WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.220 Welcome to the show today. Today we are bringing 00:00:03.220 --> 00:00:06.019 you a very special edition, and I am just so 00:00:06.019 --> 00:00:07.660 excited to get into this one. It's going to be 00:00:07.660 --> 00:00:09.900 a great one. It really is. If you look at our 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:12.400 title for this deep dive, it reads the deep dive 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:16.679 unpacking madman season one Don Draper, 1960s 00:00:16.679 --> 00:00:20.199 advertising in TV history. And that is exactly 00:00:20.199 --> 00:00:22.359 what we are going to do today. We are stepping 00:00:22.359 --> 00:00:25.140 way back in time. Right straight back to the 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:27.460 smoke -filled, cocktail -drenched offices of 00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:30.980 Sterling Cooper in the year 1960, we are unpacking 00:00:30.980 --> 00:00:33.479 the critically acclaimed first season of the 00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:36.240 American television drama series, Mad Men. Which 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:39.380 originally aired on AMC from July to October 00:00:39.380 --> 00:00:42.159 of 2007. Exactly. We're going to explore the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:44.460 hidden past of its enigmatic leading man Don 00:00:44.460 --> 00:00:47.119 Draper. We'll look at the rapid ascent of secretary 00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:49.859 turned copywriter Peggy Olsen and the meticulous 00:00:49.859 --> 00:00:52.840 historical detail that completely redefined television. 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:55.299 Truly groundbreaking stuff. So whether you are 00:00:55.299 --> 00:00:57.500 a longtime fan looking to revisit a masterpiece 00:00:57.500 --> 00:01:00.719 or you're just insanely curious about TV history 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:03.039 and you want a shortcut to being well informed 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:05.260 on one of the greatest character studies ever 00:01:05.260 --> 00:01:08.599 put on screen, you are in the right place. Our 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:11.480 source material today is a comprehensive, deeply 00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:14.400 detailed Wikipedia article breaking down the 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:17.879 cast, the intricate plot, the episodes, the production 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.219 history, and the massive critical reception of 00:01:20.219 --> 00:01:23.079 this show. It is a remarkable piece of television 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:26.120 history to explore. Our mission today is to truly 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:29.319 understand how a show about a fictional 1960s 00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:33.280 ad agency became an absolute television masterpiece. 00:01:33.629 --> 00:01:36.590 Right, an agency filled with incredibly complicated, 00:01:36.870 --> 00:01:39.290 often deeply flawed characters. Yes, and framed 00:01:39.290 --> 00:01:42.129 by a staggering commitment to historical accuracy. 00:01:42.609 --> 00:01:44.310 We are going to look at what this first season 00:01:44.310 --> 00:01:47.030 reveals about identity, about the ruthlessness 00:01:47.030 --> 00:01:49.290 of ambition, and about the fundamental illusions 00:01:49.290 --> 00:01:51.409 of the American dream. Because what this show 00:01:51.409 --> 00:01:54.349 does so brilliantly is use the past to examine 00:01:54.349 --> 00:01:56.670 the present. That is exactly it. OK, let's unpack 00:01:56.670 --> 00:01:59.090 this. We are looking at a season of 13 episodes 00:01:59.090 --> 00:02:02.170 each running about 47 minutes. Standard cable 00:02:02.170 --> 00:02:04.829 drama length. Yeah. But before we even get into 00:02:04.829 --> 00:02:06.969 the heavy plot points, I want you, the listener, 00:02:07.069 --> 00:02:09.009 to just imagine for a second stepping into a 00:02:09.009 --> 00:02:11.990 workplace that is completely devoid of the modern 00:02:11.990 --> 00:02:14.310 rules you're used to today. It's almost jarring 00:02:14.310 --> 00:02:17.490 to think about. It really is. Imagine walking 00:02:17.490 --> 00:02:19.909 into an office where chain smoking at your desk 00:02:19.909 --> 00:02:22.830 is practically mandatory, where the liquor cart 00:02:22.830 --> 00:02:26.409 is rolled out before lunch, and where overt unapologetic 00:02:26.409 --> 00:02:29.189 sexism is just another Tuesday. And you have 00:02:29.189 --> 00:02:31.310 to ask yourself, how would you navigate that? 00:02:31.509 --> 00:02:34.259 Exactly. Because that is the immersive world 00:02:34.259 --> 00:02:37.219 of Sterling Cooper the creator Matthew Reiner 00:02:37.219 --> 00:02:40.039 plunges us into right from the opening frame 00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:43.719 The season spans from March to November of 1960 00:02:43.719 --> 00:02:46.000 and right out of the gate in the pilot episode 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:47.879 titled smoke gets in your eyes We don't get a 00:02:47.879 --> 00:02:50.520 slow introduction. No, not at all. We are hit 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:53.319 with a massive existential crisis for the agency 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:55.180 I was reading through the notes on this pilot 00:02:55.180 --> 00:02:58.159 and they are essentially facing an extinction 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:00.659 level event for their biggest client, right? 00:03:00.699 --> 00:03:03.280 Exactly. What's fascinating here is how that 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.740 initial crisis perfectly sets up the thematic 00:03:05.740 --> 00:03:08.740 core of the entire series. The agency's biggest 00:03:08.740 --> 00:03:11.139 client is Lucky Strike Cigarettes. Huge account. 00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:14.039 Massive. And they are panicking because the Federal 00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:16.219 Trade Commission and Resurgent Medical Research 00:03:16.219 --> 00:03:18.819 are suddenly making it very clear to the public 00:03:18.819 --> 00:03:20.979 that smoking is harmful. It literally causes 00:03:20.979 --> 00:03:25.000 cancer. Right. It is physically toxic. For decades, 00:03:25.259 --> 00:03:27.219 tobacco companies had advertised health benefits. 