The Long Comic-Tragic Death of the American Soul. On TV.
I stopped really actually watching television a few months ago. I have worked in it of late, and I can see the wires and lights and the cracks and the caked makeup and the other nasty bits, so I prefer not to have it in my house so much. But online, on itunes, I've been watching the greatest thing -- Mad Men, Matthew Weiner's pitch-perfect show on American Movie Classics, about advertising guys in a glamorous, brutalist howlingly macho time long, long ago -- the first moments of the 1960s. You can't take your eyes off the thing. The look alone is enough to hypnotize you, and the language is quick, sharp, nasty, brutishly Hobbsian and short. The ad men are starting to sweat. How do you sell cigarettes when Reader's Digest, which wields a very big stick, has pulled back the curtain on the Big C: Cancer? And what to do with the Jews and their department store -- the new Jews, who are in the first blush of a post-shtetl assimilationist boom - now want their store to compete with Henry Bendel. How do you sell Dick Nixon -- and why? And the women? The brilliant magic of Mad Men is in the quiet dialectic of rage and supplication between the sexes. Secretaries smile and put out, grimacing, waiting, longing. Wives wither or get hip, silently keeping their mouths shut, hoping that the nightmare of post war anomie washing over the men will wear off and Rye, Westport, and other stops on the New Haven line will live up to their promise as redemptive and serene Utopias. The young men coming up in the agency are pasty faced, weak and cynical. The brilliant John Hamm and John Slattery as senior ad men -- a little older, a lot smarter, much cooler -- closer to Korea and World War II, drink booze carefully and to excess, and watch their younger counterparts the way that slightly more elegant, aged predators on Animal Planets watch the new jackals jockeying for position. It is a particular genius of Mr. Weiner's (and that of his casting directors) in casting the original "How to Succeed in Business without really trying" star, Bobby Morse as the man at the top. He is unknowable and full of deadly mandarin good cheer -- it's a perfect joke to anybody who appreciates old musicals: This is what happened to that cheery kid who worked his way to the top, sort of.
Anyway. So much to like about this show, particularly now, when nobody in public life cares about lies or truth. Particularly now that the only thing left in America is sales. And we aren't even good at it anymore. And now that the White Upper Middle Class American male is adrift in sexual alienation and botox shots of their own, it's cool to see the Mailer/Cheever beginnings of the rot. It's funny. Not an ounce of condescending, or fretful easy user-friendly writing. AMC should be proud that this is their first series out of the gate. But hey -- they've been programming great old movies for a while now, so you realize they must have loved this thing when they read it. It fits right in. I am tempted to write about how hard it is would probably maybe be do this kind of thing on the networks, which are fueled more by fear and market testing than passion, but tact, and what little maturity I have tells me to leave that one alone.
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This show answers the question, "Why Do 'They' Hate Us"
In the Los Angeles Times yesterday, I was annoyed to read that Mad Men was getting tepid ratings, while Scott Baio turns 35 is killing. Surely another slothlike shrug towards the end of civiliazation as we know it....yada yada. Mad Men appears to be staging the groundwork for many of the cultural shifts that the 1960s were on the precipice of, and that's a thrill ride for this viewer. I'm sensing that the character of John Hamm's secretary is being groomed for all things feminist. There is a tasty scene in an office with 'the guys' where one of them is commenting with wonder having just spoken to her. He'd asked her about the lipstick campagin and she'd said something to the effect of not wanting to be defined by shades of lipstick. He was dumstruck. He says to his fellows "It was like watching a dog play the piano" WOW!
I found Mad Men and am captivated by it. I watched every episode this past week ON DEMAND. I am soooo sick of news and reality. To have a drama evoking so much of what the culture was like pre-JFK has been a wonderful viewing experience. The smoking, drinking (and driving) and social interaction is so interesting in retrospect in this over-the- top PC world of today.
I have watched only the opening episode. I loved it.
I was 5 years old when Reader's Digest published its influencial article on the dangers of cigarette smoking. I remember there being a time when there was no stigma directed at smoking or smokers. I remember my father, his father, his brother, his wife, my mother's mother and father and most adults within a stone's throw smoking regularly. EVERYBODY smoked!
