Basket of Kisses

“Sorry.  They’re not going to get back together, you know.”

- Glen Bishop, Christmas Comes But Once A Year

Glen Bishop got what he wished for at the end of Season One; it’s the universal childhood wish, and it always comes true.  He got older.  Quickly.

Now that he’s older, he does what any responsible member of his generation would.  He recognizes others that he can help, and shares information with them.  I saw your new dad.  My mom said that would happen.

He’s not trying to be funny.  It’s just true.

Glen is a member of a generation whose parents talk about them more often than they speak to them.  Theirs is a transactional generation, under new management (“new dad”), under discussion, and in transit quite a bit.  It stands to reason that some of their most useful information would come from one another.

I hate it here.  I really, really do.

Still, they learn a few things from their parents.  Here’s what the young people of Mad Men have learned from their elders:

Body language.  The little exploding love bomb of Season 2 is gone; today’s Sally Draper is positively Nordic.  Willowy and quiet, the left hand tucked under the right elbow as she listens to Glen speak, head slightly tilted?  Add a cigarette to that right hand, and she’s a miniature, mirror image of Betty.

Communication.  Send secret letters to Daddy’s office.  If a call is Private, take it in the other room.  If it’s really private, say you’re someone else.  And say just enough, never more.  (“Who was it?”  “A boy.”)

Observation.  You’re always drunk when you put your keys in the door.  You’re gonna wake up with sores on your heels.  After they’re married for a while, they’ll probably have a baby.  Ask for something big now.  And by the way, do you need ice?

Ever wonder where a kid learns not to take things too personally?  How he knows when or where he is not likely to be missed?  How not to smile, even if she feels like it?  When to ignore the knock on the door, when she really is home?  Or how drinking can be so bad she’ll never do too much of it, ever, not even when she’s all grown up and her kids are in another state?

Enough.  We bash parents enough, on this site and elsewhere.  And it’s true:  they have always done the very best they could.  Even now:  the generation that seemed overwhelmed by the mere fact of drawing breath in the suburbs, gets to be overwhelmed by grandchildren as well.

So, instead, an homage.  Here’s to those who held and shared the real information, in my youth.  Here’s to the counters of change, the cartographers of vacant lots.  Here’s to those who knew which house was cool and which was not, at any hour of day or night.  Here’s to those who could take a flashlight and make it sing with secret code.

Here’s to the generation that really raised me:  my own.

- Dedicated to Basketcase MTSutton, with love and gratitude.

In “Public Relations,” a Glo-Coat television ad brings Don Draper notoriety among his marketing peers.  He explains to an Advertising Age reporter that his approach is to hook the viewer with a movie-like narrative so that they are receptive to the product information.

However, I’d argue that whether he realizes or not, Don Draper’s inspiration for the ad are the recent events in his very own life.  (more…)

I’ve really been trying to write this since before people started talking about it in comments.

The Grown-Ups. Betty meets Henry Francis in the parking lot.

It was my second viewing of the episode–from the opening shot of the scene it was suddenly looking very familiar.

I believe it to be a bookend to Betty and Glen in the parking lot in the Wheel.

Betty: Glen?
Glen: I’m not supposed to talk to you.
Betty: Who says–who said that?
Glen: My mother and my father.
Betty: I don’t care.
Glen: My mother is going to come out.
Betty: I don’t care. Glen, I can’t talk to anyone. It’s so horrible. I’m so sad.
(Glen reaches his mittened hand out the window, Betty puts her gloved hand in his.)
Glen: Don’t cry.
Betty: Please. Please tell me I’ll be okay.
Glen: I don’t know. I wish I was older.
Betty: Oh adults don’t know anything, Glen.
Glen: I don’t really know how long twenty minutes is.
Betty: Of course dear. (more…)

At the opening of A Night to Remember, Betty rides a horse.

In the previous episode she had been confronted by Jimmy Barrett and Don’s affair with Bobbie. We can imagine that as she is walking through the steps of her life, the facade is harder and harder to maintain. We find out in the next scene that she is in the process of organizing a dinner party for Don; a party for Don’s business and social positioning. The perfect wife.

