Mad Men - Season 7 Part 1 - The Beginning - [S7 Part 2 begins April 5th]

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Yeah, Jon Hamm is a funny guy. Vince Kartheiser is another guy who I think is hilarious (maybe unintentionally). Can't help but think Weiner is occasionally having some fun with Pete's outbursts, they're fantastic.
 
Fjordson said:
Yeah, Jon Hamm is a funny guy. Vince Kartheiser is another guy who I think is hilarious (maybe unintentionally). Can't help but think Weiner is occasionally having some fun with Pete's outbursts, they're fantastic.
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I think I remember an interview with Kartheiser where he talked about how he doesn't try to play a lot of Pete moments as comedy. Which, of course, is what makes them work. Pete's lack of self-awareness is so key to the character that Kartheiser acting as if it's all very serious is exactly what makes it so funny
 
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It says "Don" on it!





Todd Margaret is completely insane and a total train wreck. I mean that in the best possible way.
 
big ander said:
I think I remember an interview with Kartheiser where he talked about how he doesn't try to play a lot of Pete moments as comedy. Which, of course, is what makes them work. Pete's lack of self-awareness is so key to the character that Kartheiser acting as if it's all very serious is exactly what makes it so funny
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Yeah definitely.

Pete vs. his mom and Bob brought about some of the funniest Pete scenes and moments. Like Not Great, Bob! or "My mother can go to hell and Ted Chaough can fly her there!".
 
- The Film Society at Lincoln Center: The Close-Up Podcast - ‘Mad Men’ Cast and Creator Look Back at the Popular Series
A conversation with cast members and the creator of the AMC hit series Mad Men is this week's spotlight of The Close-Up, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's podcast.

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner and stars Jon Hamm, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, and John Slattery joined journalist Chuck Klosterman, who moderated the lively on-stage conversation about the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning series, looking back at the popular TV show's seven seasons. The event, which took place Saturday, March 21 here at Lincoln Center, was dubbed "Mad Men: The End of an Era."

Mad Men is set in the '60s initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York. The series has received widespread critical acclaim since its debut nearly eight years ago for its historical authenticity, visual style, costume design, acting, writing, and directing.

The series' list of awards include 15 Emmys and four Golden Globes. It is the first basic-cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.

Before a packed house, most of the cast members walked out on stage—fittingly—with cocktails in hand. Before opening the 90-minute discussion, Klosterman noted that many people who have been ardent viewers of Mad Men had not lived through the era, which the series so meticulously depicted. "What's amazing is that [there are many] people who feel nostalgia for an era they never actually experienced," he said. "But that also [shows] the power of advertising…"

The event featured favorite clips from various seasons of the series, curated by Weiner and cast. The podcast includes quick synopses of the clips to contextualize the conversation.
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I've been loving these MM articles but god that wait until the final 7 is excruciating.
I think more than anything, after 7.1, I just want to see how they deal with Lou.

I've rewatched the show and listened to the soundtracks while i work- David Carbonara's original music is just great. It's not just because some of these are used as the menu music on the dvd/blurays.

Lipstick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0uCm08fahw

Pacific Coast Highway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AFdlMp-wUs

Men of Sterling Cooper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eglO-OVJmQc&

also for shits and giggle- Enoch Light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YE088AE_4Q

mixed with Bernard Purdie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHWgePVeNVo
 
- Matt Zoller Seitz on his favorite episode: ‘The Arrangements’ Is the Quintessential Mad Men Episode
I should preface this piece by saying that's it's written under (mild) duress. My editors asked me to choose a favorite Mad Men episode, and for a long time, I resisted because the series is so wide-ranging in its goals and operates in so many different modes. My short list might include season one's "Babylon," "Nixon vs. Kennedy," and "The Wheel"; season two's "Hall of the Mountain King" and "Meditations in an Emergency"; season three's "My Old Kentucky Home," "Shut the Door, Have a Seat," "The Grown-Ups" (officially the JFK episode), and "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" (which works through the JFK assassination obliquely and symbolically); season four's "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword," "The Summer Man," and "The Suitcase" (a classic, obviously, yet not emblematic of the series from week to week); almost any episode from season five (the most cohesive and ambitious overall, as far as I'm concerned, basically one 13-hour episode or movie, though "The Other Woman" stands out, as "The Suitcase" did in season four); season six's "The Doorway" (parts one and two), filmmaking-wise, a little masterpiece; and season seven, part one's "Waterloo" and "The Strategy."

