Suddenly, Mad Men is everywhere (and that’s a good thing!)
There’s a fantastic story in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine about AMC’s Mad Men. It’s actually the cover story (you don’t see many cover stories in the NYT Mag about a TV show) and is one of the best articles I’ve read about a TV show in a very long time.
Besides interviewing creator/producer/writer Matthew Weiner at length, writer Alex Witchel also sits in on auditioning sessions and script meetings for the second season, interviews advertising icons (George Lois, Jerry Della Femina, William Bernbach) about the show, and gets choice quotes from cast members such as Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Elisabeth Moss, and January Jones. It’s a beautifully written piece, really getting behind the scenes of the show, and includes this great paragraph to explain the show quite nicely.
Weiner’s achievements with “Mad Men,” which is produced by Lionsgate, are plentiful, starting with the storytelling. Setting it in the early 1960s, on the cusp between the repression and conformity of the cold war and McCarthy-era 1950s and the yet-to-unfold social and cultural upheavals of the 60s, allows Weiner an arc of character growth that is staggering in its possibilities. It also gives him the opportunity to mine the Rat Pack romance of that period, when the wreaths of cigarette smoke, the fog of too many martinis - whether exhilarating or nauseating - and the silhouettes specific to bullet bras only heightened the headiness of the dream that all men might one day become James Bond or, at the very least, key holders to the local Playboy Club.
But the NYT Mag article isn’t the only news about Mad Men recently. Besides the soundtrack coming out tomorrow and the first season DVDs coming out July 1, the show is being included in Emmy talk, recently received a Peabody Award, was on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and is currently being honored by Bloomingdale’s with a store window display, which includes Mad Men-ish fashions and TV sets showing scenes from the show.
The second season debuts on July 27. AMC will have a marathon of first season eps on July 20.
Mad Genius Matt Weiner Talks About the Men, Their Ladies and Season Two
Last night, I hit the TheEnvelope.com’s Olay-sponsored Emmy Screening Series in Hollywood to stalk see Mad Men stars Jon Hamm, January Jones, Elisabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks, Robert Morse and Vincent Kartheiser, along with the brain behind the show, creator Matt Weiner.
So what did the cast spill, and what’s gonna go down in the new season starting July 27 on AMC? Click in to find out!
Betty on Top? January Jones says there may be a glimmer of hope for her frustrated housewife alter ego: “I think that you see her slowly become a little stronger…and coming to [terms with] the fact within herself that she has no one. I think that’s why the scene with the little boy Glen at the end [of season one] was so sad…She has a best friend, a husband, children and a therapist, [all of] whom she’s supposed to be able to trust, but she can’t.” Aww, poor Betty. Let momma give you a hug!
Peggy and the Pregnancy…and the Pounds: According to Elisabeth Moss, when Matt Weiner told her about Peggy Olson’s season-one storyline, he started off with an involved psychological explanation, about “how she tries to emasculate herself and fit in somehow, the only way she knows how.” So it was not until the very end of the pitch that he revealed the bit about the character’s secret pregnancy and accompanying weight gain. In response to that little revelation, Moss said her jaw just dropped. Weiner, however, remembers it differently: “You’re a great actress, but you were like, ’Come on, how fat are we talking!?’ “
Rust Lust: Flame-haired beauty Christina Hendricks said she herself has wondered how her character Joan can be such a be-yotch. ”Sometimes when I get the scripts I immediately call Matt and go, ’Why am I so horrible? Why am I such a monster?’ And then we talk it through, [and] she thinks she is doing good. She wants to help the system run smoothly.”