00:03:27.539 --> 00:03:30.000 Doctors recommending certain brands to soothe 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.199 your throat. Which is wild to think about now. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:34.819 Completely wild. But suddenly they can't do that 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:37.259 anymore. So the executives at Sterling Cooper 00:03:37.259 --> 00:03:40.099 are forced to figure out how to sell a deadly 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:42.620 product by completely changing the narrative. 00:03:42.740 --> 00:03:45.939 They have to manufacture a new reality to distract 00:03:45.939 --> 00:03:48.469 the consumer. Precisely. They can't talk about 00:03:48.469 --> 00:03:51.330 health, so they pivot. And this isn't just a 00:03:51.330 --> 00:03:53.569 plot device to show us how advertising works. 00:03:53.750 --> 00:03:55.530 It feels like it's saying something much larger 00:03:55.530 --> 00:03:58.469 about the people in that room. It is. If we look 00:03:58.469 --> 00:04:01.469 closely, manufacturing a new reality to cover 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:04.490 up something toxic is exactly what these characters 00:04:04.490 --> 00:04:06.689 are doing in their own personal lives. Oh, yeah. 00:04:06.849 --> 00:04:09.090 They are constantly packaging something deeply 00:04:09.090 --> 00:04:11.189 flawed, something potentially destructive, and 00:04:11.189 --> 00:04:13.389 figuring out how to make it look appealing to 00:04:13.389 --> 00:04:16.790 the outside world. The series is just as much 00:04:16.790 --> 00:04:19.449 about the lies we tell ourselves as it is about 00:04:19.449 --> 00:04:22.069 the lies these ad men are telling consumers. 00:04:22.329 --> 00:04:25.209 It establishes from minute one. that advertising 00:04:25.209 --> 00:04:27.949 is just a metaphor for human denial. That makes 00:04:27.949 --> 00:04:30.250 so much sense when you look at how obsessive 00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:33.209 they were about making the denial look authentic. 00:04:33.769 --> 00:04:35.870 The commitment to selling that illusion visually 00:04:35.870 --> 00:04:39.209 is just stunning. The production design was legendary. 00:04:39.490 --> 00:04:41.209 Right, the source points out that Matthew Weiner 00:04:41.209 --> 00:04:44.709 and his writers amassed absolute volumes of research 00:04:44.709 --> 00:04:47.529 on the period to make every single aspect of 00:04:47.529 --> 00:04:50.420 the series historically accurate. detailed set 00:04:50.420 --> 00:04:53.660 designs, exact mid -century costumes props, even 00:04:53.660 --> 00:04:56.379 the specific way people spoke. It created this 00:04:56.379 --> 00:04:58.879 authentic visual style that critics instantly 00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:02.180 praised, but that visual authenticity came with 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:04.560 a really hefty price tag. It wasn't cheap. Not 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:06.579 at all. The pilot episode alone had a budget 00:05:06.579 --> 00:05:08.839 of over three million dollars. Which for Basic 00:05:08.839 --> 00:05:12.100 Cable in 2007 was a significant investment. Especially 00:05:12.100 --> 00:05:14.800 for a period piece with no major action sequences. 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:17.399 They shot the pilot at Silver Cup Studios in 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:19.759 various locations around New York City before 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:22.079 moving subsequent filming to Los Angeles Center 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:24.319 Studios. And speaking of filming in LA, there 00:05:24.319 --> 00:05:26.600 is a fascinating detail from the production notes 00:05:26.600 --> 00:05:29.379 about the smoking. Oh, my absolute favorite detail. 00:05:29.860 --> 00:05:33.759 Because they are in California by law. The actors 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:36.199 couldn't actually smoke tobacco cigarettes in 00:05:36.199 --> 00:05:38.959 their workplace because the set is legally their 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:40.959 workplace, right? So what do they do? They smoked 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:43.160 herbal cigarettes I read this quote from Matthew 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:45.220 wiener where he actually went on record saying 00:05:45.220 --> 00:05:47.379 Doing this show without smoking would have been 00:05:47.379 --> 00:05:49.100 a joke. It would have been sanitary and it would 00:05:49.100 --> 00:05:52.660 have been phony. Yes I love that. It tells you 00:05:52.660 --> 00:05:54.180 everything you need to know about the show's 00:05:54.180 --> 00:05:58.220 DNA. He refused to put a modern sanitized filter 00:05:58.220 --> 00:06:02.000 over the 1960s. It truly is a defining characteristic 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.069 of the show. That insistence on authenticity 00:06:05.069 --> 00:06:07.850 forces the viewer to confront the era on its 00:06:07.850 --> 00:06:10.350 own terms. You aren't given a comforting modernized 00:06:10.350 --> 00:06:12.509 filter. Right, where the good guys act like people 00:06:12.509 --> 00:06:14.949 from the 21st century and only the bad guys hold 00:06:14.949 --> 00:06:17.529 antiquated views. You are sitting in the room 00:06:17.529 --> 00:06:20.009 breathing in the herbal smoke watching genius 00:06:20.009 --> 00:06:22.790 advertising executive Donald Draper operate in 00:06:22.790 --> 00:06:25.529 a world that goes by very different rules. And 00:06:25.529 --> 00:06:28.449 Jon Hamm plays him so brilliantly. He really 00:06:28.449 --> 00:06:31.370 does. Don is the absolute center of gravity at 00:06:31.370 --> 00:06:34.060 Sterling Cooper. But as the first season unfolds, 00:06:34.259 --> 00:06:36.660 we realize that Don Draper is in a way the ultimate 00:06:36.660 --> 00:06:39.399 advertisement himself. A beautifully packaged 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:42.399 exterior. Exactly. An incredibly handsome exterior 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:46.100 that is hiding a deeply complicated, fundamentally 00:06:46.100 --> 00:06:48.540 altered interior. Okay, here's where it gets 00:06:48.540 --> 00:06:51.180 really interesting because Don Draper isn't even 00:06:51.180 --> 00:06:53.620 Don Draper. No, he is not. I remember reading 00:06:53.620 --> 00:06:55.560 through the plot summary of the first season 00:06:55.560 --> 00:06:59.420 and just being completely floored by this. The 00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:03.480 massive revelation is that the suave, confident, 00:07:03.899 --> 00:07:06.600 impeccably dressed man we see manipulating clients 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:09.060 in Charming Women is actually a man named Dick 00:07:09.060 --> 00:07:11.379 Whitman. It's a huge twist. Can you walk us through 00:07:11.379 --> 00:07:13.439 how a secret like that even happens? How does 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:15.560 someone just completely erase their own identity? 