MAD MEN: The Stylish Television Series by Matthew Weiner

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MAD MEN: The Stylish Television Series by Matthew Weiner

or those who never heard about Mad Men, is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The show is broadcast on the American cable network AMC and is produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its third season on November 8, 2009. Season 4 premiered on AMC July 25, 2010. Mad Men is set in the 1960s, initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City, and later at the newly created firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. In many countries Mad Men is not known so that’s why we decide to make a short introduction of this television series in our magazine. Another reason is because the product quality. The staff pay a lot of attention on scenes, costumes and generally to the mood of this television series. We really appreciate that, and invite young designers, fashion creators and furniture manufacturers etc. to get inspiration from this series. We give you a short snack of pictures, but we invite all of you to watch at least few episodes.

The pilot episode was shot at Silvercup Studios and various locations around New York City; subsequent episodes have been filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios. It is available in high definition for showing on AMC-HD and on video-on-demand services available from various cable affiliates. The writers, including Weiner, amassed volumes of research on the period in which Mad Men takes place so as to make most aspects of the series including detailed set designs, costume design, and props, historically accurate, producing an authentic visual style that garnered critical praise. Each episode has a budget between $2–2.5 million, though the pilot episode’s budget was over $3 million. On the copious scenes featuring smoking, Weiner stated that “Doing this show without smoking would’ve been a joke. It would’ve been sanitary and it would’ve been phony.” Since the actors cannot, by California law, smoke tobacco cigarettes in their workplace, they instead smoke herbal cigarettes. Robert Morse was cast in the role of senior partner Bertram Cooper; Morse starred in A Guide for the Married Man (1967), a source of inspiration for Weiner, and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1961) two Broadway plays about amoral New Yorkers.

Weiner collaborated with cinematographer Phil Abraham and production designers Robert Shaw (who worked on the pilot only) and Dan Bishop to develop a visual style that was “influenced more by cinema than television.” Alan Taylor, a veteran director of The Sopranos, directed the pilot and also helped establish the series’ visual tone. To convey an “air of mystery” around Don Draper, Taylor tended to shoot from behind him or would frame him partially obscured. Many scenes set at Sterling Cooper were shot lower-than-eye line to incorporate the ceilings into the composition of frame; this reflects the photography, graphic design and architecture of the period.

Alan felt that neither steadicam nor handheld camera work would be appropriate to the “visual grammar of that time, and that aesthetic didn’t mesh with their classic approach” accordingly, the sets were designed to be practical for dolly work. The show centers on Don Draper (Jon Hamm), creative director at Sterling Cooper and a founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, as well as those in his life in and out of the office. It also depicts the changing social mores of 1960s America. Mad Men has received critical acclaim, particularly for its historical authenticity and visual style, and has won multiple awards, including nine Emmys and four Golden Globes. It is the first basic cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, winning the award in 2008 and 2009. Mad Men depicts parts of American society and culture of the 1960s, highlighting cigarette smoking, drinking, sexism, feminism, adultery, homophobia, racism and anti-Semitism. Smoking, far more common in the United States of the 1960s than it is now, is featured throughout the series; many characters can be seen smoking several times in the course of an episode. In the pilot, representatives of Lucky Strikes cigarettes come to Sterling Cooper looking for a new advertising campaign in the wake of a Reader’s Digest report that smoking will lead to various health issues including lung cancer.

The show presents a subculture in which men who are engaged or married frequently enter sexual relationships with other women. It also observes advertising as a corporate outlet for creativity for mainstream, middle-class, young, white men. Along with each of these examples, however, there are hints of the future and the radical changes of the 1960s: Betty’s anxiety, early stirrings of the feminist movement (as seen through Peggy), the Beats (that Draper discovers through Midge), and talk of smoking being harmful to health and physical appearance, which is usually dismissed or ignored. Characters also see stirrings of change in the ad industry itself, with the Volkswagen Beetle’s “Think Small” ad campaign mentioned and dismissed by many at Sterling Cooper, although Don Draper spots the nostalgic value and market potential of renaming the Kodak ‘wheel’ slide projector as the Kodak Carousel. Themes of alienation, social mobility and ruthlessness also underpin the tone of the show.

The first season’s premiere attracted 900,000 viewers, a number which more than doubled for the heavily promoted second season premiere. A major drop in viewership for the episode following the second season premiere prompted concern from some television critics. However, “the second season finale posted significantly higher numbers than the series’ first season finale, and was up 20% over the season two average. 1.75 million viewers watched Sunday night’s season finale, according to fast national data from Nielsen Media Research. The cumulative audience for the three airings of the episode Sunday night (at 9pm, 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.) was 2.9 million viewers.” The third season premiere, which aired August 16, 2009, gained 2.8 million views on its first run, and 0.78 million with the 11 PM and 1 A.M. repeats. Mad Men has received highly positive critical response since its premiere. Viewership for the premiere at 10 p.m. on July 19, 2007, was higher than any other AMC original series to date.

