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Mad Men
File:Madmenlogo.jpg
Mad Men logo
GenrePeriod Piece
Drama
Created byMatthew Weiner
StarringJon Hamm
Elisabeth Moss
Vincent Kartheiser
January Jones
Christina Hendricks
Bryan Batt
Michael Gladis
Aaron Staton
Rich Sommer
Robert Morse
John Slattery
Opening theme"A Beautiful Mine" (Instrumental)
by RJD2
Country of origin United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes31 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerMatthew Weiner
Production locationLos Angeles
Running timeapprox. 47 minutes
Original release
NetworkUnited StatesAMC
ReleaseJuly 19, 2007 –
present
This article is about the television show. For the DC Comics supervillain team, see Madmen.

Mad Men is an American period dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. It is produced by Lionsgate Television and is broadcast on the cable network AMC. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its second season on October 26, 2008. The third season began on August 16, 2009.[1]

Set in New York City, Mad Men begins in 1960 at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on New York City's Madison Avenue.[2] The show centers on Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the agency's creative director, and those in his life, in and out of the office. It also depicts the changing 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 three Golden Globes, a BAFTA and six Emmys. It is the first basic cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.

Production

Conception

In 2000, while working as a staff writer for Becker, Matthew Weiner wrote the first draft for the pilot of what would later be called Mad Men as a spec script.[3][4] Television producer David Chase recruited Weiner to work as a writer on his HBO series The Sopranos after reading the pilot script in 2002.[3][5] "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."[5] Weiner set the pilot script aside for the next seven years – during which time neither HBO nor Showtime expressed interest in the project[3][4]—until The Sopranos was completing its final season and cable network AMC happened to be in the market for new programming.[5] "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."[3][6]

Pre-production

Tim Hunter, the director of a half-dozen episodes from the show's first two seasons, called Mad Men a "very well-run show".

They have a lot of production meetings during pre-production. The day the script comes in we all meet for a first page turn, and Matt starts telling us how he envisions it. Then there's a quote-unquote "tone" meeting a few days later where Matt tells us how he envisions it. And then there's a final full crew production meeting where Matt...well, you know.[7]

Filming and production design

The pilot episode was shot at Silvercup Studios and various locations around New York City; subsequent episodes have been filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios.[8] It has been converted to high definition for showing on AMC-HD and on video-on-demand services available from various cable affiliates.[9] 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,[4][5][10] producing an authentic visual style that garnered critical praise.[11][12][13] Each episode has a budget between $2-2.5 million, though the pilot episode's budget was over $3 million.[3][4] On the copious scenes featuring smoking, Weiner stated that "Doing this show without smoking would've been a joke. It would've been sanitary and it would've been phony."[10] Since the actors cannot, by California law, smoke tobacco cigarettes in their workplace, they instead smoke herbal cigarettes.[3][10] Robert Morse was cast in the role of senior partner Bertram Cooper; Morse starred in A Guide for the Married Man (1967), a source of inspiration for Weiner,[5] and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1961) — two Broadway plays about amoral New Yorkers.

Weiner collaborated with cinematographer Phil Abraham and production designers Robert Shaw (who worked on the pilot only) and Dan Bishop to develop a visual style that was "influenced more by cinema than television."[8] Alan Taylor, a veteran director of The Sopranos, directed the pilot and also helped establish the series' visual tone.[14] 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.[8]

Episode format

The opening title sequence features credits superimposed over a graphic animation of a businessman falling from a height, surrounded by skyscrapers 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.[10] At the end, the episodes either fade to black or smash cut to black as period music or a theme by series composer David Carbonara plays during the ending credits, although at least one episode ended with silence. Episodes are generally titled after a significant event which occurs in the show and often contain two meanings. For example the second season episode "A Night To Remember" ostensibly refers to the slogan which Peggy uses to advertise the dance at her church, but it also refers to a particularly stressful night in the Drapers' marriage that occurs in the same episode.

