Mad for Mad Men Corner

[Larry Kart]

So glad I stopped watching "Mad Men" part ways through episode two of season one -- first because, as Chuck said at the time, having lived through the '50s I don't need to see them regurgitated; second, because I could tell right off that they were getting or going to get just about everything wrong. The ludicrously demonstrative smoking was a good clue.

It is/was an amazing show, possibly my favorite ever, for many reasons.

My favorite show probably is "Buffy The Vampire Slayer." I'm not kidding.

[erwbol]

So glad I stopped watching "Mad Men" part ways through episode two of season one -- first because, as Chuck said at the time, having lived through the '50s I don't need to see them regurgitated; second, because I could tell right off that they were getting or going to get just about everything wrong. The ludicrously demonstrative smoking was a good clue.

What about the tiresome serial cheating? Especially the earlier seasons. In the end, I'm glad I continued watching.

[JSngry]

I particularly enjoyed how the whole D.B. Cooper thing remained viable up until the very last segment.

I wonder if any tv-beat-blogger person will have the esoteric bent to ask Weiner or Hamm or somebody about that tritone thing on the chant. It was pretty conspicuous, the interval itself as well as how it was mixed. Just wondering if it was a really inside joke, here Don is totally lost of his mojo, and then he chants at "the devil's interval" and you can see his mojo coming back into him, it's answered the call, and then...how else do you explain "I'd Like to Tech The World To Sing"?

I know there's lots of inside references when it comes to scripts and visuals, and the soundtracks have been delightfully "inside" as well, but, would they have had historical musical knowledge to know about "the devil's interval" and then do this? Or was Hamm off key, nobody cared, and that's how it ended up, wholly coincidental?

[medjuck]

I was at an event last night at The Ace Theater in downtown LA (it's really the old United Artists Theater built by Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks and Griffith) where they did a live reading of the first year's season final then showed the last episode of the series with Weiner and most of the cast present along with an audience of 1600 people. Both episodes got many laughs and huge applause when it looked like Joan and Peggy were going to open a business together.

They all got a standing ovation when they took to the stage but I thought the most satisfying thing must have been to hear a large audience responding to their work. I presume you don't usually get that in tv.

BTW I think there was one historical mistake in this episode. I don't think you answered "I'll accept" for a person to person call. You did that for a collect call. Person to person just meant you didn't get charged unless the exact person you were calling was there.

That sort of thing drives me nuts. I remember in the first couple of years they had someone going to a Dylan concert months before he'd ever given a concert. However I disagree with Larry's note about smoking. People smoked constantly. (Though maybe actors don't don't do it quite naturally enough.) Until he quit completely my father smoked in bed after he'd turned out the lights. And it continued later than we think. If you watch the first Ghostbusters movie (shot in 1983) the guys are smoking all the time. By the time we made the sequel in 1988, nobody in it smokes at all.

[Teasing the Korean]

I wonder if any tv-beat-blogger person will have the esoteric bent to ask Weiner or Hamm or somebody about that tritone thing on the chant. It was pretty conspicuous, the interval itself as well as how it was mixed. Just wondering if it was a really inside joke, here Don is totally lost of his mojo, and then he chants at "the devil's interval" and you can see his mojo coming back into him, it's answered the call, and then...how else do you explain "I'd Like to Tech The World To Sing"?

I noticed this also. My interpretation was that Don did not go back to NY to conceive this commercial, so his out-of-tune chanting reinforces the idea that he was in no position whatsoever to teach the world to sing.

[ghost of miles]

The legendary Mad Men alternative series-finale ending: