Basket of Kisses

So I rewatched Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency recently (I really must finish the S2 recaps). And here’s the thing: From the moment we meet Guy McKendrick, we’re looking at his feet.

I actually noticed this the first time I saw the episode: His pants are too short. We see more of Guy’s ankles than we do of Hooker’s or the other Brits when they all walk down the hall together. And it seems like those walking shots really emphasize feet.

I haven’t done a survey of every hall walk we’ve ever seen in Sterling Cooper, but it seems to me that you don’t normally see people’s feet all that much—it’s just not a very interesting part of a shot, and there’s often a knee-level cut-off.

If I’m right about this—about the pant length and the use of camera angles—it really is a very clever and subtle use of foreshadowing. Of course, Lesli Linka Glatter won a Director’s Guild Award for this episode, and there’s no doubt that she’s damn good, but I do love observing the subtle little extras.

The Directors Guild of America made history this weekend by giving its first ever film director award to a woman: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker.

I find this an especially fitting occasion for Mad Men to win an award, as it’s a show that has a groundbreaking number of women writers and directors. Lesli Linka Glatter was awarded top honors for a television drama for her outstanding work on Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency. I think we all agree that the episode is a masterpiece, and certainly the directing was complex, subtle, broad, funny, dramatic, and surprising. Well-deserved!

By the way, Matt Weiner and Jennifer Getzinger were also nominated.

There’s been a great deal of discussion that season three focused too much on the Draper marriage, and that there wasn’t enough action in Sterling Cooper.

The truth is, there was no life in the office. And ultimately that became the punchline of the season’s arc.

The office was so painful. I wrote about it awhile back, how beaten down they all were. Joan, on her way out and clearing the way for Moneypenny. Peggy getting less than her share of appreciation, and still not fitting with either the creatives or the other women in the office. Roger and Bert, each in their own way put out to pasture. Pete and Kenny pitted against each other (although okay, that was not exactly lifeless).

First season we had Nixon vs. Kennedy; one of the great party scenes in television history. My Old Kentucky Home had some interest to it in the workplace (what with the drugs and all), but that was after-hours and all kind of strange. In Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency, there was an office party, but it was a celebration that had initially been a massive imposition. This was home office show and tell, and on a holiday to boot, and no one wanted anything to do with it. But then Guy was such an appealing presence that people got on board, and this was to be a party like no other. And for that brief moment, we all felt the spark–people were hopeful and full of life. Aaand then Lois and John Deere put an abrupt end to that.

And after that it was trudgery until the finale.

Sterling Cooper stopped being vibrant and it stopped being an interesting place to be every day. Whatever comes next is so exciting.

I have to say that this was such a relaxing experience. Yes, Jon is dazzlingly handsome; he has looks, presence, sparkling eyes, and the same deep voice that Rachel Menken found so reassuring. But I think I speak for all of us when I say that the starstruck quality was almost instantly gone, and what was left was a really nice lunch with a great, and interesting, guy. Which makes it, amusingly, a little hard to put together all the breathless details, but I’m game to try.

Seagirl arrived first, and then Roberta and I walked in. We’d stopped at Shoegasm up the street, and Roberta had brand new purple boots. (Obviously, this is an important part of the story.) This gave us time to meet each other and hit it off. Then Andy Ostroy arrived. As you may recall from yesterday, Andy is the founder of the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, which hosted the auction in which this lunch was a prize, and he is the widower of Adrienne Shelly. Andy is also a blogger and film producer, but wasn’t very familiar with Jon Hamm’s work was totally familiar with Jon Hamm’s work except for not following and doesn’t follow Mad Men (despite being very appreciative of Jon Hamm’s involvement with the Adrienne Shelly Foundation). So, while Jon’s arrival was delayed by massive flight backups on the east coast, we chatted about the ASF, Mad Men, Basket of Kisses, Andy’s political writing, and all sorts of neat things. Overall, Jon was only about 40 minutes late.

Jon was looking extremely handsome, what with the newsboy cap, the peacoat, dress shirt, and Jon-ness. He greeted Roberta & I warmly and introduced himself to Seagirl. Jon knows about the ASF through his friend Amy Rampard (I’m sure I’m spelling this wrong), who was a college roommate of Adrienne Shelly’s and whom Jon knows through the dog park. Yep, Jon walks his beloved Cora there and they became friends. There’s like a dog park tribe or something.

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I interviewed Rich back on October 10th, in order that we might discuss Wee Small Hours and have it posted right after it aired. It uhh–did not work out that way. Blogger interviewer FAIL.

We do a bit of hello and how are you and I tell him a bit about visiting the set and our experience meeting Hamm and then off we go.

Roberta Lipp: Honestly what our readers want to know first? How is Beatrice?

Beatrice is Rich’s daughter. He has a blog that he has mostly abandoned for Twitter, and his blog, among other things, kept us up to date on the wondrous young Beatrice.

