Line #29 Fridge/MadMen


1	[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
2	* The best might be the flashback scenes of Don's father and how Don seems stuck following the same path, until Don finally breaks free.
3	* Lane Pryce is the only one with a [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} New York Mets]] pennant. It's 1964, and the Mets are new -- as is Lane, who's moved to New York from London. The rest of them, being Americans, have long-standing loyalties to whichever baseball team they grew up supporting -- although what with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants having left for the West Coast, any native New Yorker who isn't a Yankees fan might also be interested in going to "meet the Mets".
4	** Don's resurrecting of Lane's pennant when he ends up working in the latter's old office a few years later isn't just a tribute to his late colleague -- by then, it's 1969, the year the unfancied Mets won the World Series.
5	* At one point, we see Don reading ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby''. There are many similarities between the titular Jay Gatsby and Don Draper, to the point where Gatsby was probably an inspiration in the creation of Don:
6	** They both come from very poor families and have used their wits, intelligence and/or natural cunning to climb their way up the social ladder, thus becoming embodiments of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream. That said, they've both done so by somewhat underhand means -- Jay by bootlegging, Don by manipulating Roger Sterling in order to get his career-defining job.
7	** They both carry around a personality that isn't their own; Jay Gatsby is really Johnny Gatz and Don Draper is really Dick Whitman (although Jay hasn't explicitly committed identity theft, as Don has).
8	** To a certain extent, the reason for their false personalities could be that they literally needed "a new name", to even get remotely accepted in the upper social classes.
9	** They are both suave and dashing on the outside, but have a shady, [[DarkAndTroubledPast dark and troubled past]].
10	** The "F" in Donald F. Draper and F. Scott Fitzgerald both stand for, guess what, Francis.
11	* Bert Cooper makes everyone who enters his office take their shoes off. At first viewing, this looks like it's because he's an aficionado of Japanese culture. But it's also a power play -- anyone who comes into his domain has to do so on his terms.
12	** On several occasions, Bert recommends ''Literature/AtlasShrugged''. That's because he's the embodiment of Ayn Rand's objectivist ethical philosophy - the ultimate ethical egoist or rationally selfish man. All of his actions are, in one way or another, directed by a pragmatic attitude of what he thinks is best for himself, not some predefined idealism of what is "right". How can we see this?
13	*** When he first finds out the truth about Don's identity, he doesn't give a shit, because Don is a giant resource for the company, and by extension, himself. As he himself points out:
14	----> ''There is more profit in forgetting this right now.''
15	*** When he later needs Don to sign a contract, and is close to losing the giant resource that Don is (which would hurt himself and his wealth), he has absolutely no qualms about blackmailing him with said knowledge, forcing him to sign the contract, and thus, securing his resource. Bert doesn't care if or blackmail is somehow "wrong" and "unethical". If it can help him and his situation, he's OK with it. Truly, Bert is one MagnificentBastard.
16	** It should be noted, though, that Bert (and, to a lesser extent, Roger) can actually be seen as a ''subversion'' of the Randian risk-taking, hard-working, badass businessman; he thinks of himself as being a capitalist hero when it's obvious to the audience that he does nothing all day but read philosophy in his office while Don and the others do all the heavy lifting. Or maybe it's just that he has managed to get himself into a position where he ''can'' put his feet up.
17	* In the first episode of season two, Don sends a copy of ''Meditations in an Emergency'' to an unknown person, with a note saying "Made me think of you. -- D." Several episodes later we find out that it went to Anna, the widow of the real Don Draper. He signed it that way because to her he's Dick Whitman or replacement-Don, not Don.
18	** Also, it gives him some cover. For Anna, he's signing it as Dick, if anyone else finds it, he can claim he's signing it as Don.
19	* [[TheAllegedCar The Chevrolet Vega]]. Gorgeous, American-muscle-meets-Italian-''carrozeria'' styling over cutting-edge technology developed at record-breaking expense by the largest engineering organization in the world, yours for an economy-car price. And then the engine starts to burn oil at 12,000 miles, warps its head not long after, and then it fails state inspection on rust at a year old. The perfect metaphor for [[TheSeventies the decade they're about to enter]].
20	** Overlaps with the ArtisticLicense used throughout the whole series to credit RealLife ad campaigns to Sterling Cooper and its' successors. The Vega launch ads were created by Campbell-Ewald, as mentioned in story Chevy's ad agency since the dinosaur age, but they ''looked'' like they could've been done by a completely different team than the rest of the model year 1971 Chevy ads. See what the [[http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/United%20States/Chevrolet/1971-Chevrolet/index.html showroom brochures]] looked like.
21	* In Season 1 it's established that Don and Betty met when he was selling fur coats and she was the model he -- or rather, the company he worked for -- used to advertise them. In "Waldorf Stories" (S.4 E.6), the flashback sequence is all about how Roger hired Don (or rather, was tricked into hiring Don) after meeting him when he went to buy a fur coat. Almost incidentally, the poster in the shop shows the tag-line Don came up with to advertise the coats ... and the model wearing the coat in the poster is Betty.
22	* After SCDP loses the Lucky Strike account, Roger switches to smoking Camels. Whether Camels were his preferred brand and he only smoked Luckies because SC/SCDP advertised the latter, or he switched to Camels because they lost the Lucky Strike account, is of no consequence — it works either way.
23	* Don's opposition to the idea of Joan ''literally'' prostituting herself to get the Jaguar account makes sense when you consider that he respects Joan and is confident that his pitch alone can win the account. It makes ''even more'' sense when you realise that he's the son of a prostitute, was partly raised in a brothel, and lost his virginity to a prostitute in circumstances that would nowadays be classed as rape.
24	* Season 6 was criticized for having a chaotic plot arc, but it takes place over 1967-68, a chaotic time.
25	* Don not wanting Megan to do love scenes just seems like basic hypocrisy, until you remember where he grew up. Megan getting paid to do love scenes was too much like prostitution to him.
26	* Don has no familiarity of Music/TheBeatles other than a ''very'' basic idea of what they sound like and Megan takes it upon herself to introduce him to them. At first this doesn't make sense since he had earlier taken Sally to one of their concerts. But the concert they attended, the band's historic performance at Shea Stadium, had so many screaming fans that it was impossible to actually hear the music (to the point where the Beatles themselves couldn't even hear themselves play). Therefore, Don never got a chance ''to actually hear them'' until Megan gave him the ''Music/{{Revolver\|Beatles Album}}'' LP.
27	* In the first season, Peggy was gaining a significant amount of weight because of her pregnancy. One would wonder how she came into buying a new (and drab) wardrobe when she just started working as a secretary. Well [[http://tomandlorenzo.com/2010/06/mad-style-peggy-olson-season-1-part-2-2/ Tom and Lorenzo reveal in their Mad Style column]] that Peggy was [[http://tomandlorenzo.com/2010/06/mad-style-the-olson-women-2/ borrowing a few outfits from her plus-sized mother and sister, outfits that even show up in the second season]].
28	* When Joan impatiently waits for Kevin's babysitter, he watches ''Series/SesameStreet'', which seems like just a cute little moment of childhood. Then you think about the concept: The show mimics advertising to "sell" learning; ''Series/MadMen'' itself is a show about advertising. Kevin doesn't know it yet, but he's seeing the impact of "Mommy's Job".
29	* The title sequence. While many fans thought that Don would commit suicide in the final episode, thanks to it showing him falling from a building made of ads, [[spoiler:it represents his finally finding inner peace. At the end of the sequence, Don is shown sitting contentedly with a drink in his hand. The series ends with him meditating with a bunch of hippies.]]
30	* As the show goes on, Don's go-to pitch of nostalgia for a simpler time becomes less and less compelling. [[spoiler: In the finale, he finally finds a contemporary equivalent -- universal peace and love, and the result is even more successful than the [[Recap/MadMenS1E13TheWheel Kodak Carousel]].]]
31	* Betty's nickname from Don is "Birdie" and in Season 1, in retaliation for threatening Sally's dog Polly, she shoots her neighbor's pigeons when they take flight while Bobby Helms's "You're My Special Angel" plays. Much later, when [[spoiler: she finds out she has a terminal case of lung cancer just after starting a new college course and gaining a new outlook on her life, this incident can be looked at as a case of {{Foreshadowing}}; she was a metaphorical bird in a gilded cage, struck down just when she started flying out.]]
32	* The Patio ''Film/ByeByeBirdie'' commercial. When you see it, you can tell that something's clearly off when compared to what it was based on. Roger immediately points out that it doesn't work because the singer isn't Creator/AnnMargret. But there's another reason it feels off. Sal Romano, whose brainchild this advert is, has played up the campy musical theatre quality of the original at the expense of the sex appeal of the singer -- ''because he's gay''. It's so subtle that you don't notice it.
