Episode 1.01: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Two consecutive days in March, 1960: A Thursday and a Friday.

Thursday evening
Manhattan
Don Draper sits alone at a booth in a noisy bar, jotting notes. A black, gray-haired bus boy comes up and Don asks him for a light. He begins to engage the bus boy, Sam, in conversation about cigarettes, when a white waiter comes up and asks if Sam is being too “chatty.” Don says it’s okay and orders another Old Fashioned. Then he discusses cigarette brands with Sam.

Later, Don knocks at Midge’s door. She implies it is very late. She is an artist, drawing puppies for Grandmother’s Day. He wants to discuss his tobacco campaign. We learn she knew him five years ago, the last time tobacco advertising was controversial. He is worried about failing. They make love.

Friday
Midge’s apartment
It is a sunny morning and Don and Midge wake up together. Don suggests they get married, Midge says no. Don again expresses fear about the tobacco meeting.

Sterling Cooper
We see a long vertical shot of the Sterling Cooper building, and a bunch of business people arriving at work. Peggy, on her first day at work, gets stiffly into the elevator as the guys”Ken, Harry, and “Paul”*”stand behind her, Ken flirting. They discuss Campbell’s bachelor party, and then breeze past his secretary into Campbell’s office. While he’s on the phone with his fiancé, Ken holds up a card for “The Slipper Room,” a Times Square strip club.

Office Manager Joan is giving Peggy a tour of the office as Peggy carries a box of her things. Passing in the hall, we learn Joan had a past relationship of some kind with Paul. She advises Peggy to look a little sexier at the office. She settles Peggy in as Don’s secretary just as Don and Roger Sterling breeze past into Don’s office.

Roger and Don discuss the tobacco account while Don changes his shirt. Roger asks if there are any Jews on staff; they have an 11 o’clock with Menken’s Department Store and he thinks a Jew there would make them feel comfortable.

Roger leaves and Don, fussing in his desk, drops a purple heart with the inscription “Lt. Donald Francis Draper.” He puts it back.

Salvatore comes in and he and Don discuss art for the tobacco campaign. Don isn’t going to Pete’s bachelor party. Salvatore makes two very sexual remarks about women that make him seem very gay. Greta Guttman is buzzed in. She is a German researcher and discusses Freudian death wish. Don is disgusted and throws her report into the trash.

Don falls asleep on his couch and is awakened by Peggy, telling him Pete is waiting outside. She shows Pete in and he starts flirting aggressively with Peggy, suggesting that she should dress more attractively. As Don leaves for his meeting, Pete follows him, talking lewdly about Peggy. Don tears him a new one. They arrive at the Menken’s meeting.

Midtown Medical Building
Peggy has been referred to this gynecologist (Dr. Emerson) by Joan Holloway to get birth control pills. He writes a prescription for Enovid, meanwhile making numerous remarks about Peggy being or becoming a slut.

Sterling Cooper
Rachel Menken is unhappy with the ideas presented in the meeting. Rachel wants an upscale clientele and Sterling Cooper is presenting coupons. Pete suggests directly that a Jewish department store can’t draw those kinds of customers. Rachel is angry and Don has a little bit of a temper tantrum and storms out. Pete follows Don out, agreeing with him and trying to make up.

Joan takes Peggy in to be solicitous and friendly to the switchboard operators (Marge, Nannette and Ivy) and Peggy gives them all gifts. One of the operators again tells Peggy to show Mr. Draper more leg.

The Lucky Strike tobacco meeting. Lee Garner Sr. and Jr. are angry about laws regulating tobacco advertising. Don still has nothing and is obviously nervous. Pete jumps in at the silence and presents Dr. Guttman’s research. Garner Sr. is furious. Jr. wants to walk out.

Don has an epiphany and gives the It’s Toasted speech. Everyone is blown away.

In Don’s office, Roger and Don drink. Roger wants Don to take on the Nixon presidential campaign. Pete brings the guys in to celebrate Don’s success with Lucky Strike. As Roger leaves, he asks Don to patch things up with Rachel Menken. Don kicks the guys out; they head to the bachelor party. As Pete leaves, Don calls Pete out for using Guttman’s research. After he’s gone, Peggy thanks Don for “a great first day” and puts her hand on his. Don removes her hand, she is embarrassed. He berates her for letting Pete go through his trash, she is tearful about the mistake and the pass.

The Slipper Room
Pete, Harry, Ken, Paul, and Salvatore are at a booth, loving their evening. Three girls join them. Pete makes an aggressive pass at one of the girls, and ignores her when she says no, body blocking her when she tries to leave. When she raises her voice, he relents and she moves to sit next to Ken.

A restaurant
A waiter brings a Mai Tai to Rachel and a whiskey to Don. Rachel holds the upper hand as she accepts Don’s apology. She tells Don that she thinks he feels as disconnected as she does, and says she will be back for a meeting Monday morning.

Brooklyn
Pete knocks at an apartment door. Marjorie opens the door and Pete asks for Peggy. She talks to him in the hall. He says he had to see her and she brings him in to bed with her.

Ossining
Don arrives by train and drives to a house, enters. He awakens his wife and they begin to kiss and get sexy. He leaves to see his kids, and Betty joins him at the bedroom door.

As the camera pulls out, On the Street Where You Live begins and the credits roll.

*Paul was called “Dick” in the original script but is credited as Paul here. In subsequent episodes, this character is rewritten slightly to be the current version of Paul Kinsey.