From Suffrage Straight to Suffering: Even though Sterling Cooper voted for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, don’t assume that means anything about Weiner’s personal politics. He told the crowd, “I come from a hard-core Nixon-hating family…When Nixon died, my mom said, ’It’s just too little too late!’ “
Funny Footnote to Fake History: For when you launch that Mad Men Wiki, please note that according to Weiner, the characters’ ages circa season one are as follows: Don is “mid-30s,” Betty is 28, Peggy is 20, Joan is “older than Peggy” and Vincent Kartheiser’s diabolical yet darling Pete is 26. (P.S. This footnote really was just an excuse to plop in a photo of Vincent, formerly Angel’s spawn on Angel, whom one of my colleagues has a mad crush on. Shhhh…)
What’s To Come: So…about that second season starting up next month? When I grabbed a little face time with Matt Weiner and asked just that, he said, “All I can tell you is it’s going to be later in their lives, and it’s the next stage in where they are, but people don’t change…And I will not ignore the consequences from last year—they are part of it. I did not pretend like they didn’t happen.”
What questions do you want to see answered when the show returns? Post in the comments!
Mad Men Will Make You Skinny and Desirable
If you haven't seen Mad Men yet, you're missing out, because it's one of the wittiest and most interesting shows to grace TV in a long time. Think Deadwood but with better outfits and much better manners.
Created by The Sopranos scribe Matt Weiner, Mad Men is the story of advertising executive Don Draper. He has a picture-perfect wife and children at home, and he works at a Machiavellian agency cooking up slogans for Lucky Strike and Bethlehem Steel. We hit the Paley Center for Media Wednesday night to grill the cast about their complicated characters and to dig up a little scoop on the show.
Finale Fever: First off, what can we expect from the season finale "The Wheel," airing this Thursday? The man in charge, Mad Men creator Matt Weiner, says, "The finale story will be a contained unit, but a lot of things come home to roost. Not everything is resolved, but debts are paid. But then again, I'm not a person who is giving you justice on TV. Don't watch my show for justice. Life's not fair." Duly noted.
Multitasking: When asked whom that rake Don Draper really does love (among the many women in his life), Jon Hamm says, "That's a good question, and I wish I could definitively say one thing, but I think that is kind of the journey of the show, trying to figure out a lot of things about Don. Don's journey is trying to figure out where he is in his job and in his relationships, and where he is in the the history of the U.S. I wish there was one answer, and I think we've seen with the several women in his life that he's trying to cover something different with each one. He's maybe looking for one that covers all the bases, and maybe he hasn't found it yet." He's a tramp, but we love him.
Freudian Slip? Beauty January Jones, who plays frustrated housewife Betty Draper, says of her character's depression, "It's the struggle of being a housewife at that time—she doesn't really have a lot for herself. I think she's unhappy, and I think she's stuck. The psychiatry is something she wanted. She asked Don, but she's doing it because she wants to. But you'll find out in the later episodes that that gets a little weird." Hmmm…
Pete, Pete, Pete: According to Vincent Kartheiser, his conniving, complicated character Pete Campbell won't get away with all of his bad deeds: "I think Pete will get what he deserves, but also I think his ambitions will come to fruition in certain ways, and I think the audience will be both pleased and saddened." Matt Weiner's take on the character is that Pete is likable and relatable in his own way. He says of Pete's troubles, "Most of the mistakes in life are made by men who think they're being charming."
Lies, All Lies: Despite what you may have heard on the Internets, Matt Weiner tells me there were never any plans to kill off John Slattery's character, Roger Sterling, with a massive coronary. "No, that's absolutely not true. Slattery is completely safe. He's one of the most amazing things in the world, and I will tell you, in my career, I have enjoyed few things more than writing for John Slattery."
Joan's No Saint: As for the Roger-Joan affair, the divine Christina Hendricks tells us of her character, "Joan will never allow herself to fully fall in love with Roger Sterling. She knows from the beginning what she's getting into. I think they spend significant time together and are very intimate, but she protects her heart as much as she can—she's still a woman."
Working Girls: Elisabeth Moss told us that Peggy's ambitions are very sincere, saying, "She loves what she does, and she loves the actual world of advertising, as opposed to a lot of the other women and men in the show." And Christina says, "Joan doesn't have any interest in succeeding in a man's world in 1960, but if she was in 2007, she'd probably be running the company." Damn straight.
