anybody talked to women the way these goons do, they’d have been out on their ass."
Mad Men includes references to real life products, events and places. The filming of an Utz potato chips advertisement formed part of the back story of the Drapers' marital strife. Pete Campbell's father was killed on American Airlines Flight 1
in 1962, on the same day that astronaut
John Glenn
was given a ticker tape parade on Broadway, events that actually occurred as mentioned. Characters eat in well-known New York restaurants, including the Pen & Pencil and the Palm. Several characters also attended a closed circuit telecast of the Liston
vs. Muhammad Ali
("Cassius Clay") boxing match on the day it occurred in real life, May 25, 1965.
the American Film Institute
,
Emmys
and Creative Arts Emmys from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences,
a Peabody Award
from the Peabody Board at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
,
Satellite Awards from the International Press Academy
, and
British Academy Television Awards
from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
.
Numerous nominations and award has also been received from guilds and societies such as
the Art Directors Guild
,
the Casting Society of America
,
the Cinema Audio Society,
the Costume Designers Guild
,
the Directors Guild of America
,
the Motion Picture Sound Editors
,
the Producers Guild of America
,
the Screen Actors Guild
,
the Television Critics Association
, and
the Writers Guild of America
.
Award highlights include winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series
four times, for each of its first four seasons; its fourth win tied the record for serial dramas set earlier by Hill Street Blues
(1981–1984), L.A. Law
, and The West Wing (2000–2003).
on October 26, 2008, during the show's 34th season
. Mad Men was parodied on two skits from that episode. In one, "A-Holes
: Pitch Meeting", Hamm is joined by two other Mad Men cast members in cameo appearances, Elisabeth Moss
(who was called the morning of the show and asked to play Peggy, since Amy Poehler
, who was going to do it, went into labor) and John Slattery
. In another skit, "Don Draper's Guide to Picking Up Women," Hamm pokes fun at how easily his character seduces women.
The Simpsons
episode "Treehouse of Horror XIX
", which first aired in the United States on November 2, 2008, included a segment called "How to Get Ahead in Dead-Vertising" The segment, an adaptation of the Mad Men animated title sequence, was the "inspiration" of executive producer Al Jean
; it featured a "rotund, lunchbox-carrying figure, undoubtedly Homer Simpson
, enter[ing] a living room and then float[ing] past windows bearing Springfield
-centric displays that include a Duff Beer
ad," with the Mad Men theme music on the soundtrack.
The children's television show Sesame Street
ran a child-friendly parody of Mad Men on November 11, 2009 (episode 4188). Muppet versions of Don Draper and two other advertising professionals are shown going on an "emotional rollercoaster," becoming "mad," "sad" and "happy," as they sort through pictures of an ad campaign featuring a cartoon bear. When Miranda Barry of the Sesame Workshop
was asked how such a parody is possible "given the drinking, smoking, and womanizing that's a big part of the AMC show", she compared it to their parody of Desperate Housewives
: "You may have seen our parody called 'Desperate Houseplants.' It was about a houseplant not getting its needs met by the gardener. So it always works on two levels."
In late 2010, the TV show Arthur had a parody of Mad Men in the episode "Nicked by a name" using a character named Tom Taper instead of Don Draper.
On 30 Rock
(Season 4, Episode 20: The Moms) Liz Lemon's mother, Margaret, mentions working for Sterling Cooper after graduating secretarial school. In the episode "The Ones", Kenneth Parcell has an allergic reaction to strawberries and says "My real name... is Dick Whitman."
In the March 2010 episode "Physical Education
" of the TV series Community
the character Abed, a television and movie connoisseur, does an impression of Don Draper, after his peers encourage him to change his personality. He practices a conversation with Annie (played by Alison Brie, who plays Trudy Campbell on Mad Men). He offers her cigarettes, while putting on a deep voice and a flirtatious charm. As Annie leans in to kiss Abed, he quickly turns away and says, "Don Draper from Mad Men". While many of his friends are impressed, Shirley shouts, "Don't be him! He cheats on his wife!"
Another parody is in the television show House M.D, When the doctor Gregory House insults a high ranking man who works at a well respected advertisement agency, when he goes for a Career day at a school by calling him Don when his name was Dave.
Another parody entitled, "Malt Men" features actors Ryan Ridley and Eric Price
as characters who advertise malt liquor
beverages. The five-minute parody appears on Channel 101
, a monthly short-film festival in Los Angeles.
The comedy website Funny Or Die
has a small series of skits entitled MA
Men which transplants the show into present-day South Boston and invariably involves creating ad campaigns for various Boston
businesses in which certain members of Boston's professional sports
rivals are sodomized. Comedian Rob Delaney plays Draper, Joey McIntyre plays Roger, Nate Corddry
plays Campbell, Jessica Chafin plays Joan, Jamie Denbo
plays Peggy, Nat Faxon
plays Salvatore, and Michaela Watkins
plays Trudy.
" by Amy Winehouse
. The documentary, in addition to trailers and sneak peeks of upcoming episodes, were released on the official AMC website. Mad Men was also made available at the iTunes Store
on July 20, 2007, along with the "making of" documentary.
Inspired by the iconic Zippo
brand, the DVD box set of the first season of Mad Men was designed like a flip-open Zippo lighter. Zippo subsequently developed two designs of lighters with "Mad Men" logos to be sold at the company headquarters and online. The DVD box set, as well as a Blu-ray disc set, was released July 1, 2008; it features a total of 23 audio commentaries
on the season's 13 episodes from various members of the cast and crew.
For the second season, AMC undertook the largest marketing campaign it had ever launched, intending to reflect the "cinematic quality" of the series. The Grand Central Terminal
subway shuttle to Times Square
was decorated with life-size posters of Jon Hamm as Don Draper, and quotes from the first season. Inside Grand Central, groups of people dressed in period clothing would hand out "Sterling Cooper" business cards to promote the July 27 season premiere. Window displays were arranged at 14 Bloomingdale's
stores for exhibition throughout July, and a 45' by 100' wallscape was posted at the corner of Hollywood and Highland
in downtown Hollywood. Television commercials on various cable and local networks, full-page print ads, and a 30-second trailer in Landmark Theaters throughout July were also run in promotion of the series. Television promotions for the second season featured the song "The Truth
" by Handsome Boy Modelling School.
In the spring of 2010, Mattel
released a series of limited-edition collectible Barbie
and Ken dolls based on the characters Don and Betty Draper, Joan Holloway, and Roger Sterling.
For the third season, the clothing store Banana Republic partnered with Mad Men to create window displays at its U.S. stores, showing clothing inspired by the fashion of the show. The store also ran a "casting call" competition, in which participants were asked to mail photos of themselves in period fashion for a chance at a walk-on part in the show; two winners were announced in October 2010.
Another clothing promotion from the series' third season includes a "Mad-Men Edition" suit
offered by American clothing retailer Brooks Brothers
. The suit is designed by the show's costume designer
, Janie Bryant
, and is based on an actual style sold by Brooks Brothers
in the early 1960s.
The fourth season saw the announcement of a collaboration between Janie Bryant and Californian-based company, Nailtini, to produce a limited-edition line of Mad Men nail polish
. The four shades are entitled Bourbon Satin, French 75, Deauville and Stinger and are reported to have been inspired by the fabrics used to make cocktail dress
es in the Sixties. The Mad Men nail polish line went on sale in the US in late 2010.
. “Mad Men Cocktail Culture” was also featured, an iPhone app that challenges users to create the perfect drink as featured in Mad Men episodes. Another interactive game launched prior to Season 3, the “Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Job Interview”, allowed users to answer questions based on various scenarios and then offered them a position in the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office. Season 3 also included “Which Mad Man Are You?”, an interactive game in which users could find out which Mad Men character they were most like based on their answers to questions about various work and life situations. Users can take trivia quizzes based on the years in which the Mad Men episodes take place and find recipes for '60s-era drinks on the Mad Men Cocktail Guide. AMC's Mad Men website also features exclusive sneak peek and behind the scenes videos, episodic and behind-the-scenes photo galleries, episode and character guides, a blog, and a community forum.
into its narratives. For instance, in a second season episode, the beer manufacturer Heineken
is seen as a client seeking to bring its beer to the attention of American consumers. This placement was paid for by Heineken as an additional part of their advertising on the show. Cadillac
has a similar deal with Mad Men. Other examples remain less obvious, such as ads worked on by the firm, or companies sought as clients such as Utz
potato chips, Maidenform
, Gillette, American Airlines
, Clearasil
and others.
The closing episode of season two was broadcast (for its premiere) in the United States with only one brief commercial interruption: a short ad for Heineken beer.
During the fourth season, Unilever
created a series of six retro commercials to be aired during the show in the United States. The ads are set at the fictional Smith Winter Mitchell advertising agency and take place during the same time period as Mad Men. The products used in the ads are Dove
, Breyers
, Hellman's, Klondike
, Suave
, and Vaseline
.
in 2008, the show was responsible for a revival in men's suits, especially suits resembling those of that time period, with higher waistbands and shorter jackets; as well as "everything from tortoise shell glasses to fedoras".
New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley
wrote that the success of Mad Men had turned "the booze-guzzling, chain-smoking, babe-chasing 1960s" into "Broadway
’s decade du jour", citing three 1960s-set musicals that had appeared on Broadway in 2010 and 2011: revivals of Promises, Promises
and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
, and a new musical, Catch Me If You Can
. Brantley also wrote, "I’m presuming that Mad Men is the reason this Promises, Promises is set not in the late ’60s, as the original was, but in 1962."
The 2009 TNT series Trust Me
, which ran for one season, was set at a modern-day advertising agency; television critic Tom Shales
called it a cross between Mad Men and another show, Nip/Tuck
. Two network television series that premiered in 2011, Pan Am
and the short-lived The Playboy Club
, both set in 1963, have frequently been referred to as imitations of Mad Men.
Don Draper's rendition of the Frank O'Hara
poem 'Mayakovsky' from Meditations in an Emergency, at the end of episode one of season two, led to the poet's work entering the top 50 sales on Amazon.com
.
The appearance of actress Christina Hendricks as secretary Joan is said to have sparked a renewed interest in a voluptuous look for women, and to be partly responsible for, among other things, a 10% increase in breast implant surgery in Britain
in 2010.
According to the website BabyCenter, the show led to the name "Betty" soaring in popularity for baby girls in the United States in 2010.
Matthew Weiner
Matthew Weiner is an American writer, director and producer of television drama. He is the creator, executive producer, head writer, and show runner of the AMC television series Mad Men. He is also noted for his work on the HBO series The Sopranos, on which he served as a writer and producer...
. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network
Cable network
A cable channel is a television channel available via cable television. Such channels are usually also available via satellite television, including direct broadcast satellite providers such as DirecTV, Dish Network and BSkyB...
AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television
Lionsgate Television
Lionsgate Television is the television division of Lions Gate Entertainment, an entertainment company. It is located in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.- Productions :The following is a partial list of the division's productions:...
. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each season has consisted of 13 episodes. The fifth season is scheduled to premiere in March 2012.
Mad Men is set in the 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
, initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
on Madison Avenue in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and later at the newly created firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The focal point of the series is Don Draper
Don Draper
Donald "Don" Draper is a fictional character and the protagonist of AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by 2008 Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm. Until the third season finale, Draper was Creative Director of Manhattan advertising firm Sterling Cooper...
(Jon Hamm), creative director
Creative Director
A creative director is a position often found within the graphic design, film, music, fashion, advertising, media or entertainment industries, but may be useful in other creative organizations such as web development and software development firms as well....
at Sterling Cooper and a founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and the people in his life, both in and out of the office. As such, it regularly depicts the changing moods and social mores
Mores
Mores, in sociology, are any given society's particular norms, virtues, or values. The word mores is a plurale tantum term borrowed from Latin, which has been used in the English language since the 1890s....
of 1960s America.
Mad Men has received critical acclaim, particularly for its historical authenticity and visual style, and has won multiple awards, including fifteen Emmys
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
and four Golden Globes
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
. It is the first basic cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series
This page lists the winners and nominees for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, since its institution in 1951. The award is often cited as one of the "main awards" at the Emmys ceremonies, and has changed names many times in its history. It was first called Best Dramatic Show...
, winning it in each of its first four seasons in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.
Conception
In 2000, while working as a staff writer for BeckerBecker (TV series)
Becker is an American television sitcom that ran from 1998 to 2004 on CBS. Set in the New York City borough of The Bronx, the show starred Ted Danson as John Becker, a misanthropic doctor who operates a small practice and is constantly annoyed by his patients, co-workers, friends, and practically...
, Matthew Weiner wrote the first draft for the pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
of what would later be called Mad Men as a spec script
Spec script
A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio....
. Television producer David Chase
David Chase
David Chase is an American writer, director, and producer of television series. Chase has worked in television for more than 30 years; he has produced and written for shows as The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. He has created two original series; the first, Almost Grown,...
recruited Weiner to work as a writer on his HBO
Home Box Office
HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...
series The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
after reading the pilot script in 2002. "It was lively, and it had something new to say," Chase said. "Here was someone [Weiner] who had written a story about advertising in the 1960s, and was looking at recent American history through that prism." Weiner set the pilot script aside for the next seven years — during which time neither HBO nor Showtime expressed interest in the project—until The Sopranos was completing its final season and cable network AMC happened to be in the market for new programming. "The network was looking for distinction in launching its first original series," according to AMC Networks president Ed Carroll "and we took a bet that quality would win out over formulaic mass appeal."