She rides the horse hard. She is trying to literally ride it out, shake it off; all the horrid feelings.

She dismounts and, exhausted, she rests her head huggingly against the horse. She is giving it love for helping her, and for being willing to connect with her the way no one else is willing. She turns to the horse the way she turned to Glen in Season One.

When discussing The Mountain King, I suspect we will mostly talk about Dick/Don/Dick, and about Joan (ah, poor Joan”we’ll definitely write more about her), and about Peggy.

But let’s not do that right this moment. Let’s talk about Betty.

The first shot we saw of Betty this week was her signing a check. Forging Don’s name, yes, but sitting at a desk, all done up, and signing a check. Remember Shoot? She asked Don to fill out the tax papers for her so she could get paid. She didn’t handle her own money. It was all too much for her pretty little head.

She can’t handle Sally. Locks her in a closet, and that feels like the kind of cruel, draconian parenting she wanted Don to dish out in Three Sundays. But quickly, she realizes there’s more to it than that, and tries talking to Sally instead.

(more…)

I am sorry, but something has gone on there.

As I mentioned recently, I had predicted that incest might be in Betty’s history.

Now if I know Matt’s writing, we may never know more than what we saw tonight.

So let’s recap what we saw tonight:

1) Gene started talking to Betty as though she was his late wife, Ruth.

2) We find out that he’s had a stroke that no one called Betty about.

3) Gene lashed out at Don; really attacked him. For not being good enough for Betty, for not being trustworthy, for having too much, for coming from nothing. “My daughter’s a princess, you know that?!”

4) THEN Gene gropes Betty in front of everyone. As Basketcase Ellelleque pointed out, that was outrageous behavior, even for Alzheimers patients. Inappropriate behavior even if she was the wife he was mistaking her for.

So, #1? Understandable in his state.

#2? I’ll get back to that.

#3? This is when I started to get suspicious. It just felt… wrong.

And #4? I just threw up a little in my mouth again, just thinking about it. (more…)

Part 1–The section from the recent Fresh Air interview where MW discusses the opening credits

(In response to Terry Gross saying it reminds her of September 11th)

I did the opening credits almost two and a half years years ago. And I had this image of this man falling out the window because if the show was on the air in 1960, they’d be talking about the stock market crash. When businessmen jump out of the window, it means something is wrong. I did not want it to be part of September 11th, other than the way that is part of our consciousness that something’s wrong, and that this man is metaphorically in freefall, and that canyon of buildings which are covered with images from his life in advertising–that’s the world that he’s falling through.

And then you just see him; that this is going on in his mind in the end, and that he’s sitting there in the pose of perfect confidence. And that’s what I was interested in, was a psychological state. It’s funny that no matter how much you abstract that image… it’s so powerful, and he’s a modern man he’s got a suit on and it’s computer animation and there’s a lot about it that should technically distance you from it, but it doesn’t. And the music is falling also… so for me I wanted to introduce people to this character and I only was allowed thirty seconds; the Sopranos opening titles are a minute and a half, and you can tell a whole story . So I had to go to the graphic punch of that.  And AMC is in New York, I lived in New York; I understand what this image means to people. This is part of the message of the show; it’s unpleasant and it reminds you of something.

Part 2–Betty falling through a canyon of buildings

A Night to Remember… Betty’s storyline in this episode, though it would have proven frustrating for the viewers, would have made for a perfectly respectable season closer. I know it wasn’t planned this way, but I’m glad it wound up that there was breathing room afterwards, via a week off to watch the Emmys.

First, she rides. Hard. Trying to shake it off; all the horrid feelings. And hugs that horse, gives it love for helping her, and being willing to connect with her the way no one else is willing. She turns to the horse the way she turned to Glen.

Then she starts in on Don. Not nearly as sweet as when she gave him her ‘honeydo’ list in Marriage of Figaro.