00:07:15.819 --> 00:07:18.819 It is a phenomenal piece of storytelling. The 00:07:18.819 --> 00:07:21.319 source material details how this incredible backstory 00:07:21.319 --> 00:07:24.879 is revealed to us very slowly through fragmented 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:26.740 flashbacks. You don't just get an exposition 00:07:26.740 --> 00:07:29.959 dump. Exactly. We learn about Dick Whitman's 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:32.879 incredibly grim early life in pieces. He was 00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:35.759 raised in sheer poverty. He had an unloving, 00:07:36.019 --> 00:07:38.459 pious stepmother who literally refers to him 00:07:38.459 --> 00:07:40.980 as a whore child. Which is just awful. Because 00:07:40.980 --> 00:07:43.259 his biological mother was a sex worker who died 00:07:43.259 --> 00:07:46.160 in childbirth. His father, Archibald Whitman, 00:07:46.300 --> 00:07:49.540 is a deeply abusive and cruel man. There is that 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:51.860 one incredibly poignant flashback you see in 00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:54.480 episode eight. Yeah. The Hobo Code, right? Yes. 00:07:54.759 --> 00:07:56.819 That is a pivotal moment for understanding who 00:07:56.819 --> 00:08:00.000 Dawn becomes. In that flashback, a hobo approaches 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:03.019 the Whitman family farm, asking for food in exchange 00:08:03.019 --> 00:08:05.420 for doing some manual labor. And Archie Dick's 00:08:05.420 --> 00:08:07.519 father tells the man he'll pay him the next day. 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:09.860 Right. The man does the work, but then Archie 00:08:09.860 --> 00:08:12.379 refuses to compensate him, basically laughing 00:08:12.379 --> 00:08:14.819 him off the property. Young Dick later discovers 00:08:14.819 --> 00:08:17.199 that the hobo has carved a symbol into the fence 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:19.620 post of their home. A symbol from the Hobo Code? 00:08:19.779 --> 00:08:22.199 Yes, a symbol that translates to a dishonest 00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:25.120 man. Wow, so even as a kid, he's realizing his 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:27.329 father is a cheat. If we connect this to the 00:08:27.329 --> 00:08:29.750 bigger picture, that carving on the fence post 00:08:29.750 --> 00:08:32.590 is the absolute defining trauma of his childhood. 00:08:33.250 --> 00:08:36.389 He is raised by a dishonest man in a loveless, 00:08:36.429 --> 00:08:39.360 brutal environment. And he learns early on that 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:42.399 the world is transactional, hypocritical, and 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:45.000 often cruel. That sets the stage for everything. 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:48.019 It does. So years later, when he finds himself 00:08:48.019 --> 00:08:50.100 in the horrific environment of the Korean War, 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:52.580 he is serving under the command of an engineer 00:08:52.580 --> 00:08:55.340 lieutenant named Donald Draper. The real Donald 00:08:55.340 --> 00:08:57.299 Draper. Yes, the real Donald Draper is a man 00:08:57.299 --> 00:08:59.320 who is soon to be sent home because his tour 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:01.279 is ending. And then the unimaginable happens. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:03.480 Right. The source describes how they are under 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:06.620 fire and an accidental explosion partially caused 00:09:06.620 --> 00:09:09.519 by Dick dropping his lighter kills the real Draper. 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:12.440 Just absolute chaos. In that moment of sheer 00:09:12.440 --> 00:09:15.080 chaos, Dick Whitman makes a split second life 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:17.879 altering decision. He looks at the dead officer 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:20.700 and he switches their dog tags. Wow. He assumes 00:09:20.700 --> 00:09:23.360 the identity of Donald Draper to completely erase 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:26.120 Dick Whitman. It allows him to escape the war. 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:28.919 Yes. But more importantly, it allows him to escape 00:09:28.919 --> 00:09:31.840 his grotesque past. He literally sheds his skin 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:34.480 and takes another man's name. The execution of 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:38.080 that lie is just chilling because the army believes 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:39.779 Whitman is dead. Right. So they have the new 00:09:39.779 --> 00:09:42.700 Draper, our Don, escort Whitman's body back to 00:09:42.700 --> 00:09:45.419 his family. The coffin is dropped off by train. 00:09:45.740 --> 00:09:48.139 I was reading the description of this scene and 00:09:48.139 --> 00:09:52.629 it is so Now, Don is on that train. He doesn't 00:09:52.629 --> 00:09:55.129 step off to greet his family. He just watches 00:09:55.129 --> 00:09:57.740 from the shadows of the train car. But his younger 00:09:57.740 --> 00:10:00.500 half -brother, a young boy named Adam Whitman, 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:03.159 sees him. Yes, Adam sees him standing inside 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:05.500 the train as it pulls away. Just think about 00:10:05.500 --> 00:10:08.120 the psychology of that. How does someone watch 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:10.759 their own family receive a coffin that they know 00:10:10.759 --> 00:10:14.120 contains a stranger and just ride away into a 00:10:14.120 --> 00:10:16.919 fabricated future? It requires a profound level 00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:19.100 of compartmentalization. He has to completely 00:10:19.100 --> 00:10:21.940 sever his own empathy. The psychological weight 00:10:21.940 --> 00:10:24.019 of that secret is immense. It has to be crushing. 