Crew

In addition to having created the series, Matthew Weiner is the show runner, head writer, and its sole executive producer; he contributes to each episode – writing or co-writing the scripts, casting various roles, and approving costume and set designs.[3][4] He is notorious for being highly selective about all aspects of the series, and promotes a high level of secrecy around production details.[3][4] Tom Palmer served as a co-executive producer and writer on the first season. Scott Hornbacher, 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. Tim Hunter, Alan Taylor, Andrew Bernstein, and Lesli Linka Glatter are regular directors for the series.

As of the third season, seven of the nine writers for the show are women, in spite of Writers Guild of America 2006 statistics that show male writers outnumber female writers by 2-to-1.[15] 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?'[15]

Characters

Main article: List of characters in Mad Men

Mad Men features an ensemble cast representing several segments of society in 1960s New York, although it focuses most on Don Draper. Mad Men places emphasis on showing each character's past and their development over time. The following character summaries were based on information gathered from the page 'About the show' at amctv.com[16]. (Contains first and second season spoilers)

Lead characters

  • Donald Francis "Don" Draper (Jon Hamm): Creative director and eventual junior partner of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency; Draper is the series' main character. His past is shadowy, but he has achieved success at the agency. He is married to Elizabeth "Betty" Draper and has three children, but has a history of infidelity.[3][17] Draper was born Richard "Dick" Whitman; he assumed the real Don Draper's identity during the Korean War.[18]
  • Margaret "Peggy" Olson (Elisabeth Moss): Olson rises from Draper's secretary to a copywriter with her own office.[19] She unknowingly becomes pregnant with Pete Campbell's child, is told she suffered a mental breakdown after the unexpected birth given that she did not know of her pregnancy,[20] and gives the baby up for adoption.[21]
  • Peter Dyckman "Pete" Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser): A young, ambitious account executive from a privileged background. Campbell tries to blackmail Don Draper with information from Draper's past.[18] He and his wife are unable to conceive a child, and he remains unaware of his child with Olson until the second season finale.
  • Elizabeth "Betty" Draper (nee Hofstadt) (January Jones): A former model and Don Draper's wife and mother of their three children, Sally, Bobby and Eugene Scott. She gradually becomes aware of her husband's womanizing over the first two seasons.[3] Following a brief separation, Betty allows Don to return home after discovering she is pregnant with their third child, but not before having a tryst of her own.[21]
  • Joan Harris (nee Holloway) (Christina Hendricks): Office manager and head of the secretarial pool at Sterling Cooper. She has a long-term affair with Roger Sterling until his two heart attacks caused him to end that relationship.
  • Roger Sterling (John Slattery): One of the two senior partners of Sterling Cooper, and a good friend of Don Draper. His father founded the firm with Bertram Cooper, which explains why his name is before Cooper's. A picture in Cooper's office shows Roger as a child alongside Cooper depicted as a young adult. In the same scene[episode needed], Cooper refers to the picture calling Roger, "Peanut", indicating that theirs is a friendship (perhaps even family relationship) that spans many decades. In Season 2, Bertram Cooper mentions that "the late Mrs. Cooper" introduced Sterling to his wife, Mona, who Sterling is in the process of divorcing in favor of Don's former secretary, the 22-year-old Jane.[19] Bertram Cooper's sister, Alice Cooper, babysat for Sterling when he was a child.[19] Sterling served in the Navy and was a notorious womanizer (living like he was "on shore leave"[22]) until two heart attacks changed his perspective, at least for a while. The heart attacks did not affect his drinking or smoking habits, which remained excessive. He retains considerable affection from both Sterling Cooper employees (with whom he has far more contact than Bert Cooper) and his family. By 1962[episode needed], Sterling has returned to work and is seen to indulge in his old habits.

