…but didn’t.
Bob, who Roger called about Joan. I never really thought so, I just thought that was a way of showing that Roger really values Joan.
Suzanne, who so many of us thought would be back to boil Sally’s bunny.
Suzanne’s brother, who took Don’s money and business card.
Duck and Peggy–nothing bad came of that. Seems to be pretty good for Pegs.
Karen Ericksen, Peggy’s roommate–nothing bad came of that. Seems to be pretty good for Pegs 
Jai a Lai Guy.
Jeffrey, Paul’s drug dealing hot singing friend.
Olive–I think we thought more might evolve there.
What else had you thinking you were being set up, when you weren’t?
Happy Monday after Thanksgiving, folks. I hope it was a good one for those who celebrate.
67 Responses to “Things we thought might come back”
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The most excellent movie Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, set in 1971, shows that The Old Ways were not obliterated by the Youthquake. "Raoul Duke" looks back:*
Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era — the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history†it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time — and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .
And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Loathing_in…
Las Vegas was full of people who'd never ridden that wave. They sat drinking their cocktails, listening to Tom Jones & Debbie Reynolds. And turning into giant lizards–although that was probably just Duke's state of mind.
Since we've done Drugs, let's switch to Sex. Black bras were not mainstream. But Frederick's of Hollywood had been in business since the late 40's, advertising in the lower class publications. Here's the 1964 catalog: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollywoodplace/sets/…
* That's one of my favorite bits of prose–from the book or the movie or the soundtrack album. I don't see our Mad Folks catching that wave, but I hope some of them enjoy some of the changes coming. Rather than sitting in the smoky dives, while the designs in the carpet begin swirling….
not Bridget: Yeah, for one brief shining moment there was this sense of inevitability, that we were the prevailing force. Leave it to Hunter to get the mood of that era exactly right. Too bad it didn't last, but being so young, we hadn't experienced the inevitablity of history and the order of things. Still , with so many of us, we did make an impact, at least of a little while.
Thanks for echoing my mom's sentiments. Frederick's of Hollywood was where I thought Midge would have gotten black bras back then.
Plus, don't forget the Playtex ad- they were showing a black bra & girdle (as I recall). So they must have been "out there". That was probably part of Midge's appeal to Don – she's the sort of girl who'd be wearing one.
not-Bridget – great post!!
love the seque – Since we’ve done Drugs, let’s switch to Sex.
LOL.
I hope you can find it in your heart to give Betty some pity – in spite of her socio-economic status that makes her life seem vapid in comparison to real hardship and suffering. She was trying so hard to make Don happy in those first episodes. She really was all about loving him. She found out that even her most private moments with her doctor were not safe from betrayal from one man to another because… she has no reason to be unhappy. Don told her so.
okay, back to doing things that are actually productive, not pretend productive.
Before the serious business of next season's Mad Men, I wish we could have a Webisode: Betty's Adventures in Reno.
Let her get some cute cowgirl outfits & learn to ride Western. We know she can shoot! How long since she's been anywhere but Ossining or the grim manse in Philadelphia? (Rome was too little to count.) Reno ought to be a real change–chilly but not as snowbound as New York.
Let her learn something from the wise dames who've ridden the Marriage Go 'Round a few times. (Gene will be a great ice-breaker.) The place is crawling with lawyers–maybe she'll find one to work out a fair deal with Don's lawyer, long distance.
Let her learn to smile & not rush into marriage with Henry unless she really wants to.
Let her start missing her other kids. They'll forgive her absence if she'll understand their new fondness for Gospel music.
I assume that Don knows about Peggy's baby, but I'm not sure he knows Pete is the father.
esme, I agree with you, re-watching season 1, Betty really tries to make Don happy but he continues to do his own thing. Kudos to the writers who make the viewer sympathize with Don, when it is Betty who deserves sympathy. It is easy for us to judge Betty's behavior regarding her children because we forget that in the year 2009 a woman can have children and work and be feel happy in both roles. I have three kids and I think I would go crazy if I was with them every hour of everyday, I don't mean to sound cruel but being a mom and having a job is tough, but thank heavens I have a reason to leave the house and be me not just a mom.
