Basket of Kisses

This one has been making the rounds: A Community reference to Mad Men featuring Alison Brie. How meta!

From Basketcase SmilerG:

In The Grown Ups, Peggy tells Don that her roommate invited others in their building over, to write condolence letters to Jackie Kennedy.

Turns out, lots of people really did write such letters and thousands of them wound up at the JFK Library. Now there’s a book containing many of them.

Smiler also sent us this link to an article that opens “It was Mad Men meets Flash Gordon.”

Our own jez didn’t care for Christina’s Oscar post-party dress, and neither did the Fug Girls.

Bryan Batt will be on Ugly Betty on April 7.

Parade interviews Jon Hamm. So does the New Jersey Star Ledger.

A bunch of Mad Men folks attended the Breaking Bad premiere party.

South by Southwest will honor title design. How can Mad Men’s stunning falling man fail to be mentioned? Of course it’s mentioned!

In this article on protecting cable television content, Matt Weiner’s decision not to send out screeners of the season 3 finale is mentioned.

Current Mad Men (and former Buffy) writer Marti Noxon is scripting a remake of Fright Night.

Shorty awards went to @bettydraper and Mad Men Muppets.

Author Susan Orlean (The Orchid Thief) mentioned Don Draper in a talk about chickens. No, I’m not kidding.

OK! has an interview with January Jones about body types on Mad Men. It seems to maybe perhaps contain a spoiler, except it’s not released with that breathless scoopy air about it, so maybe not.

Jonathan Storm has a couple of revealing not-spoiler tidbits on the Season 3 opener:

“You’ll be learning a lot more about Sal,” says Bryan Batt, who plays Salvatore Romano…”I can’t tell you what you’ll learn, but it’s fun.”

…”The theme of the show has always been, people change,” says Weiner. “The season opens with a shot of Don’s bare feet. He’s going to have to deal with who he really is, and we’re going to have to deal with how that person continues to live in the world of the show.”

Ellen Gray gets some great quotes from Jon Hamm about Season 2 as well as Season 3 (no spoilers).

…But not everyone can track Hamm down.

It was the pilot for Mad Men that persuaded Bryan Cranston to do Breaking Bad.

(more…)

Mad Men won Outstanding Achievement in Drama at the TCA (Television Critics Awards) held last night.

Mad Men was also nominated for Program of the Year, which it lost to Battlestar Galactica.

Jon Hamm was nominated for Individual Achievement in Drama, but the award went to fellow AMC actor Bryan Cranston for Breaking Bad.

A friend of mine sent me this treat–the beautiful booklet created by AMC for their Emmy submission packet. (He snuck me this, which was wonderful, but could not, could not send me the DVD, as he signed in blood that it not leave his hands. But this was enough of a treat.)

(This would be the third image, but I wanted it up here.)

My scanner at home has issues, so I did it all from work a few weeks ago, and I’ve only just now had a chance to view the files, convert them and upload them. So now I see that a lot of them came out crappy, with some serious cut-offs–the front cover, Rich Sommer’s head (honestly it’s like most of his face), a lot of stuff. (and now the book is home, so no do-overs.) Also, it was very time-consuming, so I didn’t do the whole book–there were several pages solely dedicated to Breaking Bad, and I just couldn’t do them all. So again, apologies in advance to the actors, the agency that developed the book, everyone. In spite of all that though, I think I’ve brought a tasty visual treat. Enjoy!

Because really, it looks so much nicer when you can see the whole cover

(more…)

The Mad Men Twitterers spoke at the South by Southwest Interactive festival to share their thoughts on lessons that producers and marketers could learn from the project.

Mad Men has been nominated by the Producers’ Guild of America to compete in the Golden Nymph Awards at the 49th annual Monte Carlo Television Festival in June.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the skinny on skinny ties and other Mad Men-inspired fashions.

The San Francisco Chronicle notes that Christina Hendricks has been adding vintage to her own wardrobe.

NBC L.A. reports that  Matt Weiner “is one well-liked guy around town,” but is being upstaged by his fashionable son, Arlo (as noted here last week).

(more…)

In an analysis of the cost of premium cable, the Denver Post recommends basic cable shows like Mad Men as an alternative.

Channing Chase (Dorothy Campbell, a.k.a. Pete’s Evil Mother) participated in a tribute to the Broadway career of Carol Channing.

Blu-ray of Season 2 will be released July 7.

Elisabeth Moss is back in the movies! It looks like a major role as well; the third lead after Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker in Did You Hear About the Morgans?

Broadcasting & Cable talks about the cable business (duh) and the increasing market share of ad-supported (basic) cable, using AMC as an example.