Pre-production
Tim HunterTim Hunter (director)
Tim Hunter is an American television and film director. Since the late 1980s he has mostly worked on television, directing episodes for dozens of televisions series includingBreaking Bad,Carnivàle,...
, the director of a half-dozen episodes from the show's first two seasons, called Mad Men a "very well-run show".
Filming and production design
The pilot episode was shot at Silvercup StudiosSilvercup Studios
Silvercup Studios is the largest film and television production facility in New York City. Located in the neighborhood of Long Island City, in the borough of Queens, the studio complex has been operating since 1983 in the former Silvercup Bakery building...
and various locations around New York City; subsequent episodes have been filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios
Los Angeles Center Studios
Los Angeles Center Studios is a multipurpose facility in the former Unocal Building next to the 110 freeway in downtown Los Angeles, California. Architect William Pereira designed the Union Oil headquarters in 1960....
. It is available in high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
for showing on AMC-HD and on video-on-demand services available from various cable affiliates. The writers, including Weiner, amassed volumes of research on the period in which Mad Men takes place so as to make most aspects of the series—including detailed set designs, costume design, and props—historically accurate, producing an authentic visual style that garnered critical praise. Each episode has a budget between $2–2.5 million, though the pilot episode's budget was over $3 million. On the scenes featuring smoking, Weiner stated: "Doing this show without smoking would've been a joke. It would've been sanitary and it would've been phony." Since the actors cannot, by California law, smoke tobacco cigarettes in their workplace, they instead smoke herbal cigarettes. Robert Morse
Robert Morse
Robert Morse is an American actor and singer. Morse is best known for his appearances in musicals and plays on Broadway. He has also acted in movies and television shows. His best known role is that of J. Pierrepont Finch in the 1961 Broadway musical, and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business...
was cast in the role of senior partner Bertram Cooper; Morse starred in two 1967 films about amoral businessmen, A Guide for the Married Man
A Guide for the Married Man
A Guide for the Married Man is a 1967 American bedroom farce comedy film starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, and Inger Stevens. It was directed by Gene Kelly. It features a large number of cameos, including Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Terry-Thomas, Jayne Mansfield, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Joey...
(1967), a source of inspiration for Weiner, and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's 1952 book of the same name....
(1967), in which Morse recreated his role from the 1961 Broadway play of the same name, (and which was itself based on a satiric novel by a former executive at the now-defunct New York ad agency, Benton & Bowles, Inc.).
Weiner collaborated with cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
Phil Abraham
Phil Abraham
Phil Abraham is an American film and television cinematographer and director. He worked on all six seasons of The Sopranos, initially as a camera operator, then as a cinematographer and eventually as an episodic director...
and production designer
Production designer
In film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...
s Robert Shaw (who worked on the pilot only) and Dan Bishop to develop a visual style that was "influenced more by cinema than television." Alan Taylor
Alan Taylor (director)
Alan Taylor is an American television and film director, television producer, and screenwriter. Taylor has directed for numerous programs on both network television and premium cable, most notably on HBO...
, a veteran director of The Sopranos, directed the pilot and also helped establish the series' visual tone. To convey an "air of mystery" around Don Draper, Taylor tended to shoot from behind him or would frame him partially obscured. Many scenes set at Sterling Cooper were shot lower-than-eyeline to incorporate the ceilings into the composition of frame
Composition (visual arts)
In the visual arts – in particular painting, graphic design, photography and sculpture – composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art or a photograph, as distinct from the subject of a work...
; this reflects the photography, graphic design and architecture of the period. Alan felt that neither steadicam
Steadicam
A Steadicam is a stabilizing mount for a motion picture camera that mechanically isolates it from the operator's movement, allowing a smooth shot even when moving quickly over an uneven surface...
nor handheld camera work would be appropriate to the "visual grammar of that time, and that aesthetic didn’t mesh with [their] classic approach"—accordingly, the sets were designed to be practical for dolly work.
Finances
According to a 2011 Miller Tabak + Company estimate published in Barrons, Lions Gate EntertainmentLions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
receives an estimated $2.71 million from AMC for each episode, a little less than the $2.84 million each episode costs to produce.
In March 2011, after negotiations between the network and the series' creator, AMC picked up Mad Men for a fifth season, which will premiere in early 2012. Weiner reportedly signed a $30 million contract which will keep him at the helm of the show for three more seasons. A couple of weeks later, a Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Marie Claire is a monthly women's magazine first published in France but also distributed in other countries with editions specific to them and in their languages. While each country shares its own special voice with its audience, the United States edition focuses on women around the world and...
interview with January Jones
January Jones
January Kristen Jones is an American actress. She is best known for playing Betty Draper on Mad Men.-Early life:...
was published, noting the limits to that financial success when it comes to the actors: "We don’t get paid very much on the show and that’s well-documented. On the other hand, when you do television you have a steady paycheck each week, so that’s nice."
Sales from home video and iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
could amount to $100 million in revenue during the show's expected seven-year run, with international syndication sales bringing in an additional estimated $700,000 per episode. That does not include the $71 to $100 million estimated to come from a Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
streaming video deal announced in April 2011.
Episode credit and title sequences
The opening title sequenceTitle sequence
A Title Sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound...
features credits superimposed over a graphic animation of a businessman falling from a height, surrounded by skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
s with reflections of period advertising posters and billboards, accompanied by a short edit of the instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
"A Beautiful Mine" by RJD2
RJD2
RJD2 is an American music producer, singer and musician. RJD2 was born in Eugene, Oregon, and raised in Columbus, Ohio. He currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was signed to the Definitive Jux label where he released two largely instrumental hip hop albums and has produced tracks...
. The businessman appears as a black-and-white silhouette
Silhouette
A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Although the art form has been popular since the mid-18th century, the term “silhouette” was seldom used until the early decades...
. The titles pay homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
to graphic designer Saul Bass
Saul Bass
Saul Bass was a Jewish-American graphic designer and filmmaker, best known for his design of motion picture title sequences....
's skyscraper-filled opening titles for Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's North by Northwest
North by Northwest
North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau...
(1959) and falling man movie poster for Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
(1958); Weiner has listed Hitchcock as a major influence on the visual style of the series. David Carbonara
David Carbonara
David Carbonara is a film and TV composer as well as a music editor. Most recently his music has been featured in the TV series Mad Men, for which he is the series composer....
composes the original score for the series. Mad Men — Original Score Vol. 1 was released on January 13, 2009.
In a 2010 issue of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
, the show’s opening title sequence ranked #9 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.
At the end of almost all episodes, the show either fades to black
Fade (lighting)
In stage lighting, a fade is a gradual increase or decrease of the intensity of light projected onto the stage. The term fade-in refers to gradually changing the lighting level from complete darkness to a predetermined lighting level. A fade-out refers to gradually decreasing the intensity of...
or smash cut
Smash cut
A smash cut is a technique in film and other moving visual media where one scene abruptly cuts to another without transition, usually meant to startle the audience. To this end, the smash cut usually occurs at a crucial moment in a scene where a cut would not be expected...
to black as period music or a theme by series composer, David Carbonara, plays during the ending credits; at least one episode ends with silence or ambient sounds. A few episodes have ended with more recent popular music, or with a diegetic song dissolving into the credits music.
Crew
In addition to having created the series, Matthew Weiner is the show runnerShow runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...
, head writer
Head writer
A head writer is a person who oversees the team of writers on a television or radio series. The title is common in the soap opera genre, as well as with sketch comedies and talk shows that feature monologues and comedy skits, but in prime time series this function is generally performed by an...
, and an executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
; he contributes to each episode—writing or co-writing the scripts, casting various roles, and approving costume and set designs. He is notorious for being selective about all aspects of the series, and promotes a high level of secrecy around production details. Tom Palmer
Tom Palmer (writer)
Tom Palmer is an American television writer and producer. He served as a co-executive producer on the first season of Mad Men and wrote two episodes of the season. Alongside his colleagues on the writing staff he won a WGA award for best new series and was nominated for the award for best dramatic...
served as a co-executive producer and writer on the first season. Scott Hornbacher
Scott Hornbacher
Scott Hornbacher is an Emmy Award winning American television producer and director. He has worked in both capacities on the AMC drama series Mad Men. He shared the Primetime Emmy Award for Best Drama Series with the production team when they won in 2008 and 2009.-Biography:Hornbacher began his...
(who later became an executive producer), Todd London
Todd London
Todd London is an American television producer. He has worked on several series for HBO, including Carnivàle, Rome, and The Pacific. He was a producer on the first series of AMC drama Mad Men.-References:...
, Lisa Albert
Lisa Albert
Lisa Albert is an American television writer and producer. She has worked in both capacities on the AMC drama series Mad Men and has won a WGA Award for her work on the show.-Biography:...
, Andre Jacquemetton
Andre Jacquemetton
Andre Jacquemetton is an American television writer and producer. He served as a producer for the first season of Mad Men and co-wrote -- with spouse Maria Jacquemetton -- three episodes of the season...
, and Maria Jacquemetton
Maria Jacquemetton
Maria Jacquemetton is an American television writer and producer. She served as a producer for the first season of Mad Men and co-wrote -- with spouse Andre Jacquemetton -- three episodes of the season...
were producers on the first season. Palmer, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton were also writers on the first season. Bridget Bedard
Bridget Bedard
Bridget Bedard is an American television writer. She served as a writer on the first season of Mad Men and wrote two episodes of the season. Alongside her colleagues on the writing staff she won a WGA award for best new series and was nominated for the award for best dramatic series for her work on...
, Chris Provenzano
Chris Provenzano
Chris Provenzano is an American film and television writer. He co-wrote the story and screenplay for the motion picture Get Low. He served as a writer on the first season of Mad Men in 2007, writing the episode The Hobo Code and co-writing the episode Shoot...
, and writer's assistant Robin Veith
Robin Veith
Robin Veith is an American television writer. She served as a writer's assistant on the first season of Mad Men and co-wrote the final episode of the season "The Wheel" with the series creator Matthew Weiner. Weiner and Veith were nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama...
complete the first season writing team.
Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, and Maria Jacquemetton returned as supervising producers for the second season. Veith also returned and was promoted to staff writer. Hornbacher replaced Palmer as co-executive producer for the second season. Consulting producers David Isaacs
David Isaacs (writer)
David Isaacs has been an American TV and Screen writer, and producer since 1975. He has written episodes of M*A*S*H, Cheers, its spin-off Frasier, and The Simpsons with Ken Levine....
, Marti Noxon
Marti Noxon
Martha Mills "Marti" Noxon is an American television and film writer first known for writing and producing Buffy the Vampire Slayer.- Production :...
, Rick Cleveland
Rick Cleveland
Rick Cleveland is an American television writer, playwright and monologist, best known for writing on the HBO original series, Six Feet Under and NBC's The West Wing....
, and Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson is an American actress-turned-award-winning playwright, screenwriter and director. She has written and directed one feature film, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio and wrote the script for the Nicolas Cage film It Could Happen to You.- Career :Prior to film directing, Anderson...
joined the crew for the second season. Weiner, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Veith, Noxon, Cleveland and Anderson were all writers for the second season. New writer's assistant Kater Gordon
Kater Gordon
Kater Gordon is an American television writer. She has worked on the AMC drama Mad Men and has won a Writers Guild of America Award and an Emmy Award.-Biography:...
was the season's other writer. Isaacs, Cleveland and Anderson left the crew at the end of the second season.
Albert remained a supervising producer for the third season but Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton became consulting producers. Hornbacher was promoted again, this time to executive producer. Veith returned as a story editor and Gordon became a staff writer. Noxon remained a consulting producer and was joined by new consulting producer Frank Pierson. Dahvi Waller
Dahvi Waller
Dahvi Waller is a Canadian screenwriter and television director, and currently writes and produces for the hit AMC series Mad Men.In 2003 and 2004 Waller was one of the directors for the reality TV show Switched Up, and in 2005 she became one of the writers of the short lived drama series Commander...
joined the crew as a co-producer. Weiner, Albert, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Veith, Noxon and Waller were all writers for the third season. New writer's assistant Erin Levy
Erin Levy
Erin Levy is an American television writer. She has worked on the AMC drama Mad Men and has won an Emmy Award and a Writers Guild of America Award.-Biography:...
, executive story editor Cathryn Humphris
Cathryn Humphris
Cathryn Humphris is an American television writer. She has worked on the AMC drama Mad Men and has won a Writers Guild of America Award.-Biography:...
, script co-ordinator Brett Johnson
Brett Johnson (writer)
Brett Johnson is an American television writer. He has worked on the AMC drama Mad Men and has won a Writers Guild of America Award.-Biography:Johnson co-wrote the Mad Men episode "The Grown-Ups" with series creator and show runner Matthew Weiner...
and freelance writer Andrew Colville
Andrew Colville (writer)
Andrew Colville is an American television writer. He has worked on the AMC drama Mad Men and has won a Writers Guild of America Award.-Biography:...
complete the third season writing staff.
