Line #67 Trivia/MadMen


1	* ActingInTheDark: For most of season five, Creator/ElisabethMoss was not told that her character would be leaving Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in "The Other Woman." Showrunner Matt Weiner only informed her when they started filming the tenth episode, one episode preceding Peggy's departure.
2	* ActorAllusion: Creator/RobertMorse playing a 1960s businessman parallels his star-making role in the 1961 musical ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'', as well as its [[Film/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying film version]]. He even gets a musical number in the same style as that show.
3	* ActorLeavesCharacterDies: Lane was killed off in part because Jared Harris had too many other upcoming acting commitments (especially with playing Professor Moriarty in ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows''). There were no hard feelings, though; Harris recognized he was simply too busy and came back to direct "Time & Life" in Season [=7B=].
4	* ActorSharedBackground:
5	** Both Creator/JessicaPare and her character Megan are French-Canadian.
6	** It was revealed shortly before Season 7B started airing that Jon Hamm apparently had struggled with alcoholism himself, given the reports of him finishing up a stay at a 30-day rehabilitation clinic.
7	** Like Don, Jon Hamm lost both his parents at a young age, albeit not as drastically as his character (Hamm was ten when his mother died from cancer, then twenty when his father passed away).
8	** Matt Weiner decided on which characters would be smokers based on whether the actor playing them were themselves current or former smokers. Notably, Creator/VincentKartheiser is a non-smoker and Pete Campbell is one of the few characters among the main cast who does not smoke.
9	* CastTheRunnerUp:
10	** Creator/JohnSlattery prepared an audition to play Don Draper. Matt Weiner had already decided on Creator/JonHamm, but found Slattery perfect for Roger Sterling, Jr.
11	** Creator/JanuaryJones auditioned twice for the role of Peggy Olson before Matthew Weiner asked her to read for the part of Betty Draper instead, despite the fact that at that point the character was barely in the pilot and he had no plans of fleshing her out.
12	** Jessica Paré auditioned for the role of the prostitute that slaps Don in the face early in season four before being cast as Megan Calvet.
13	** Creator/ChristinaHendricks originally auditioned to play Midge Daniels.
14	** Creator/StephanieCourtney, who played switchboard operator Marge in Season 1, originally auditioned for Joan.
15	* TheCastShowOff:
16	** Creator/ChristinaHendricks was learning how to play the accordion during the early years of the show and that talent was incorporated into the 3rd Season when Greg begs Joan to perform for his guests to distract from the reveal that he's a failure as a surgeon. Hendricks also gets the chance to show off her singing skills. Said episode additionally featured Vincent Kartheiser dancing the Charleston, and Creator/MichaelGladis's capella singing.
17	** Creator/JessicaPare's "Zou Bisou Bisou" became a hit in 2012, the year of Season 6 and she shows off some burlesque dancing skills as well.
18	** Elisabeth Moss had shown off a lovely singing voice when Peggy Olson imitated Ann-Margret singing Theatre/ByeByeBirdie, but we as viewers get to see evidence of Moss's old ballet training whether dancing the Twist or roller skating to Roger Sterling's rendition of "Hi Lo, Hi Lo" on an organ.
19	** Creator/AaronStaton is a trained dancer whose first acting job was a Broadway musical. He gets a short tap dance number in season 6.
20	** Robert Morse, who had a long and storied career in Broadway musicals, gets to show off his singing skills in the midseason finale of the show's final season.
21	* TheDanza: In Season 4, Danny Strong plays Danny Siegel, Jane's cousin.
22	* {{Defictionalization}}: In 2017, the real Heinz created a "Pass The Heinz" campaign [[https://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelblackmon/pass-the-heinz?utm_term=.knp3Po65#.lgqL4E6z based on Don Draper's Heinz pitch]].
23	** ''Sterling's Gold'' came out as a real book in 2010.
24	* DirectedByCastMember: Jon Hamm (Don) directed two episodes ("Tea Leaves" and "Collaborators"), and John Slattery (Roger) directed five ("The Rejected", "Blowing Smoke", "Signal 30", "Man with a Plan", and "Tale of Two Cities"). Jared Harris (Lane Pryce) directed "Time & Life", although that episode was produced after Harris left the show.