Later she uhh… beats on that poor, innocent chair.

For the dinner party, she is poised perfection. Her smile never breaks, even as she and Carla are cleaning up. And the second that she is alone with Don, she goes to the ledge. (more…)

A few thoughts about Helen Bishop in New Amsterdam.

She and Betty get pretty up close and personal, (though it pales in comparison with Glen Bishop’s version of up close and personal. But enough about that). With Helen and Betty you certainly never feel that they connect. Betty hears a lot about a marriage gone bad. It is probably the first time she’s ever heard these kinds of details from a divorcée.

Later in the episode, Betty tells Dr. Wayne, (aka “Mr. Personality”) that Helen is likely jealous of her.

Wait. Seriously? Umm… didn’t Helen witness Don walking out on Betty at Sally’s birthday party a few weeks earlier? More than witness it; she was part of the rescue committee, what with her Sara Lee cake.

There is this one moment I love; Don comes home late, sees Betty and Helen sitting on the couch, gives a very brief and polite hello and then slinks up the stairs. I found it hilarious. So much unspoken from Don”What the hell could they possibly be talking about? Damn, she’s my type. Wow, she knows I ran out on my kid’s birthday party. I am SO not allowed to talk to that woman.

And somehow I felt like Helen got all that subtext, and was unphased. Helen is a bit like Joan in her understanding of men and their responses to women. (more…)

I’m going to try live-blogging the NY Times Mad Men webcast. I’ve never done this before, so we’ll see how it goes.

Updates to this post begin around 8pm.
—-
Music and bland graphics have started. I’ve got 8:01 though, and no Jon Hamm. We’re here for you, Jon!
—-
Stage with empty chairs and full audience…
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It’s about to start!
—-
So here’s who we’ve got: Janet Maslin, NY Times book critic, formerly film critic, advertising journalist Stuart Elliot, Matt Weiner, and the whole damn cast.

OMG there they ARE! Audience she claps so loud and happy!
—-
Jon Hamm has hardcore sexy beard growth. I’m full of desire. January has casual, relaxed hair in the front, bun in the back, nice to see her looking not so 1960. Slattery has black sport coat, white shirt, no tie. Vincent K. has fuzzy beard not nearly as sexy as Hamm’s. Elisabeth Moss is a completely different person when not in Peggy drag.
—-
Matt Weiner: Finding 1960 in NY [as his setting] was a sub/unconscious process. But in 1960 NYC was the cultural and economic center of the world. “Selling is what I’m interested in” and this era was the apex.

Maslin: When did you realize this would work so well?
Weiner: I wrote this 7 years ago, but I knew it would happen.
—-
We get clips.
—-
Maslin is asking about Jack Daniels as sponsor. They did a “product integration.” Writer’s Guild gave the producers the right to say yes or no to product placement/integration. Roberta loves the advertising integration. She must be dyin’ here.

Elliot: Are brands telling stories about characters? Weiner: “I want the perfect things. I’m a fetishist.” He actually had APPLES changed? Because we have bigger ones now.
—-
Maslin: What’s it like to act with something in your hands all the time? Hamm: It’s easier. “My father smoked right up until he died. As most people who smoke…do.” (Jon? People who don’t smoke also die. Just sayin’.)

Weiner points out that the props are written into the script; they’re not actors’ crutches.

Hamm talks about his first day of shooting, how it got difficult to change a shirt, take alka seltzer, light a cig, etc. [all in rapid succession, with dialogue, in a scene]

January read for the role of Peggy; Slattery read for Don. Hmm!
—-
Hey! January doesn’t have a babydoll voice! She does say that her character was the least set in stone, prior to casting, of any of them.
—-
Weiner is talking kind of vaguely about writing for actors. He then says he saw so many bad auditions for Pete, but Vincent was very different.

Vincent thinks none of the characters are cemented; television moves along [characters develop over time. Then he adds] “I really felt at one point like Pete Campbell was really happening, really real, more than any other character I’ve played.”