Then came the warnings; wives warning husbands; husbands warning wives; sons warning fathers; sisters warning mothers; friends warning friends imploring their loved ones to stop smoking. Then came the BIG Warning...on the cigarette packs themselves from none other than the Surgeon General.
Along with it came the ultimate in cynicism; the cigarette industry promoting cigarettes to the same degree that the pharmacuetical industry now promotes its drugs...with gleeful abandon.
Down through the years came the deaths, the lawsuits, the accusations, the smear campaigns,the threats, the denials...hmm, they sound like republicans.
Go figure.
I was a young boy during this time, and everything shown in the office the dress, the styles, the smoking all ring true. I love this show and most of all it is a reminder of attitudes about life back then. Men where supposed the be this cool swaggering macho type, like the rat pack. you ever see Dean Martin without a drink in one hand and a smoke in the other. My Father worked at "Retail Credit company" and if you know your history you will know which company I am referring to, he was an investigator for them back then and he and his group were the "cool boys" in the company, and all hung at the playboy club. My Dad wore the all styles back then with the thin ties and the shiny suits. And my Mom wore the styles back then too with the tight outfits, the girdles that sucked the life out of ya and the poofed up hair. It blew me away when I saw the set on the program it could have been my Dad's office to a tee. I can remember it because when I was a young boy I would get invited to go to my Dad's office and be paraded around. No times were not good back then, this was in Atlanta and racism was rampant, Gays were in the Closet "locked and trying hide the Key" and women were not equal, I am glad we have come along way from then. but peering back into this one hour is a reminder what it was like back then.Good, Bad, Ugly yeah but it did happen.
Jon,
For once the buzz around a TV show wasn't hype. Based on subject matter + the Weiner pedigree I have watched the series from the jump. So taken was I that I posted a rave on iTunes -- one that was in deference to John Leonard's lukewarm review.
Elizabeth Moss's Peggy IS America at the precipice - virginal, wide-eyed in the world even as the Military Industrial Complex threatens to eclipse democracy de facto.
I have always deplored the cooptation of the expression "politically correct" (yes, even by Bill Maher) but it is compelling to return to an era were hatreds were uttered undisguised, not dissembled. (See scene 1 in the pilot.)
How can one not have attraction/repulsion for advertising? It is manipulation in extremis - if you have an honest product it sells itself.
Mad Men is a backstory for these times of excess. The three martini lunch might be a thing of the past, but McMansions are very much in vogue.
-CI
It is always a mistake to judge past times and other cultures through one's own cultural bias.
There are positives and negatives in all times and there are mindsets and beliefs that are not founded in fact.
Keep an open mind and learn.
The series AMC did about ten years was called "Remember WENN," about a radio station in Pittsburgh in the 1940s. It was a lovely series, mostly nostalgic and funny.
"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." I can't wait to watch the next episode tonight!
I laughed at the cleaning bag scene - as well as the pregnant neighbor smoking. I have vivid memories of my mother and our neighbor smoking Virginia Slims and Parliaments virtually back to back while the kids played. It's no wonder I grew up with "allergies" that mysteriously disappeared outside! The scene in the car with both kids rolling around like marbles killed me, too. But, we survived it and even thrived.
The one thing that doesn't seem right to me - and maybe it's because we were Catholic - but I remember a lot more kids back then. The streets were literally full of us after school until it was dark - and even then the moms had to come out and holler for us. Besides all the obvious health hazards - it was a pretty swell time to be a kid.
It is interesting to watch it through 2007 eyes.
The smoking constantly is accurate, but the funniest scene for me was when the doctor lit up during the OB/GYN exam.
How do you suppose they got these characters to audition for these parts with this much smoking. Remember that we are just seeing the edited version, they have to do multiple scenes, all smoking. Maybe they asked for smokers only to audition.
What I did not see mentioned in the comments were some of the ways the children were delt with, that is shocking to 2007 eyes, but I remember it well.
