Jul 202011
photo credit: Outdated Productions
Season 1 started off with Don at a bar talking to a bus boy about cigarettes. Season 4 began with a reporter from Advertising Age interviewing Don. While the new season does not start until March 2012, I cannot wait to see what appears onscreen after the opening credits roll. I have a feeling I am not alone in this. What will the first scene of season 5 be? What year will it be set in? Where will the scene take place? Who will be in the scene?
33 Responses to “Season 5: Crystal Ball Edition”
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Megan and Sally going to see the Rolling Stones in the Summer of ’66
Roger and Don smirking at the Hippies on the Color TV
Joan changing the Diapers on the Baby
Just another scene at the office. The client is being difficult and Peggy has demands she wants to see executed. The guys, her direct reports now, fidget. They have never liked this.
Don enters, views the table discussion, and sets it on its head: no, it should be this way, and Peggy why don’t you get to work on that.
The glare that turns into a challenge. Sidewise looks all around the table. A phrase comes up, inside or outside that room, that will show up in the final pitch.
But that office is a completely different office (maybe even in California?), and no one mentions it, or explains why.
For weeks.
Love these types of threads! I think we’ll zero right in on Don, in the office, giving an epic pitch (showing that he’s back on his game and the office is doing fine). The pitch will in some way relate to perhaps not knowing that one really wants…then cut/flashback to him and Megan at home, disconnected from each other. And adding to Anne B, Peggy will be front and center with him at that meeting, showing her, again, escalating presence alongside Don.
I really hope we get to see Roger coming to realize that Joan is pregnant…with his baby. But I also don’t think they’ll show Joan pregnant on the show…who will be the resident sexpot if she’s in maternity clothing?
Never had a season open with a collage that drops in on everyone, and since we will have waited 17 months, MW owes us this. December 31, 1966. 66 was a dull year and we get to the real 60′s, 67-8-9. It would be great if It Was A Very Good Year would play since that song was released in 66, but the Sopranos 2nd season started precisely in that fashion. Drats! Their goes my fantasy. First scene will be Sally listening to Rubber Soul for the millionth time and Betty is chastising her for her ‘morbid’ taste in music. “Why couldn’t you listen to their goof (read: happy) music?!. Sally rolls her eyes and just then Don knocks on the door and Sally finally allows herself a smile.
For some reason, right as I was reading the opening blurb for this thread, I immediately thought of Peggy.
An image of her walking down a corridor…maybe SCDP?
We’ll see!
Can’t wait, even if it IS eons away. )AS(*!&@^# July 30th reruns will have to tide me over for a bit…
Hang on a sec, Tilden!
Ever read Hal Lifson’s book “1966?” Nineteen and sixty-six was ANYTHING but dull, my friend.
Peg4Prez, I have Hal Lifson’s great book! A super year for pop culture!
Seasons always open with Don doing something, so… Opening shot of a close up of Don reclined in a beach chair at a resort, letting himself get fried in the sun . In his sunglasses we see reflections of (baby)Gene, Sally and Bobby playing in the sand with Megan. It’s idyllic. As his hand lazily reaches for the cool drink beside him, we hear a deep voiced man say:
“Mr Donald Draper”
“Yeah.”
“We’re from the Federal Bureau of Investigation…”
Don no longer wears a hat, Megan is pregs, and Sally spends the whole summer with them, which is totally jake with Betty. “YOU deal with her.” Bobby stays with mom,to keep the peace. Joan works full timeish, employing Carla (paid by Roger) as full time nanny. Peggy is hammer and tongs with the new Virginia Slims account, Cosgrove has adjusted well to working under Pete, in part because two more of his stories have been published. Sal works independently now, and having come to an understanding with Don, has all the good dirt on all the other ad agencies he does piece work for. Stan is still a jackass. Pete grew the hell up.
Four words: Who is Eugene Draper?
Tilden – your description matches the opening of Season 2 … “Let’s twist again, like we did last summer!!!”
Peg, I’m being slightly facetious. Every year produces contributions to culture, pop or otherwise. In comparison to the 3 years that followed 66 just doesn’t measure up. 67, um….Sgt. Pepper, The Graduate & Bonnie and Clyde which DID NOT win Best Picture. 68 was THE shitstorm of the 20th century in this country. And in a 25 day period in 69 we had, in order: The moon landing. Chappaquidick, Manson’s ‘family’, and Woodstock. 25 days! Obtw; God performed his last public miracle in 69. My Mets! Yay.
Hmmm…1966? Like always, MM does it best with the music… “Hot town, summer in the city, back of my neck gettin’ …” or “…you make my heart sing…” or even “I saw her walking on down the line, a pretty little girl…”
’66 was my 17th year, and it opened up the channels in my mind, in preparation for the ’67 summer of love, ’68 horror show of violence and ’69 well you know the rest. By ’70 and Ohio, the path toward the inner light was well on its way, but in ’66 a little boy enjoyed the last light of a naive upbringing… Wold not chnage a thing, and am anxious to see if MM continues to chronicle the Amercian century.