A New York Times reviewer called the series groundbreaking for “luxuriating in the not-so-distant past.” The San Francisco Chronicle called Mad Men “stylized, visually arresting an adult drama of introspection and the inconvenience of modernity in a man’s world”. A Chicago Sun-Times reviewer described the series as an “unsentimental portrayal of complicated ‘whole people’ who act with the more decent 1960 manners America has lost, while also playing grab-ass and crassly defaming subordinates.” The reaction at Entertainment Weekly was similar, noting how in the period in which Mad Men takes place, “play is part of work, sexual banter isn’t yet harassment, and America is free of self-doubt, guilt, and countercultural confusion.” The Los Angeles Times said that the show had found “a strange and lovely space between nostalgia and political correctness”.

The show also received critical praise for its historical accuracy – mainly its depictions of gender and racial bias, sexual dynamics in the workplace, and the high prevalence of smoking and drinking. The Washington Post agreed with most other reviews in regard to Mad Men’s visual style, but disliked what was referred to as “lethargic” pacing of the storylines. A review of the first season DVD set in the London Review of Books by Mark Greif was much less laudatory. Greif stated that the series was an “unpleasant little entry in the genre of Now We Know Better” as the cast was a series of historical stereotypes that failed to do anything except “congratulate the present.”

The American Film Institute selected it as one of the 10 best television series and it was named the best television show of that year by the Television Critics Association and several national publications, including the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, TIME Magazine, and TV Guide. On June 20, 2007, the consumer-rights activist group Commercial Alert filed a complaint with the United States Distilled Spirits Council alleging that Mad Men sponsor Jack Daniel’s whiskey was violating liquor advertising standards since the show features “depictions of overt sexual activity” as well as irresponsible intoxication.

Jack Daniel’s was mentioned by name in the fifth episode. Among people who worked in advertising during the 1960s, opinions on the realism of Mad Men differ to some extent. Jerry Della Femina, who worked as a copywriter in that era and later founded his own agency, said that the show “accurately reflects what went on. The smoking, the prejudice and the bigotry.” Robert Levinson, one of Weiner’s advertising consultants, who worked at BBDO from 1960 to 1980, concurred with Femina: “What [Matthew Weiner] captured was so real. The drinking was commonplace, the smoking was constant, the relationships between the executives and the secretaries was exactly right.”

Allen Rosenshine, a copywriter who went on to lead BBDO, called the show “a total fabrication,” saying, “if anybody talked to women the way these goons do, they’d have been out on their ass.” Period references in the series have also had modern repercussions. Don Draper’s rendition of the Frank O’Hara poem ‘Mayakovsky’ from Meditations in an Emergency at the end of season two, episode one, led to the poet’s work entering the top 50 sales on Amazon.

“Like millions of other lovers of fashion and sensational dramas, we here at ModCloth have Mad Men mania! We’re raising a glass high to salute this sinfully stylish show by launching a new Mad Men-inspired lookbook on Wednesday. To whet your whistle, though, we’re giving you an exclusive sneak peek into the new lookbook with this behind-the-scenes foray into the photoshoot! You may not realize it from viewing the finished product, but capturing all of the magnificent photo montages is actually one of the last steps in creating a lookbook! For this Mad Men-inspired fashion feature, there was the initial concept, which was then followed by months of putting together the looks from true vintage items and ModCloth pieces, processing the items to launch on the website, coordinating the shoot, creating sets, hiring hair and makeup designers, styling the models, and so on! What led to the new Mad Men-inspired photo shoot actually began as a concept dreamed up months ago by our Newsletter Coordinator, Crystal. She remarks, “After learning about how meticulous the costume and set design is for this show, I became fascinated with it! Soon Don Draper pulled me into his world with that mysterious gaze, and I’ve been hooked on Mad Men ever since!” She then took her idea for a lookbook inspired by this 60s-era show to the campaign team, and together they concluded that the lookbook would coincide with the mid-August premier of this AMC hit show’s third season. Susan and the buyers soon began purchasing and putting together a vintage collection to include in the lookbook with the idea that the shoot’s outfits would be assembled using a mix of vintage dresses with ModCloth accessories and ModCloth dresses with vintage accessories. After acquiring all of the necessary materials, Susan and stylist, Vasil, began conceptualizing the ensembles, and then Vasil began to prepare the outfits for the model to wear. In the meantime, our creative director, Joe, contacted local vintage furniture and decor enthusiasts, Nico and Anastasia, who some time ago generously gave ModCloth an open invitation to use items from their collection in future shoots. Anastasia and Nico invited Joe and ModCloth graphic designer, Mara, to their home to peruse their retro wares. Joe says of the experience, “We got there and it was clear that Anastasia’s and Nico’s passion for vintage furniture mirrors ModCloth’s passion for retro fashions.” Joe and Mara went about selecting items to include in the photoshoot and then, as if the couple’s generosity in letting ModCloth use their furniture weren’t kind enough, Anastasia and Nico took the time and effort to deliver the pieces to the ModCloth office themselves! Once the vintage furniture (Eames chairs, a Saarinen table, a Wegner lounge, and a Von Nessen brass lamp) arrived, Mara used it, along with ModCloth’s A Long Time Ago Clock (coming soon), to turn an empty warehouse space neighboring ModCloth’s current headquarters into a mid-century office, while our photographer, Danielle, began researching lighting options that would give the photos the right dramatic atmosphere evocative of the moody Mad Men show. Just days later, the model arrived, and the photoshoot began after her makeup was applied by Shain Kish and her hair was styled by Brad Bosco. Finally, our marketing intern, Mandy, snapped photos to document all of the behind-the-scenes action!”