Tim Hunter
Tim Hunter (director)
Tim Hunter is an American television and film director. Since the late 1980s he has mostly worked on television, directing episodes for dozens of televisions series includingBreaking Bad,Carnivàle,...
, Phil Abraham
Phil Abraham
Phil Abraham is an American film and television cinematographer and director. He worked on all six seasons of The Sopranos, initially as a camera operator, then as a cinematographer and eventually as an episodic director...
, Alan Taylor
Alan Taylor (director)
Alan Taylor is an American television and film director, television producer, and screenwriter. Taylor has directed for numerous programs on both network television and premium cable, most notably on HBO...
, Jennifer Getzinger
Jennifer Getzinger
Jennifer Getzinger is an American director and script supervisor of film and television.For much of her career she worked as a script supervisor on number of notable films namely The Prophecy , Phantoms , Clay Pigeons , Requiem for a Dream , The Devil Wears Prada as well as script supervising for...
, and Lesli Linka Glatter are regular directors for the series. Matthew Weiner directs the season finales.
As of the third season, seven of the nine writers for the show are women, in contrast to Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
2006 statistics that show male writers outnumber female writers by 2 to 1. As Maria Jacquemetton notes:
- We have a predominately female writing staff—women from their early 20s to their 50s—and plenty of female department heads and directors. [Show creator] Matt Weiner and [executive producer] Scott Hornbacher hire people they believe in, based on their talent and their experience. 'Can you capture this world? Can you bring great storytelling?'
Characters
Mad Men focuses mostly on Don Draper, although it features an ensemble castEnsemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
representing several segments of society in 1960s New York. Mad Men places emphasis on recollective progression as a means of revealing the characters' past.
Lead characters
- Don DraperDon DraperDonald "Don" Draper is a fictional character and the protagonist of AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by 2008 Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm. Until the third season finale, Draper was Creative Director of Manhattan advertising firm Sterling Cooper...
(Jon Hamm): Creative director and junior partner of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency and, as of the fourth season, a partner of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, he is the series' main character. He is a hard-drinking, chain-smoking executive with a shadowy past who has achieved success in advertising. He was married to Elizabeth "Betty" Draper and has three children with her, but his history of infidelityInfidelityIn many intimate relationships in many cultures there is usually an express or implied expectation of exclusivity, especially in sexual matters. Infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity.Infidelity can occur in relation to physical intimacy and/or...
, along with his revelations to her about his past led to their separation at the end of Season 3 and eventual divorce. Draper's real name is Richard (Dick) Whitman; he assumed the identity of Don Draper during the Korean WarKorean WarThe Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
after the death of his lieutenant, who was due to return from the war, thereby avoiding further combat. - Peggy OlsonPeggy OlsonMargaret "Peggy" Olson is a fictional character in the AMC television series Mad Men, and is portrayed by actress Elisabeth Moss. Initially, Peggy is secretary to Don Draper , creative director of the advertising agency Sterling Cooper. Later, she is promoted to copywriter, the first female writer...
(Elisabeth MossElisabeth MossElisabeth Singleton Moss is an American actor. Her notable roles include that of Zoey Bartlet, the third and youngest daughter of President Jed Bartlet, on the NBC television series The West Wing , and secretary turned copywriter Peggy Olson on the AMC original series Mad Men .-Early life and...
): Olson rises from being Draper's secretary to a copywriter with her own office. She becomes pregnant with Pete Campbell's child, a pregnancy that neither she nor her family or coworkers seem to notice, until she goes into labor alone and goes to the emergency room. Campbell is unaware of her pregnancy until the end of Season 2, when Peggy tells him that she gave the baby up for adoption. In Season 3, Peggy is approached by Duck Phillips to leave Sterling Cooper, but turns him down, despite the fact that his persistence leads to a romantic relationship. While he rarely acknowledges it, Don's appreciation of Peggy's abilities leads him to choose her to go with him to Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. She is given more freedom to come up with her own creative advertising ideas, though Don continues to push her to be better. - Pete CampbellPete CampbellPeter "Pete" Campbell is a fictional character on AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by Vincent Kartheiser.-Biography:...
(Vincent KartheiserVincent KartheiserVincent Paul Kartheiser is an American actor known for playing Connor in Angel and Pete Campbell in Mad Men.-Early life:Kartheiser was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Janet Marie and James Ralph Kartheiser...
): A young, ambitious account executiveAccount executiveThe job role executive admin. covers various descriptions depending on the specific industry covering mainly marketing role.In IT organizations, an account executives is a senior management role, responsible for executing large contracts. Control of the Profit & Loss is one of the main...
from an old New York family with connections and a privileged background. Campbell tries to blackmailBlackmailIn common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
Don Draper with information from Draper's past. However, he and Don develop a grudging respect for each other, culminating in Don's approaching Pete over Ken Cosgrove when forming a new agency. Campbell and his wife, Trudy, had been unable to conceive a child earlier in their marriage, and he remained unaware of his child with Olson until the Season 2 finale. At the end of Season 3, dissatisfied with his treatment at Sterling Cooper regarding a promotion, he secretly plans to leave the firm. Unaware of this, Don Draper approaches Campbell with an offer to join his new firm as long as Pete brings accounts worth $8 million of cash flow. Campbell decides to join Draper, with the condition that he be made a partner, though his surname does not appear in the new firm's name (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce). Campbell is one of the few characters in the show who does not smoke. - Betty Francis (née Hofstadt, formerly Draper)Betty DraperElizabeth "Betty" Francis is a fictional character on AMC's television series Mad Men, portrayed by January Jones...
(January JonesJanuary JonesJanuary Kristen Jones is an American actress. She is best known for playing Betty Draper on Mad Men.-Early life:...
): Don Draper's ex-wife and mother of their three children, Sally, Bobby, and Eugene Scott. Raised in the tiny Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, she met Don when she was a model in Manhattan and married him soon thereafter. At the start of the series, they have been married for seven years (1953–1960) and live in OssiningOssining (town), New YorkOssining is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 37,674 at the 2010 census. It contains two villages, the Village of Ossining and part of Briarcliff Manor, the rest of which is located in the Town of Mount Pleasant....
, New York. Over the course of the first two seasons, Betty gradually becomes aware of her husband's womanizing. After a brief separation, Betty allows Don to return home when she learns she is pregnant with their third child, but first has a one-night standOne-night standOriginally, a one-night stand was a single theatre performance, usually by a guest performer on tour, as opposed to an ongoing engagement. Today, however, the term is more commonly defined as a single sexual encounter, in which neither participant has any intention or expectation of a relationship...
of her own. She leaves for RenoRenoReno is the fourth most populous city in Nevada, US.Reno may also refer to:-Places:Italy*The Reno River, in Northern ItalyCanada*Reno No...
at the end of Season 3, in December 1963, with the intention of divorcing Don. At the start of Season 4, in November 1964, she has divorced Don and married Henry Francis. She, the children, and her new husband continue to live in the Drapers' old house, but by the end of the season decide to move to another house in RyeRye (city), New YorkRye is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is separate from the town of Rye, which is larger than the city. Rye city, formerly the village of Rye, was part of the town until 1942, when it received its charter as a city, the most recent to be issued in New York...
. Betty's relationship with her children is often strained, in particular with Sally. - Joan Harris (née Holloway)Joan HollowayJoan P. Harris is a fictional character on AMC's television series Mad Men. She is portrayed by Christina Hendricks.-Fictional character biography:Joan was born on February 24, 1931....
(Christina HendricksChristina HendricksChristina Rene Hendricks is an actress known for her role as Joan Holloway in the AMC cable television series Mad Men, and as Saffron in Fox's short-lived series Firefly. Hendricks was named "the sexiest woman in the world" in 2010 in a poll of female readers taken by Esquire magazine.-Personal...
): Office manager and head of the secretarial poolSecretarial poolA secretarial pool or typing pool is a group of secretaries working at a company available to assist any executive without a permanently assigned secretary. These groups have been reduced or eliminated where executives have been assigned responsibility for writing their own letters and other...
at Sterling Cooper. She had a long-term affair with Roger Sterling until his two heart attacks cause him to end the relationship. In Season 2, she becomes engaged to Dr. Greg Harris. By Season 3, they are married and at Greg's request Joan quits her job at Sterling Cooper. Their marriage becomes tested when Greg's difficulties securing work as a surgeonSurgeonIn medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
force Joan to return to work at a department storeDepartment storeA department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
, prompting her to call Roger Sterling to ask for his help in finding an office job. Because of her invaluable managerial skills, she is later hired for the new agency formed by Don, Roger, Bert and Lane. Meanwhile, Greg's desire to assure his career as a surgeon leads him to obtain a commission in the Army, and early in Season 4 he is sent to basic training and then to VietnamVietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. While her husband is deployed, Joan and Roger have a brief sexual encounter, which results in her becoming pregnant. Joan initially decides to terminate the pregnancy, but at the end of Season 4 she is seen discussing her pregnancy with Greg, who is unaware that the child is not his. - Roger SterlingRoger SterlingRoger Sterling, Jr., played by John Slattery, is a fictional character on the AMC TV series Mad Men. He formerly worked for Sterling Cooper, an advertising agency his father co-founded in 1923, before he became a founding partner at the new firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in late...
(John SlatteryJohn SlatteryJohn M. Slattery, Jr. is an American actor and director, best known for his role as Roger Sterling on AMC's series Mad Men. He has been nominated for many awards, and has won two SAG Awards with the Mad Men ensemble....
): One of the two senior partners of Sterling Cooper, and one-time mentor to Don Draper. His father founded the firm with Bertram Cooper, hence his name comes before Cooper's in the firm's title. A picture in Cooper's office shows Roger as a child alongside Cooper depicted as a young adult. In Season 2, Bertram Cooper mentions that "the late Mrs. Cooper" introduced Sterling to his wife, Mona, whom Sterling is in the process of divorcing in favor of Don's former secretary, 22-year-old Jane. Sterling served in the Navy during World War II and was a notorious womanizer (living like he was "on shore leaveShore leaveShore leave is the leave that professional sailors get to spend on dry land. It is culturally infamous for its excess. Sailors without family obligations and with basic lodging needs provided aboard ship may spend their wages for the journey in a brief period of extravagance ashore and return to...
") until two heart attacks changed his perspective, although they did not affect his drinking or smoking habits, which remained excessive. Prior to his marriage to Jane, Roger had a longstanding affair with Joan Holloway. In Season 4, he and Joan have a brief romantic encounter, and Joan becomes pregnant. It was revealed in Season 3 that it was Roger who had hired Don Draper sometime in the mid- to late-1950s, when Don was a salesman at a furrier, and eager to break into advertising. Season 4 also has Roger less involved with the day-to-day activities at SCDP than he was at Sterling Cooper. His primary function is to manage the Lucky StrikeLucky StrikeLucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
account which is responsible for over half of SCDP's billings. However, in the "Chinese Wall" episode, it is revealed that Lucky Strike is moving its account to a rival agency, forcing a dramatic downsizing of the firm.
Supporting characters
- Lane Pryce (Jared HarrisJared HarrisJared Francis Harris is a British character actor, well known for playing the obnoxious Mac McGrath in the Adam Sandler film Mr. Deeds, and for his portrayal of Lane Pryce on the AMC series Mad Men.- Personal life :...
); recurring season three, regular season four to present: The English financial officer installed by Sterling Cooper's new British parent company. He first appears in the first episode of Season 3. His role so far has been that of a strict taskmaster who brings spending under control, especially by cutting out frivolous expenses. His efforts are so successful he was to be sent to India to enact cost-cutting measures, a move which Pryce was not looking forward to making after having settled in with his wife and child. An unfortunate accident at work debilitated his replacement, thus allowing Pryce to keep his current position. Pryce is warming to American culture, and foresees some form of cultural and societal changes in his observations on American race relations. When Putnam, Powell, and Lowe is sold, he realizes he has become expendable, and negotiates to become a founding partner in the new agency alongside Don Draper, Bert Cooper, and Roger Sterling, Jr., with his firing the three of them, then getting fired himself, thus voiding the non-compete clauses in their contracts and freeing all of them to build a new firm. Beginning with Season 4, Pryce serves as a partner and de factoDe factoDe facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
Chief Financial Officer of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. - Paul Kinsey (Michael GladisMichael GladisMichael Gladis is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Paul Kinsey on the television series Mad Men, where he appeared in the series' first three seasons. Prior to Mad Men, he played Eugene Rossi in four episodes of Third Watch...
); regular seasons one through three: A creative copywriter and Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
alumnus, the bearded, pipe-smoking Paul prides himself on his politically liberal views. At some indeterminate time, he had a relationship with Joan Holloway which ended badly, largely because Paul talked about it too much. Paul tried, unsuccessfully, to date Peggy soon after she was hired by Sterling Cooper. Through most of the second season, Paul dated Sheila White, an African-American woman from South Orange, New JerseySouth Orange, New Jersey-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 16,964 people, 5,522 households, and 3,766 families residing in the township. The population density was 5,945.3 people per square mile . There were 5,671 housing units at an average density of 1,987.5 per square mile...