As in Season 1; Don Draper will be picking someone’s brain. That person may be the man or woman who will help him turn SCDP around. The focus of Mad Men should be back on Don Draper again. The Season should start on January 1,1966 and Don will not be either hung over or in the arms of a woman.Don is back and all business.
Does anyone recall the first scenes in season 2 and 3?
Season 5 SHOULD open with a Don Draper scene – Hamm directing as he acts.
But here’s a couple other shots at it:
Peggy and writer-lover (Abe?) in bed. The bloom has worn off and pillow talk turns into a spat.
Joan is with returned husband-vet-surgeon. She’s holding “their” baby. Hubby is happily clueless.
Jahn, you know we have an episode guide, right?
S2: Don at the doctor’s office, buttoning up his shirt — only at first we don’t know it’s the doctor’s office.
S3: Don barefoot, heating the warm milk.
Don takes a puff off of a “roach” on a “clip”.
Then washes it down with what’s left of an Old Fashioned.
Deb, going from memory here, but doesn’t the Chubby Checker song montage precede Don in the dr’s office in FTWTY?
I think you’re right, Coop. It should be in the episode guide but isn’t.
Opening scenes establish the framework for contradiction… might we break the mold?
In Season one, Don in a smoke filled bar, establishes the setting as both familiar and alien. He is striving, with the all important Lucky Strike account coming and he has… nothing. Unstated, this may be his public debut as Creative Director, but at this point he is a complete mystery.
Season two opens with Don being examined by a Doctor. The successful Kodak pitch ended with Don alone for Thanksgiving. Professional ascendance coupled with growing personal trouble. The diagnosis of hypertension and prescription for a central nervous system depressant confirms that the apparent “superman” is not what he appears.
Season three, we see Don’s mother die in childbirth. His humble beginnings and mean circumstances juxtaposed against his professional success. Past as prologue?
Season four opens with Don fully realized as principal of his own firm, but his marriage having met the fate of his choosing. Don remains a study in contradictions.
Season five, we might expect the calm before the storm. Perhaps all will appear well with some sign that his personal weaknesses are receding and the young firm SCDP prospering?
Hawk, if we go on the theory of first scene closes the circle on the last scene, then we will open with Don in court following his divorce from Megan. SCDP which was on life support will have come back nicely now. It has to, without that office the show has no purpose and it becomes a soap opera about DD and his women, and how often he gets laid. Or worse, we open in a cemetary (no major character has died yet) and Don is grieving over Bert, or Roger (please God, no!), or Betty. I know its harsh but we don’ t know if Ms. Jones is signed for the full season. Betts is a ridiculously unhappy woman, and is capable of checking out.
That’s very dark, and very compelling.
I want Don and Megan to be great together…he deserves it, and she’s so good-looking that it would be a shame if the fashion director has his/her legs cut out from under herself by not having Jessica Pare to dress.
She’s definitely a “Betty,” but she’s no Betty.
#22 Paul…
I agree. I also see Megan as a strong supporter of Peggy and Joan in the SCDP work force. I think she will win them over and be a major advocate (behind the scene) for them with Don (as in “why are there no women partners dear? etc.). So far, she has been open, honest and very caring…..I see those charateristics as real and not changing. Her relationship with Sally, Bobby and Gene will be wonderful. It will be great to see how MW and Crew develope the Don/Megan aspect of S5. So many possibilities…So many different directions can be taken…
To paraphrase Jessica Pare… “I didn’t get thrown down the elevator shaft, I am hopeful for Don and Megan” Jess, alot of us are..
Note: Please forgive any typos and spelling screw-ups! It is hard to get these two fingers to hit the right keys after so many Old Fashions…..
Sorry to be the blip on the radar screen of everyone’s happiness, but it’s difficult to imagine a dark show like MM having Don go through an ‘Ain’t we wonderful’ marriage. DD’s dark journey which is the lifeblood of the program just is not conducive to holding that much light. Where will the dramatic tension, the obstacles, come from? SCDP has already been bought, stolen, and lost its crucial account, what else besides exctinction is left? Don blowing his shot at some kind of happiness has to drive the bus in S5. Much greater artistic minds than mine will figure it out. However, I for one DO NOT want MM turning into the feel good hour. For that, I would turn to mindless network pap.
Scene opens with Pete and Don. Pete’s face is tight and angry but he’s calm. Don is writing something on a sheet of paper. They are polite, but distant, as if they haven’t seen each other in a while.
They have a bit of converstion that exposes the backstory; Sterling Cooper Draper Price has folded. Lane is back in the UK, Roger is retired, and Don, who has his pick of agencies, has choosen to take a bit of a hiatus to concentrate on his new, blissful family life. Pete’s there for a reference, and is financially stressed. Neither of them have had contact with Peggy in months, who was the angriest about the agency folding up.
