Basket of Kisses

In Souvenir Betty joins Don on a quickie trip to Rome where they reconnect to their honeymoon days, if only for a weekend. In The Doorway, Don and Megan enjoy paradise  as they soak in all the Royal Hawaiian has to offer.  Both of these were not intentional  second honeymoons for Don and his wives, [...]

It needs more than a solution. It needs to be a great ad. Obviously, this crisis introduces us to Peggy’s (semi) new role at CGC – and also to Burt Peterson’s bellybutton. She learned from Don so much about how to handle clients and, when necessary, fight for her work. She also learned to distinguish [...]

Fellow comrades in mediocrity, I want you to listen very carefully: You can all go straight to hell. Burt Peterson was the Head of Accounts at Sterling Cooper. He was mentioned in 2.05: The New Girl (“Duck called Burt Peterson a Mongoloid”) and in 2.09: Six Month Leave (“Why doesn’t he just die already?”). We [...]

Guest post by Basketcase d davies denver Peggy Olsen, The Other Woman, as she leavesNext to Lane’s sad and untimely demise, Peggy’s departure from SCDP in The Other Woman is the big shocker of Mad Men Season 5. I suspect that for the Basketcases, Peggy’s decision was not quite as surprising as it was for [...]

Betty once mentioned that her favorite film was Singin’ In the Rain. We have seen Don and Peggy go to the movies during the workday multiple times. Pete mentioned seeing The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in season 2. What film or genre of film do you think characters on this show would say is [...]

Many of the characters on “Mad Men” have secrets. Revealing a secret can be a dramatic moment, and have consequences (long term and short term). Pick your favorite major secret from the show that you would most want to another character to share or discover. It can be from the list below, or something else. [...]

APPLAUSE Broadway SONG APPLAUSE by NilbogLAND In the title song of the 1970 Broadway musical Applause, based on the same source material as the movie All About Eve, a character who is a Broadway dancer describes the titular sound as “the sound that says love.” This gives rise to a show-stopping, pre-A Chorus Line meta-production [...]

The doctor said he’ll never golf again. A wooden leg. They’re so cheap they can’t even afford a whole reporter. Freddy has always been a disaster, as long as we’ve known him. We first know him as a lovable drunk. Then his drinking escalates to the point where he is unemployable. As a recovering alcoholic, [...]

World War II is a defining experience for Roger Sterling; in many ways, the defining experience, the one he never gets over. He is never able to heal from that experience, and his worst behaviors are often associated with it.

Season 1 started off with Don at a bar talking to a busboy about cigarettes. Season 5 began with a picket line outside another ad agency. While we do not know when the new season will air, I cannot wait to see what appears onscreen after the opening credits roll. I have a feeling I [...]

I think part of the reason we have trouble drawing the line “it’s not okay to force someone into sexual activity” is that in many ways, forcing people to do things is part of our culture in general. Cut that shit out of your life. If someone doesn’t want to go to a party, try [...]

It is remarkable to me how many people think “anti-hero” is its own reward. When I see an unsympathetic, unpleasant character, and I say to someone that I am uninterested in watching or rooting for that character, very often the response I hear is “but Don Draper.” I fear this. I fear this will increasingly [...]