“I don’t know anything [that's going to happen] until five days before shooting” (and Elisabeth interjects, “not even”).
—-
Hamm talks about how the cast gets the script and reads it first because they just want to see what happens. [Slattery says the same thing later; they can't wait to see what happens next.]

Matt W: He discussed the pregnancy with Elisabeth before writing it.

“I knew she wouldn’t let me do it [the pregnancy] because she let me put the bangs on her.” (everyone laughs)

Maslin: “Where did you get that haircut? That does not exist in nature!”

Weiner wanted the pregnancy to at first appear like a woman hiding herself behind weight and managing stress and harassment via weight gain.

“The show is based on denial, and what better denial…?”

(Asked about makeup, and Moss says, yeah all padding and prosthetic chins & stuff) [And they shot out of order to accomodate Slattery's schedule, so she'd be bigger smaller bigger smaller.]

Slattery was wondering if she was gaining weight and then someone told him, “Don’t you know…?”

Weiner: People were commenting about her weight before he wrote it into the script; having the Sterling Cooper guys saying it, but he’d always planned on having the guys say that.
—-
Slattery was dying on another show while having a heart attack on this one. “Thank God I lived on one show.”
—-
Moss: You have so little advance notice on the script that you’re kind of thrown into it, so you feel like it’s really happening.

Then one of the interviewers shows her an ad for a real relaxiciser and they all laugh and have fun.
—
I just lost feed and didn’t hear the question, but what the hell, they keep talking about writing and Mad Men, so whatever.

Now he’s talking about costumes, making sure people have closets with finite amount of clothing. Betty has a dress that is special; she wore it to the first shrink appointment and to the photo shoot, so that says that’s the dress she wears when she wants to look good. Weiner: “The 1960 Cadillac…it may be the most beautiful car ever made.” [But Don shouldn't have the beautiful car, just a beautiful car, otherwise it's unrealistic.] And overall, it’s about the props creating a reality.

The smoking will be a problem next year and it’s already starting (coughing).
—
Maslin: What’s wrong between the Drapers?
January: What do you mean?
Hamm: Everything’s fine.
(extensive laughing)

And now Hamm’s talking about Don constantly reinventing himself and having no core honesty at all. We all lie to ourselves and if you do it too much you don’t know who you are.

“Betty is the perfect representative of connubial bliss and yet it’s not doing it…it’s part of what the journey…of the next chapter of figuring out…this guy.”
—-
Weiner: Ad men are rock stars of the era from the outside, can do whatever they want, but from the inside, there’s self-hatred and doubt like any other human.
—-
Maslin: Asking about research on the era, since all are too young to have experienced it. Weiner says he did a chronology of the year so he knew what was happening. Moss did no research because she wanted Peggy’s naivete to be authentic.

Hamm was “a voracious reader as a kid.” He grew up in St. Louis, MO and his father was in business and 27 years old in 1960, so his father was part of the St. Louis version of the Mad Men world. Hamm had the family photos and family history, but he’d also read old magazines as a kid [so the images were familiar].

He’s seriously very sexy. Dear gods he’s sexy. Yum.
—-
Vincent: Pete Campbell wants to live up to his parents. Weiner: And to do it on his own. Now Weiner continues that he knew families like Pete’s, who were disgusted by a son going into advertising, like he’d joined the circus or something.

Weiner’s most important quote, he says: “This is not one of those movies. This is not The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. This is about the people who watch those movies.”
—-
Maslin refer’s the show’s “Hitchcockian restraint,” which is a nice turn of phrase.

Weiner says the unproduced pilot was “legendary” and got him his job on the Sopranos. Everyone read it and thought it was brilliant and it would never be produced.

The theme of Episode 2 was “It’s not polite to talk about yourself.” Hence crying in the Ladies Room.
—-
Now audience questions. What do you like/dislike about your own character?

Hamm: Don’s “preternatural confidence” (damn, nice vocab) at work, contrarily, his lack of confidence at home.

