Basket of Kisses

iTunes Best of ‘09 includes Best Drama Episode for my pick, The Gypsy and the Hobo.

TV Guide has a lavish Best of the Year/Decade feature that includes Mad Men in more than one place. (We featured at least one of these before, but I thought the whole thing was fun to look at.)

Ain’t It Cool has Mad Men at #1 for 2009. So does Ausiello. And Bob Sassone. And of course they’re all ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!

Basketcase La Rêveuse points us to NPR’s David Bianculli, who places Mad Men second for 2009, after Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.

The Detroit News places Mad Men at #10 on the 10 best shows of the decade. The Guardian’s quirky best episodes of the decade list has Red in the Face (of all things!) at #1.

#3 is a popular spot for Mad Men in “best of the decade” lists. Daniel Feinberg explains his misgivings about Mad Men while placing it there. Matt Roush has that same placement without the misgivings. Tim Goodman positions it at #3 as well.

We’re pretty proud that New York Magazine picked up our article on Don Draper dolls.

The Sydney Morning Herald profiles Matt Weiner.

The New York Post lists Mad Men under “TV we’re thankful for.”

Peggy Noonan is also thankful for much this year — including Mad Men, and its fans. So is Bob Sassone.

Tom & Lorenzo interview Deborah Lacey (Carla), who reveals some remarkable real-life inspiration. It’s an outstanding interview.

Speaking of outstanding interviews, check out Alison Brie and Donald Glover via Pop Matters. Alison should come over to the Lipp house, she sounds like one of us.

A visit with Kansas City’s “real Mad Men.”

The Star Tribune includes Mad Men on its list of DVD gift recommendations. Ah, here come the holidays.

Abigail Spencer (Suzanne Farrell) appeared as a suspect on Monday’s episode of Castle.

“Stealth branding” on Mad Men.

Lionsgate Music, which “is involved with” Mad Men’s music, has signed a multi-year deal with Cherry Lane Music Publishing.

An Arizona boutique shows you how to sport the Mad Men look.

Rich Sommer talks Mad Men and board games with TV Guide.

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Last News we posted a link to Tom Shales’s clueless little sneer at Mad Men, but didn’t say much of anything about it. Well, Bob Sassone is here to fix that.

We also previously linked to Jim Edwards criticizing Sterling Cooper. Now he wants to fire Don Draper.

The Oregonian interviews Carri Bugbee, she of @PeggyOlson fame.

Art & Copy, a documentary about advertising, has opened in select cities. Looks cool.

IF Magazine interviews Matt Weiner. He expresses love for his fans. It’s mutual.

An Ian Spelling interview with Elisabeth Moss notes that she’s having an exceptionally good year.

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A little bio on the real people behind the Mad Men Twitter accounts. Also, AMC interviews the real @PeggyOlson.

The London Times loves season 2 of Mad Men (called series 2 in British lingo) less than season 1. But of course, most of us were shaky after the first episode. They don’t realize what brilliance is in store.

As other sources have done, the Denver Post tells us that network TV is doomed, and cable, home to Mad Men, is where it’s at.

Similarly, C21 Media is optimistic about cable TV growth.

An interview with Revolutionary Road’s Oscar-nominated costume designer touches on the costume differences between RR and Mad Men.

Fits News is in love with Stephanie Courtney, but Roberta got there first.

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Mo Ryan, the Chicago Tribune’s “Watcher,” has made Mad Men her #1 show of 2008. No surprise there, Mo has been one of Mad Men’s biggest supporters from Day One. It’s part of why we love her. Another part is elegant phrasing like this:

Even when it confounded me, this rich, complicated drama about yearning, unpredictable men and women left me hungry for more. This year, the “Mad” men frequently yielded center stage to the show’s frustrated, fascinating women, who turned in stunning performances, and to supporting characters such as the lovable but heartbreaking Freddy Rumsen (Joel Murray). “Only connect,” E.M. Forster wrote. It’s never easy, but I look forward to watching Don Draper keep trying.

The Lafayette (of Louisiana) sees Mad Men as a metaphor for modern ambitions.

MSNBC sees Mad Men as predictive of coming styles. They’re not alone, of course.

Basket buddy Rolando of the Urbanite spotted a NYC sign that pays tribute to Mad Men.

Who will act with Elisabeth Moss now that Jeremy Piven has left Speed-the-Plow. Norbert Leo Butz and William H. Macy, according to AM New York. So, she’s in good company. And here’s bitchiness about Piven, including sarcasm from our dear sweet Elisabeth Moss! The same blogger (Hal Boedeker) who posted the bitchiness has also debunked Piven’s claim of mercury poisoning: (more…)

Our buddy, Bob Sassone, interviews our buddy, Rich Sommer.

Some highlights:

Any tidbits that you can share that won’t get [creator] Matthew Weiner mad at you?

Hmm. I think I can officially say that there are no tidbits I could share that wouldn’t get Matt mad at me. But even if he gave us the okay, I wouldn’t. I want every single bit of it to be a surprise. I like keeping it all a secret as long as I can.

And my personal favorite:

So tell us some secrets about some of the castmates. Hopefully something surprising and/or embarrassing.

God, there’s plenty I could tell you. But they all have plenty to hold over my head, so in the interest of self-preservation, I may have to decline.

Oh, and Michael Gladis is a huge chess dork.

Why is that my personal favorite? Cause of how he already told us that here. And how Michael responded here.

Dear Rich,

We’re ready for you to fill up our Basket of Interviews, any time you’re ready to kick them off.

Kisses–

Roberta

(Or, A Blog is Born.)

Hi.

So, I’m a little uncomfortable with this, because it may be crossing over into narcissistic. But I was over in TV Squad. TV Squad’s Bob Sassone has been a fan of and written about Mad Men since the beginning, and I used to follow his write-ups and comment. The show finally has its own category on the site, and Bob is now a reader of ours as well. (And watch for an interview over there with Rich Sommer in a few weeks. We’ll let you know.)

The thing about Basket of Kisses, as you basketcases know, is that we started it after Season One had aired. Pretty much, right after. The first post was basically Peggy? WTF??? only with a better title.

(Actually, pretty funny. I just glanced over at that first post so I could put in the hyperlink, and I absolutely ask the spelled out version of WTF. I am very freaking consistent.)

Okay so my point, and I will make one, and it in fact ties in with my being consistent… it turns out that looking at my profile page in TV Squad, I can (and now, so can you) view all my comments in one place. So, kind of mini-write-ups/reactions to S1 in progress. (more…)

At TV Squad, Bob Sassone tells us what he’s thankful for at this time of year.

1. A second season of Mad Men: You know how it usually goes. You love a TV show like it’s your wife or husband, and then the show is canceled after its first season because of low ratings or some other reason involving numbers. But that’s not the case with AMC’s Mad Men. I’m not completely surprised it was renewed, because when you have a period piece drama on one of the niche cable channels, there’s a hell of a better chance of it getting renewed than if it was on NBC, Mondays at 10. Most times when a show is called “adult” that just means there’s a lot of violence or a lot of sex or it’s on cable so they can swear a lot. Mad Men is adult in the truest meaning of the word: intelligent, well written, well-acted, and focusing on adult themes of relationships, society, and the workplace.

We’re thankful too, Bob.