25	* DyeingForYourArt:
26	** It was said that Matthew Weiner asked most of the cast members, especially the women, to abstain from certain workouts that are trendy in the 21st Century, so they'd look more like people did in the 1960s.
27	** Alison Brie also noted that the women usually wore a lot of pins in their hair and the girdles, she states it gives them a sense of what their character is going through.
28	** [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/8053267/Mad-Men-costume-designer-reveals-secret-to-Joan-Holloway-look.html This article from the Guardian]] states that often the hosiery and shapewear from that era (or designed to match lingerie from then) would be painful enough for the actresses to need pads of moleskin.
29	** Creator/VincentKartheiser gained weight and shaved his hairline to give the allusion of Pete's personal life falling apart in latter seasons.
30	* EnforcedMethodActing:
31	** During the filming of the infamous lawnmower scene, the actors were told that the fake blood would be sprayed at the count of three. It was fired at the count of two, to make sure their surprised reactions were genuine.
32	** In "The Other Woman," when Don kisses Peggy's hand as a goodbye, Matthew Weiner (who directed the episode) told Jon Hamm to hold it longer than planned. Moss's emotional reaction was real, as she was not informed ahead of time and was genuinely caught off guard.
33	* ExecutiveMeddling:
34	** Resulted in a six-month delay to Season Five. Contentious negotiations between AMC and Matthew Weiner eventually led to a deal which included shortening episodes by two minutes, increased product placement, and possibly trimming the cast.
35	** There was also a deal struck to give the final season 14 episodes instead of the usual 13. It was then split up, like ''Series/BreakingBad'' before it, so that the first half of the season would be filmed to air in the Spring of 2014, while the latter half would be set to air in early 2015.
36	* FakeAmerican: Deliberately averted by Matthew Weiner, who refused to cast English actors as Americans (thus making him the American answer to Creator/JKRowling in that sense). Thus making Creator/JaredHarris being cast as Lane Pryce seemingly rare case for an English actor on an American series who gets to keep his regular accent.
37	* FakeNationality: Creator/JuliaOrmond, who plays Megan Draper's French mother, is actually British. She was born in Surrey and went to a private school.
38	* FontAnachronism: The show takes place roundabout the sixties. The sign on the Sterling Cooper building is Gill Sans, which was not in popular use in the United States until the 1970s (although it had been released in 1928 and was popular in its native Britain from the 1930s on, it never caught on across the Atlantic until much later). There are other future fonts, mainly in shots of print ads: Fenice (1980), Balmoral (1978), Amazone (1958), ITC Kabel (1975), Bookman Old Style (1989), Zapfino (1998), and Gotham (2002) (although this one is tricky, as Gotham ''intentionally'' [[{{Retraux}} mimics the signage on American public buildings from the 1930s-1960s]]). Notably, the first episode of the show features an advertisement in the aforementioned Zapfino. Of course, there were similar fonts—sometimes quite similar—to all of these in existence in the 1960s; presumably, this was a measure to save time and money.
39	* IronyAsSheIsCast:
40	** Danny Siegel is a hack copywriter who can only come up with variations of a single clichéd idiom ("the cure for the common cold.") He is played by Creator/DannyStrong, who is an award-winning screenwriter.
41	** On a social level, Trudy Campbell née Vogel is the "money" in her NobilityMarriesMoney marriage to Pete Campbell, who is a scion of a [[ImpoverishedPatrician fallen-on-hard-times branch]] of the (real!) Dutch old-money Dyckman family. She's played by Creator/AlisonBrie, whose birth name is Alison Brie Schermerhorn--of the almost-but-not-quite-as-ancient Dutch Schermerhorn family of New York business.
42	* TheOtherDarrin: Four different child actors have played Don's son Bobby.
43	* QueerCharacterQueerActor: The openly gay Creator/BryanBatt plays Sal Romano, who's also gay but closeted due to the time period, his job, and his marriage.
44	* RealLifeRelative:
45	** John Slattery's real life wife Creator/TaliaBalsam plays Roger's wife Mona. Rather amusingly, their characters get divorced so that he can marry a twentysomething.
