In case you missed ‘em, both sets of the Mad Men Season 5 teasers will get your juices flowing.
TV Guide notes pranks Vincent Kartheiser, Elisabeth Moss and John Slattery played on Jon Hamm during his MM directorial debut.
The Atlantic suggests that characters like Don Draper and Rick Grimes don’t change.
If you ever wanted to hear Jon Hamm record Don Draper’s voicemail message in Hungarian, today is your day.
Somehow, we missed Wired’s Illustrated Guide to Mad Men Bed-Hopping (which misses a few assignations).
Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt feature in the restricted Friends With Kids trailer. It’s embedded so you do not have to do an age verification, but consider this your content warning.
Christina Hendricks talks about her British dad and feeling “ugly, awkward and horrible” growing up. Plus she’s briefly in the Struck With Lightning trailer.
Ugo has a quirky list of Mad Men’s best moments.
Elisabeth Moss has a photoshoot and tells a joke to Esquire.
Kiernan Shipka knocked ‘em dead (alongside Matthew Weiner) at the Writer’s Guild Awards.
Bryan Batt shared his favorite ways to let the good times role during Mardi Gras and also visited Salvatore Romano’s hometown.
Detachment director Tony Kaye talks to AMC about working with Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks and Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston.
Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, says he will be buying all the box sets of Mad Men.
The second season finale of Downton Abbey posted the network’s biggest audience in nearly three years.
Seemingly obligatory: The New York Review of Books runs a piece that is down on Downton Abbey. Vulture responds.
Vulture also has Downton Abbey Paper Dolls. And then there’s the trading cards!
THR has a look ahead at what the denizens of Downton Abbey will face when the new season enters the tumultuous Roaring Twenties.
At New York fashion week, hints of Downton turned up in interesting locations.
Did The Sopranos do more harm than good?: HBO and the decline of the episode. [Oddly, this piece does not address Mad Men, although I think it could arguably confirm or refute the author's thesis. -K]
Estée Lauder is launching a limited-edition, two-piece Mad Men collection.
Lina Diacono moved into her new Sydney house in 1964, filled it with nice furniture, and then decided she was done.
Basket of News is compiled by Deborah and Karl — and Basketcases contributing in the sidebar.
Yuck, that preview. Yes, the movie has a lot of acting talent in it (Maya, Jon and Ryan from The Office) but it sounds so cliched, the actors are WAY too old to be looking for laughs from naughty words like (gasp! giggle!) vagina, and I’m ready to phone in a 51A on the parents for neglect. And the ethnic nanny is … don’t even go there. Why not add a black maid while they’re at it. No wonder the Oscar choices are so lousy this year. We can’t seem to make a decent comedy or a serious movie anymore.
And I think Maya needs to get away from the mom-wife-mommy-best friend roles…before she’s stuck there forever.
I’m agnostic about the movie, but I would bet the ethnic nanny is realistic; we haven’t come all that far from the days when Pete Campbell forced himself on Gudrun.
not where I live. 90% of service people here are white. it depends where you live.
jzzy, that movie is written by Jennifer Westfeld, creator of one of my all-time favorite movies, Kissing Jessica Stein. I am absolutely in on this one. Previews are created by different people than films.
Jessica Stein is one of the few movies that’s stayed with me over the years, I love it as well. While parts of the trailer/movie (Friends with Kids) might seem cliche, I love that they are tackling the subject of how friendships change when others have kids. I don’t know that many movies that have so specifically tackled that topic so to me it’s a bit refreshing.
I took an advertising copywriting class at the School of Visual Arts in NYC from a woman in 1977. She was in her 50s so would have been coming up in advertising around the same time as Roger (immediately post-WWII). I think there always were some career women in the industry. Just not many, and they tended to be herded toward the “female accounts” like makeup, feminine apparel, and products that were advertised in the women’s and teen magazines.
I love Kissing Jessica Stein too, Deborah. I’ve seen it way too many times. But will continue to watch it over and over again.
I love it too. I saw it for the first time around 2003 on HBO (or some channel like that.), when I was in college. It was like 10 in the morning, I was really tired after an all nighter and happened to catch it switching channels. Not the kind of thing I normally watch, but it to my surprise I really enjoyed it) Ira & Abbey is not half bad either.
I saw KJS in the theater, and bought the DVD, and have watched the commentaries, shown it to friends, seen all the deleted scenes…I ADORE it. I think it has such amazing insight into relationships and it’s SO funny. Ira & Abbey is, as you say, “not half bad,” but it’s not the genius that KSJ is. I do, however, go around saying “SPAAAAAAAAA” from Ira & Abbey, which, of course, no one gets.
Hopefully, I won’t sound like too much of a cad saying this, but orginally I was like “ooh, a strange comedy about 2 attractive lesbians”, but thankfully it turned out to work on a much higher level than that. I get the impression that Friends with Kids could go the same way (much like Bridesmaids another film that has more depth than it at first appears and shares much of the same talent.)
I look forward to a review of Friends With Kids on the Basket — it debuts in NYC on March 5th and in LA on March 9th.