. They broke up while in Oxford, MississippiOxford, MississippiOxford is a city in, and the county seat of, Lafayette County, Mississippi, United States. Founded in 1835, it was named after the British university city of Oxford in hopes of having the state university located there, which it did successfully attract....
, where they had gone as Freedom Riders to oppose segregationRacial segregation in the United StatesRacial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
in the SouthSouthern United StatesThe Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
. It is a source of pride for Kinsey to live in the low-income, southern section of Montclair, New JerseyMontclair, New Jersey-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 38,977 people, 15,020 households, and 9,687 families residing in the township. The population density was 6,183.6 people per square mile . There were 15,531 housing units at an average density of 2,464.0 per square mile...
. He is highly competitive, an attribute revealed to have soured a few friendships while he was in college, and which causes some friction with Peggy Olson, culminating in his becoming angry when Don chooses Peggy for the new agency over him. He has not been seen since the third season finale. - Kenneth "Ken" Cosgrove (Aaron StatonAaron StatonAaron Staton is an American actor. He is known for his role as Ken Cosgrove in Mad Men and his role as Cole Phelps in the video game L.A. Noire.-Personal life:...
): A young account executive originally from VermontVermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
. Outside the office, Ken is an aspiring author who had a short story published in The Atlantic, which is a source of some envy by his co-workers, particularly the competitive Paul Kinsey and jealous Pete Campbell. Pete uses his wife Trudy's ex-boyfriend to have his short story published. According to his bio in The Atlantic, Ken attended Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He has one admirer, art director Salvatore, who secretly has a crush on him. Ken was promoted in the beginning of Season 3 to Account Director, a role he shared with Pete Campbell. Later on, the more easy-going Ken is promoted over the more ambitious Campbell to Senior Vice President of Account Services. However, at the end of Season 3, Draper and Sterling choose Pete over Ken for their new agency. During Season 4, Ken joins SCDP after working for McCann EricksonMcCann EricksonMcCann Erickson is a global advertising agency network, with offices in more than 130 countries. McCann is a subsidiary of the Interpublic Group of Companies, one of the four large holding companies in the advertising industry....
(which bought Sterling Cooper) and BBDOBBDOBBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency began in 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company, and later in 1928, through a merger of BDO and Batten Co. the agency became BBDO...
. When Pete learns of Ken's return, he is initially upset with Lane Pryce for not telling him, since Pryce had authorized Ken's previous promotion over Pete. However, when Ken agrees to serve under Pete as accounts manager at SCDP, the two reconcile over lunch and Pete comes to realize that Ken is a practical choice to help bring new business to the firm. - Harold "Harry" Crane (Rich SommerRich SommerRichard Olen Sommer II is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Harry Crane on the AMC series Mad Men.-Career:...
): A bespectacled media buyer and head of Sterling Cooper's television department, which is created at Harry's initiative. Unlike his mostly Ivy LeagueIvy LeagueThe Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
fellows, went to the University of Wisconsin. Harry joins his colleagues in drinking and flirtations, though he is a dedicated husband and father. However, he does have a drunken one-night standOne-night standOriginally, a one-night stand was a single theatre performance, usually by a guest performer on tour, as opposed to an ongoing engagement. Today, however, the term is more commonly defined as a single sexual encounter, in which neither participant has any intention or expectation of a relationship...
with Pete's secretary in Season 1, which leads to his being briefly kicked out of his home by his wife, Jennifer. He is ultimately coerced by Draper and Cooper into joining the new agency, although he realizes it is the right move. When Sterling Cooper was in the process of being sold, Harry mistakenly thinks they are considering opening a West Coast office and believes that he would be the person to move to California. Harry later becomes a bit of a braggart, who is overly fond of discussing his Hollywood connections. - Bertram "Bert" Cooper (Robert MorseRobert MorseRobert Morse is an American actor and singer. Morse is best known for his appearances in musicals and plays on Broadway. He has also acted in movies and television shows. His best known role is that of J. Pierrepont Finch in the 1961 Broadway musical, and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business...
): The somewhat eccentricEccentricity (behavior)In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...
senior partner at Sterling Cooper. He leaves the day-to-day running of the firm to Sterling and Draper, but is keenly aware of the firm's operations. Like many of his executives, Bertram is a RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. He is fascinated by Japanese culture, requiring everybody, including clients, to remove their shoes before walking into his office (which is decorated with Japanese artJapanese artJapanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art...
). He is a fan of the writings of Ayn RandAyn RandAyn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
and implies he knows her personally. Among his eccentricities, Bert frequently walks through the offices in his socks and intensely dislikes gum-chewingChewing gumChewing gum is a type of gum traditionally made of chicle, a natural latex product, or synthetic rubber known as polyisobutylene. For economical and quality reasons, many modern chewing gums use rubber instead of chicle...
and smoking (an oddity for the time, especially considering Lucky StrikeLucky StrikeLucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
cigarettes is a major client). He owns a ranch in MontanaMontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
and is a widower with no children. Don approaches him about buying back the agency at the end of the third season, which evolves into their forming the new Sterling Cooper firm. In Season 4, Don and Peggy stumble upon an audio tape recording of Roger Sterling's memoirMemoirA memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
s that reveals that Bert received a war injury to his groin (possibly explaining him having no children). Later in Season 4, in the episode "Blowing SmokeBlowing Smoke"Blowing Smoke" is the twelfth episode of the fourth season of the American television drama series Mad Men, and the 51st overall episode of the series...
", when the agency is forced to radically downsize its staff following the loss of the Lucky Strike account, Bert tells the others that he is quitting the business, he isn't seen for the rest of the season. - Salvatore "Sal" Romano (Bryan BattBryan BattBryan Batt is an American actor best known for his role in the AMC series Mad Men as Salvatore Romano, an art director for the Sterling Cooper agency. Primarily a theater actor, he has had a number of starring roles in movies and television as well...
); seasons one through three: The Italian-American former art directorArt directorThe art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
at Sterling Cooper. Sal is a closetedThe ClosetThe Closet may refer to:* The Closet , Chinese film* The Closet , French film* The closet, referring to undisclosed homosexuality- See also :* Closet* Closet * In the closet...
homosexualHomosexualityHomosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. Reluctant to act upon his homosexuality, he twice avoided sexual encounters with different men. By 1962, Sal had married Kitty, who seems unaware of Sal's sexual orientation, yet begins to realize that something is amiss in their relationship. The issue of being closeted for Sal is shown in brief but stark contrast against the newly evolving social attitudes toward homosexuality. Sal's secret crush on Ken Cosgrove comes uncomfortably and awkwardly close to being revealed during a dinner in Sal's apartment. Later, when a recently hired young advertising exec, Kurt, casually announces his homosexuality, Sal remains painfully silent while his fellow co-workers speak disparagingly about Kurt. In the premiere of Season 3, Sal has a brief interrupted homosexual encounter with a hotel employee while in BaltimoreBaltimoreBaltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, the end of which Don accidentally witnesses. Don, who was in the midst of a heterosexual encounter of his own at the same hotel, finesses this uncomfortable situation through a coded conversation about their current client, London Fog. He suggests the tagline "Limit your exposure." Later in Season 3, Sal rebuffs the sexual advances of Lee Garner Jr., the drunken playboy son of Lucky Strike's founder and a key client. Angered by the rejection, the client demands Sal be removed from the campaign and Roger fires Sal in order to appease the client and his $25 million account. In a conversation right after the firing, Don shakes his head at Sal, saying "you people," implying that Don is not sympathetic to homosexuality and Sal is at fault for not keeping his proclivities out of sight and mind. At the end of the episode, Sal is seen calling his wife Kitty from a phone booth (presumably in Central Park), in an area frequented by gay men cruising for sexCruising for sexCruising for sex, or cruising is the act of walking or driving about a locality in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety...
. On the phone, Sal was explaining to Kitty he would be home late that night. Sal did not appear again during the rest of the third season, and does not appear in the fourth season. - Dr. Greg Harris (Samuel PageSamuel PageSamuel Page is an American actor. He is credited under the name Sam Page.-Early life:...
): Introduced during Season 2, Greg begins dating Joan Holloway, and they eventually become engaged. Handsome and embarking on a successful medical career, Greg sweeps Joan off her feet, and she is excited at the prospect of resigning from her job and marrying a physician. It soon becomes apparent that their relationship is not a healthy one. Greg, unhappy with Joan's sexual self confidence, rapes her on the floor of Draper's office one evening shortly before their marriage. Despite this, Joan goes ahead with the marriage. However, Greg's medical career does not come together the way he'd hoped it would when he fails to obtain a residency position at a major New York City hospital. He later receives a commission in the Army to pursue his desire to become a surgeon, and is deployed in Vietnam by the conclusion of Season 4. - Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley): Introduced during Season 3, Francis is the Director of Public Relations and Research for New York Governor Nelson RockefellerNelson RockefellerNelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
. He is called upon by Betty Draper and some of her friends to get involved in a civic project, but develops a personal connection with Betty, which she reciprocates because she feels no such connection with Don. In Season 4, he and Betty are married and living in the house that she formerly shared with Don, who still owns the house after the divorce and plans to sell. In the season finale, Henry and Betty are preparing to move to a new house in RyeRye (city), New YorkRye is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is separate from the town of Rye, which is larger than the city. Rye city, formerly the village of Rye, was part of the town until 1942, when it received its charter as a city, the most recent to be issued in New York...
so Betty can break up a budding friendship between her daughter and a neighbor boy. - Herman "Duck" Phillips (Mark MosesMark MosesMark W. Moses is an American actor, known for his roles of Paul Young on Desperate Housewives and Herman "Duck" Phillips on the AMC series Mad Men.-Life and career:...
): Former Director of Account Services at Sterling Cooper. He previously worked at the LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
office of Young & RubicamYoung & RubicamY&R is a marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting.-History:...
, but an undisclosed fiasco caused him to leave. A tough, driven executive, he often clashes with Don Draper. Duck is a recently divorced father of two children. Duck engineered the sale of Sterling Cooper to a British agency that was seeking a foothold in America. An alcoholic who had been sober for several years, the stress of engineering his take-over of Sterling Cooper caused him to begin drinking openly. As a reward for his role in the sale, Duck was to have been promoted to company president under the new Sterling Cooper, but Don's opposition and Duck's intemperate display in a high-level meeting between the two agencies left promotion in doubt as season two concluded. After being absent in the first four episodes of Season 3, it is revealed that Duck now works at GreyGrey Global GroupGrey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency, whose slogan is providing solutions - with headquarters in New York City, and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities — organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin...
, another New York agency. After trying unsuccessfully to poach Pete and Peggy at the start of the third season, he develops a sexual relationship with Peggy which continues through that season. By Season 4, Duck has returned to heavy drinking and has been fired from Grey. Later in season four, in a drunken stupor he shows his hatred for Draper by attempting to defecate on a chair in Don's office, or so he believes. Peggy stops him, as he is actually in Roger's office. - Gertrude "Trudy" Campbell (Alison BrieAlison Brie-External links:...
): Pete Campbell's upscale East SideUpper East SideThe Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
wife. She is unaware of her husband's liaison with Olson prior to their marriage. Trudy wants to be a mother but in the early years of her marriage was unable to conceive despite seeking fertility counseling. Her attempts to adopt a child were refused by Pete, whose own upper class family frowns on someone other than a blood relative as heir to the family name. Trudy's father is the manager of one of Sterling Cooper's accounts, ClearasilClearasilClearasil is the top-selling brand of skin care and acne medication, whose products contain chiefly benzoyl peroxide, sulfur & resorcinol, triclosan, or salicylic acid as active ingredients...
, an account Pete lost when he refused Trudy's wish to adopt. She and Pete become closer in the third season (in the aftermath of the JFK assassination) and she encourages his move to the new Sterling Cooper firm. In Season 4, she is pregnant and gives birth to a daughter, Tammy Campbell. - Jane Sterling (née Siegel) (Peyton List) is a secretary at Sterling Cooper. She is assigned to Don in the second season. Jane clashes frequently with Joan and is about to be fired when Roger intervenes on her behalf. Shortly afterward, she begins an affair with Roger and he leaves his family for her, further straining his already tenuous relationship with his wife and daughter. He quickly proposes out of the blue one morning in the episode "The Jet Set", and as she accepts his offer of marriage, they become engaged towards the end of Season 2. By the start of Season 3 she and Roger are married. Roger's daughter, Margaret, openly resented Jane, who is only two years Margaret's senior.
- Frederick C. "Freddy" Rumsen (Joel MurrayJoel MurrayJoel Murray is an American actor who has starred in film and on television.-Early life:Murray, one of nine children, was born and raised in Wilmette, Illinois , the son of Lucille , a mail room clerk, and Edward J. Murray II, a lumber salesman. Murray, along with his siblings, grew up in an Irish...