00:10:24.250 --> 00:10:27.110 And this is why his career choice is so brilliant 00:10:27.110 --> 00:10:30.340 on a narrative level. Don Draper's entire career 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:33.080 in advertising a profession entirely dedicated 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:36.159 to inventing desires, crafting personas, and 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:38.240 selling a lifestyle that doesn't really exist 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:41.039 is essentially just an extension of him inventing 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:43.100 the persona of Don Draper. He is the product 00:10:43.100 --> 00:10:45.840 he has pitched most successfully. Exactly. He 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:49.539 observed what society values a handsome war veteran, 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.700 a confident executive, a family man, and he built 00:10:52.700 --> 00:10:55.269 that suit from scratch and put it on. But living 00:10:55.269 --> 00:10:58.230 a complete lie has to be exhausting. You are 00:10:58.230 --> 00:11:00.269 constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. 00:11:00.610 --> 00:11:02.330 You must be always looking over your shoulder. 00:11:02.710 --> 00:11:04.970 And that shoe does drop in episode 5, which is 00:11:04.970 --> 00:11:08.610 titled 5G. Don has recently won an industry award 00:11:08.610 --> 00:11:11.029 for his advertising work, and his picture ends 00:11:11.029 --> 00:11:13.570 up in the local paper. That's dangerous. Very. 00:11:13.690 --> 00:11:15.429 This attracts the attention of a man who shows 00:11:15.429 --> 00:11:17.549 up right at the front desk of Sterling Cooper. 00:11:17.929 --> 00:11:20.350 It's Adam Whitman, his younger brother, all grown 00:11:20.350 --> 00:11:23.950 up. Adam recognizes the photo not as Don Draper, 00:11:24.049 --> 00:11:27.090 the ad executive, but as Dick Whitman, the brother 00:11:27.090 --> 00:11:30.549 he thought was dead. Imagine the sheer icy panic 00:11:30.549 --> 00:11:34.250 for Don in that moment. His two worlds literally 00:11:34.250 --> 00:11:36.309 colliding in the lobby of his office. They meet 00:11:36.309 --> 00:11:39.139 at a diner. And Don admits he changed his name, 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:42.039 but he absolutely refuses to share anything about 00:11:42.039 --> 00:11:44.779 his life. He just shuts him out. He coldly tells 00:11:44.779 --> 00:11:46.860 his own flesh and blood that he has no place 00:11:46.860 --> 00:11:49.639 for Adam in his life. He meets Adam again later 00:11:49.639 --> 00:11:52.860 and offers him $5 ,000 to leave New York to make 00:11:52.860 --> 00:11:55.179 a new life and to never ever contact him again. 00:11:55.620 --> 00:11:59.240 I looked this up. $5 ,000 in 1960 is the equivalent 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:02.769 of nearly $50 ,000 today. It's a massive payoff. 00:12:02.990 --> 00:12:05.190 It is. He is literally trying to buy his brother's 00:12:05.190 --> 00:12:08.169 silence. But ask yourself, is it really about 00:12:08.169 --> 00:12:10.210 protecting his family or is it just absolute 00:12:10.210 --> 00:12:12.870 raw selfishness? It feels like he's just protecting 00:12:12.870 --> 00:12:15.490 his own ego and the comfortable life he stole. 00:12:15.649 --> 00:12:18.549 It is deeply selfish, but in Don's mind it is 00:12:18.549 --> 00:12:21.129 survival. The starkness of that rejection is 00:12:21.129 --> 00:12:23.149 magnified when you contrast it with the life 00:12:23.149 --> 00:12:25.629 Don is so desperately protecting. The suburban 00:12:25.629 --> 00:12:28.840 dream. Right. At the end of the very first episode, 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:31.059 after we've seen Don at work, after we've seen 00:12:31.059 --> 00:12:33.059 him cheat on his wife with a beatneck artist 00:12:33.059 --> 00:12:35.519 named Midge Daniels, after we've seen him flirt 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:38.399 with a department store owner named Rachel Menken, 00:12:39.059 --> 00:12:41.500 Don takes a train out of the city. And the audience 00:12:41.500 --> 00:12:45.240 finally sees his real life. He arrives at a picturesque 00:12:45.240 --> 00:12:47.340 suburban home, and it's revealed to the audience 00:12:47.340 --> 00:12:49.919 for the first time that he has a beautiful wife, 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:53.019 Betty, and two sleeping children. It's the ultimate 00:12:53.019 --> 00:12:55.789 American dream tableau. That is the life he is 00:12:55.789 --> 00:13:00.070 paying Adam $5 ,000 to protect. It's an impenetrable 00:13:00.070 --> 00:13:02.250 fortress of normalcy that he has built to keep 00:13:02.250 --> 00:13:04.549 Dick Whitman out. But you can't just buy off 00:13:04.549 --> 00:13:07.230 your past. The consequences are devastating. 00:13:07.850 --> 00:13:10.629 In episode 11, titled Indian Summer Adam, who 00:13:10.629 --> 00:13:12.789 is heartbroken and completely rejected by the 00:13:12.789 --> 00:13:15.409 only family he has, left males a personal box 00:13:15.409 --> 00:13:18.490 to don at the agency. A very dangerous box. Filled 00:13:18.490 --> 00:13:20.889 with Dick Whitman's dog tags and childhood photographs. 00:13:21.009 --> 00:13:23.389 Yeah. And then Adam hangs himself in his hotel 00:13:23.389 --> 00:13:25.870 room. It's an absolute gut punch of a storyline. 00:13:26.350 --> 00:13:28.409 It is. And Don doesn't find out immediately. 00:13:29.090 --> 00:13:32.509 But when he does in the season finale, the grief 00:13:32.509 --> 00:13:35.750 is overwhelming. It is a crushing guilt. And 00:13:35.750 --> 00:13:38.509 how does Don process this profound grief? He 00:13:38.509 --> 00:13:40.429 certainly doesn't go to therapy. Definitely not. 00:13:40.549 --> 00:13:42.750 He doesn't talk to his wife. He channels it into 00:13:42.750 --> 00:13:45.590 his work. He takes that raw, bleeding emotion 00:13:45.590 --> 00:13:48.169 and uses it for the masterpiece pitch of the 00:13:48.169 --> 00:13:50.529 season. OK, we have to talk about that pitch 00:13:50.529 --> 00:13:53.590 to Eastman Kodak because it is widely considered 00:13:53.590 --> 00:13:55.710 one of the greatest scenes in television history. 00:13:55.909 --> 00:13:58.509 A master class. The executives from Kodak want 00:13:58.509 --> 00:14:00.990 Sterling Cooper to sell a new slide projector. 