Mad Men airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
—Reporting by Jennifer Godwin
January Jones Biography
Best known for her role as Alyson Hannigan’s sister in “American Wedding†(2003), the third installment in the “American Pie†comedy film series, pouty-lipped head-turner January Jones became almost as famous for her choice of notable beaus, as for her choice in movie roles.
The 5’ 7†beauty was born, fittingly, on Jan. 5, 1978 in Sioux Falls, SD. However, her parents came up with the name after reading a Jacqueline Susann book called Once is Not Enough, featuring a character named January Wayne. While attending Roosevelt High School, Jones spent her pre-modeling, pre-Hollywood time toiling away at a local Dairy Queen.
At age 18, she moved to New York City and made her first mark as a stunning model for hip suburban clothier Abercrombie & Fitch. After making the requisite move to Los Angeles, Jones made her acting debut with a small role in the independent film “All the Rage†(1999), starring Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin. Jones followed this with a guest appearance in the Fox TV pilot, “Get Real†(1999). Two years later, she had her biggest break to date when she landed a role in her first major motion picture, the teen-oriented thriller “Glass House†(2001), starring Leelee Sobieski.
Like all young and beautiful starlets on the cusp of fame, Jones quickly became a fixture on the young Hollywood scene. Her blonde beauty attracted a variety of male admirers, including a relatively unknown pre-Demi stud named Ashton Kutcher. The couple, who reportedly met in 1998 at an Abercrombie & Fitch shoot, dated for three years – until Kutcher became enchanted with the older actress Demi Moore. Jones moved on to funnyman extraordinaire Jim Carey and “American Wedding†co-star Sean William Scott before meeting and falling for pop-classical singer and favorite “Oprah†guest, Josh Groban in 2003.
Jones continued to hone her acting chops, landing roles in a variety of high-profile projects: as a bank robber in the Bruce Willis-Billy Bob Thorton crime comedy “Bandits†(2001); as a memorable lesbian sexpot with temperament issues in the Adam Sandler-Jack Nicholson hit comedy, “Anger Management†(2003); and as an British tourist in the hit romantic comedy, “Love Actually” (2003). At the same time, Jones was featured as #82 in Maxim magazine’s “Hot 100 of 2002″ supplement. Next up was the star-making role of Cadence Flaherty, the beautiful sister and maid of honor to the not-so-blushing bride, Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) as well as the love interest of the obnoxious hound, Stiffler (Sean William Scott) in “American Wedding†(2003). While the film tanked, Jones had received her first major coverage for a role that she had won from literally thousands of on-the-brink ingenues.
Looking for further challenges, Jones learned to 50’s swing dance for her role in “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights†(2004), the critically maligned sequel to the 1987 dance classic. She journeyed back to the small screen, appearing in the recurring role of Marissa Wells on the Showtime comedy series, “Huff” in 2004. The actress continued to expand her range as a dramatic actress by portraying Barry Pepper’s repressed wife in Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones’ directorial debut, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada†(2005). The prestigious film – a first for Jones – won Best Screenplay and Best Actor awards at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
- Born:
on 01/05/1978 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota - Job Titles:
Actor, Model
Significant Others
- Companion: Ashton Kutcher. dated from 1998-2001; no longer together
- Companion: Josh Groban. dating as of Fall 2003
Milestones
- 2001 Made her feature debut in the suspense drama “The Glass House”
- 2002 Had a part in Steven Soderbergh’s comedy “Full Frontal”
- 2003 Played Gina in the hilarious Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler comedy “Anger Management”
- 2003 Played the sister to the not-so-blushing bride in “American Wedding”
- 2004 Appeared in “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” co-starring Diego Luna
- 2005 Played the bored wife of a border patrolman (Barry Pepper) in Tommy Lee Jones’ “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”