) is a former copywriter at Sterling Cooper. He was the first in the office to notice Peggy Olson's talent for copywriting while working on an ad campaign for Belle Jolie Cosmetics. After that, he was supportive of Olson's copywriting efforts. Freddy was shown to be a heavy drinker which got progressively worse, to the point where it caused Freddy to lose control of his bladder and pass out immediately prior to an important client pitch. Roger Sterling then asked Freddy to take a paid six month leave of absence, with the implicit understanding Freddy would not be returning to Sterling Cooper; he is referenced in "The Fog" when Duck Phillips notes the apparent connection between Pete and Peggy. He returned in the Season 4 episode "Christmas Comes But Once A Year" bringing a new account to the firm as a freelance copywriter, which Peggy pushes for. He is, by that time, clean and sober, and it is strongly implied that he is an active participant in Alcoholics AnonymousAlcoholics AnonymousAlcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
. His male chauvinistic comments lead to clashes with Peggy, although their tensions are later mended and Freddy offers her some personal advice. - Dr. Faye Miller (Cara BuonoCara BuonoCara Buono is an American actress, screenwriter and director, probably best known for her role as Dr. Faye Miller in the fourth season of the AMC drama series Mad Men.-Early life:...
): First seen in Season 4, she is a market research consultant who is retained by several agencies, including Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. After some initial reluctance, Don takes an interest in her and the two begin a secret romantic relationship. Their relationship becomes tested on a few occasions, one in which Sally shows up unexpectedly at the office and Don imposes on Faye to keep her occupied, and another when Don asks Faye to divulge confidential information about clients of rival advertising agencies. In the episode "Hands and KneesHands and Knees"Hands and Knees" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of the American television drama series Mad Men, and the 49th overall episode of the series...
", Don has a panic attack while with Faye and tells her about his real identity. However, by the end of the season, Don's personal and professional relationship with her has ended. - Francine Hanson (Anne DudekAnne DudekAnne Louise Dudek is an American actress, known for her role as Dr. Amber Volakis on the television show House and her leading role on UK television series The Book Group as well as playing Francine Hanson in the series Mad Men...
): One of Betty Draper’s closest friends and neighbors. She spends much time with Betty, gossiping about other neighbors. She becomes furious upon discovering her husband Carlton's infidelity, but she and her husband remain together. She is one of more supportive people of Betty, throughout her separation from Don in the second season, her pregnancy and helping with the children in the early part of the third season, and supporting her in approaching Henry Francis throughout the third season. - Sally Beth Draper (Kiernan ShipkaKiernan ShipkaKiernan Brennan "Kiki" Shipka is an American child actress noted for playing Don and Betty Draper's daughter Sally on the AMC series Mad Men.-Career:...
) is the eldest child of Don and Betty Draper (age 8 in 1962). Although Sally was a fairly minor character through the first two seasons, she started playing a larger role during the third season as she approached adolescence. Her relationship with her mother is often strained. She formed a very strong bond with her Grandpa Gene when he came to live with the Drapers, but was devastated by his sudden death. She also was distraught when Don and Betty broke the news that they were getting a divorce, reproaching her father for breaking his promise to always be there, and accusing her mother of making him leave. - Bobby Draper (Maxwell Huckabee, Aaron Hart, and Jared Gilmore) is Don and Betty's son, a few years younger than Sally.
- Anna Draper (Melinda Page HamiltonMelinda Page HamiltonMelinda Page Hamilton is an American actress. She played a supporting role in the 2004 film, Promised Land, and the leading role in the 2006 film Sleeping Dogs Lie. She is a frequent guest star on several present-day television programs which include: Star Trek: Enterprise, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami,...
) is the widow of the real Don Draper, the soldier killed during an accident at the isolated post he and the young Dick Whitman manned during the Korean War, and first person with whom Don/Dick has shared the darkest secret of his original identity, the sole person who has accepted his duality, and perhaps the only woman that Don/Dick really loved. Anna lived in California during the years after the war, and dies of cancer in May 1965 as revealed in the Season 4 episode "The SuitcaseThe Suitcase"The Suitcase" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of the American television drama series Mad Men, and the 46th overall episode of the series. It aired on the AMC channel in the United States on September 5, 2010. The episode is almost entirely centered around the characters of Don Draper ...
". Don referred to her, upon learning of and mourning her passing, as "the only person who really knew me." - Megan Calvet (Jessica ParéJessica ParéJessica Paré is a Canadian film and television actress. She has appeared in the films Stardom , Lost and Delirious , Wicker Park , Hot Tub Time Machine , and co-starred in the vampire horror-comedy Suck...
) is Don Draper's secretary during the latter part of Season 4 and becomes his fiance during the final episode "TomorrowlandTomorrowland (Mad Men)"Tomorrowland" is the thirteenth and final episode of the fourth season of the American television drama series Mad Men, and the 52nd overall episode of the series. It aired on the AMC channel in the United States on October 17, 2010.-Plot:...
". Megan is an intelligent, quietly ambitious young French-Canadian woman, the daughter of a McGill UniversityMcGill UniversityMohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
professor. Megan manages to get close to Don without being too inquisitive or possessive; she seems surprised by his sudden proposal but readily says "yes." She is unique among Don's paramours because of her immediate rapport with his children and because he tells her that he loves her. - Midge Daniels (Rosemarie DeWittRosemarie DeWittRosemarie DeWitt is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series Standoff, co-starring her now husband Ron Livingston, from 2006 through 2007, and played Charmaine Craine on Showtime's acclaimed original series, United States of Tara...
) is Don Draper's extramarital lover in season 1. A bohemian artist, she exposes Don to the then-emerging 1960s1960sThe 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...
counterculture. She makes a brief appearance in season 4, where it is revealed she became involved with a heroin addict and later became one herself.
Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Season Premiere | Season Finale |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13 | July 19, 2007 | October 18, 2007 |
| 2 | 13 | July 27, 2008 | October 26, 2008 |
| 3 | 13 | August 16, 2009 | November 8, 2009 |
| 4 | 13 | July 25, 2010 | October 17, 2010 |
| 5 | March 2012 |
Themes
Mad Men depicts parts of American society and culture of the 1960s, highlighting cigarette smoking, drinkingAlcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
, sexism, feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
, homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
, and racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
. Smoking, far more common in the United States of the 1960s than it is now, is featured throughout the series; many characters can be seen smoking several times in the course of an episode. In the pilot, representatives of Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
cigarettes come to Sterling Cooper looking for a new advertising campaign in the wake of a Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
report that smoking will lead to various health issues including lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
.
The show presents a subculture in which men who are engaged or married frequently enter sexual relationships with other women. It also observes advertising as a corporate outlet for creativity for mainstream, middle-class, young, white men. Along with each of these examples, however, there are hints of the future and the radical changes of the 1960s: Betty's anxiety, early stirrings of the feminist movement (as seen through Peggy), the Beats
Beatnik
Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical...
(that Draper discovers through Midge), drug use, and talk of smoking being harmful to health and physical appearance, which is usually dismissed or ignored. Characters also see stirrings of change in the ad industry itself, with the Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
's "Think Small
Think Small
Think Small was an advertising campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle, created by Julian Koenig at the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency in the 1950s. It was ranked as the best advertising campaign of the twentieth century by Ad Age, in a survey of North American advertisements...
" ad campaign mentioned and dismissed by many at Sterling Cooper, although Don Draper spots the nostalgic value and market potential of renaming the Kodak 'wheel' slide projector as the Kodak Carousel.
Themes of alienation, social mobility and ruthlessness also underpin the tone of the show. Draper in particular walks a tight rope when contemplating his rather humble beginnings and the deceitful life he has led as against the power and affluence he wields as a captain of industry, and frequently relieves that pressure by way of excessive and sometimes uncontrolled drinking. At times, Draper is utterly oblivious to the pain he dishes out in condescending confrontations with Betty, Peggy, care providers, in-laws and a rotating crew of secretaries, including those with whom he has had sex; yet at others, particularly when involving Anna Draper and her family, he is wholly solicitous of others' feelings to a fault. In season 4, the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
becomes much more prominent, especially when Joan's husband, Greg, accepts a commission in the U.S. Army and is to ship to Vietnam after basic training.
Ratings
The first season's premiere attracted 900,000 viewers, a number which more than doubled for the heavily promoted second season premiere. A major drop in viewership for the episode following the second season premiere prompted concern from some television critics. However, "the second season finale [...] posted significantly higher numbers than the series' first season finale, and was up 20% over the season two average. 1.75 million viewers watched Sunday night's season finale, according to fast national data from Nielsen Media ResearchNielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
. The cumulative audience for the three airings of the episode Sunday night (at 9pm, 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.) was 2.9 million viewers."
The third season premiere, which aired August 16, 2009, gained 2.8 million views on its first run, and 0.78 million with the 11 PM and 1 AM repeats.
| Season | Broadcast dates | Premiere viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | July 19 – October 18, 2007 | 0.90 |
| 2 | July 27 – October 26, 2008 | 2.00 |
| 3 | August 16 – November 8, 2009 | 2.80 |
| 4 | July 25 – October 17, 2010 | 2.92 |
In 2009, Mad Men was second in Nielsen's
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
list of Top 10 timeshifted
Time shifting
Time shifting is the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to at a time more convenient to the consumer. Typically, this refers to TV programming but can also refer to radio shows via podcasts....
primetime TV programs, with a 57.7% gain in viewers, second only to the final season of Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...
.
Critical reception
Mad Men has received highly positive critical response since its premiere. Viewership for the premiere at 10 p.m. on July 19, 2007, was higher than any other AMC original series to date.A New York Times reviewer called the series groundbreaking for "luxuriating in the not-so-distant past."
The San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
called Mad Men "stylized, visually arresting [...] an adult drama of introspection and the inconvenience of modernity in a man's world".
A Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
reviewer described the series as an "unsentimental portrayal of complicated 'whole people' who act with the more decent 1960 manners America has lost, while also playing grab-ass and crassly defaming subordinates."
The reaction at Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
was similar, noting how in the period in which Mad Men takes place, "play is part of work, sexual banter isn't yet harassment, and America is free of self-doubt, guilt, and countercultural confusion."
The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
said that the show had found "a strange and lovely space between nostalgia and political correctness".
The show also received critical praise for its historical accuracy – mainly its depictions of gender and racial bias, sexual dynamics in the workplace, and the high prevalence of smoking and drinking.
However, Mad Men has become the subject of much race and gender based discussion, particularly with the treatment of women characters and characters of color. In Salon, Nelle Engoron explained that while Mad Men seems to illuminate gender issues, its male characters get off "scot-free" for their drinking and adultery, while the female characters are often punished. Amy Benfer, also writing for Salon, used Oprah's fawning segment on the show (which involved Gayle King visiting the Sterling Cooper offices) to explore how nostalgia for 1960s fashion and social norms obscures most discussion of the rampant racism and sexism during the period, asking "But isn’t it a little odd that a show that, among other things, warns about the dangers of seeing the past in too amber a light has spawned an industry devoted to fetishizing nostalgia for that same flawed past?" Anna Kelna writing in Ms. Magazine
Ms. magazine
Ms. is an American feminist magazine co-founded by American feminist and activist Gloria Steinem and founding editor Letty Cottin Pogrebin together with founding editors Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, and Mary Peacock, that first appeared in 1971 as an insert in New York magazine...
points out that "Mad Men itself might ascribe to the feminist agenda, but thanks to its pervasive impact on pop culture, the show is crafting a whole new generation of would-be Bettys (Draper’s stylish wife) not Peggys (the show’s ambitious “career girl”)." Also writing for Ms., Aviva Dove-Viebahn argues that "Mad Men straddles the line between a nuanced portrayal of how sexism and patriarchal entitlement shape lives, careers and social interactions in the 1960s (and, by extension, today) and a glorified rendering of the “fast-paced, chauvinistic world of 1960s advertising and all that comes with it.”" Melissa Witkowski, writing for The Guardian, argued that Peggy's ascendancy was marred because the show "strongly implies that no woman had ever been a copywriter at Sterling Cooper prior to Peggy, but the circumstances of her promotion imply that this was merely because no woman had ever happened to sound talented in front of a man before," pointing out that Peggy's career path bore little resemblance to the stories of successful ad women of the time such as Mary Wells Lawrence
Mary Wells Lawrence
Mary Wells Lawrence is a retired American advertising executive. She was the founding president of Wells Rich Greene, an advertising agency known for its creativity and innovative work, and the first woman CEO of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.In the late 1940s, Mary Wells...
and Jean Wade Rindlaub
Jean Wade Rindlaub
Jean Wade Rindlaub was one of the first American women to become a major advertising executive. She was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 1989....
, and argued that the show distorts history by erasing the stories of the successful men and women of color of 1960s era Madison Avenue such as Clarence Holte, George Olden, and Caroline Robinson Jones.
Latoya Peterson, writing for Slate's Double X, argues that Mad Men isn't confronting racial issues, but glossing over them. The Roots Michael Ross points out that the continued lack of black admen is rapidly becoming ahistorical.
The Washington Post agreed with most other reviews in regard to Mad Mens visual style, but disliked what was referred to as "lethargic" pacing of the storylines. A review of the first season DVD set in the London Review of Books
London Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...
by Mark Greif was much less laudatory. Greif stated that the series was an "unpleasant little entry in the genre of Now We Know Better" as the cast was a series of historical stereotypes that failed to do anything except "congratulate the present." In a February 2011 review of the show's first four seasons, critic Daniel Mendelsohn
Daniel Mendelsohn
-Life and career:Mendelsohn was born on Long Island. He graduated with a B. A. in Classics from the University of Virginia, which he attended from 1978 to 1982 as an Echols Scholar, and received his M. A. and Ph. D. in Classics from Princeton University, where he was a Mellon Fellow in the...
wrote that in comparison with similarly acclaimed shows such as The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
, Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...