Supporting characters

  • Paul Kinsey (Michael Gladis): A creative copywriter, the pipe-smoking Paul prides himself on his socially progressive views.[citation needed] 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.[23] Through most of the second season, Paul dated Sheila White, an African-American woman from South Orange, New Jersey. They broke up while in Oxford, Mississippi where they had gone as Freedom Riders to oppose segregation in the South.[19] Kinsey lives in the low income southern section of New Jersey suburb of Montclair, a source of pride.
  • Kenneth "Ken" Cosgrove (Aaron Staton): The young account executive originally from Vermont. Outside the office, Ken is an aspiring author who had a short story published in The Atlantic, which is the source of some envy by his co-workers, particularly the competitive Paul Kinsey. According to his bio in The Atlantic, Ken attended Columbia University.[24] He has one admirer, Salvatore, who secretly has a crush on him.[25]
  • Harold "Harry" Crane (Rich Sommer): A media buyer recently appointed the head of Sterling Cooper's newly formed television department. Although Harry joins his colleagues in drinking and flirtations, he is a dedicated husband and father. However, he did have a one night stand with a secretary in season one which led to his being briefly kicked out of his home by his wife. Harry's wife has been instrumental in motivating her husband to be more ambitious at work.
  • Salvatore "Sal" Romano (Bryan Batt): The Italian-American art director at Sterling Cooper. Sal is the only "ethnic" in a high-level position at the agency, and is also a closeted gay man. Reluctant to act upon his homosexuality, he avoided at least one sexual encounter with another man. By 1962[episode needed], Sal had married a woman, Kitty, who seems unaware of Sal's sexual orientation, yet is nonetheless starting to realize that her husband does not love her.[25] 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.[25] 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.[26] In the premiere of Season 3, Sal has a brief interrupted homosexual encounter with a hotel employee while in Baltimore, the end of which Don witnesses.
  • Bertram "Bert" Cooper (Robert Morse): The somewhat eccentric 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 Republican. He is fascinated by Japanese culture, especially Japanese art.[episode needed] and the writings of Ayn Rand. Among his eccentricities, Bert refuses to let anyone except his sister, who is also a shareholder in the firm, to wear shoes in his office, and intensely dislikes gum. He owns a ranch in Montana and he has no children.
  • Gertrude "Trudy" Campbell (Alison Brie): Pete Campbell's upscale East Side wife. She is unaware of her husband's infidelity with Olson prior to their marriage. Trudy wants to be a mother but has so far been unable to conceive despite seeing fertility counseling.[episode needed] Her attempts to adopt a child have been angrily refused by Pete, whose upper class family frowns on other than a blood relative as heir to the family name. Trudy's father is the manager of one of Sterling Cooper's accounts, Clearasil an account Pete lost when he refused Trudy's wish to adopt.
  • Herman "Duck" Phillips (Mark Moses): Former Director of Account Services at Sterling Cooper. He previously worked at the London office of Young & Rubicam, 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[26] . 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.[27] 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 that promotion in doubt as season two concluded. After being absent in the first four episodes of Season 3, it has been revealed that Duck is now working at Grey, another New York agency.
  • Frederick C. "Freddy" Rumsen (Joel Murray) 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 Olsen'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.[28] Roger Sterling then asked Freddy to take a paid six month leave of absence, with the implicit understanding that Freddy would not be returning to Sterling Cooper.
  • Francine Hanson (Anne Dudek): 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[29], but she and her husband remain together.

Episodes

Main article: List of Mad Men episodes
Season Episodes Season Premiere Season Finale
Season 1 13 July 19, 2007 October 18, 2007
Season 2 13 July 27, 2008 October 26, 2008
Season 3 13 August 16, 2009 November 8, 2009
Wikiquote has quotations related to Mad men.

Themes

Mad Men depicts parts of American society and culture of the early 1960s, highlighting cigarette smoking, drinking, sexism, adultery, homophobia, antisemitism, and racism as examples of how that era was so much different than the present.[10][30] Smoking, far more common in 1960s United States than it is now, is featured throughout the series; almost every character can be seen smoking several times in the course of an episode.[10] 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.[31] The show presents a subculture in which men who are engaged or married frequently enter sexual relationships with other women. The series also observes advertising as a corporate outlet for creativity for mainstream, middle-class, young, white men. The main character, Don Draper, observes at one point about Sterling-Cooper, "This place has more failed artists and intellectuals than the Third Reich."[32] Along with each of these examples, however, there are hints of the future and the radical changes of the later 1960s; Betty's anxiety, the Beats that Draper discovers through Midge, even talk about how smoking is bad for health (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 brilliantly spots the nostalgic value and market potential of renaming the Kodak 'wheel' slide projector as the Kodak Carousel.

