Category: TV

This episode begins with Don and Betty having a conference with Sally’s teacher. Apparently, she’s been acting up and causing trouble since Gene died. Sally’s teacher, Miss Farrell, knows that Betty is pregnant but also knows that she has a little brother… so she asks if anything else has changed in the home. Betty says that her father died “last week.. the week before, two weeks now”. Miss Farrell apologizes for prying, the asks why they didn’t send a note along with Sally. She also notes that Sally didn’t miss any school from it, to which Betty says that they “didn’t want to put her through that” and Don says that “children don’t belong in graveyards”. Miss Farrell also says that this explains why Sally has been asking so many questions about the death of Medgar Evers. Betty excuses herself to go to the ladies’ room, while Miss Farrell talks to Don about “the pain of losing someone at that age”.

Meanwhile, back at Sterling Cooper, Lane heads a meeting where he takes everyone to task for wasting money on expense reports and office supplies. Don, having been at the teacher conference, walks in late. Lane complains about the discrepancy between Don and Sal’s expense reports from the Baltimore trip ($70 vs. $82), to which an irritated Don notes that he signed all of Sal’s receipts. Lane sighs and then complains that the amount of pens, pencils, pads, paper and postage “suit a company four times our size”. Don, having heard enough, gets up and leaves.

Continue reading “Mad Men: “The Fog””

Gene and Sally continue getting closer and closer. We see Gene and the Draper kids walk out the front door, and Gene has a stack of phone books in his hand: he’s taken it upon himself to teach Sally how to drive.

In Brooklyn, Peggy’s mother complains about the lack of coverage of the death of the pope. The TV seems to be on the fritz, so she repeatedly hits it. Peggy complains to Anita that the shower in her apartment is broken. Anita offers to have “Jerry” come over and take a look at it; Peggy thinks her landlord purposely breaks things in her apartment. Anita says that she’d offer Peggy a room, but doesn’t have teh space now that their mother moved in. Peggy says that she wants to move to Manhattan. “It’s so far away”, Anita says.

At Sterling Cooper, Pete is holding a meeting with his friend “Ho-Ho” and the rest of the Sterling Cooper team. Ho-Ho (real name: Horace Cook) is a trust fund baby who thinks he’s found the next big thing: the Basque sport of jai alai. Ho-Ho says that he’ll leave them a notebook with more information about the sport, and that in seven years it will eclipse baseball as America’s most popular sport. He then asks the Sterling Cooper boys how he’d sell the sport to America. Harry says that most of the money would end up on television. Ho-Ho agrees, and says that he wants a jai alai show. Lane assures him that Harry has excellent relations with all the networks, but Harry says that any show would probably have to be on ABC. Ho-Ho says that he wants the show on all networks at once, like a presidential address. The Sterling Cooper crew sit at the table, stunned. Harry says that it’s never been done before… but can’t think of a good reason why it can’t be done. Paul suggests a big musical show with Desi Arnaz, with a jai alai match as the centerpiece. Ho-Ho asks what other ideas that might have. Paul suggests advertising in woman’s magazines, selling the idea as a glamorous night in (the still exotic) Miami.

Continue reading “Mad Men: “The Arrangements””

This episode begins with Paul, Peggy and the rest of the Creative team auditioning Ann-Margret lookalikes for the Patio commercial. Harry annoys Peggy by asking the actress, Hillary, to “do the twist” one more time. Peggy tells him that he is not part of Creative and his input is not needed. Hillary leaves, and Pete and Ken walk in to announce that Bacardi is coming in on Tuesday, and that Don wants copy by Monday morning and art by Monday night. So it seems that Creative will have to work over the weekend. Ken points out the “good news”: that he and Pete will be attending a party hosted by Roger and Jane on Long Island and thus will be “out of your hair”. Harry asks if Ken and Pete will be wearing seersucker, because he “doesn’t want to look like a barbershop quartet”. The rest of the Creative team seems surprised that Harry was invited, and after Ken, Pete and Harry leave, Paul whines that they were all hired at the same time. Sal points out that he worked there six years before Paul was hired. Peggy says that management hates Creative.

Meanwhile, we see Jane walking through the office. She spies Joan and a couple of the other “office girls” and stops to talk. She says that it’s great to see them… but then she cattily says that she’s at the office because Roger was getting her rings re-sized because she “keeps losing weight”. She then dismissively asks Joan where she and Greg are living now (when Joan says that they’re looking at places in The Bronx, Jane snootily says that she “gets a nose bleed above 86th street!). Jane then asks Joan for a favor – there is construction in front of Sterling Cooper’s building, and Jane had her driver circle the block. As if to show her complete dominance over Joan, Jane asks if she can “send one of the girls down” at 1:15 to flag him down.

Continue reading “Mad Men: “My Old Kentucky Home””

For reasons I’d rather not get into at the moment, this week’s Mad Men recap will be delayed until at least Thursday, if not Friday or Saturday.

My apologies.

This episode begins with a clip of Ann-Margret singing “Bye Bye Birdie” from the film of the same name. The lights come up, and we’re in a conference room at Sterling Cooper. Ken says that Pepsi wants to copy this scene, frame-by-frame, for a new ad for Patio, the company’s new diet drink. Sal says that Pete must be breaking out in a sweat. Harry says that he will definitely sit in on the casting for this commercial. Peggy is taken aback, thinking that perhaps they out to rethink the campaign. After all, as Peggy rightfully states, the campaign should be aimed at the women who will buy the drink. After Ken shoots down Peggy’s arguments, she says that “clients don’t always know what’s best”.

At the Draper house, confusion reigns as Betty discovers an empty box of Melba toast in the pantry. Don tells her to eat some oatmeal, as the “baby might end up weighing a pound”. Don looks at some pictures a designer has left, then berates her for choosing too many as the pictures cost $3 each. Betty says that she can’t judge by pictures. Betty suggest that the family visit some antique stores in Tarrytown. The kids complain that the stores stink. Don tells them that they’re going, and that they’ll stare at antiques for so long that the buttons will seem interesting… but he then offers them an olive branch by way of a trip to the Carvel on the way home.

Continue reading “Mad Men: “Love Among the Ruins””

Sorry for the delay in the Mad Men recap. No downloadable versions of the episode have hit the Internet yet, and since I use those videos to make the screencaps and review the episode in detail, I’m waiting on that before I can start the recap.

As soon as it hits the Intarwebs, I’ll start on the review.

Season 3 begins with Don heating up some milk for Betty, who has become an insomniac during her pregnancy. Whilst doing so, Don has a series of flashbacks about his own creation. We see his “adopted” mother and father after she have given birth to another stillborn child. We then see his father negotiating with a prostitute (Don’s biological mother), who threatens to “cut his dick off and boil it in hog fat” if he “gets her in trouble” (i.e. pregnant). We then see the prostitute giving birth to Don, and dying in the process. Lastly, we see Don being delivered to his parent’s home. The woman who brought Dick to the family (likely a small-town midwife) says that “his name is Dick… after a wish his mother should have lived to see”.

We then see Don in the bedroom, giving Betty the warm milk. Betty complains that “she” (the baby) is highly active. Don asks how she knows that she’s having a girl. Betty also says that she packed Don’s valise, and that Sally broke the clasp on it, apparently afraid that Don was leaving again. Don and Betty curl up together, and Don tries to help her relax by painting a mental picture of a warm, sandy beach.

Continue reading “Mad Men: “Out of Town””