00:14:02.029 --> 00:14:04.769 They view the technology as a wheel like a Ferris 00:14:04.769 --> 00:14:08.389 wheel. But Don, who is just fueled by the staggering 00:14:08.389 --> 00:14:10.830 loss of his brother and the crumbling reality 00:14:10.830 --> 00:14:13.559 of his own fabricated life, completely reframes 00:14:13.559 --> 00:14:16.080 it. He pitches it around the concept of nostalgia. 00:14:16.299 --> 00:14:18.620 Yes. He dims the lights in the conference room, 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:20.820 he loads the projector with his own personal 00:14:20.820 --> 00:14:22.820 family photos, photos of his wife Betty, his 00:14:22.820 --> 00:14:25.259 children, moments of genuine happiness that he 00:14:25.259 --> 00:14:27.419 feels he has already lost. And he tells the Kodak 00:14:27.419 --> 00:14:30.059 executives that in Greek nostalgia literally 00:14:30.059 --> 00:14:33.259 means the pain from an old wound. The pain from 00:14:33.259 --> 00:14:35.879 an old wound. He says it's a twinge in your heart, 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:39.000 far more powerful than memory alone. It takes 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.519 us to a place where we ache to go again. It's 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:43.620 incredible. The source notes that the Kodak clients 00:14:43.620 --> 00:14:46.259 are so incredibly moved and impressed by this 00:14:46.259 --> 00:14:49.059 emotional presentation that they instantly cancel 00:14:49.059 --> 00:14:51.200 their meetings with all other advertising agencies 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:54.500 on the spot. Don wins the account. He is selling 00:14:54.500 --> 00:14:57.080 them their own memories, but he's doing it by 00:14:57.080 --> 00:14:59.639 bleeding his own suppressed trauma into the room. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.539 And the tragic irony of that season finale is 00:15:03.539 --> 00:15:07.279 just unparalleled. It really is. Don gives this 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:09.940 beautiful, tear -jerking speech about the egg. 00:15:10.460 --> 00:15:13.200 to go home again to a place where you know you 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.299 were loved. On the train ride back to the suburbs 00:15:16.299 --> 00:15:18.779 that night, he envisions walking through his 00:15:18.779 --> 00:15:21.019 front door and announcing to Betty and the kids 00:15:21.019 --> 00:15:23.539 that he's joining them for Thanksgiving. Repairing 00:15:23.539 --> 00:15:25.539 the rift that's been growing between them all 00:15:25.539 --> 00:15:27.960 season. Right. But reality shatters the illusion. 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:30.519 Exactly. He opens the front door to find the 00:15:30.519 --> 00:15:33.000 house completely dark and empty. Betty and the 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:34.480 kids have already left for her family's house 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:37.759 without him. He just sits alone at the bottom 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:41.250 of the staircase as the season closes. The man 00:15:41.250 --> 00:15:43.649 who can sell the Dreamer family to the entire 00:15:43.649 --> 00:15:46.669 country is sitting completely alone in the dark. 00:15:47.070 --> 00:15:50.190 It is such a haunting image. It perfectly encapsulates 00:15:50.190 --> 00:15:52.370 the tragedy of his character. He is surrounded 00:15:52.370 --> 00:15:55.889 by people yet profoundly isolated. But Don isn't 00:15:55.889 --> 00:15:58.450 the only one navigating a complex dual existence 00:15:58.450 --> 00:16:00.429 at Sterling Cooper. No, not at all. The first 00:16:00.429 --> 00:16:03.409 season is deeply invested in exploring the rapidly 00:16:03.409 --> 00:16:07.049 changing roles of women in 1960s America. The 00:16:07.049 --> 00:16:08.909 workplace we described earlier, the smoking, 00:16:09.129 --> 00:16:11.789 the drinking, the overt sexism, was an incredibly 00:16:11.789 --> 00:16:13.490 hostile environment for women trying to build 00:16:13.490 --> 00:16:16.049 a career. It's just a minefield. And we see this 00:16:16.049 --> 00:16:19.610 brilliantly juxtaposed through four central female 00:16:19.610 --> 00:16:22.820 characters. Peggy Olsen. Betty Draper, Rachel 00:16:22.820 --> 00:16:25.559 Minkin and Joan Holloway. Each taking a different 00:16:25.559 --> 00:16:28.019 path. Each of them represents a completely different 00:16:28.019 --> 00:16:30.879 strategy for surviving and advancing in a society 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:32.879 that is fundamentally rigged against them. Let's 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:35.080 start with Peggy Olsen played by Elizabeth Moss. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:38.279 Peggy's arc in season one is staggering. We see 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:40.840 her walk into Sterling Cooper on her very first 00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:44.120 day as a naive, incredibly green secretary from 00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:46.960 Brooklyn. She's wearing a modest dress. She's 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:49.080 nervous and she is immediately thrown to the 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:51.919 wolves. The office manager, Joan Holloway, takes 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:55.220 her under her wing. But Joan's advice is incredibly 00:16:55.220 --> 00:16:58.539 cynical. Joan essentially tells Peggy that her 00:16:58.539 --> 00:17:01.299 primary asset is her physical appeal to men. 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:04.839 She advises her to enjoy it while it lasts, regarding 00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:07.019 the constant sexual harassment from her male 00:17:07.019 --> 00:17:09.640 colleagues. And we should clarify when we say 00:17:09.640 --> 00:17:12.420 harassment, we mean relentless daily commentary 00:17:12.420 --> 00:17:16.640 on her body, inappropriate touching, and a culture 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:19.259 where secretaries are viewed as perks of the 00:17:19.259 --> 00:17:21.950 job. Junior accounts manager Pete Campbell, who 00:17:21.950 --> 00:17:23.910 is literally weeks away from getting married 00:17:23.910 --> 00:17:27.329 to his wealthy fiance, hones in on Peggy immediately. 