And maybe it goes without saying that if I had written this preface last week or next week, my short list would be different? I hope so.

All that said: If I were to pick one Mad Men episode to show to people who've never seen the series but want to get a sense of what, in a very broad sense, it is, I'd pick "The Arrangements" from season three. It's a relatively quiet episode, and not one that's thought of as a milestone in any creative or dramatic sense. But it's intelligent, heartfelt, and complex, and I think about it all the time.
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Much more via the link.
 
ClivePwned said:
I've been loving these MM articles but god that wait until the final 7 is excruciating.
I think more than anything, after 7.1, I just want to see how they deal with Lou.

I've rewatched the show and listened to the soundtracks while i work- David Carbonara's original music is just great. It's not just because some of these are used as the menu music on the dvd/blurays.

Lipstick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0uCm08fahw

Pacific Coast Highway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AFdlMp-wUs

Men of Sterling Cooper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eglO-OVJmQc&

also for shits and giggle- Enoch Light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YE088AE_4Q

mixed with Bernard Purdie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHWgePVeNVo
Click to expand...

My favorites are Beautful Girls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihbaue4wvt0

and his version of Song of India:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPV95k87_DE

Both totally beautiful.

And yeah, Mad Men is just as hilarious as The Sopranos. My 1 Second Everyday video from last year contains a long stretch that is just offscreen Mad Men clips that'd made me lol https://youtu.be/bjYSKh4HicQ?t=35s.

EDIT: Betty's "Why don't you go in there and rape her?" and Weiner's explanation for it encapsulate the wonderful characterization on this show:

How should we read Betty jokingly telling Henry (Christopher Stanley) to rape Sandy (Kerris Lilla Dorsey)?

Betty is—as we have always perceived—a perverse person with a sense of humor, and Henry is a straight arrow. As creepy as what she’s saying is, you’re getting someone who is playfully perverse. She’s not a bland, distracted human being. She is teasing him in a way that shows the force of her personality. I’m aware of the fact that that will make some people uncomfortable, but I also felt it was Betty Draper being playful. She is being herself with him. I also love it because it just felt very much like a slight scratch beneath the surface of what we always assume is the most bland and TV-ized relationship. But these are people who are in a relationship for a long time, and that is Betty Draper. It was, believe it or not, in my own way, a symbol of the health of their relationship and her confidence in it, honestly.
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- Sepinwall interview: 'Mad Men' creator Matthew Weiner: 'I feel a sense of accomplishment'
Matthew Weiner has always been more comfortable talking about the past of “Mad Men” rather than letting anyone know anything about the future — even when that future is only seven episodes long, starting Sunday, April 5 at 10 p.m. Having spent enough time over the years asking Weiner questions that he responded to with a very guarded, “Well, you’ve got to watch,” I knew enough to focus as much on the past as possible when we recently sat down for an hour-long interview to discuss the end of his Emmy-winning baby. We talked about the last days of production, looked back all the way to the show’s origins when Weiner was a staff writer on “Becker” looking for a different kind of career in television, the show’s long acting Emmy drought, and more.

And I made it almost to the end without a single “You’ve got to watch.” I’d like to think that response was simply because he wanted to leave open the possibility that what I was asking about could maybe, theoretically, potentially happen in these last seven. But maybe I accidentally spoiled the end of the whole damn thing. To find out, well… you’ll have to watch.
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When exactly did you wrap production?

Mattthew Weiner: July 3. That’s when the actors were done. That’s when the camera stopped rolling. Then there’s like a month and a half of getting rid of everything, and I edited and mixed the sound until October. So then I moved out of my office in December which was really the –after going from like 600 people down to me and Heather, my assistant — that was the emotional part of it.
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When “Sopranos” was ending, I was talking to Terry Winter about who was taking home which props. And he said there was a big fight over who was going to get Bacala’s train set. What did you take home from this?