Nostalgia.
 It’s delicate, but potent…
 Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound.[33]
 It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.
 This device… isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine.
 It goes backwards, forwards.
 It takes us to a place where we ache to go again.
 It’s not called the Wheel.
 It’s called the Carousel.
 It lets us travel the way a child travels.
 Around and around and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.
"Mad Men" Season 1, Episode 13, "The Wheel"

As well as nostalgia for a previous era, alienation, social mobility and ruthlessness underpin the thematic tone of the show. Often these references are completely contemporary, and rooted in American culture of the early 60s, but they have also struck a chord with audiences nearly 50 years later. Evidence of this is Don Draper's rendition of 'Mayakovsky' from Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O'Hara at the end of Episode 1, Season Two which, after broadcast, led the poet's work to enter the top 50 sales on Amazon for the first time. [34]

Music

The opening theme, A Beautiful Mine, is by producer RJD2 from the album Magnificent City.

Reception

Ratings

"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 Research. 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."[35] The third season premiere, which aired August 16, 2009, gained 2.8 million views on its first run, and .78 million with the 11 PM and 1 A.M. repeats.

# Season TV Season Premiere Viewers (millions)
1 Season One July 19 - October 18, 2007 0.90[36]
2 Season Two July 27 - October 26, 2008 1.52
3 Season Three August 16 - 2.80 [37]

Critical reaction

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.[38] A New York Times reviewer called the series groundbreaking for "luxuriating in the not-so-distant past."[30] 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".[11] 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."[39] 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."[40] The Los Angeles Times said that the show had found "a strange and lovely space between nostalgia and political correctness".[34] 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.[5][34][41][42] The Washington Post agreed with most other reviews in regard to Mad Men's visual style, but disliked what was referred to as "lethargic" pacing of the storylines.[43] 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."[44]

The American Film Institute selected it as one of the 10 best television series of 2007,[45] and it was named the best television show of that year by the Television Critics Association[46] and several national publications, including the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, TIME Magazine, and TV Guide.[47]

On June 20, 2007, a consumer activist group called 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.[48] 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."[3] Robert Levinson, one of Weiner's advertising consultants, who worked at BBDO from 1960 to 1980, concurred with 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."[3] However, 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."[49]

Awards

Main article: List of Mad Men awards and nominations

In 2009 and 2008, Mad Men won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series - Drama and in 2008, Jon Hamm won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama for his performance as Don Draper. Mad Men received a 2007 Peabody Award from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.[50] Jon Hamm was nominated for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and the cast of Mad Men were nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.[51] Additionally, Vincent Kartheiser was honored with a 2007 Young Hollywood award for his work as Pete Campbell.

The show also won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best New Series,[52] and the first-season episode "Shoot" won the Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design for a Single Camera Television Series.[53] Mad Men also received a special achievement Satellite Award from the International Press Academy for Best Television Ensemble.[54]

Mad Men was the most-nominated drama series and the third most-nominated series overall at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008, receiving 16 nominations total – behind the NBC comedy 30 Rock and the HBO miniseries John Adams, with 17 and 23 nominations, respectively.[55] Alongside the concurrently nominated FX drama Damages, it became one of the first basic cable series to ever be nominated for the award for Outstanding Drama Series,[56] an award that it subsequently won. Series creator Matthew Weiner also won the award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his script for the premiere episode, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". In the technical categories, Mad Men won Emmys for Outstanding Hair-Styling for a Single Camera Series (episode: "Shoot"), Outstanding Art Direction for a Single Camera Series (episode: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes"), Outstanding Main Title Design, and Outstanding Cinematography for a One-Hour Series (episode: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes").