00:17:27.349 --> 00:17:29.410 He pursues her relentlessly. Showing up at her 00:17:29.410 --> 00:17:31.230 apartment making crude remarks, and they end 00:17:31.230 --> 00:17:33.650 up having sex on an office sofa the night of 00:17:33.650 --> 00:17:35.930 his bachelor party. Which is just so dark. But 00:17:35.930 --> 00:17:37.569 this raises an important question for you, the 00:17:37.569 --> 00:17:40.009 listener, to consider. What is the cost of ambition 00:17:40.009 --> 00:17:42.670 for a woman in this era? Because Peggy quickly 00:17:42.670 --> 00:17:45.750 realizes that playing the game Jones Way using 00:17:45.750 --> 00:17:48.670 sexuality as currency isn't what she wants. She 00:17:48.670 --> 00:17:51.069 wants to be recognized for her mind. Exactly. 00:17:51.490 --> 00:17:53.970 And the turning point comes in a very unexpected 00:17:53.970 --> 00:17:57.769 way. Senior ad man Freddie Rumson is hosting 00:17:57.769 --> 00:18:00.569 a focus group for the secretarial pool to test 00:18:00.569 --> 00:18:03.190 out a client's product, Belle Jolie lipstick. 00:18:03.549 --> 00:18:06.250 He overhears Peggy make a very astute observation. 00:18:06.609 --> 00:18:08.529 She says she doesn't want to be one of a hundred 00:18:08.529 --> 00:18:11.380 colors in a box. She wants to be a woman who 00:18:11.380 --> 00:18:14.279 is given a basket of kisses. A basket of kisses. 00:18:14.660 --> 00:18:17.420 Freddie recognizes her raw talent. He actually 00:18:17.420 --> 00:18:19.539 brings her suggestions to the creative team and 00:18:19.539 --> 00:18:21.880 eventually she is asked to write copy. She is 00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:23.900 stepping out of the secretarial pool and into 00:18:23.900 --> 00:18:25.799 the creative domain, which is strictly a boys 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:28.960 club. And her rise is phenomenal. She even gets 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:30.819 put in charge of her own account for a weight 00:18:30.819 --> 00:18:33.140 loss device that vibrates. I have to mention 00:18:33.140 --> 00:18:36.039 this because it is one of the season's more darkly 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:39.109 comedic moments. She takes the device home to 00:18:39.109 --> 00:18:41.930 try it, and she realizes that it provides sexual 00:18:41.930 --> 00:18:44.130 stimulation. Yes, the rejuvenator. Right, the 00:18:44.130 --> 00:18:46.210 rejuvenator. And the men in the office are too 00:18:46.210 --> 00:18:48.309 embarrassed to talk about it directly. But Peggy 00:18:48.309 --> 00:18:51.769 just walks into Dawn's office and gives a completely 00:18:51.769 --> 00:18:54.390 straightforward, brilliant presentation on how 00:18:54.390 --> 00:18:57.609 to market it. Dawn is so impressed by her professionalism 00:18:57.609 --> 00:19:00.289 and her creative angle that he gives her a raise 00:19:00.289 --> 00:19:02.410 and a day off. By the end of the season, she's 00:19:02.410 --> 00:19:05.829 writing copy for the Clearasil account. But you 00:19:05.829 --> 00:19:07.930 mentioned the personal cost of this ambition 00:19:07.930 --> 00:19:11.430 earlier. And for Peggy, that cost is monumental. 00:19:11.529 --> 00:19:14.710 It is massive. Because while her career is skyrocketing, 00:19:15.130 --> 00:19:17.750 her personal life is a literal hidden trauma. 00:19:18.029 --> 00:19:20.190 We need to unpack this carefully because it's 00:19:20.190 --> 00:19:23.849 a shocking storyline. Peggy begins experiencing 00:19:23.849 --> 00:19:26.809 severe stomach pains late in the season, right 00:19:26.809 --> 00:19:28.769 around the time of the Nixon -Kennedy election. 00:19:29.079 --> 00:19:31.819 She eventually goes to the emergency room completely 00:19:31.819 --> 00:19:33.799 unaware of what is happening to her body. The 00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:36.819 doctor examines her and tells her she's in labor. 00:19:36.980 --> 00:19:38.980 She is about to have a baby. You mentioned the 00:19:38.980 --> 00:19:41.940 term cryptic pregnancy in the notes. For those 00:19:41.940 --> 00:19:44.559 of us who aren't medical professionals. How does 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:47.099 a woman literally not know she's pregnant until 00:19:47.099 --> 00:19:50.019 she's in labor? A cryptic pregnancy is a rare 00:19:50.019 --> 00:19:53.059 medical phenomenon where a pregnant person is 00:19:53.059 --> 00:19:55.380 entirely unaware of their pregnancy until the 00:19:55.380 --> 00:19:57.680 final weeks or even until birth. It can happen 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:01.039 for a variety of physiological reasons like irregular 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:04.339 periods or lack of typical symptoms, but in Peggy's 00:20:04.339 --> 00:20:06.940 case it is deeply psychological as well. The 00:20:06.940 --> 00:20:09.119 psychological dissociation here is profound. 00:20:09.259 --> 00:20:12.700 Peggy is so hyper -focused on her career. So 00:20:12.700 --> 00:20:15.680 determined to survive and thrive in this male 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:18.839 -dominated corporate world that her brain literally 00:20:18.839 --> 00:20:21.359 walls off what is happening to her own body. 00:20:23.569 --> 00:20:25.650 especially an out -of -wedlock pregnancy with 00:20:25.650 --> 00:20:28.450 Pete Campbell, would mean the instant termination 00:20:28.450 --> 00:20:31.109 of her career at Sterling Cooper. It's a complete 00:20:31.109 --> 00:20:34.029 psychological disconnect as a survival mechanism. 00:20:34.190 --> 00:20:37.210 That is horrifying to think about. When she gives 00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:39.789 birth to the baby boy in the hospital, she refuses 00:20:39.789 --> 00:20:42.109 to acknowledge him. The nurse tries to hand her 00:20:42.109 --> 00:20:44.109 the baby, and Peggy literally turns her head 00:20:44.109 --> 00:20:46.390 away. She won't look at him. Because looking 00:20:46.390 --> 00:20:48.470 at him makes it real. And if it's real, the career 00:20:48.470 --> 00:20:51.150 she just fought so hard to build is over. If 00:20:51.150 --> 00:20:52.950 you think about it, both Peggy and Dawn are doing 00:20:52.950 --> 00:20:54.890 the exact same thing. They are. They both have 00:20:54.890 --> 00:20:58.150 these massive life -altering hidden traumas. 00:20:58.430 --> 00:21:01.450 Dawn's secret past and dead brother Peggy's secret 00:21:01.450 --> 00:21:04.250 pregnancy, an abandoned child that they are actively 00:21:04.250 --> 00:21:06.930 burying so they can keep functioning in the corporate 00:21:06.930 --> 00:21:09.470 machine. They are survivors, but their survival 00:21:09.470 --> 00:21:12.569 requires a ruthless severing of their own humanity. 