, and Friday Night Lights
Friday Night Lights (TV series)
Friday Night Lights is an American sports drama television series adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book and film of the same name. The series details events surrounding a high school football team based in fictional Dillon, Texas, with particular focus given to team...
, Mad Men "shares virtually no significant qualities except its design. The writing is extremely weak, the plotting haphazard and often preposterous, the characterizations shallow and sometimes incoherent; its attitude toward the past is glib and its self-positioning in the present is unattractively smug; the acting is, almost without exception, bland and sometimes amateurish. Worst of all—in a drama with aspirations to treating social and historical “issues”—the show is melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
tic rather than dramatic. By this I mean that it proceeds, for the most part, like a soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
, serially (and often unbelievably) generating, and then resolving, successive personal crises (adulteries, abortions, premarital pregnancies, interracial affairs, alcoholism and drug addiction, etc.), rather than exploring, by means of believable conflicts between personality and situation, the contemporary social and cultural phenomena it regards with such fascination: sexism, misogyny, social hypocrisy, racism, the counterculture, and so forth." The American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
selected it as one of the 10 best television series of 2007, 2008 and 2009, and it was named the best television show of that year by the Television Critics Association
Television Critics Association
The Television Critics Association is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canadian journalists and columnists who cover television programming...
and several national publications, including the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
, TIME Magazine, and TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
.
On June 20, 2007, the consumer-rights activist group Commercial Alert
Commercial Alert
Commercial Alert is a non-profit civic organization that opposes advertising to children and the commercialization of culture, education, and government. It works on issues such as commercialism, consumerism, product placement, ad-creep, and privacy. It works to reduce the negative impacts of...
filed a complaint with the United States Distilled Spirits Council alleging that Mad Men sponsor Jack Daniel's
Jack Daniel's
Jack Daniel's is a brand of sour mash Tennessee whiskey that is among the world's best-selling liquors. It is known for its square bottles and black label. As of November, 2007, one blogger was claiming that it was the best-selling whiskey in the world. It is produced in Lynchburg, Tennessee by...
whiskey was violating liquor advertising standards since the show features "depictions of overt sexual activity" as well as irresponsible intoxication. Jack Daniel's was mentioned by name in the fifth episode.
Among people who worked in advertising during the 1960s, opinions on the realism of Mad Men differ to some extent. Jerry Della Femina
Jerry Della Femina
Jerry Della Femina is an American advertising executive and restaurateur. Starting from a poor Italian background in Brooklyn, he eventually became chairman of Della Femina Travisano & Partners, an agency which he founded with Ron Travisano in the 1960s...
, who worked as a copywriter in that era and later founded his own agency, said that the show "accurately reflects what went on. The smoking, the prejudice and the bigotry." Robert Levinson, one of Weiner's advertising consultants, who worked at BBDO
BBDO
BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency began in 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company, and later in 1928, through a merger of BDO and Batten Co. the agency became BBDO...
from 1960 to 1980, concurred with Della Femina: "What [Matthew Weiner] captured was so real. The drinking was commonplace, the smoking was constant, the relationships between the executives and the secretaries was exactly right." Conversely, Allen Rosenshine, a copywriter who went on to lead BBDO, called the show "a total fabrication," saying, "if anybody talked to women the way these goons do, they’d have been out on their ass."
Mad Men includes references to real life products, events and places. The filming of an Utz potato chips advertisement formed part of the back story of the Drapers' marital strife. Pete Campbell's father was killed on American Airlines Flight 1
American Airlines Flight 1
American Airlines Flight 1 was a domestic, scheduled passenger flight from New York International Airport , New York to Los Angeles International Airport, California that crashed shortly after take-off on 1 March 1962. All 87 passengers and eight crew died in the crash...
in 1962, on the same day that astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
John Glenn
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...
was given a ticker tape parade on Broadway, events that actually occurred as mentioned. Characters eat in well-known New York restaurants, including the Pen & Pencil and the Palm. Several characters also attended a closed circuit telecast of the Liston
Sonny Liston
Charles L. "Sonny" Liston was a professional boxer and ex-convict known for his toughness, punching power, and intimidating appearance who became world heavyweight champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round...
vs. Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
("Cassius Clay") boxing match on the day it occurred in real life, May 25, 1965.
Accolades
Mad Men is the multiple recipient of nominations and awards from various organizations, includingthe American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
,
Emmys
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
and Creative Arts Emmys from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences,
a Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
from the Peabody Board at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
The Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is a college within the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, United States...
,
Satellite Awards from the International Press Academy
International Press Academy
The International Press Academy is a large and diverse association of professional entertainment journalists, representing both domestic and foreign markets in print, television, radio, cable and new media outlets. The academy was founded in 1996 by Mirjana Van Blaricom...
, and
British Academy Television Awards
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
.
Numerous nominations and award has also been received from guilds and societies such as
the Art Directors Guild
Art Directors Guild
The Art Directors Guild is an American labor union and branch of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees representing almost 2,000 motion picture and television professionals....
,
the Casting Society of America
Casting Society of America
Founded in Los Angeles, California in 1982, the Casting Society of America is a professional society of about 350 casting directors for film, television, and theatre in Australia, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. The society is not to be confused with an industry union. The...
,
the Cinema Audio Society,
the Costume Designers Guild
Costume Designers Guild
The Costume Designers Guild , IATSE LOCAL 892 was founded in 1953 by a group of 30 motion picture costume designers. In 1986, the Costume Designers Guild joined the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and added Local 892 to its name...
,
the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
,
the Motion Picture Sound Editors
Motion Picture Sound Editors
Founded in 1953, Motion Picture Sound Editors is an honorary society of motion picture sound editors. The society's goals are to educate others about and increase the recognition of the sound editors, show the artistic merit of the soundtracks, and improve the professional relationship of its...
,
the Producers Guild of America
Producers Guild of America
Producers Guild of America is a trade organization representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 4,700 members of the producing establishment worldwide...
,
the Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
,
the Television Critics Association
Television Critics Association
The Television Critics Association is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canadian journalists and columnists who cover television programming...
, and
the Writers Guild of America
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
.
Award highlights include winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series
This page lists the winners and nominees for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, since its institution in 1951. The award is often cited as one of the "main awards" at the Emmys ceremonies, and has changed names many times in its history. It was first called Best Dramatic Show...
four times, for each of its first four seasons; its fourth win tied the record for serial dramas set earlier by Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
(1981–1984), L.A. Law
L.A. Law
L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
, and The West Wing (2000–2003).
Parodies
Jon Hamm was the host of Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
on October 26, 2008, during the show's 34th season
Saturday Night Live (Season 34)
The thirty-fourth season of the variety series Saturday Night Live began airing in 2008 and concluded in 2009 on NBC. This season of Saturday Night Live consisted of 22 episodes, in an attempt to compensate for episodes lost during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike...
. Mad Men was parodied on two skits from that episode. In one, "A-Holes
Two A-Holes
"The Two A-Holes..." is a recurring skit on Saturday Night Live. Jason Sudeikis and Kristen Wiig portray the nameless male and female "assholes," a preppy self-absorbed couple who love chewing gum, pop culture references, and completely ignoring the people around them...
: Pitch Meeting", Hamm is joined by two other Mad Men cast members in cameo appearances, Elisabeth Moss
Elisabeth Moss
Elisabeth Singleton Moss is an American actor. Her notable roles include that of Zoey Bartlet, the third and youngest daughter of President Jed Bartlet, on the NBC television series The West Wing , and secretary turned copywriter Peggy Olson on the AMC original series Mad Men .-Early life and...
(who was called the morning of the show and asked to play Peggy, since Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler
Amy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...
, who was going to do it, went into labor) and John Slattery
John Slattery
John M. Slattery, Jr. is an American actor and director, best known for his role as Roger Sterling on AMC's series Mad Men. He has been nominated for many awards, and has won two SAG Awards with the Mad Men ensemble....
. In another skit, "Don Draper's Guide to Picking Up Women," Hamm pokes fun at how easily his character seduces women.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Treehouse of Horror XIX
Treehouse of Horror XIX
"Treehouse of Horror XIX" is the fourth episode of the twentieth season of The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 2, 2008...
", which first aired in the United States on November 2, 2008, included a segment called "How to Get Ahead in Dead-Vertising" The segment, an adaptation of the Mad Men animated title sequence, was the "inspiration" of executive producer Al Jean
Al Jean
Al Jean is an award-winning American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on The Simpsons. He was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his writing career in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss...
; it featured a "rotund, lunchbox-carrying figure, undoubtedly Homer Simpson
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
, enter[ing] a living room and then float[ing] past windows bearing Springfield
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
-centric displays that include a Duff Beer
Duff Beer
Daleside is an independent brewery founded in 1988 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England.-Products:Daleside produce a wide range of beers, including Morocco Ale, a traditional spiced beer based on an Elizabethan recipe; Old Legover, a low abv Old Ale ; Monkey Wrench, a stronger Old Ale; Ripon...
ad," with the Mad Men theme music on the soundtrack.
The children's television show Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
ran a child-friendly parody of Mad Men on November 11, 2009 (episode 4188). Muppet versions of Don Draper and two other advertising professionals are shown going on an "emotional rollercoaster," becoming "mad," "sad" and "happy," as they sort through pictures of an ad campaign featuring a cartoon bear. When Miranda Barry of the Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop , is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world...
was asked how such a parody is possible "given the drinking, smoking, and womanizing that's a big part of the AMC show", she compared it to their parody of Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives
Desperate Housewives is an American television comedy-drama series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. Executive producer Cherry serves as Showrunner. Other executive producers since the fourth season include Marc Cherry, Bob Daily, George W...
: "You may have seen our parody called 'Desperate Houseplants.' It was about a houseplant not getting its needs met by the gardener. So it always works on two levels."
In late 2010, the TV show Arthur had a parody of Mad Men in the episode "Nicked by a name" using a character named Tom Taper instead of Don Draper.
On 30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
(Season 4, Episode 20: The Moms) Liz Lemon's mother, Margaret, mentions working for Sterling Cooper after graduating secretarial school. In the episode "The Ones", Kenneth Parcell has an allergic reaction to strawberries and says "My real name... is Dick Whitman."
In the March 2010 episode "Physical Education
Physical Education (Community)
"Physical Education" is the seventeenth episode of the first season of the American comedy television series Community. It aired in the United States on NBC on March 04, 2010.-Plot:...
" of the TV series Community
Community (TV series)
Community is an American television comedy series created by Dan Harmon that airs on NBC. The series is about a group of students at a community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado. The series heavily uses meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television...
the character Abed, a television and movie connoisseur, does an impression of Don Draper, after his peers encourage him to change his personality. He practices a conversation with Annie (played by Alison Brie, who plays Trudy Campbell on Mad Men). He offers her cigarettes, while putting on a deep voice and a flirtatious charm. As Annie leans in to kiss Abed, he quickly turns away and says, "Don Draper from Mad Men". While many of his friends are impressed, Shirley shouts, "Don't be him! He cheats on his wife!"
Another parody is in the television show House M.D, When the doctor Gregory House insults a high ranking man who works at a well respected advertisement agency, when he goes for a Career day at a school by calling him Don when his name was Dave.
Another parody entitled, "Malt Men" features actors Ryan Ridley and Eric Price
Eric Price
Eric Price is an American comic actor. Price is most notable for his membership in the recurring cast of comedians on sketch comedy series MADtv during its 14th Season.-Early years:...
as characters who advertise malt liquor
Malt liquor
Malt liquor is a North American term referring to a type of beer with high alcohol content. In legal statutes, the term often includes any alcoholic beverage above or equal to 5% alcohol by volume made with malted barley. In common parlance, however, it is used for high-alcohol beers made with...
beverages. The five-minute parody appears on Channel 101
Channel 101
Channel 101 is a non-profit short film festival in Los Angeles, which also has a sister festival in NYC, Channel 101: NY. Channel 101 is a creation of Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab in which participants submit a short film in the format of a pilot under five minutes in length...
, a monthly short-film festival in Los Angeles.