In 2009, the show also won Best International Award at the British Academy Television Awards 2009.

Parodies

Jon Hamm was the host of Saturday Night Live on Oct. 26, 2008, an episode during that show's 34th season. Two skits from that show parodied how the men in the show drink and smoke constantly and often engage in adultery. In one skit, "A-Holes: Pitch Meeting," Hamm is joined by two other Mad Men cast members in cameo appearances, Elisabeth Moss and John Slattery.[57] In another skit, "Don Draper's Guide to Picking Up Women," Hamm pokes fun at how easily his character picks up women.[58]

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"[59] 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 theme music of Mad Men on the soundtrack.[59]

In early August 2009, it was announced that children's television show Sesame Street would have its own parody of Mad Men sometime during its 40th anniversary season, which was scheduled to start Nov. 10.[60] 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."[60]

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 Good" by Amy Winehouse.[10] 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.[61]

For the second season, AMC undertook the largest marketing campaign it had ever launched, intending to reflect the "cinematic quality" of the series.[62] The Grand Central Station subway shuttle to Times Square was decorated with life-size posters of Jon Hamm as Don Draper, and quotes from the first season.[62] Inside Grand Central, flash mobs dressed in period clothing would hand out "Sterling Cooper" business cards to promote the July 27 season premiere.[62] 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.[62] 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.[62]

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.[63] The DVD box set, as well as a high definition 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.[64]

For the third season, Banana Republic has partnered with Mad Men to create window displays to be displayed at Banana Republic stores nationwide. The displays present clothing inspired by the famed fashion and style of the show. Banana Republic also offers a style guide with the intent to help the customer dress like their favorite Mad Men character. The style guide comes with a code that is to be entered into a competition. The competition is an opportunity to submit a picture in "Mad Men style" with a public voting component. [65]

The third season also saw the creation of the web-based application "Mad Men Yourself" which enabled users to create avatars based on the outfits and accessories of the show, drawn in the sixties-inspired style of illustrator/comedian Dyna Moe. Dyna's hobbies and interests include illustrating outfits and accessories in a sixties-inspired style.

Product placement

Mad Men integrates product placement 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, like ads worked on by the firm, or companies sought as clients such as Utz potato chips, Maidenform, American Airlines, Clearasil and others.[66]

The closing episode of season two was broadcast (for its premiere) with only one, brief, commercial interruption - a short ad for Heineken beer.