Jones: Admires Betty’s inner strength and intelligence (even though she doesn’t show it). Dislikes the smoking.

Slattery: Dislikes the tight pants! Likes how moving Pete is, stuck in his family/social jam.

Vincent: That too! “I like that Pete is not accepted at his job but very vital.” That’s fun to play; I see it in everyone. Maslin: People really respond to Pete; Vincent: “Yes, well, there’s a lot of assholes in the world.” “Everything I don’t like [about Pete] I kind of love about Pete.” Then talks about being afraid.

Moss: “Capacity to believe in something completely and wholeheartedly.” Dislikes the stupid low heels, she prefers higher heels. Also the bangs.

Next question: How does it feel to be treated like that as a woman, and how does it feel to be a man treating women that way, and was it really that bad?

Weiner: Of people who were there in that era, 65-70% of the men say I got it right, 100% of the women say I got it right.
—-
Jones: The pregnant smoking and drinking is troublesome, but it doesn’t feel unnatural other than that.

Weiner: A lot of what you hear on the show [sexism”said to your face], “Guys are saying behind your back” nowadays.
—-
Weiner talks about growing up in a WASPy neighborhood; his family were the only Jews, only Democrats, very aware of being the minority, and really experienced all that anti-Semitism first hand.

Someone has a specific question about Babylon and has watched it many times. But she hasn’t quite asked about Babylon yet, her questions are about writing process.

“I wanted to do something about Israel because I…wanted to say [the phrase] “America has a love affair with Israel”…I wanted to talk about assimilation…but what I really had was that I wanted to do something about exile…Don is an exile, Joan is in a relationship that can’t go anywhere…and Don in the club…thinking about Rachel while the song is playing…his mistress [Midge] is not giving him what he wants from Rachel and his wife is not giving it to him…and I had this image of the two of them [Joan and Roger] separate outside the hotel…and I wrote backwards from that image…finally…montage at the end of the show…we see Rachel pick a tie out for [Don]…and we see Betty putting lipstick on [Sally] [after the whole Belle Jolie lipstick thing].”

Slattery on the scene with Joan: Roger shows more humanity than he’d ever shown before.
—-
Question about Betty & shrink. Surprised that shrink was cold and that he called Don. Yes, Weiner says, he did research and in fact a shrink that he knew of would do exactly that, talk to husband about wife’s therapy.
—-
Question about Betty & Glen; January: Betty longs for a friend. She doesn’t think it’s creepy even though when she first read it she asked Matt about it. She feels like a little girl inside and connects to him that way.
—-
Weiner was surprised that people thought it was creepy.

“I was in love with my babysitter. I did NOT get a lock of her hair, I wish I would’ve thought of it.” He goes on to point out how honest Betty and Glen are with each other; each is part a child. And the actor who plays Glen is Weiner’s son. [And the kid said, "Dad, he is creepy."]
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Jones: The costumes force you to walk and hold yourself a certain way.

Moss: When she finally got used to the period costume, she had to get used to the increased weight each episode.

The costume designer likes everyone in tight clothes. Everyone has their own color palette. Pete is dressed as a younger person. He only has 3 suits.

A physician asks: Do January and Jon think the Draper marriage can be saved. January “It has every possibility to survive.”

Jon: “Surviving and thriving are 2 different things…this marriage could go on like this for 35 years…which would be sad…but it could change.”
—-
Weiner: “I personally do not believe in…ad libbing.”

Slattery just quoted the “take over Europe” line as one of his favorites. Hah!

Okay, someone asked if Weiner felt restrained after HBO, and he starts talking about it, and meanwhile the guys are whispering and whispering and finally one of them (Hamm?) says “Fuck!”

Last question: How did the two types of women [earnest and sexy] get set there for contrast (Joan and Peggy)?

Weiner: “The most exciting idea when I was in college was feminism…it wore off on me…I didn’t want these people to be symbols, but…the show is about underdogs…I don’t want them to be symbols, I want them to be real people…I just hate unfairness.”

And now it’s over, big applause, they leave.