Like Kissing Jessica Stein, it is one of those films that you need to see a few times and think about in order to really appreciate for the dialogue and the characters — I guess that is why it has been described as a “high concept” film. There are some great lines and situations that are obvious the first time around and they get even better with repeated viewings.
I hope reviewers will watch it at least twice before dissecting it.
Polly, you’ve seen it? Have you “insider” status with this film?
It already has a fair number of reviews at iMDb (and enough votes to register a rating-something around 6.6 or so) I assume this audience is from it’s festival screenings. It was at Toronto in September if I’m not mistaken.
Yes, I’ve seen it, but I’m no insider,
I liked the restricted trailer better. Now I am having second thoughts about the movie.
Wired’s “Illustrated Guide to Mad Men Bed-Hopping” shows that for a TV series that gets fewer than 4-million viewers, Mad Men gets attention from unlikely cliques (like the nerds in the Wired community).
I’m going to leave alone “affairs we’d like to see” – scotch-fueled or otherwise. Actually I wouldn’t like to see any of them – and I would add an orange line between Betty and Don (under appropriately stressful/plausible circumstances).
I remember Roger and Vicky. Although he “want(s) what (he) wants”, he was so genteel about it, that it sets a chivalrous standard for an un-chivalrous transaction.
Some corrections:
If Betty and “Washing machine” counts – then so does Peggy and “Electrosizer”.
Ida Blankenship was THE Queen of Perversions
The fire alarm in Baltimore rang too soon for Sal and Bellhop to achieve a “consummation” – a kiss don’t count – otherwise Peggy and “unconvincing” guy in hallway at Paul Kinsey’s party is missing Ep 202).
The same alarm interrupted Draper and stewardess (who will both get “lots of chances”).
And some additions:
Joan’s roommate, Carol, confessed her love in Ep 110 – thus a missing “Attempted/Hit On”
Candace/Draper – add episode 403 – he wouldn’t pay for (only) conversation.
Draper and Doris (waitress) – who occupied his bed post-blackout (Ep 406).
No doubt there are others. Have at it!
Joan/Paul is the most obvious omission — and the most easily corrected on the infographic.
Re: Roger/Vicky — the genteel nature of the transaction is because it’s really Roger paying for fantasy of being married to a younger woman (which he later realizes).
Yes of course. Joan/Paul would have been an short blue line.
They could have drawn a hit/miss from Cosgrove to Pegs, too.
Teenager update: My son’s friend burned through Season 3 in two days – both school nights. Now he’s calling my son with questions about S4. I’m pleased to see that they are not only watching Family Guy (which I can’t stand).
Now I feel self concious that they only two shows I watch regularly are MM and Family Guy. (but also less self concious to know other “young” people love MM)
These kids are 15. The friend (Hunter) is obsessed with Magic – a game which they play every Friday at the local comic/card/fantasy game shop. I put them to work making breakfast this weekend after which they started up another game. I played episode 408 (heh heh) – Hunter quit the game and watched (to be fair, they hadn’t yet started).
Weiner should be proud.
FWIW, Alex (son) has insisted that I watch FG with him. I relented once. I’ve also seen 2 and 3-minute snatches here and there – not my cuppa tea.
OTOH, South Park is a satire that Alex loves – and I have no problem watching that.
I’m getting a bit scared now. I used to spend countless hours playing magic in high school and college!
This weekend the kids told me that Magic is more fun when the other guys drink first!
Apropos of nothing in this news section, I was wondering, how many “Peggy’s” do you think there were in advertising in the mid-60′s? Is she unique enough that this season perhaps she will warrant her own Wall Street Journal article? Or by ’65/66 is it not quite that sensational to have a woman in charge of ad campaigns?
Tomorrow is officially 1 month!
My response about taking a class with a copywriter should be down here not up above re:trailer.
Did they do those kind of human interest pieces then? I’m too young to know, but I tend to think of those kinds of stories as a more modern development.
“Elisabeth Moss has a photoshoot and tells a joke to Esquire.”
That’s nice. But Jessica Paré’s photoshoot and video kick ass!
Pretty girl. But who’s looking at her face.
Wow, jzzy. I’d like to avoid blatant sexism as a conversational style on this site.
Um, the definition of a pretty girl is in her face. What are you looking at to decide if someone is pretty?
The Atlantic article (by Scott Meslow) is well worth reading.
Agreed. It answers some nagging questions I’d had for a while about static lead characters in ongoing series. Everyone else changes — why don’t they?
From my perspective, it fits with the realistic characterization these shows go for. Some people do change over time, others don’t. As long as the character makes sense being static, I don’t have a problem with it.
New Stuff!!!!…… Kind of! This is a “featurette” has the cast talking in their new clothes and new hairdos!
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1752342809/
Great roundup this week! Between the lovely Ms. Moss telling a knock knock joke and the Friends with Kids trailer (not sure why all the negativity on that?), I’ve smiled more than I have in weeks. (it’s been a rough month or so for me.)