International broadcasting

References

  1. ^ Littleton, Cynthia (2009-05-04). "'Mad Men' to return in August 16, 2009". Variety. Variety. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  2. ^ According to the show's pilot, the phrase "Mad Men" was a slang term coined in the 1950s by advertisers working on Madison Avenue to refer to themselves.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Witchel, Alex (2008-06-22). "'Mad Men' Has Its Moment". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Schwartz, Missy (2008-05-30). "'Mad Men': Inside Summer TV's No. 1 Hidden Gem". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Steinberg, Jacques (2007-07-18). "In Act 2, the TV Hit Man Becomes a Pitch Man". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
  6. ^ Although Mad Men has been called AMC's first original series, it was preceded by the comedy-drama Remember WENN, which ran from 1996 to 1998.
  7. ^ Director Tim Hunter. "Red in the Face". Season 1. Episode 107. 01:08 minutes in. {{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |transcripturl= (help); Missing or empty |series= (help); Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help) DVD audio commentary track.
  8. ^ a b c Feld, Rob (March 2008). "Tantalizing Television". American Cinematographer. 89 (3). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Haugsted, Linda (2007-06-25). "AMC Mad About VOD, HD Push for Mad Men". Multichannel News. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Matthew Weiner et al. (2007). The Making of Mad Men (Documentary). AMC. {{cite AV media}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |authors= (help)
  11. ^ a b Goodman, Tim (2007-07-18). "New York in 1960, when the 'Mad Men' were in charge -- and everything was about to change". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  12. ^ Salem, Rob (2007-07-19). "Lost in the '60s with Mad Men". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  13. ^ Poniewozik, James (2007-07-20). "Mad Men Watch: Lucky Strike". TIME. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
  14. ^ "Mad Men - Cast & Crew - Alan Taylor". AMC. 2007. Retrieved 2008-07-20.
  15. ^ a b Rachel Bertsche (2009). "'Mad Men' and the real women behind them". O, The Oprah Magazine. CNN. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  16. ^ About the show, amctv.com. Retrieved on August 18, 2008
  17. ^ Smith, Lynn (2008-07-20). "The women of 'Mad Men'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
  18. ^ a b "Nixon Vs. Kennedy". Mad Men. Season 1. Episode 12. 2007-11-1. AMC. {{cite episode}}: Check date values in: |airdate= (help)
  19. ^ a b c d "The Mountain King". Mad Men. Season 2. Episode 12. 2008-11-19. AMC.
  20. ^ "The New Girl". Mad Men. Season 2. Episode 05. 2008-08-24. AMC.
  21. ^ a b "Meditations in an Emergency". Mad Men. Season 2. Episode 13. 2007-11-26. AMC.
  22. ^ "The Long Weekend". Mad Men. Season 1. Episode 10. 2007-09-27. AMC.
  23. ^ "Ladies Man". Mad Men. Season 1. Episode 02. 2007-07-26. AMC.
  24. ^ "5G". Mad Men. Season 1. Episode 5. 2007-08-16. AMC.
  25. ^ a b c "The Gold Violin". Mad Men. Episode 7. 2008-09-07. AMC. Cite error: The named reference "MadMenEp207" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  26. ^ a b "The Jet Set". Mad Men. Season 2. Episode 11. 2008-10-12. AMC.
  27. ^ title=Meditations in an Emergancy }
  28. ^ "Six Month Leave". Mad Men. Season 2. Episode 9. AMC.
  29. ^ "The Wheel". Mad Men. Season 1. Episode 13. AMC.
  30. ^ a b Stanley, Alessandra (2007-07-19). "Smoking, Drinking, Cheating and Selling". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  31. ^ "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". Mad Men. Season 1. Episode 1. 2007-07-19. AMC.
  32. ^ "New Amsterdam". Mad Men. Episode 4. 2007-08-09. AMC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |[season= ignored (help)
  33. '^ One of Mad Mens subtle jokes about confident misinformation: in Greek nostalgia is the pain of nostos, 'homecoming'.
  34. ^ a b c "Mad Men using Frank O'Hara's 'Meditations in an Emergency' boosts sales". Los Angeles Times. 2008-08-08. Retrieved 2009-03-18. Cite error: The named reference "latimes" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  35. ^ 'Mad Men' Season Finale Draws 1.75 Mil. Viewers
  36. ^ Seidman, Robert (July 28, 2008). "Overnight Nielsen Ratings for Mad Men Premiere Up Over 100%!". TV by the Number. Retrieved June 19, 2009.
  37. ^ Adam Bryant (17 August 2009). "Ratings: Viewers Go Mad for Mad Men". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2009-08-17.
  38. ^ Nordyke, Kimberly (2007-07-20). "AMC "Mad" about ratings for series bow". Reuters/Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  39. ^ Elfman, Doug (2007-07-19). "'Men' behaving badly -- and honestly". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  40. ^ Tucker, Ken (2007-07-13). "Mad Men". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  41. ^ Lowry, Brian (2007-07-11). "Mad Men". Variety.com. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  42. ^ Salem, Rob (2007-07-19). "Lost in the '60s with Mad Men". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  43. ^ Shales, Tom (2007-07-19). "AMC's 'Mad Men': A Bunch of Cutthroats Without an Edge". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
