History Series / MadMen

* CoolCar: Don's Cadillac Coupe [=DeVille=], Gene's (later Betty's) early '60s Lincoln, Betty's '57 Ford wagon from the first season... practically every outdoor shot is chock-full of Gorgeous Period Cars.

* InformedJudaism: Jane is entirely assimilated, with the only hint to her Jewish roots a casual mention that her father spoke Yiddish

* MushroomSamba: when Roger and Jane take LSD

The series was originally pitched to {{HBO}}, which turned it down. It ended up on {{AMC}}, which has run with the ball as far as ''Mad Men'' being to AMC as "TheShield" is to FX Network. The series has received much critical acclaim and positive press, even though most critics tend to downplay the show's {{deconstruction}} of the entire idea of the innocent, ideal "good old days" of [[TheFifties America's past]] (and up-play ChristinaHendricks' considerable advertising assets...)

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Roger sneaks a peak at Pete's calendar so he can go to meetings between Pete and his clients and steal Pete's thunder. When Pete figures it out, he makes a fake appointment on his calendar for very early in the morning.

* StylisticSuck: YMMV, naturally, but the opening to Ken Kosgrove's story The Man With the Miniture Orchestra, basically about how miserable Pete Campbell is, is pretty decent.

** Roger Sterling, who can drink the table under the table.

* LeaningOnTheFurniture: Roger Sterling. Scenes with Sterling, Cooper and Don have a tendency to look like rounds of [[WhoseLineIsItAnyway "Sitting, Standing, Leaning".]]

* ManipulativeBastard: Ted Chaough, the Don Draper of rival ad agency CGC. Claims Don's "got him in his rear-view mirror", engineers a meeting with Don at Benihana and sends Don a bottle of booze claiming victory after Roger sinks SCDP's chances of landing the Honda account.

** One of the best examples of deconstructing the MaleGaze is the scene in "Babylon" where Joan bends over ''very'' slowly and knowingly in front of mirrored glass, displaying her ass for all the male execs to see.

* MyBelovedSmother: Peggy's mother.
** Joan's mom.

* [[EarnYourHappyEnding Earn Your Happy Marriage]]: All two of the happy marriages on the show are the result of long periods of difficulty and struggling; Peter and Trudy Campbell have a particularly difficult saga, although they do get one of their fondest wishes - Trudy becomes pregnant. Harry Crane's wife kicks him out of the house after Harry confesses to a drunken tryst with a secretary. (She lets him back in, but by the time we see that in the second season episode "The Benefactor," it's been a year and a half).

** Season Four, Peggy gets hit on by a female ''LIFE'' editor at a Warhol-esque art show. Peggy blocks the flirtation but doesn't freak out.

** An earlier example in "Ladies' Men" - Don is discussing the possibility of working on the Nixon campaign with Sterling and Cooper, and through the window to his office you can see a fireball as Cosgrove and some of the other workers light a spray of deodorant that they'd been playing with.

* GrandeDame: Mona in her appearances. Mrs. Francis in season 4.

* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Pete went to Dartmouth, Paul went to Princeton (on a scholarship), Ken went to Columbia.
** However, Peggy only went to secretarial school. Don's higher education was limited to a few classes at City College of New York. Harry went to the University of Wisconsin. Smitty went to the University of Michigan.

** Roger in season one, culminating in his heart attack. He gets a little better, then relapses in season three into a jerk again. He's slowly getting better again in season four, but [[spoiler: "Hands and Knees" and the double-whammy of Joan's abortion and losing Lucky Strike may be signaling another breaking]].

* BrickJoke: In 4x05 "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", Roger makes an obscure reference to a Dr. Lyle Evans, and Bert promptly tells him to shut up. Two episodes later, we find out that Bert, in the middle of his sexual prime, got his testicles removed in an 'unnecessary' procedure performed by one Dr Lyle Evans years back.

** [[http://seductionism.com/blog/01/10/how-to-pick-up-women-like-don-draper/ this video sums it up pretty well]]

* MatchCut: John Slattery, the director of Season 5 episode "Signal 30", seems to like these, as this episode featured a Match Cut with Ken opening a door, cutting to Pete in the same position opening a different door; Don and Megan in a car, cutting from the roof of a car to a desk as the camera pans up; and a cut from Pete in a room to Pete in the same position in a different room. Additionally, there's an audio Match Cut from a woman tapping her shoes to Pete Campbell's dripping faucet.

* MatchCut: John Slattery, the director of Season 5 episode "Signal 30", seems to like these, as this episode featured a Match Cut with Ken opening a door, cutting to Pete in the same position opening a different door; Don and Megan in a car, cutting froom the roof of a car to a desk as the camera pans up; and a cut from Pete in a room to Pete in the same position in a different room.

* WhatExactlyIsHisJob: "What do I do here?" says a demoralized Lane to Joan in "Studio 30".

* MeaningfulName: Don Draper.

** 4x04, "The Rejected," which makes for a lovely bit of irony in Slattery's first episode: Roger is repeating Lee Garner's instructions on smoking ads - "No [[HitlerCam wide angles or low shots, nothing that makes the smoker appear superhuman]]." - as Slattery frames a smoking Jon Hamm in exactly those kind of shots.
** And 4x11, "Blowing Smoke".

** Largely true of Pete and Trudy Campbell, after Pete goes through his CharacterDevelopment and becomes less of a douchebag.