The comedy website Funny Or Die
Funny or Die
Funny or Die is a comedy video website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company, Gary Sanchez Productions with original and user-generated content. Funny or Die contains exclusive material from a number of famous contributors and also has its own Funny or Die Team, which creates...
has a small series of skits entitled MA
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
Men which transplants the show into present-day South Boston and invariably involves creating ad campaigns for various Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
businesses in which certain members of Boston's professional sports
Sports in Boston
Boston, Massachusetts, is home to several major league sports teams, including the Boston Red Sox , Boston Celtics , and Boston Bruins . The New England Patriots and New England Revolution play at Gillette Stadium in nearby Foxborough.The city is home to two renowned sporting events: the Boston...
rivals are sodomized. Comedian Rob Delaney plays Draper, Joey McIntyre plays Roger, Nate Corddry
Nate Corddry
Nathan "Nate" Corddry is an American actor best known for his television roles on programs such as Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Daily Show, United States of Tara and Harry's Law. He played Private First Class Loudmouth in the HBO miniseries The Pacific...
plays Campbell, Jessica Chafin plays Joan, Jamie Denbo
Jamie Denbo
Jamie Denbo is an American actress and comedienne. She most recently co-starred in the FX series Terriers.-Life and career:...
plays Peggy, Nat Faxon
Nat Faxon
-Life and career:Faxon is a graduate of Holderness School and Hamilton College, he is best known for his appearances in comedic films such as Orange County , Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story , and several Broken Lizard films including Beerfest...
plays Salvatore, and Michaela Watkins
Michaela Watkins
Michaela Suzanne Watkins is an American comic actress, best known for her various roles as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, a regular performer with The Groundlings in Los Angeles, her recurring role as "Lucy" in the sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine, and for her supporting role as...
plays Trudy.
Marketing
In promotion for the series, AMC aired multiple commercials and a behind the scenes documentary on the making of Mad Men before its premiere. The commercials mostly show the one (usually brief) sex scene from each episode of the season. The commercials, as well as the documentary, featured the song "You Know I'm No GoodYou Know I'm No Good
"You Know I'm No Good" a song by English recording artist Amy Winehouse, released as the second single from her second studio album, Back to Black. The track follows in the footsteps of Winehouse's previous singles of a mix of jazz and R&B with her soulful, raspy vocals and this time hip...
" by Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
. The documentary, in addition to trailers and sneak peeks of upcoming episodes, were released on the official AMC website. Mad Men was also made available at the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
on July 20, 2007, along with the "making of" documentary.
Inspired by the iconic Zippo
Zippo
A Zippo lighter is a refillable, metal lighter manufactured by Zippo Manufacturing Company of Bradford, Pennsylvania, U.S. Thousands of different styles and designs have been made in the seven decades since their introduction including military ones for specific regiments.-Establishment:George G...
brand, the DVD box set of the first season of Mad Men was designed like a flip-open Zippo lighter. Zippo subsequently developed two designs of lighters with "Mad Men" logos to be sold at the company headquarters and online. The DVD box set, as well as a Blu-ray disc set, was released July 1, 2008; it features a total of 23 audio commentaries
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
on the season's 13 episodes from various members of the cast and crew.
For the second season, AMC undertook the largest marketing campaign it had ever launched, intending to reflect the "cinematic quality" of the series. The Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
subway shuttle to Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
was decorated with life-size posters of Jon Hamm as Don Draper, and quotes from the first season. Inside Grand Central, groups of people dressed in period clothing would hand out "Sterling Cooper" business cards to promote the July 27 season premiere. Window displays were arranged at 14 Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's
Bloomingdale's is an American department store owned by Macy's, Inc. .Bloomingdale's started in 1861 when brothers Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale started selling hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions' Shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side...
stores for exhibition throughout July, and a 45' by 100' wallscape was posted at the corner of Hollywood and Highland
Hollywood and Highland
The Hollywood & Highland Center is a shopping mall and entertainment complex at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district in Los Angeles. The center also includes Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre, home to the Academy Awards. The historic site was once the...
in downtown Hollywood. Television commercials on various cable and local networks, full-page print ads, and a 30-second trailer in Landmark Theaters throughout July were also run in promotion of the series. Television promotions for the second season featured the song "The Truth
So... How's Your Girl?
So... How's Your Girl? is the debut album by Handsome Boy Modeling School, released on the label Tommy Boy Music. It makes liberal use of sound bites from the 1990 episode "The Prettiest Week of My Life" of the sitcom Get a Life, an episode in which the main character decides to attend the...
" by Handsome Boy Modelling School.
In the spring of 2010, Mattel
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...
released a series of limited-edition collectible Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
and Ken dolls based on the characters Don and Betty Draper, Joan Holloway, and Roger Sterling.
For the third season, the clothing store Banana Republic partnered with Mad Men to create window displays at its U.S. stores, showing clothing inspired by the fashion of the show. The store also ran a "casting call" competition, in which participants were asked to mail photos of themselves in period fashion for a chance at a walk-on part in the show; two winners were announced in October 2010.
Another clothing promotion from the series' third season includes a "Mad-Men Edition" suit
Suit (clothing)
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in the United Kingdom as country wear...
offered by American clothing retailer Brooks Brothers
Brooks Brothers
Brooks Brothers is the oldest men's clothier chain in the United States. Founded in 1818 as a family business, the privately owned company is now owned by Retail Brand Alliance, also features clothing for women, and is headquartered on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York City.-History:On April 7,...
. The suit is designed by the show's costume designer
Costume Designer
A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film or stage production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, scenic and lighting designers as well as the sound designer. The...
, Janie Bryant
Katherine Jane Bryant
Katherine Jane Bryant is an American television costume designer.Her most notable work is in the HBO Western series Deadwood, for which she was awarded the Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series in 2005...
, and is based on an actual style sold by Brooks Brothers
Brooks Brothers
Brooks Brothers is the oldest men's clothier chain in the United States. Founded in 1818 as a family business, the privately owned company is now owned by Retail Brand Alliance, also features clothing for women, and is headquartered on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York City.-History:On April 7,...
in the early 1960s.
The fourth season saw the announcement of a collaboration between Janie Bryant and Californian-based company, Nailtini, to produce a limited-edition line of Mad Men nail polish
Nail polish
Nail polish, or nail varnish, is a lacquer applied to human fingernails or toenails to decorate and/or protect the nail plate.-History:...
. The four shades are entitled Bourbon Satin, French 75, Deauville and Stinger and are reported to have been inspired by the fabrics used to make cocktail dress
Cocktail dress
A cocktail dress or cocktail gown is a woman's dress worn at cocktail parties, and semi-formal, or "black tie" occasions.The length of cocktail dresses varies depending on fashion and local custom. The length ranges from just above the knee to touching the ankle...
es in the Sixties. The Mad Men nail polish line went on sale in the US in late 2010.
Online promotion
Promotion for Seasons 4 and 5 saw Mad Men and AMC partnering with Banana Republic for the Mad Men Casting Call, in which users submit photos of themselves in Mad Men style and one winner receives the opportunity for a walk-on role in an upcoming season. Promotion for Seasons 3 and 4 included “Mad Men Yourself”, an interactive game in which the user can choose clothing and accessories for an avatar similar to the appearance of Mad Men characters, drawn in the sixties-inspired style of illustrator Dyna MoeDyna Moe
Dyna Moe is a comedienne and illustrator best known for her drawings of scenes from the AMC TV show Mad Men.-Biography:...
. “Mad Men Cocktail Culture” was also featured, an iPhone app that challenges users to create the perfect drink as featured in Mad Men episodes. Another interactive game launched prior to Season 3, the “Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Job Interview”, allowed users to answer questions based on various scenarios and then offered them a position in the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce office. Season 3 also included “Which Mad Man Are You?”, an interactive game in which users could find out which Mad Men character they were most like based on their answers to questions about various work and life situations. Users can take trivia quizzes based on the years in which the Mad Men episodes take place and find recipes for '60s-era drinks on the Mad Men Cocktail Guide. AMC's Mad Men website also features exclusive sneak peek and behind the scenes videos, episodic and behind-the-scenes photo galleries, episode and character guides, a blog, and a community forum.
Product placement
Mad Men integrates product placementProduct placement
Product placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the...
into its narratives. For instance, in a second season episode, the beer manufacturer Heineken
Heineken
Heineken is a Dutch beer which has been brewed by Heineken International since 1873. It is available in a 4.6% alcohol variety in countries such as Ireland. It is the flagship product of the Heineken company and is made of purified water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. In 1886 H...
is seen as a client seeking to bring its beer to the attention of American consumers. This placement was paid for by Heineken as an additional part of their advertising on the show. Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
has a similar deal with Mad Men. Other examples remain less obvious, such as ads worked on by the firm, or companies sought as clients such as Utz
Utz Quality Foods, Inc.
Utz Quality Foods, Inc. , based in Hanover, Pennsylvania, is the largest independent privately held snack brand in the United States. The company was founded in 1921 and distributes a variety of potato chips and other snack foods throughout the United States....
potato chips, Maidenform
Maidenform
Maidenform Brands is a manufacturer of women's underwear, founded in 1922 by three people: seamstress Ida Rosenthal; Enid Bissett, who owned the shop that employed her; and Ida's husband, William Rosenthal...
, Gillette, American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
, Clearasil
Clearasil
Clearasil is the top-selling brand of skin care and acne medication, whose products contain chiefly benzoyl peroxide, sulfur & resorcinol, triclosan, or salicylic acid as active ingredients...
and others.
The closing episode of season two was broadcast (for its premiere) in the United States with only one brief commercial interruption: a short ad for Heineken beer.
During the fourth season, Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
created a series of six retro commercials to be aired during the show in the United States. The ads are set at the fictional Smith Winter Mitchell advertising agency and take place during the same time period as Mad Men. The products used in the ads are Dove
Dove (brand)
Dove is a personal care brand owned by Unilever.Dove products are manufactured in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey and United States. The products are sold in more than 35 countries and are offered for both women and men.. The Dove...
, Breyers
Breyers
Breyers is a brand of frozen dessert and ice cream owned by Unilever . They have a large plant in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts, outside Boston....
, Hellman's, Klondike
Klondike bar
Klondike is a brand name for a dessert generally consisting of a vanilla ice cream square coated with a thin layer of chocolate-flavored coating. The first recorded advertisement for the Klondike was on February 5, 1922 in the Youngstown Vindicator. They are generally wrapped with a silver-colored...
, Suave
Suave
Suave is a brand name based in Chicago, IL used by the Unilever company in the United States, Argentina, Mexico and Canada. Targeting discount stores, the brand represents more than 100 products including shampoo, lotions, soaps and deodorant....
, and Vaseline
Vaseline
Vaseline is a brand of petroleum jelly based products owned by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. Products include plain petroleum jelly and a selection of skin creams, soaps, lotions, cleansers, deodorants and personal lubricants....
.
Influence
Mad Men has been credited with setting off a wave of renewed interest in the fashion and culture of the early 1960s. According to The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
in 2008, the show was responsible for a revival in men's suits, especially suits resembling those of that time period, with higher waistbands and shorter jackets; as well as "everything from tortoise shell glasses to fedoras".
New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley
Ben Brantley
Benjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...
wrote that the success of Mad Men had turned "the booze-guzzling, chain-smoking, babe-chasing 1960s" into "Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
’s decade du jour", citing three 1960s-set musicals that had appeared on Broadway in 2010 and 2011: revivals of Promises, Promises
Promises, Promises
Promises, Promises is a musical based on the 1960 film The Apartment. The music is by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David, and book by Neil Simon. Musical numbers for the original Broadway production were choreographed by Michael Bennett; Robert Moore directed and David Merrick produced...
and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's 1952 book of the same name....
, and a new musical, Catch Me If You Can
Catch Me if You Can (musical)
Catch Me If You Can is a musical with a libretto by Terrence McNally and a theatrical score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. It follows the story of con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr...
. Brantley also wrote, "I’m presuming that Mad Men is the reason this Promises, Promises is set not in the late ’60s, as the original was, but in 1962."
The 2009 TNT series Trust Me
Trust Me (TV series)
Trust Me is an American drama series that began airing on TNT on January 26, 2009 at 10 p.m Eastern/ 9 P.M Central. In Canada, Trust Me can be seen on Super Channel.Trust Me premiered with 3.4 million viewers....
, which ran for one season, was set at a modern-day advertising agency; television critic Tom Shales
Tom Shales
Thomas William "Tom" Shales is an American critic of television programming and operations. He is best known as TV critic for The Washington Post; in 1988, Shales received the Pulitzer Prize...
called it a cross between Mad Men and another show, Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck is an American drama series created by Ryan Murphy, which aired on FX in the United States. The series focuses on McNamara/Troy, a plastic surgery practice, and follows its founders, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy...
. Two network television series that premiered in 2011, Pan Am
Pan Am (TV series)
Pan Am is an American period drama television series created by writer Jack Orman. Named for the iconic Pan American World Airways, the series focuses on the pilots and stewardesses of the airline as it operated in the early 1960s at the beginning of the commercial jet age.Sony licensed the rights...
and the short-lived The Playboy Club
The Playboy Club
The Playboy Club is an American television series that ran on NBC from September 19, 2011 to October 3, 2011. Set in 1961, the series centers around the employees of the original Playboy Club operating in Chicago....
, both set in 1963, have frequently been referred to as imitations of Mad Men.
Don Draper's rendition of the Frank O'Hara
Frank O'Hara
Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara was an American writer, poet and art critic. He was a member of the New York School of poetry.-Life:...
poem 'Mayakovsky' from Meditations in an Emergency, at the end of episode one of season two, led to the poet's work entering the top 50 sales on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
.
The appearance of actress Christina Hendricks as secretary Joan is said to have sparked a renewed interest in a voluptuous look for women, and to be partly responsible for, among other things, a 10% increase in breast implant surgery in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 2010.