00:21:12.750 --> 00:21:15.309 That is a brilliant connection. They are mirrors 00:21:15.309 --> 00:21:17.710 of each other in that regard, which is why Dawn 00:21:17.710 --> 00:21:19.789 eventually becomes a mentor to her. Now, while 00:21:19.789 --> 00:21:21.849 Peggy is fighting her way up the corporate ladder 00:21:21.849 --> 00:21:24.130 from the bottom, we have Betty Draper, played 00:21:24.130 --> 00:21:26.990 by January Jones, who is trapped at the supposed 00:21:26.990 --> 00:21:30.029 absolute pinnacle of female success for the era. 00:21:30.369 --> 00:21:33.349 Right. She is the affluent, beautiful blonde 00:21:33.349 --> 00:21:36.789 suburban housewife. She has the handsome husband, 00:21:37.289 --> 00:21:39.730 the nice house in assigning the perfect children. 00:21:39.750 --> 00:21:42.309 But she is suffocating. The source material outlines 00:21:42.309 --> 00:21:43.930 how following the death of her mother, Betty 00:21:43.930 --> 00:21:46.650 starts experiencing unexplained severe physical 00:21:46.650 --> 00:21:48.890 symptoms. Her hands go completely numb. They 00:21:48.890 --> 00:21:50.869 start shaking uncontrollably. She even gets into 00:21:50.869 --> 00:21:52.750 a car accident because she loses feeling in her 00:21:52.750 --> 00:21:54.829 hands while driving. Her doctors examine her, 00:21:54.950 --> 00:21:57.589 find nothing physically wrong, and suggest psychiatry. 00:21:58.049 --> 00:22:00.410 They believe it is a psychosomatic manifestation 00:22:00.410 --> 00:22:03.910 of anxiety or depression. And Don is initially 00:22:03.910 --> 00:22:06.430 completely resistant to the idea of his wife 00:22:06.430 --> 00:22:09.420 seeing a psychiatrist. He actually proclaims 00:22:09.420 --> 00:22:12.299 that therapy is for people who are unhappy, which 00:22:12.299 --> 00:22:14.980 is a massive tell about his own worldview. He 00:22:14.980 --> 00:22:16.859 refuses to believe his wife could be unhappy 00:22:16.859 --> 00:22:18.859 because he has provided her with the perfect 00:22:18.859 --> 00:22:21.980 life. He views her unhappiness as a failure of 00:22:21.980 --> 00:22:25.460 his own provision, or worse, a crack in his perfect 00:22:25.460 --> 00:22:27.819 facade. He eventually relents and lets her see 00:22:27.819 --> 00:22:30.690 a psychiatrist named Dr. Wayne. But here's the 00:22:30.690 --> 00:22:33.890 truly twisted part. Dawn secretly calls Dr. Wayne 00:22:33.890 --> 00:22:36.049 to get reports on what Betty is saying in her 00:22:36.049 --> 00:22:38.170 private sessions. And Dr. Wayne actually tells 00:22:38.170 --> 00:22:40.230 him it's a complete violation of her privacy 00:22:40.230 --> 00:22:42.529 and medical ethics, but it highlights how women 00:22:42.529 --> 00:22:44.410 were viewed as the property of their husbands. 00:22:44.710 --> 00:22:46.609 And Betty's frustration just simmers under the 00:22:46.609 --> 00:22:48.950 surface because she has no voice. In episode 00:22:48.950 --> 00:22:51.769 four, New Amsterdam, she babysits her divorced 00:22:51.769 --> 00:22:54.829 neighbor, Helen Bishop's son Glenn. Glenn is 00:22:54.829 --> 00:22:57.130 this strange, quiet kid who develops a crush 00:22:57.130 --> 00:22:59.890 on Betty. He asks her for a lock of her hair. 00:23:00.230 --> 00:23:03.250 Betty is hesitant, but she is so desperate to 00:23:03.250 --> 00:23:05.609 be seen to be valued by someone that she actually 00:23:05.609 --> 00:23:07.529 cuts off a piece of her hair and gives it to 00:23:07.529 --> 00:23:10.369 him. And when Helen Bishop finds out she angrily 00:23:10.369 --> 00:23:12.670 confronts Betty in a grocery store parking lot, 00:23:13.589 --> 00:23:17.180 Helen tells her to stay away from her son. Betty, 00:23:17.180 --> 00:23:19.619 who's been repressing all of her rage, her grief 00:23:19.619 --> 00:23:22.579 about her mother, her suspicion of Dawn's infidelity 00:23:22.579 --> 00:23:25.799 just snaps. She slaps Helen across the face. 00:23:25.940 --> 00:23:28.619 It's this sudden violent explosion of repressed 00:23:28.619 --> 00:23:32.059 anger. Because Betty has absolutely no outlet 00:23:32.059 --> 00:23:35.019 for her ambitions or her desires. Everything 00:23:35.019 --> 00:23:37.759 she does has to be channeled through Dawn. There's 00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:39.740 a heartbreaking arc in episode nine's shoot. 00:23:39.900 --> 00:23:42.799 Jim Hobart, the head of a massive rival ad agency 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:45.319 called McCann Erickson, approaches Dawn with 00:23:45.319 --> 00:23:47.619 a job offer to leave Sterling Cooper. As part 00:23:47.619 --> 00:23:50.440 of the lure to get Dawn, Dawn Hobart gives his 00:23:50.440 --> 00:23:51.980 business card to Betty and tells her she would 00:23:51.980 --> 00:23:54.480 be a perfect model for their new Coca -Cola campaign. 00:23:54.819 --> 00:23:56.640 And Betty is thrilled. She had modeled in Manhattan 00:23:56.640 --> 00:23:58.480 before marrying Dawn, and this is a chance to 00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:00.200 have her own identity again, to earn her own 00:24:00.200 --> 00:24:02.180 money, to step outside the house. She goes to 00:24:02.180 --> 00:24:04.880 the casting. She does the shoot, and she feels 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:07.380 alive again. But Don is ambivalent about leaving 00:24:07.380 --> 00:24:09.940 Sterling Cooper. He ends up using Hobart's offer 00:24:09.940 --> 00:24:12.960 merely as leverage to negotiate a higher salary 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:16.099 and better terms at his current agency. And once 00:24:16.099 --> 00:24:21.140 Don formally declines Hobart's offer, Jim Hobart 00:24:21.140 --> 00:24:23.339 immediately fires Betty from the Coca -Cola shoot. 00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:25.980 Hobart was just using her as bait. And it crushes 00:24:25.980 --> 00:24:28.319 her. Yeah. But the saddest part of that whole 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:30.380 situation is that she doesn't even tell Don she 00:24:30.380 --> 00:24:34.119 was let go. She lies to him. She says she voluntarily 00:24:34.119 --> 00:24:36.599 quit the modeling gig because she just didn't 00:24:36.599 --> 00:24:38.420 like the idea of not being home enough for the 00:24:38.420 --> 00:24:41.319 kids. She internalizes the defeat to protect 00:24:41.319 --> 00:24:44.440 Don's ego and the illusion of their perfect marriage. 