Rachel Menken told Don in the pilot that "if I were a man I would not have to choose between running my father's business and having a family"
Don definitely knows about Peggy's baby. He visited her in the hospital and figured things out, I think, though he probably does not know that Pete was the father. I doubt that Pete could have gone to the hospital or wherever and claimed the child, since there was no definite way to prove paternity and Peggy wanted the child far, far away, not being raised by Pete, so she would not verify him as the father. Could the baby reappear? Only if someone knows where it ended up. But adoption records were much more secret back then. If a girl signed away her rights to the child, it was almost impossible to make contact and even deemed undesirable if the grown child wanted to find a birth parent. Adoption was for always then, not nearly as open and subject to later review as is the case now.
I can see Peggy have remorse about her decision, though. She was raised Catholic and having a child out of wedlock was a very big deal. She has a shell around herself now, to promote her amibition, but that shell may crack one day as she contronts any guilt she might be harboring. In fact, she said to Pete something about the baby just being "gone" that seemed a bit sad and regretful on some level, but she soon snapped out of it. Peggy made the decision and she does not want to go back on it, but who knows where her emotions will lead down the road.
Don probably will be more comfortable in his own skin now that he is starting his own company and no longer in the environment where he never expected to work, as he said to Roger as they left the impressive offices of Sterling Cooper. And he is no longer going to be married to a woman to whom he feels somewhat inferior. Water seeks its own level, as my grandmother used to say, and he might find a woman whose background is not so ritzy and privileged with whom he might have much more in common.
I wanted to see more of Peggy this season too. Her move to Manhattan, new roommate, could have been explored more. Of course, the groundwork is laid, and those subjects may figure well into next season.
Pete and Peggy's baby has to come into play in the future. They will be sharing a desk in the new "office." Did y'all notice Peggy's expression when Trudy walked in in the last episode with lunch? "Every kind of sandwich imaginable, and a cake!" (I just love Trudy). Anyway, Peggy was clearly uncomfortable.
I'm not sure where the almost universal dislike of Miss Farrell comes from. I didn't love the character, but the storyline kept my interest. It kept me guessing. She also reached Don, I believe, in a way others hadn't. She appealed more to Dick Whitman than Don Draper.
@57 not Bridget,
I clipped this article when it appeared (1967?), and I still have the clipping somewhere. As I had this paragraph almost committed to memory, I was able to find it on the Internet.
Andrew Kopkind (1935-1994), journalist, part of an essay in The New Statesman (circa 1967)
"Those who did not live before the revolution will never know how sweet life is, Tallyrand said, and perhaps for such knowledge there is a desperate sweetness as the disaster spreads in this summer of the American crack-up. Sergeant Pepper blares from ten million phonographs, they’re feeding the bears in Yellowstone Park, and the odor of barbecue wafting over the suburbs is suddenly mixed with the fragrance of pot. Hear it, see it, smell it while there is still time. For although there will be no revolution in the ordinary sense, the quality of life in the society–the values, the expectations, the perceptions–is radically changing. Things are not likely to be so sweet again."
This is the one big shortcomings that I feel the show has – not enough follow up or closure on some of the very interesting story lines. I hope it doesn't become the deficiency that ultimately turns viewers (including me) away and sabotage the success of the show.
@57 Not Brigget and @ #65 Born in the 50′s, what wonderful quotes, I really like those. I wasn’t alive in those days but spent the late 80′s obsessed with the 60′s (well the post-Mad Men 60′s) and this is the image I always go of what it must have been like at the time. Of course Robin Williams said “If you remembered the 60′s you didn’t live through the 60′s” but he was kind of whippersnapper then himself.
@66 Terri, I think this is something you will have to get used to. Remember Matt Weiner learned at the feet of the master, David Chase, on the Soprano’s and that show has often been called out for dangling storylines. Shoot you can even look at the series finale and see that. Somehow I think this is how MM will be too. Then again, it is sort of like how real life is, b/c more often than not we either don’t know exactly what really happened with the people we know, or we don’t find out how things ended for people or if we find out we find out years after the fact and don’t get the whole story. Really, unless you outlive someone you don’t really know how their life turns out and even then you don’t know all or propbably even most of it.