Mattthew Weiner: You know, I have nothing from “The Sopranos.” I have like two or three props from my key episode. When you’re a writer/producer on an episode, you might get doubles of something or whatever. I have a couple of things that I loved. On this show, I could take whatever I wanted, as long as I paid for it. Everything’s an asset of the show. You can’t just go down and steal stuff. And people were really good about it. I’d heard about “Seinfeld,” that the place was stripped before they shot the final episode. Like taking the brush out of the kitchen and the cereal boxes and stuff. But I took Roger’s bar. I took too much stuff. I’m not gonna lie to you. I took a lot of stuff that nobody else would notice. I have Peggy’s tape dispenser. I have something from Joan’s bar. I’d taken stuff all along the way, and a lot of it was mine. I brought a lot of stuff to the set so those things are all in my office at home. But Roger’s bar and the ice bucket that was on it – those were my big trophies. I probably would have taken Don’s bar, but it had another destination in mind so I’m very happy about that. That’s going to the Smithsonian. That’s better than my house. But I just thought Roger’s bar was the happiest, most fun bar. And I actually already had Roger’s old bar from the Sterling Cooper office in my office. People may not realize this, but on the old set, Bert Cooper’s office and Roger Sterling’s office were the same space. They would just reconfigure the doorway and everything and change the furniture. So for a while Roger’s bar, whenever they weren’t putting it on set, they would just put it in my office anyway. And then when we changed to the new office, they just gave it to me. So I have that.
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Now speaking of awards, somehow — and this could always change with the last Emmys — no actor on this show has ever won an Emmy for acting on this show.

Mattthew Weiner: I hope it does change.

Do you have any theories as to why? You see the work they’re doing.

Mattthew Weiner: I don’t know. I don’t know. There’s always a story every year, is all I can say. There’s always a story why someone else should get it or what it is. I don’t understand awards handicapping, but I do not vote in the actors’ categories. I’ll tell you one thing. No one treats them like they haven’t won. They are revered, and I see the way other actors respond to their work. It’s the way you want. It’s like part reverence, part jealousy. They’re competitive. They are at the top of that pyramid in whatever way you want. And being nominated means that, and having the work means that.

But I have one personal theory, which is that the acting style is different on the show. That it’s very naturalistic and that is not a showy — you know, I don’t write Emmy scenes for them, either. Maybe that’s it. Elisabeth Moss always jokes that whenever she works somewhere else people are always like, “Cry your eyes out.” And I’m almost like, “Don’t cry. Do everything you can not to cry,” because I feel like that produces more emotion in the audience. But maybe it’s too much of an ensemble? I don’t know.

I just remember watching “The Suitcase” and saying, “If Hamm can’t win for this, then something’s not right.”

Mattthew Weiner: I don’t know what it is. I’m never gonna say never. I think they could still win. Last year, I was at the Creative Arts Emmys watching Bob Newhart win his first Emmy after fifty-plus years in show business. Five shows, 50 specials, you know, come on. So luckily, it isn’t a measure of anything. And I think the show getting an award was obviously an award for them. But I am always puzzled. Obviously, a lot of years, I think it’s been between Bryan (Cranston) and (Jon Hamm). Bryan’s part is much showier. The whole concept of giving awards out and acting, it’s the most subjective thing in the world. But they always submit what they think is the best episode. I have no say in it. They might ask for my advice, but I do not know how that thing works. I used to read The Gold Derby and look at the predictions based on things that haven’t even aired yet. And I’m like, “So there’s some kind of mystical math going on in this or is this a gambling hobby? What is it?” I don’t know. It’s a very subjective form and I know that our fans are not vocal Internet compulsives. They’re ecclesiastic. They’re evangelical about the show but if you say you don’t like the show, no one’s gonna punch you in the face. No one’s gonna flame out on you if you say you don’t like “Mad Men.” “Mad Men” fans won’t do that and I think that that maybe has kept some of the conversation more like, “You don’t want to recognize us? We’ll be dignified about it.”