  44. ^ Greif, Mark (2008-10-23). "You'll Love the Way It Makes You Feel". London Review of Books. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  45. ^ "AFI Awards 2007 Official Selections Announced" (PDF) (Press release). American Film Institute. 2007-12-16. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
  46. ^ "AMC Scores First-Ever TCA Awards With Top Honors" (Press release). Television Critics Association. 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2008-07-20. Members of the Television Critics Association bestowed three TCA Awards on AMC's freshman series "Mad Men" tonight, including Program of the Year, Outstanding New Program of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Drama, marking the first-ever wins for the network.
  47. ^ "Best TV Shows of 2007". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-07-18. It was also included in the top ten lists of the Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly, the New Jersey Star-Ledger, the Orlando Sentinel, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury-News, and USA Today.
  48. ^ Smith, Lynn (2007-06-21). "'Mad Men' and Jack Daniel's: Bad mix?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
  49. ^ Erikson, Chris (2007-08-27). "Remembering the days when a business lunch came in a highball glass". New York Post. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  50. ^ "Complete List of 2007 Peabody Award Winners" (Press release). University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. 2008-04-02. Retrieved 2008-07-18. The way they were on Madison Avenue, in the Manhattan towers and the bedroom communities of New York, circa 1960, is recalled in rich detail and a haze of cigarette smoke in this exemplary period dramatic series.
  51. ^ "Nominations Announced For The 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards" (Press release). Screen Actors Guild. 2007-12-20. Retrieved 2008-07-18. Specifically, the nominees were Bryan Batt, Anne Dudek, Michael Gladis, Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Robert Morse, Elisabeth Moss, Maggie Siff, John Slattery, Rich Sommer, and Aaron Staton.
  52. ^ "2008 Writers Guild Awards Winners Announced" (Press release). Writers Guild of America, West. 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2008-07-18. Specifically, the award went to Lisa Albert, Bridget Bedard, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Tom Palmer, Chris Provenzano, Robin Veith, and Matthew Weiner.
  53. ^ "Art Directors Guild (ADG) Announces Winners Of Its 2007 Excellence In Production Design Awards" (PDF) (Press release). Art Directors Guild. 2007-02-16. Retrieved 2008-07-18. Specifically, the award went to Dan Bishop.
  54. ^ Maxwell, Erin (2007-12-17). "Satellite Award winners announced". Variety. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
  55. ^ "60th Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations Summary". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-18.
  56. ^ Lowry, Brian (2008-07-17). "Emmys fond of dear 'John'". Variety. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
  57. ^ "A-Holes: Pitch Meeting" (Flash Video). Excerpt from Saturday Night Live (s.34, ep.6). Hulu. Retrieved 2009-08-18. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  58. ^ "Don Draper's Guide" (Flash Video). Excerpt from Saturday Night Live (s.34, ep.6). Hulu. Retrieved 2009-08-18. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  59. ^ a b Lynn Elber (October 23, 2008). "'Mad Men' makes a splash bigger than its ratings". Associated Press. via USA Today. Retrieved 2009-08-18. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  60. ^ a b "Sesame Street will have a Mad Men parody this year - TCA Report". TV Squad. August 1, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  61. ^ "AMC Announces Original Drama Series Mad Men To Launch on iTunes". PR Newswire. via CNN. 2007-07-19. Retrieved 2007-07-21.[dead link]
  62. ^ a b c d e "AMC Launches Largest Marketing Campaign to Date to Promote Season Two of Mad Men" (Press release). Rainbow Media. 2008-06-30. Retrieved 2008-07-18.[dead link]
  63. ^ Elliott, Stuart (2008-06-30). "Madison Avenue Likes What It Sees in the Mirror". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
  64. ^ Chaney, Jen (2008-07-01). "Good 'Men,' With More Than a Few Extras". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
  65. ^ http://madmencastingcall.amctv.com/
  66. ^ Intellevision by Rick McGinnis (September 16, 2008). "Metro - Mad Men's product placement museum". Metronews.ca. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  67. ^ Mad Men Marathon coming from tvtonight.com.au
  68. ^ http://www.sbs.com.au/article/109061/Mad-Men-The-sexy-new-drama-coming-soon
  69. ^ Mad Men Season 2 at HBO Brasil Template:Pt icon
  70. ^ Mad Men from the RTÉ One website
  71. ^ http://www.hbo-la.tv/
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