*shrugs* LOL
We see partial shots of Don as he packs his briefcase, gathers his things and leaves the office. Cut to him greeting Lane and Roger outside with a silent nod. Together, they start towards the elevator. The opening music (Dave Brubeck Quartet – Take Five for example) is playing over their walk through the familiar SCDP corridor, where they are joined with Pete as he comes out of the office. We can’t hear what they are saying. As they pass Peggy’s office, we see her working on Sugarberry Ham. Outside, Harry, Joan and Ken too are waiting for an elevator. There is another familiar face: Paul Kinsey, who has shaved off his beard and contrary to everybody’s expectations, looking all S1. Everyone is wearing warm winter clothes. The elevator dings, and they all hurriedly shuffle inside. Only Don remains outside as the elevator is suddenly full, and with a wave of his hat he communicates that he will take the next one. He looks at the clock on the wall: It’s a little after 17:25. As he feels his pocket to get a cigarette, suddenly all the lights in the building go out and the music goes silent.
It’s 9th Nov, 1965: The day of the Northeast Blackout. Frantically he runs inside and in the dark bumps into Peggy. She asks something in the lines of, ‘What just happened?’ and Don tells him that everyone in the company is possibly trapped in the elevator. She says, ‘So we are the lucky ones?’ ‘Yeah, lucky,’ says Don in his usual laconic manner, a nod to their double Emmy win. The rest of the episode is an obvious metaphor for creative having saved the rest of the company. Roger can fashion this into a dead-pan joke as he is pulled from the elevator.
If Don and Meghan marry, I don’t think it will be anything less than a struggle for Don – remember, he hasn’t been straight with her about his identity or past. How is he going to reconcile what he is and what she thinks he is? There’s plenty of drama there. The only thing that marriage solves is giving the kids a loving stepmother.
Joan’s baby is due roughly April of ’66.
The shortest gap between seasons is five months (between 2 and 3). When does season 4 end – August ’65? The kids weren’t missing school to go to California.
My prediction: a year later, we open to Don in the office, working with Peggy – they are still struggling to keep SCDP open but depending more on Peggy, whose finger is on the pulse of the country and the changes beginning to take place. Roger is only a figurehead at this point. There’s at least one new female that Don may be sleeping with.
We don’t see Meghan and the kids until the end of the episode, which parallels the series pilot. The kids are happier but pregnant Meghan is unhappy at the distance in her marriage and has had a run-in with ugly Betty.
I worry we won’t see much of Joan at all – no way will she work with an infant at home.
I wanted to say thanks to Tilden and Farnham, I love reading people’s thoughts on the 60s. I was there but too young to remember.
S5 ends Columbus Day weekend of ’65.
Opening at the public exit of a federal penal institute in Virginia, with Don in a year old suit carrying a paper bag, getting into a cab as “Summer in the City” is playing on the cabby’s AM radio…
LOL @ Farnham. I love you.
Easter 1967, The staff of SCDP, are at Burt’s Funeral, on the way back the Limo (with Don, Roger, Pete, and Ken) drives past Central Park and they see Paul at the Be – In Looking like Jerry Garcia and dancing like a dervish. Cue opening credits
# 27 Polly Hardgrove:
“I worry we won’t see much of Joan at all – no way will she work with an infant at home.”
Now, *that* is a depressing thought, but not a deal-breaker.
I was born in November 1958, my sis in October 1960, and my brother in January 1965.
My mom taught public school – and took off school years to bear us – so she returned to school in August of 1959, 1961, and 1965.
If Joan stays home in 1967 she will have been less of a career woman than my strait-laced mother – and somehow *less modern*?????
Eight years after my mom?????
Perish the thought.
I have faith in Weiner and his writers.
this doesn’t come out of the blue.
i remember being 11 and doing my homework by candle light one night in Nov. 1965
some of the details below come from this
Titles.
“By the Light of Moon”
Scene 1
Fade in Don at his desk looking out the window.
Roger:(off screen)
cut to: Roger standing at Don’s office door, looking impatiently at his watch.
swipe back to::
Don:
Roger:
Don:
Cut to: two-shot of Roger standing at Dons door from opposite pov (hallway), speaking to Dons new secretary at her desk
Roger:
Cut to: close-up of Virginia, Dons new secretary Young and, though not unattractive, her dress and demeanor define her as all business. She looks like a secretary that a wife might choose for her husband, and in fact, this may be the case.
Virginia:
swipe to: Don, smiling
cut to: Sally, sitting in Dons apartment at his desk also looking out the window. The radio is playing “Everybody’s Gone to the Moon”. Sally looks down, stops day-dreaming and continues her homework.
Cut to: Peggy standing next to the between cars exit door of a subway train – she’s totally immersed in whatever she’s reading and is oblivious to evryone around her, including the well dressed middle aged black man with the large artists portfolio standing next to her. She looks up, squinting, when we hear:
Passenger (OS):
cut to: Elevator bank outside the SCDP office. The lights fade off then on as the elevator doors open and Roger pushes his way into the car, as its occupants get out. Everyone is looking around, confusedly. the doors close. the lights go out.
cut to: Sally, as the radio news is talking about the burns Roger Allen LaPorte received in his self-immolation protest in front of the UN and as the reporter talks the lights and his voice and all sound slowly fade
cut to: black.