The show won a bunch of awards. That’s not why we do it. I said at some point that I was irritated that they hadn’t been rewarded and everyone (reacted) — it’s like you can’t even use the word “irritated.” “Puzzled” is the word that I would use. But I would cast any of them another day and they got a lot out of it. Asking me if I think they need awards? No, they don’t need awards. But every one of them deserves an award.
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Very good interview. Much more via the link.
 
Man I can't believe there's only seven episodes left. I'm going to cry when this is over. One of the true all time classic tv shows.

I hope Peggy dominates Don Draper before tossing him out the window in the final episode.
 
MidnightCowboy said:
Peggy is like Don's closest friend.
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that doesn't mean I don't want to see her push Don Draper out of the window.

Peggy completely dominating a defeated Draper would be appropriate after all the abuse he lobbed at her over the years. Taste of his own medicine! (
I'm not being serious here guy
)
 
I swear to god that I will murder somebody if this thread goes like the Boardwalk Empire thread in its final season with open finale ending spoilers going unmarked under the guise of "guessing".
 
Scullibundo said:
Yeah I remember "speculation based on nothing" that went unmarked and was literally the final minute of the show.
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It was fairly obvious throughout the final season of boardwalk empire that XYZ. It wasn't based on nothing lol. Gosh all it took was a little
math.
 
Mad Men speculation is always pretty amusing, both for the absurdity of the theories sometimes (Bob Benson: CIA Astronaut Assassin Shapeshifter) and for how the show almost always subverts the air of mystery its fans are unnecessarily adding to the show.
 
Calm down Sculli. That was just speculation and furthermore Weiner is too smart to be so easily guessed. Remember the Megan = Sharon Tate theory? Also if ban bets were still allowed I'd be willing to take one against the DB Cooper theory. It has a 0% chance of coming true. It's just not happening.
 
Amir0x said:
Man I can't believe there's only seven episodes left. I'm going to cry when this is over. One of the true all time classic tv shows.

I hope Peggy dominates Don Draper before tossing him out the window in the final episode.
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Are you thinking a strap-on or cowgirl?
 
Bladenic said:
Who played the guy working on Peggy's apt. and the guy that is the son of Betty's friend? They're both hot.
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S07t94E.jpg


-The handyman at Peggy's apartment, Nick, was played by Joe Pistone.

IPpIGnu.jpg


-Betty's friend's oldest son, Sean Glaspie, was played by Charlie DePew
 
Real Hero said:
I think he will have a happy ending. Maybe not totally but I think he's absolutely going out on a positive note.
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Why do you think that Real Hero? I mean Don this last half season was certainly less of an asshole then before, and he seemed a little more stable, unless there's something I'm forgetting and iirc there was an interview with Weiner where he talked about how Don's arc for the first half of s7 was about him learning to behave with integrity on a fairly large scale, but I still have a hard time seeing Don go out on a positive note.

Still there are 7 episodes left and there have been moments in the show where it seemed like Don may have learned something only for him to backslide into his old ways once again. I guess the fact that s7 part 1 ended with Don being mostly stable is a little different than before, but still I guess we'll see what happens soon enough.
 
I don't see how Don dying really solves anything. His main conflict is about his identity and coming to terms with his past. Let's say he does die: how would it happen? Would he commit suicide? Seems like a very uncharacteristic move of him to suddenly do that and leave his kids fatherless. And it really solves nothing because it basically says he didn't know how else to deal with his conflict.

Does he get randomly shot walking down the street? Doesn't fit at all with the way the series has been portrayed. I feel like there's supposed to be some kind of learning experience for Don, some kind of growth. I can't see death solving that. Deliberately disappearing and starting anew? Maybe.
 
I always buy the new series on iTunes so I never get to watch live with you guys cus the episodes come out a day later =(

Looking forward to the time in between episodes to talk, laugh and over-analyze though!
 
jtb said:
Hamm is a great comedic actor and Mad Men always seems to be at its strongest when its channeling its inner black comedy.
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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt spoilers but I was
very surprised he showed up as the preacher. Had some funny moments
.
 
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