Rich Sommer: She is very well. We’ve stopped posting pictures of her after a weird scare we had… We felt a little intruded upon so we’ve limited the amount of information we put out there. But she’s walking and talking and dancing. She takes ballet classes. She’s having a good time.

I did whittle this portion of our talk down; we both agreed that details were unnecessary. And of course, what you also don’t get from a transcript is all my ‘aww’ type sounds that I just make around toddler and toddler talk.

Oh, and by the way? I never even mentioned in this entire conversation how cool it was that they named the Crane daughter Beatrice. But we’d emailed about it when My Old Kentucky Home first aired. He was pleased as punch, naturally.

So finally we discuss Wee Small Hours.

RL: Do you think that Harry thinks that he handled it? Watching that scene, [the phone call between Harry and Lee Garner Jr.] it seemed like, y’know you changed the subject, you did a good tap dance, and the guy is drunk.

RS: Yeah, Harry thinks he’s handled it. I think Harry says what he thought was going to happen which was that he thought it was going to go away. And can’t really understand what’s going on—he’s so uninvolved in the other side of it. So yeah I think he thinks he did the right thing by him. He made essentially an executive decision. It turns out it wasn’t the decision that they would have wanted him to make but what else was he supposed to do, really? I don’t think he would have had much of a different outcome either way. I think they still would have said, Why the hell is he calling you?

RL: Right.

RS: And he still would have been in an uncomfortable position, where I think he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.

RL: He was just as victimized, just in a different way, as Sal was.

RS: Yeah, absolutely. He was just as unjustly cornered. Obviously not in a physical way but by a guy who is very powerful in this agency and expects things to be done his way whether it makes sense or not.

RL: Overall, how do you think Harry’s doing at work? Is he competent and good at this position, or is he in over his head? (more…)

Kids, we’re working on it. Just honing in on the location. But rest assured, Sunday, November 8th, there will be an epic Basketgathering. And we’re hunting/gathering special guests even as we speak.

Start sprucing up.

photo via amctv.com

One unanswered question for Mad Men fans concerns itself with how the JFK assassination will be depicted in Season 3 (if at all). While it was certainly a major element in the lawn mower scene from Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency, further foreshadowing of JFK’s assassination would seem to come from the Lee Garner Jr. character.  Son of the Lucky Strike cigarette magnate, Lee’s actions cut a wide swath in Wee Small Hours.

During the television shoot, Lee Garner Jr. looks through the camera lens in a posture that mimics taking aim with a sniper’s scope. After his pass is rebuked by Sal, Lee complains to Harry Crane and so fires a salvo that adversely affects the careers of three different characters. First, of course, Sal loses his job. Second, Harry comes within an inch of getting fired himself when his indecisiveness draws Roger’s anger.  Third, Don Draper is put on notice that, with two angry clients on his hands, his “golden boy” professional reputation has been slightly tarnished.

Interestingly, the name “Lee Garner Junior” has exactly the same number of letters (15) in the exactly the same places as “Lee Harvey Oswald.” Also, one the technicians in the editing room with Sal and Lee announces that he’s going to “the booth.”  This could certainly be a subtle reference to another assassin of presidents with three names: John Wilkes Booth.

Pure coincidence? Probably not.

When Don meets with Conrad Hilton in Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency, he disappoints the hotel tycoon by not thinking “bigger.”  It would appear that Hilton has more in mind for Don than enlisting his help to improve the ill-conceived “Jerry” mouse ad campaign.

However, Don explains that, like a snake which can only handle one meal at a time, Don is only seeking “one opportunity at a time.”  In this case, Don has already had his one meal; a chicken salad at home with Betty.  So, he’s not hungry when Hilton offers him a Waldorf salad.

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The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prevents employers from firing someone because of a disability. You know, like a missing foot. The British version is the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA 1995). The ADA would apply to a British company operating on American shores, even if the employee is also British. “American” in this case means located in America.

There were essentially no rights for a disabled employee in 1963. The notion of civil rights for disabled people didn’t get introduced into our cultural dialogue until the 1970s.

And let’s be very clear about something: Guy is perfectly capable of doing his job. “Can’t golf” is the lamest weakest excuse in history. Saint John Powell and his evil cohorts just don’t want to see him around. They don’t want to feel uncomfortable. They don’t want to be reminded. And they don’t want other people, specifically clients, to be uncomfortable. They don’t want anyone to see a guy (guy/Guy=everyman?) with a visible disability and avert their eyes in that discomfitted way people do, and potentially lose a sale. Golf my ass.

And Guy has no legal rights in this matter.

I don’t usually do this, but the macabre events, the black humor, the total shock & awe, maybe threw off some of us.

Alan Sepinwall blogs Mad Men every week. I think he’s particularly brilliant this week.

Mo Ryan, also every week, also especially this week.

But the winner this week is Amanda Marcotte, who knocked it out of the park. Better than anyone, she placed this episode in historical context.