History Trivia / MadMen

** Matt Weiner decided on which characters would be smokers based on whether the actor playing them were themselves smokers or used to smoke. Notably, Creator/VincentKartheiser is a non-smoker and Pete Campbell is one of the few characters among the main cast who does not smoke.

* 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, only one episode preceding Peggy's departure.

* QueerCharacterQueerActor: The openly gay Bryan Batt plays Sal Romano, who's also gay but closeted due to the time period, his job, and his marriage.

* ShipperOnDeck: Meta. Jay R. Ferguson (Stan) had said he staged a coup for [[spoiler: Peggy and Stan]] to get together after Weiner stated they won't and the [[http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/05/peggy-stan-mad-men-romance writers were on board with it]].

* QueerCharacterQueerActor: Both Sal Romano and his actor Bryan Batt are gay.

* 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.

** According to one interview, {{Music/Beck}} 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".

* IronyAsSheIsCast: 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.

** Both Jessica Pare and her character Megan are French-Canadian.

** Jessica Pare's "Zou Bisou Bisou" became a hit in 2012, the year of Season 6 and she shows off some burlesque dancing skills as well.

* TheWikiRule: The [[http://madmen.wikia.com/wiki/Mad_Men_Wiki Mad Men Wiki]].

* ReferencedBy: ''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]]".

* ReferencedBy: ''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]]", in which one of the characters is told 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]]".

** According to one interview, {{Music/Beck}} turned down repeated offers to write the show's theme song, since at the time he thought [[ItWillNeverCatchOn 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".

* 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. Including Music/{{RJD2}}, the artist behind the theme song.

** Matt Weiner decided on which characters would be smokers based on whether the actor playing them were themselves smokers or used to smoke. Notably, Vincent Kartheiser is a non-smoker and Pete Campbell is one of the few characters among the main cast who does not smoke.

** 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 even gets the chance to show off her singing skills. Said episode even has Creator/VincentKartheiser dancing to the Charleston, and Creator/MichaelGladis's capella singing.

* 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, and got engaged in March 2013.

** John Slattery's real life wife Talia Balsam plays Roger's wife Mona. Rather amusingly, their characters get divorced so that he can marry a twentysomething.

* McLeaned: 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=].

** Creator/ElisabethMoss 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.

** Robert Moses, 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.