33	* The SmugSnake British executive who looks poised to take over the running of Sterling Cooper prior to his career-ending injury-by-lawnmower in "Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency" is actually called Guy.
34	* After he [[TheBusCameBack comes back]] in "Christmas Comes But Once A Year", Freddy Rumsen refers to a friend from his "chapter" who set him up with the Pond's Cold Cream account. After hearing that Roger's taken said friend out for lunch, he interrupts what he's doing to call him and arrange to meet later. Peggy thinks it's because he wants to know how the lunch meeting went. However ... the "chapter" that they're both members of is an Alcoholics Anonymous one -- and if Freddy's friend has gone out for lunch with [[TheAlcoholic Roger]], he's clearly fallen OffTheWagon and needs help. Freddy has truly [[CharacterDevelopment come a long way]] since we last saw him.
35	* [[spoiler:Lane's]] suicide note being a "boilerplate" (ie. standardised) resignation letter at first seems to be just another example of his understated personality. Remember, however, that his final conversation with Don had ended with the latter demanding his resignation and threatening him with dire consequences if he didn't comply. The suicide note was him giving Don ''exactly what he wanted'', while letting him know what he had driven [[spoiler:Lane]] to in the process.
36
37	[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
38	* A major part of Peggy's season 2 storyline was her coming to terms with her surprise pregnancy and the birth of her child at the end of season 1. At first it seems like just incredibly powerful denial on her part. Fast forward to Season 3's ''The Fog'' which shows what it was like for a woman to give birth in the mid-sixties, specifically [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_sleep twilight sleep]]. It was horrifying for Betty to be drugged into an amnesiac state while giving birth, but at least she had been there before. Now imagine Peggy, who had no idea what to expect and DIDN'T REALIZE SHE WAS PREGNANT, to suddenly be put in that state....
39	** What about Trudy and Joan?? And oh many RealLife women? [[AndIMustScream Nooooo......]]
40	** When Peggy arrives at the hospital, she's already in labour. It's therefore likely that she DIDN'T have twilight sleep because it would have been too late. Not all women gave birth this way either.
41	* The entirety of [[spoiler:Lane's suicide]]. Rewatch the scene where Roger, Don, and Pete [[spoiler:break into his office to cut him down]], and you'll notice lots of new details you probably didn't notice on a first viewing:
42	** First thing: [[spoiler:Lane staged the office so that his body would block the door. Joan would be the most likely person to try to key into his office to leave the books on his desk. Considering they were such close friends and he had obvious feelings for her, it's likely he intentionally set his death up to spare her from having to see his body, as a sort of morbid final favor to her. Technically he could have tied the rope anywhere in the room; the structural cross-beams in a building run throughout a room with acoustic tiles like that.]]
43	** It also happened to be the hardest thing for Don to have to deal with, physically and emotionally.
44	** In an interview, series costume designer Janie Bryant revealed that the rope Lane eventually used is actually the sash from his bathrobe, the gray one he wore at home in "Signal 30". He obviously bought the supplies to rig the Jaguar, but had to improvise his noose. It's more visible just as Pete has the scissors, but it's clearly a shiny silken cord, and not a nylon rope from the hardware store. Meaning Lane, who even failed at having a nice, quiet death the way he wanted, had to come up with a plan B in the few hours before the Monday morning workday started. And hangings can often take a long time, with the victim suffering anywhere from 4 to 15 minutes before death finally sets in. Shudder.
45	** The body doesn't look so good (obviously) in the closeup shots when Roger and Don go to catch him—it's mostly the weird way his hair is done; it looks very uncharacteristically and unattractively plastered to his scalp in the closeup. Obviously it's a no-brainer he would have sweated it out while choking to death, but Lane was so set on killing himself that weekend that he saw no reason to bathe or wash his hair for three days, and that's why it was so greasy and flat.
46	** Lane's glasses are on the desk blotter across the room from the noose. Imagine how excruciatingly that had to have played out. He would have had to set them down, walk through a dark room (all the lamps were off when they broke in), climb onto the fairly tall table, tie the noose around his neck, and do this final deed, all while he was basically blind.
47	* In the finale, Roger marries Marie and moves to Montreal with her. This happens in November 1970, which would have been right in the middle of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Crisis October Crisis]], which saw widespread military intervention after the Quebec Minister of Labour was kidnapped by [=FLQ=] terrorists.

Context Fridge / MadMen