When the mother sees her daughter playing with a dry cleaning bag over her head, she tells her to come here immediately. Not to tell her it is dangerous, or to take off the bag, but to warn the daughter that the mother "Better not find the dry cleaning that was in the bag on the floor".
The neighbors hitting the children not their own was also quite accurate.
Did anyone else squirm in this age of HIPPA when the husband calls the psychiatrist to get a detailed report about his wife's therapy?
Reminds me of when I played "astronaut" with a plastic bag on my head and couldn't get it off. (I was 10 years old in 1960. I ran into the house and nearly suffocated when my mother cut it off. Then she smacked me.
I heard an NPR interview with the show's creator. He cast only actors who smoked or have smoked in real life because, he said, they just wouldn't know how to look natural doing it on screen (and he's right--when actors who never smoked are asked to hold a cigarette, it always looks like they're handling a rattlesnake). Also, he said that herbal cigarettes were used during the filming.
I haven't watched an episodic TV series since "St. Elsewhere," but I found "Mad Men" on my free On Demand service, no commercials, and I'm hooked. And what a treat to see good old Robert Morse, after all these years, Succeeding in Business all over again.
I'm a bit confused by a few of the posts - is the depiction of something necessarily glorification? By that standard, "Apocalypse Now" must be meant to glorify the Vietnam War.
The time depicted in "Mad Men" is the time of my childhood - I have a feeling that might be why I'm so emotionally drawn to it. But, they've got the period PERFECT. I remember the grown-ups smoking - everywhere and all the time. It's just what grown-ups did. (My mother is now on oxygen.)
As far as the sexism goes - my mother graduated from Georgetown law school in 1958 - at the top of her class. When she and my father moved to Boulder she applied for a job in the law library of the University of Colorado because no firm was interested in a "girl associate." The man doing the interview asked her to bring my father along, so he'd be sure it was "all right with her husband if she worked." The most astonishing thing to me about this story is - at the time - my mother thought NOTHING of it.
As a former TV writer - I tip my hat to a gifted staff who bring to life the most specific characters to come along since... well, ever.
Am I missing something here? My wife and I watched this show for the first time last week and had a hard time getting through it. Sure, the period clothing and sets were well done (the reason we watched in the first place), but the rampant misogyny, sexism, and racism were tough to take. I don’t understand why this should be celebrated. Yes, this is the way it was in the early 60’s. In a lot of respects it’s still this way in advertising (I worked in advertising in NYC from the late 80’s till a few years ago, so I know). So therefore we should glorify it? Is this show condoning this behavior? I agree with jnik that this is the world the republicans would like back - where blacks, gays, women, and jews all know their place. No thanks.
Mad Men is one of the real suprises to come out on cable in the last few years. It is like "cinema verite". It is up to you, the viewer, to percieve the racism, sexism and self-congratulatory delusions of this era.
This reminds of why I love Deadwood and the Wire on HBO. There is no time lost on sermonizing, just reporting things as they were/are. You, the viewer, are required to think about the conflict between right/wrong, good/evil etc.
Thanks so much, Jon for this post. Not only is it brilliantly written but I couldn't agree with you more.
Last week I was able to catch up on the last 3 episodes, thanks to OnDemand, and watched them one after the other. It was astounding to me because each one was better than the last and it's been that way from the beginning.
You begin to realize that this was the reality of life then, how these people and their elitist leanings and prejudices helped shape a society.
I came to NY 10 years or so after Mad Men took place. I worked in an ad agency that spun off from a bigger one. These were guys who were jews and italians and had been shut out when they started their careers and were now able to head their own agency. They got very rich and did very good work. Their was none of that self conscious behavior portrayed in MM.
What I appreciated most about Mad Men was how realistic it is. The conflicted feelings of the main characters, that being trapped in who you are and shutting out what pains you about it and keeping up with your 'role'. There is a cost in that.
It's excellent TV and I urge you to check it out.
On another note, JRB, I love your show and look forward to its return. The family has definitely evolved from MM days and the representation of the Walkers tells us so.
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Posted August 29, 2007 | 10:35 PM (EST)