So, after seven seasons of speculation about what peak Don Draper would jump from, the show ends with ... a Coke ad? Unsurprisingly, Matt Weiner and company gave us an ending we'll be debating for years, but the final moments make more sense if you know a bit about the iconic ad Don may or may not have dreamt up in a hippie colony in November 1970. Coca-Cola's "Hilltop" commercial was actually conceived of by a McCann-Erickson ad man, but as far as we know, Bill Backer, the creative director on the account, wasn't wrestling with the fallout from stealing another man's identity — he just had a really terrible flight.
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In honor of the series finale of Mad Men this Sunday, we polled a number of actors, writers, and directors on their favorite Mad Men memories. Their answers range from the obscure (that time the elevator disappeared) to the show-defining (that time we found out Don is not actually Don). Ahead, Sarah Silverman, Danny Strong, John Slattery, and many more share the moments that stayed with them.
“Talia [Balsam] and I shot a scene that never aired, and I wish that they’d unearth that thing. It was a scene in a car, and we were coming home from a dinner. The first dinner in that first episode, with Don and Betty and Roger and Mona, where they kind of go their separate ways after dinner and then debrief in the car and talk about how ridiculously attractive they were. And it’s a really funny scene between Roger and Mona that, for time or whatever reason, they never shot. And I think it would’ve been a really good introduction into the character of Mona. Man, I wish … we should go back and shoot that, I think.” —John Slattery
“Season five, when they’re at the museum and Sally gets her period, and she pulls down her pants in the bathroom and there’s blood in it. I don’t think I’ve ever, in any R-rated movie, in anything, seen period blood, especially a girl’s first period, and they show it. And it’s so good — that episode was so brilliant and that was a moment that was so indelible for me — to show that part of what every woman experiences on television was pretty far out. I thought it was so awesome.” —Sarah Silverman
“When I punched Roger Sterling in the balls. I mean, he had it coming. That’s right.” —Danny Strong “I love when they, in the dark of night, moved the office to their new office. They had to steal all the files. And for one moment they all got along, and it felt optimistic. That was like a happy time for me. There were just digging in and doing the work, and all the pettiness went out the window.” —Matt Walsh “The elevator doors opening up, and then the elevator isn’t there, and then they close again.” —Timothy Simmons
“I liked when the daughter got all bitchy and hated her mom.” —Norman Reedus
The second-to-last episode of Mad Men begins and ends, like so many episodes, with shots of Don Draper alone.
With just five episodes of Mad Men to go, Don Draper is enamored by a woman much like himself — Diana (Elizabeth Reaser), a fellow divorcee trying to forge a new identity. During a break from rehearsing her new Off Broadway play Permission, Reaser called Vulture to talk playing the waitress, “sexing it up” for her audition, and the fan reaction.Spoilers ahead.
From The Feminine Mystique to Rosemary’s Baby, from Portnoy's Complaint to The Penny Wars, the creators of Mad Men have squeezed in references to some of the most celebrated literature of the 20th century. On Sunday night's premiere, we get our first reference when Don and Roger are served by a diner waitress with a copy of John Dos Passos's U.S.A. trilogy, published in the 1930s, tucked into her apron pocket. ("Do you have anything by John Dos Passos?" Roger teases her.) Billy Parrott, managing librarian of the art and picture collections at the Mid-Manhattan Library, has been chronicling the meanings behind some of Mad Men’s most iconic literary references on his blog for the New York Public Library, The Mad Men Reading List, over the past five years. On the U.S.A. reference, Parrott noted, "It's that time period where things change. It was the end of innocence [for] that particular generation." Likethe song that bookends this episode, the trilogy is a perfect fit for Mad Men's themes, and as Matt Zoller Seitz points out, an acknowledged influence on the show.
Don Draper has never lacked for female companionship. Over the course of seven seasons, we've seen him hook up quite a bit, sometimes in the throes of true romance, and other times in the throes of … other things. Not everyone in this slideshow is a sexual partner, but all these women have at some point been the focus of Don's attention. Ahead of Sunday's premiere, let's revisit the many women of Don Draper, in order of when they first appeared on the show.
Source: vulture.com
Why “The Arrangements” Is the Quintessential Mad Men Episode
Written by Andrew Colville and series creator Matthew Weiner, and directed by Michael Uppendahl (who has directed many signature episodes), it's a great example of Mad Men's ability to operate on several different levels and make several different points about many different things, and somehow make them feel coherent without distorting, omitting, truncating, or otherwise mangling any individual element. It hangs together in the manner of some of the best American literary fiction from that period. Expertly shaped and paced, "The Arrangements" just sort of glides along on a vibe, casually deepening some of the show's key themes (including the persistent but low-level fear of death that hangs over every adult character's life, and the profound influence that parents have on our personal development, and their anxiety about that influence) while always seeming as though it's not trying to make or score any particular points, just watching the characters be.