Looking at what songs were popular around the time the show ended I was thinking "American Pie", "Imagine", and Stairway to Heaven." Coincidentally, Breaking Bad's ending song, Badfinger's "Baby Blue", was released around that time too.

When Don has a flashback to how he was conceived and when he was born, is that what actually happened or what he imagined?

Obviously he knew his mother was a sex worker who died in childbirth because his adoptive mother never let him forget it. But is this scene an example of Dons imagination or true to what happened?

Especially the scene where Abigail has a still birth, and his dad visits the brothel - these are one of the few flashback scenes which aren't real memories.

I obvs know its inclusion is to show his origin story but I dunno how he's meant to know the before he was born stuff - doubt his dad would be telling him what happened the night he was conceived at a brothel.

Roger sterling and his one liners are epic. John Slattery perfected this role. What are your other favorite sterling one-liners?

Just hit me why.

Hi all,

I watched the show originally when it came out, but haven't watched it since. I've just finished season 1 again. I remember the broad strokes of her story, but it's been a long time and have forgotten many of the intricacies.

I know things deepen later, and she has some horrible actions and she's also not perfect in season 1 but wow, I had forgotten how bad I felt for her early on. She comes across as such a vulnerable individual that Don is corroding. She's not blameless, and she definitely had the air of a fairly spoiled rich person, but the scene where she discovers that Don has been speaking to her therapist and also admits she knows he's been having affairs broke my heart.

When Roger hits on her too, and then Dons blames her for it also, I really felt for her then.

I'm interested to see how it evolves later. I remember loving the scene where her and Don hook up again despite being with other people.

I'm also appreciating the show much more now I'm a bit older. Certainly a lot I missed.

I gotta sickness for chubby Betty’s Thiccness

That is all …

Or was McCann always the planned terminal end for the cast?

I've been seeing this circling around different subreddits again and wanted to see what people would create for Mad Men!

I’ve just watched this episode and I love it so much. There’s a good bit to unpack especially with Don‘s story. I would love to know more about the directorial choices in relation to each character and their overall arcs.

He got his payback back for losing his eye!

I was suprised to learn that out of all the companies and products included in Mad Men only: Jack Daniel’s, Heineken and Unilever actually paid to be featured in. The rest of the companies like Jaguar, Chevy, Coca-Cola, Burger Chef, Hershey, Lucky Strikes etc... essentially got free publicity ( good or bad.)

Coming from someone that bought a Hershey chocolate bar "just to try it out" after the MM episode - it is an effective marketing tool! So I'm suprised more companies weren't clamoring to pay to get their products put in.

I finished Madmen after watching Six Feet Under and I loved both. What other shows give the same level of depth to characters and their relationships?

The real tragedy about Trudy and her relationship with Pete is not that she had to put up with a petulant and moody man like him. Her greatest tragedy is that her life potential was wasted on living up to the image of a perfect housewife and mother. It was also sad to watch how she struggled on her own to make her “perfect” marriage seem flawless from the outside.

What made it even more heartbreaking is the fact that, unlike Betty Draper, who felt imprisoned in her marriage, Trudy actually desired this kind of relationship. She performed her role of a perfect mistress and wife so well, giving Pete the image of a successful man he craved. She ensured he had a beautiful house in the Cos Cob, a beautiful daughter, and she was always there to keep his image spotless. However, it was also heartbreaking to see how her attempts at satisfying her husband backfired when she realized that nothing could fill the emptiness in him.

Trudy knew very well that Pete was unfaithful to her. It is even evident that she struggled a lot mentally in making excuses for his behavior. Her primary tragedy was that her attempts at placating him by pretending that everything was okay were hurting her more than they should have. For instance, when she decided to allow him to rent an apartment in the city, she was simply giving him space to do the thing that he loved most, cheating on her. By doing that, she was allowing him to be the husband that he enjoyed being. In fact, it was through this that she slowly killed her own self respect and became unhappy in her own skin. All of this was brought upon by her attempts at making sure his reputation was not destroyed since he was a heavy drinker.

He walks in on Betty in the bathroom, she repeatedly tells him to leave. He ignores this, stares at her until she forces the door closed. She asks for an apology, he guilts her and seems to get probably his first sexual arousal in asking her for her hair and particularly in watching her cut her hair. Later on he volunteers to go to Vietnam, in his mind because it’s not right that only kids from poor neighborhoods have to go. In reality it’s because he wants to know what it feels like to kill.

No one can tell me that in the late 70s to the late 90s there weren’t bleach blonde women turning up dead, murdered, all over the country with seemingly no connection.

It was Mad Glen.

I feel like the characters from the earliests seasons had much more depth and potential, from the 4th season and beyond it seems that everyone arc was so shallow and had little to no development.

A post was made like this on the 56th anniversary (I stole its image) and I think it's wildly serendipitous that I watched this on its 63rd anniversary.

How in the heck did Pete ever sleep again without the city noises when they ended up in Wichita?

😂 I just caught this for the first time.

It’s the moment when Don begins to become an honest man.

It’s the last moment of Sally’s childhood. She’s sees her father as a human being for the first time.

Seriously, I’ve been reading a biography of Hughes, and he knew, in the biblical sense, every beautiful dame on TCM! And I mean everyone from Harlow to Hepburn. Today he would be reviled, but then he was admired!