46	** Creepy little Glen Bishop is played by Matt Weiner's son.
47	* RecycledSet: Even all the way up to Season 5, most restaurant or bar scenes are shot at different angles of the same Los Angeles Japanese restaurant.
48	* TheRedStapler:
49	** Many of the period styles from the show have crept back into fashion. Joan's wiggle dresses and pencil skirts for one, became really popular with many women since they flatter a whole range of body-types and don't obscure feminine curves. Horn-rimmed glasses also became popular again.
50	** Don Draper's signature Old Fashioned was long forgotten when the show aired and has seen a comeback, along with the Manhattan. Hilarity generally ensues when younger fans used to lighter concoctions try these [[GargleBlaster rather strong cocktails]] for the first time.
51	* ReferencedBy:
52	** ''Series/{{Endeavour}}'', the ''Series/InspectorMorse'' prequel set in 1960s Oxford, makes a claim to be set in the same universe as ''Mad Men'' -- in the second series episode "[[Recap/EndeavourS2E01Trove Trove]]", one of the characters is told that he has "Lane from SCDP" on the phone. That particular episode is set in May 1966, around the same time as "[[Recap/MadMenS5E1ALittleKiss A Little Kiss]]".
53	** In ''Literature/BothCanBeTrue'', Daniel visits his dad's apartment to find him watching ''Mad Men'', his favorite show, with a woman Daniel doesn't know.
54	* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: Creator/BryanBatt made some joking comments about the acting ability of the kid playing Glen Bishop in an interview. As that kid happened to be Matthew Weiner's son, a lot of people assumed there was a connection between that and Sal being outed and hastily written off the show shortly thereafter.
55	* RomanceOnTheSet: Creator/AlexisBledel (Beth Dawes) and Creator/VincentKartheiser (Pete Campbell) played two people in an affair in Season 5 (early 2012), officially started dating in October 2012, got engaged in March 2013, and were ultimately married from 2014 to 2022.
56	* SeparatedAtBirthCasting: Creator/KiernanShipka (Sally) with regards to Creator/JonHamm (Don) and Creator/JanuaryJones (Betty). As she's grown up more, the resemblance between Shipka and Jones really makes them a good mother-daughter pair. Acting-wise, Shipka definitely picked up well on both of their mannerisms.
57	* StarMakingRole: For practically everyone on the show since the majority of the cast were unknowns or only known on niche shows before the series launched. The notable exception is Robert Morse, who has been a name for decades.
58	* ThrowItIn: Elisabeth Moss has mentioned that Don kissing Peggy's hand in "The Other Woman" was improvised by Jon Hamm. Peggy's resulting tears were also not in the script.
59	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
60	** According to Creator/JonHamm, Creator/ThomasJane was originally sought for the role of Don Draper but the AMC team were informed that Jane "doesn't do television".
61	** Creator/PeterHermann and Creator/RobHuebel also auditioned for Don.
62	** According to one interview, {{Music/Beck\|Musician}} turned down repeated offers to write the show's theme song, since at the time he thought it would never catch on: "It’s about ad executives in the ’60s? They’re going to make a show about that? Really? Um, I don’t think so".
63	** According to DVDCommentary, the reason for Pete keeping his hunting rifle in his office was just in case the writers ever planned for him to commit suicide.
64	** Creator/TopherGrace was considered for the role of Pete Campbell.
65	** Creator/SarahSilverman was offered an audition for the role of Rachel Menken but turned down the offer because she was starring in ''Series/TheSarahSilvermanProgram''. Silverman was recommended for the role by Creator/JonHamm, who had previously guest starred on the show.
66	** Sal was originally planned to appear again after his Season 3 exit, but it never came to fruition.
67	* WordOfGod says Jimmy and Bobbie Barrett are supposed to be assimilated Jews.
68	* WordOfSaintPaul: Jon Hamm said in an [[http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/artsbeat/2015/05/18/mad-men-finale-jon-hamm-interview/ interview with the New York Times]] that [[spoiler:Don returned to [=McCann=] to create the famous "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" ad.]]
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Context Trivia / MadMen