According to the website BabyCenter, the show led to the name "Betty" soaring in popularity for baby girls in the United States in 2010.
International broadcast
| Country | Network |
|---|---|
 Argentina |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Australia AustraliaAustralia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
Movie Extra Movie Network Movie Network Channels is an Australian premium television movie service that consists of five original channels , two SD timeshifts and three HD simulcasts... , SBS One |
 Belarus |
Channel One Channel One (Russia) Channel One is the first television channel to broadcast in the Soviet Union. The channel was renamed Ostankino Channel 1 in 1991, after the Soviet Union broke up and the Russian SFSR became the Russian Federation. According to a recent government publication, the Russian government controls 51%... |
 Belgium BelgiumBelgium Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... |
Acht Acht Acht is a municipality in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany.-References:... |
 Bolivia |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Brazil BrazilBrazil Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people... |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... / SBT |
 Bulgaria BulgariaBulgaria Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east... |
Nova Television |
 Canada CanadaCanada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
AMC AMC AMC may refer to:* AMC , a short-lived British steam car manufactured in London in 1910*AMC Networks, an American media company** AMC , originally American Movie Classics, a cable television channel owned by AMC Networks... , Télé-Québec Télé-Québec Télé-Québec is a French language public educational television network in the Canadian province of Quebec. Known legally as Société de télédiffusion du Québec , it is a provincial crown corporation owned by the Government of Quebec... |
 Chile |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Colombia |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Costa Rica |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Cyprus CyprusCyprus Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the... |
LTV Lumiere TV Lumiere TV is a premium television service available in Cyprus, that broadcasts movies and series. It is owned by LTV Group Ltd. Repeaters have been set up across the country that enable more than 80% of the population to receive these services. Lumiere TV was originally available on the NOVA... |
 Czech Republic Czech RepublicCzech Republic The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest.... |
TV Nova Prima Cool Prima Cool Prima Cool is a Czech private television station.Prima Cool is second channel of TV Prima. Cool is a man- and young-oriented station.Prima Cool launched on 1 April 2009 as new digital channel of TV Prima. It can be tuned in Czech DVB-T multiplex 2, where is free to air... |
 Denmark DenmarkDenmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... |
TV3 Puls TV3 Puls TV3 Puls is television channel broadcasting to Denmark. It started broadcasting March 23, 2009.Among the programmes broadcast on the channel from its launch are series such as Mad Men and Pushing Daisies, lifestyle programmes and sports events such as Formula One.-Programming:Recurring elements in... |
 Dominican Republic |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Ecuador |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 El Salvador |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Estonia EstoniaEstonia Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies... |
Kanal 11 Kanal 11 Kanal 11 is an Estonian TV channel. It is owned by the Kanal 2 company. The name of the channel is derived from a play on words; in the Estonian language, "Üksteist", the word for eleven, also means "each other"... |
 Finland FinlandFinland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside... |
Nelonen Nelonen Nelonen is a Finnish commercial TV channel. It started out as Helsinki's local television channel PTV in 1989 on the HTV cable network, which name was changed first to PTV4 and then to Nelonen. It started on June 1, 1997. Nelonen, in Finnish, means the glyph of the number four. The channel is... |
 France FranceFrance The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
Canal+ Canal+ Canal+ is a French premium pay television channel launched in 1984. It is 80% owned by the Canal+ Group, which in turn is owned by Vivendi SA. The channel broadcasts several kinds of programming, mostly encrypted... |
 Germany GermanyGermany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
FOX Channel Fox Channel (Germany) Fox Channel is a German television channel dedicated to television drama series.The channel started broadcasting on the Arena platform and the Unitymedia cable network on May 20, 2008.... , ZDFneo ZDFneo ZDFneo is a German digital terrestrial television channel, programmed for an audience aged 18 to 45 to counter the primarily older-skewing main programmes of public broadcasters ZDF and ARD. It replaced ZDF's documentary channel, "ZDFdokukanal", on November 1, 2009.-Name:Although the channel's logo... |
 Greece GreeceGreece Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe.... |
Star Channel Star Channel Star Channel is a Greek television network that broadcasts a mix of foreign and Greek programming. It launched in December 1993 and is owned by Nea Tileorasi A.E.. The main news bulletin is called Star Eidiseis, which is currently hosted by Aimilios Liatsos... |
 Guatemala |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Honduras |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Hong Kong |
STAR World STAR World STAR World is an Asian English language cable and satellite television network owned by Star TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation. The channel is the successor of STAR Plus, a subsidiary of News Corporation... |
 Hungary HungaryHungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The... |
m1 M1 (TV channel) m1 is a Hungarian television channel own and operated by Magyar Televízió. It is also transmitted in high definition.It was 24 hours in 2000 along with m2... , m2 M2 (TV channel) m2 is a Hungarian television channel own and operated by Magyar Televízió. It is also transmitted in high definition.-Transmission Hours throughout the years:... |
 Iceland |
Stöð 2 Stöð 2 Stöð 2 is an Icelandic television channel, owned and operated by 365. Founded in 1986, It was the first privately owned television station in Iceland following the lifting of the state monopoly on television broadcasting... |
 India IndiaIndia India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |
Zee Café Zee Cafe Zee Café is an Indian cable and satellite television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 15 March 2000 as Zee English and known for general entertainment channel... |
 Indonesia |
STAR World STAR World STAR World is an Asian English language cable and satellite television network owned by Star TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation. The channel is the successor of STAR Plus, a subsidiary of News Corporation... |
 Republic of Ireland IrelandIreland Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth... |
RTE 2 |
 Israel IsraelIsrael The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... |
Channel 10 |
 Italy ItalyItaly Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... |
Rai 2 |
 Japan JapanJapan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
WOWOW WOWOW WOWOW was the first private satellite broadcasting and pay TV station in Japan. It has its headquarters on the 21st floor of the Akasaka Park Building in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo... |
 Kazakhstan |
Channel One Channel One (Russia) Channel One is the first television channel to broadcast in the Soviet Union. The channel was renamed Ostankino Channel 1 in 1991, after the Soviet Union broke up and the Russian SFSR became the Russian Federation. According to a recent government publication, the Russian government controls 51%... |
 Kenya |
Kenya Television Network Kenya Television Network Kenya Television Network is the leading television station in Kenya with its headquarters at the I & M Towers in downtown Nairobi. Its headquarters will change later on in the year as it moves in with its parent company's other subsidiaries at the newly-built Standard Group Centre on Mombasa road... |
 Latvia |
TV3 TV3 Latvia TV3 Latvia is a television channel targeted at a Latvian language audience owned by Modern Times Group . It was launched in 1998, but did not receive a terrestrial license until 2001... |
 Lithuania |
Lietuvos Rytas TV |
 Republic of Macedonia MacedoniaRepublic of Macedonia Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991... |
ALFA |
 Malaysia Malaysia |
FX FX - Entertainment :* FX , an international cable/satellite television network * F/X, a movie set in the world of special effects* F/X: The Series, a television program based on the movie... |
 Mexico |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... , Once TV Once TV Once TV México, Spanish for México Eleven TV is a Mexican educational broadcast television network owned by Instituto Politecnico Nacional. The network's flagship station is XEIPN channel 11 in Mexico, Distrito Federal. It broadcasts across Mexico through local television affiliates, cable... |
 Netherlands NetherlandsNetherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
NED 2 |
 New Zealand |
SoHo Soho (New Zealand TV channel) SoHo is a premium entertainment channel in New Zealand available on SKY Network Television. It is available for an extra $9.99 on top of sky basic package cost. The channel mainly airs shows from American cable networks HBO and AMC, many of them for the first time on New Zealand TV... |
 Nicaragua |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Norway NorwayNorway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
TVNorge TVNorge TVNorge is a Norwegian television channel.TVNorge went on the air December 5, 1988 and was the first advertising-supported Norwegian channel. The channel was started with 50 000 NOK... |
 Pakistan |
STAR World STAR World STAR World is an Asian English language cable and satellite television network owned by Star TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation. The channel is the successor of STAR Plus, a subsidiary of News Corporation... |
 Panama |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Paraguay |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Peru |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Philippines |
Jack TV Jack TV Jack TV is a Philippine cable TV network owned by Solar Entertainment Corporation, test launched on May 2005, officially debuting on July 12, 2005. It offers Western comedy, animation, sports entertainment, drama series and reality shows, such as Cartoon Network, USA Network, The CW, MyNetworkTV,... Studio 23 Studio 23 Studio 23 is a Filipino television network owned by the ABS-CBN Corporation. The network is named for its flagship station in Metro Manila, DWAC-TV, which is carried on UHF channel 23... |
 Poland PolandPoland Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north... |
TVN (Poland) TVN (Poland) TVN is a major Polish commercial television network. The broadcaster was co-founded by Polish businessmen Mariusz Walter and Jan Wejchert. The network launched on October 3, 1997. TVN belongs to the TVN S.A... |
 Portugal PortugalPortugal Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the... |
RTP2 |
 Puerto Rico |
AMC |
 Romania RomaniaRomania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea... |
TVR1, Prima TV Prima TV Prima TV is a Romanian commercial TV channel, famous mainly for the Cronica Cârcotaşilor show and various reality shows.-Start:Prima TV was launched as one of the first commercial television stations in Romania in December 1997... |
 Russia RussiaRussia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects... |
Channel One Channel One (Russia) Channel One is the first television channel to broadcast in the Soviet Union. The channel was renamed Ostankino Channel 1 in 1991, after the Soviet Union broke up and the Russian SFSR became the Russian Federation. According to a recent government publication, the Russian government controls 51%... |
 Saudi Arabia Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World... |
MBC4 Orbit Showtime Orbit Showtime Orbit Showtime Network, now officially branded as OSN, is a subscription television service in the Middle East and North Africa. The platform is owned by Panther Media Group, and the company is registered in DIFC. OSN is a joint venture between the Kuwait-based KIPCO and Saudi Arabia-based Mawarid... |
 Singapore |
STAR World STAR World STAR World is an Asian English language cable and satellite television network owned by Star TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation. The channel is the successor of STAR Plus, a subsidiary of News Corporation... |
 Slovenia SloveniaSlovenia Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of... |
RTV SLO Radiotelevizija Slovenija Radiotelevizija Slovenija – usually abbreviated to RTV Slovenija – is Slovenia's national public broadcasting organization. Based in the country's capital, Ljubljana, it has regional broadcasting centres in Koper and Maribor and correspondents around Slovenia, Europe and the world... |
| South Africa South Africa The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans... |
M-net M-Net M-Net is a subscription-funded television channel in South Africa, established in 1986 by Naspers.... |
 Spain SpainSpain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... |
Fox, Canal+ |
 Serbia SerbiaSerbia Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans... |
Fox Life Fox Life Fox Life is a television network, launched by the Fox Broadcasting Company, which airs across Latin America, Europe and Japan . Its basic programming include numerous television series, sitcoms and movies, among others, which includes some original programming in certain regions... |
 Sweden SwedenSweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
Kanal 5 Kanal 5 (Sweden) Kanal 5 is a Swedish commercial television channel established in 1989. It is owned by the media corporation ProSiebenSat.1 Media.After a troublesome 1990s, Kanal 5 launched new strategies in the early 2000s that established it as a popular entertainment channel targeting young people... |
 Switzerland |
SF 1 SF 1 SF 1 is a Swiss television channel run under the public SRG SSR idée suisse broadcasting group. It is the first of the three national German language channels in Switzerland .... TSR1 |
 Republic of China |
STAR World STAR World STAR World is an Asian English language cable and satellite television network owned by Star TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation. The channel is the successor of STAR Plus, a subsidiary of News Corporation... |
 Thailand |
STAR World STAR World STAR World is an Asian English language cable and satellite television network owned by Star TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation. The channel is the successor of STAR Plus, a subsidiary of News Corporation... |
 Turkey TurkeyTurkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... |
CNBC-e CNBC-e CNBC-e is a hybrid business/financial and entertainment channel operated in Turkey by CNBC Europe and the NTV Group.The channel shares its name with a co-owned magazine about CNBC-e.... |
 Ukraine UkraineUkraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia... |
Mega Mega Mega- is an prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of million . Confirmed in 1960, it comes from the Greek μέγας, meaning great.-Other common examples of usage:* megapixel - 1 million pixels in a digital camera... |
 United Arab Emirates United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a... |
OSN First Orbit Showtime Orbit Showtime Network, now officially branded as OSN, is a subscription television service in the Middle East and North Africa. The platform is owned by Panther Media Group, and the company is registered in DIFC. OSN is a joint venture between the Kuwait-based KIPCO and Saudi Arabia-based Mawarid... |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
BBC Four BBC Four BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable.... (2008–2011) Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a television channel owned by British Sky Broadcasting, which launched on 1 February 2011 on Sky in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.... (2011–) |
 United States United StatesUnited States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
AMC |
 Uruguay |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
 Venezuela |
HBO Latin America HBO Latin America Group HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin... |
External links
(USA)- Official website at Movie NetworkMovie NetworkMovie Network Channels is an Australian premium television movie service that consists of five original channels , two SD timeshifts and three HD simulcasts...
(Australia) - Seeing History in Mad Men, an interactive timeline as of 2010 by The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...