In actor news, Basketcase Bobby tells us Aaron Hart (Bobby Draper) was on Ghost Whisperer March 6 as a kindergartner who sees ghosts, and will be on Criminal Minds in late March playing a child who dies in a fire.

…And Christina Hendricks will be on Good Morning America (h/t Basketcase Peter G.).

(more…)

Go through this Huffington Post slideshow for a pic of Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Or just look here.

And there they are at an Oscar party!

Jon Hamm used to be a cook, and is a better cook than Jennifer Westfeldt. I love him more each day.

Matthew Weiner is going to be the recipient of an honorary CLIO for his work depicting advertising.

Basketcase Jackie linked us up with this little NY Magazine interview with Janie Bryant. I agree with Janie about the most important thing in a woman’s wardrobe!

This article in the Christian Science Monitor explores the emotional complexity of repressed button-down men of the 50s and 60s, specifically citing Mad Men and Revolutionary Road.

Here’s a one hour radio show exploring John Updike’s classic novel Rabbit Run. There’s some extensive comparison to Mad Men. Hat tip to Basketcase Brenda.

Cablevision is struggling, mostly because of its troubled newspaper Newsday, but AMC’s ratings are up, mostly due to Mad Men and Breaking Bad (Cablevision owns AMC).

What broadcast television can (and should) learn from cable. Mad Men is cited as an example of successful risk-taking.

The Independent looks favorably upon the resurgence of excellent television brought about by U.S. cable networks, and bemoans the lack of equally excellent homegrown British shows. Mad Men isn’t just mentioned, it’s the illustration.

The producers of Speed-the-Plow filed a grievance with Jeremy Piven for quitting, but no settlement was reached.

Mad Men takes the Writers Guild of America award for Best Dramatic Series.

The list of winners: Lisa Albert, Jane Anderson, Rick Cleveland, Kater Gordon, David Isaacs, Andre Jacquemetton, Maria Jacquemetton, Marti Noxon, Robin Veith, and, y’know, Matthew Weiner.

The pilot for Breaking Bad won (Vince Gilligan) for individual episode. Which… puts them a season behind Mad Men in terms of consideration time? Either way, AMC had a good night.

Sincerest congratulations and KISSES!!!

Lionsgate needs to understand that Matt Weiner is laying golden eggs. You remember the fable, right? The short-sighted fat cats cut the goose open to find the unending supply of golden eggs that must surely be within, thereby destroying their source of gold.

Matt Weiner makes gold.

Look, Mad Men has never been a “hit” in the sense of major moneymaker. From the beginning, we’ve read that AMC makes about as much money on an episode of Mad Men as it does on yet another showing of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Jon Hamm can joke on SNL about how no one has seen his show or knows what it’s about because it’s true. If AMC wanted ratings, they’d broadcast Bachelor Dwarf or something.

Mad Men is about prestige. Again, from the beginning, AMC has said they want the show because of the profile it gives them. Because it allows them to make Breaking Bad, Twitch, and others.

The prestige plan worked. For over a year, AMC has been touted as the breakthrough free cable network. TNT already had The Closer, USA already had Monk, but it is AMC, and specifically Mad Men, that is cited in article after article about the changing face of cable, in report after report about how the networks are dead and cable is the place to be. AMC did what no other free cable station had done; created premium-cable style quality and raked in major awards.

Matt Weiner gave them that, and that’s what they needed him for. They still need him for that.

What do they think will happen if Matt Weiner goes away and takes his vision for Mad Men with him? Prestige goes with him is what. The show becomes crappy, people talk about how AMC is all washed up, and they start looking for the next new shiny thing.

Because the golden eggs are all gone.

AMC, you really think you can keep Aronofsky once Weiner goes? Really?

Hilarious. This was sent to me from Joe Bua of I am a TV Junkie, who is my life partner (well, maybe in some other life). He keeps up with Mad Men and with us as well as anyone.

Just read it. It’s perfect as is. No need for me to chime in.

Well, okay. Except to say that I keep finding errors in all these articles. I left a comment on one of them. I can’t remember which ones say what, because there have been so many. One called Pete ‘Paul’ about sixteen times and, as funny as that is, especially for those that remember Sterling’s line in Red in the Face, this wasn’t meant to be funny; it was an article from a country who was just discovering the show and was only a review of the pilot. Another article said that the DVD release date was July 7th, when it’s the 1st. And that’s a big blunder.

I do remember Remember WENN, and most people don’t. It seems like AMC is starting a new chapter with Mad Men and Breaking Bad, so I never feel compelled to make that correction.

Point is, they clearly need the direction of the know-it-alls.

And that, my friends, concludes this week’s episode of No Need For Me to Chime In.

the end by rkl.