00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:47.059 We see a sharp contrast to Betty in the character 00:24:47.059 --> 00:24:49.720 of Rachel Menken. Rachel is the Jewish owner 00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:52.359 of Menken's department store who comes to Sterling 00:24:52.359 --> 00:24:54.950 Cooper for marketing help. Rachel is a businesswoman 00:24:54.950 --> 00:24:57.369 holding her own in a room full of men who don't 00:24:57.369 --> 00:25:00.130 take her seriously at first. She tells Dawn early 00:25:00.130 --> 00:25:02.710 on that she understands what it is to be an outsider. 00:25:03.150 --> 00:25:05.309 They have this intense intellectual flirtation 00:25:05.309 --> 00:25:07.109 that eventually turns into a full -blown affair. 00:25:07.690 --> 00:25:10.130 But Rachel isn't just another conquest for Dawn, 00:25:10.329 --> 00:25:13.549 is she? No, she isn't. Rachel sees through Dawn's 00:25:13.549 --> 00:25:16.769 facade in a way no one else does. She recognizes 00:25:16.769 --> 00:25:19.880 the brokenness in him. But she also respects 00:25:19.880 --> 00:25:22.319 herself deeply. Later in the season, during the 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:24.519 Cuban Missile Crisis scare, when everyone thinks 00:25:24.519 --> 00:25:27.759 the world might end, Dawn shows up at her apartment 00:25:27.759 --> 00:25:31.200 in a state of sheer panic. He asks Rachel to 00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:33.799 abandon her life, her business, everything, and 00:25:33.799 --> 00:25:36.240 run away to Los Angeles with him. And this is 00:25:36.240 --> 00:25:38.789 where Rachel proves her strength. She realizes 00:25:38.789 --> 00:25:40.910 he isn't asking her to run away because he loves 00:25:40.910 --> 00:25:43.230 her. He's looking for an escape hatch. He's running 00:25:43.230 --> 00:25:45.990 from his life not to her. She rejects him calling 00:25:45.990 --> 00:25:48.470 him a coward and effectively ends the relationship. 00:25:48.710 --> 00:25:50.890 She is the only woman who really holds up a mirror 00:25:50.890 --> 00:25:53.369 to him and walks away. And then there's Joan 00:25:53.369 --> 00:25:55.759 Holloway. Joan is such a fascinating character 00:25:55.759 --> 00:25:58.460 because she doesn't try to tear down the patriarchal 00:25:58.460 --> 00:26:01.299 system, nor is she a victim of it like Betty. 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:04.519 Joan is hyper aware of the power dynamics and 00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:07.500 she uses them. She uses passive aggressive hostility 00:26:07.500 --> 00:26:10.000 to keep the secretarial pool in line, acting 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:12.359 as the enforcer of the male executives rules. 00:26:12.500 --> 00:26:14.799 And she is navigating a complex secret affair 00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:16.980 with Roger Sterling, one of the founding partners 00:26:16.980 --> 00:26:20.039 of the agency. Joan's strategy is to weaponize 00:26:20.039 --> 00:26:22.579 the patriarchal system to her advantage. She 00:26:22.579 --> 00:26:25.359 knows her beauty and her sexuality, grant her 00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:27.920 a specific type of power over men like Roger, 00:26:28.200 --> 00:26:30.799 and she wields it expertly. When Roger suggests 00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:33.579 she get her own apartment, which he implies he 00:26:33.579 --> 00:26:36.740 will pay for Joan, outright rejects the idea. 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:39.599 She knows the reality of her situation. She suspects 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:41.920 that if she becomes entirely dependent on him, 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:43.880 Roger will eventually just leave her for someone 00:26:43.880 --> 00:26:45.759 younger and she'll be left with nothing. She 00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:48.500 is incredibly pragmatic about the transactional 00:26:48.500 --> 00:26:50.940 nature of their relationship. If Joan is using 00:26:50.940 --> 00:26:53.720 the system to survive... How are the men using 00:26:53.720 --> 00:26:55.579 it against each other? Because it seems like 00:26:55.579 --> 00:26:57.579 the guys at the top and the guys trying to get 00:26:57.579 --> 00:26:59.480 to the top are playing an entirely different, 00:26:59.740 --> 00:27:02.339 incredibly vicious game. Which brings us perfectly 00:27:02.339 --> 00:27:05.119 to the intense office politics inside Sterling 00:27:05.119 --> 00:27:07.960 Cooper. The power dynamics among the men are 00:27:07.960 --> 00:27:10.759 just as treacherous as the gender dynamics. Absolutely. 00:27:10.940 --> 00:27:12.980 You have Pete Campbell, played by Vincent Kartheiser. 00:27:13.539 --> 00:27:16.660 Pete is this highly ambitious, deeply insecure 00:27:16.660 --> 00:27:19.279 junior accounts manager who constantly feels 00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:21.579 he deserves more than he has. He comes from a 00:27:21.579 --> 00:27:23.779 very old money aristocratic New York family, 00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:26.859 the Dykmans. But his parents are incredibly stingy. 00:27:26.900 --> 00:27:28.819 They won't even give him a down payment for an 00:27:28.819 --> 00:27:31.119 expensive new apartment that his new wife Trudy 00:27:31.119 --> 00:27:33.359 desperately wants. So Pete is constantly trying 00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:35.579 to prove himself to make his own mark and he 00:27:35.579 --> 00:27:38.380 is deeply jealous of Don Draper's effortless 00:27:38.380 --> 00:27:40.839 authority. Oh, Pete is relentless. I was reading 00:27:40.839 --> 00:27:43.940 about episode four where he secretly pitches 00:27:43.940 --> 00:27:48.240 his own advertising idea to an executive at Bethlehem 00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:50.519 Steel without telling Don or getting approval. 00:27:51.049 --> 00:27:54.710 Don finds out and is absolutely enraged. He fires 00:27:54.710 --> 00:27:57.349 Pete right on the spot. But it doesn't stick, 00:27:57.569 --> 00:28:00.170 does it? No. Don marches Pete into the office 00:28:00.170 --> 00:28:02.309 of the senior partner, the eccentric shoeless 00:28:02.309 --> 00:28:05.069 Burt Cooper. Don explains that Pete went rogue 00:28:05.069 --> 00:28:07.329 and needs to be fired. But Burt steps in and 00:28:07.329 --> 00:28:10.569 tells Don they have to keep Pete. Why? Because 00:28:10.569 --> 00:28:12.970 Pete's family has extensive societal connections 00:28:12.970 --> 00:28:15.509 and his mother is friendly with the CEO of a 00:28:15.509 --> 00:28:17.910 massive potential client. Bird explains that 00:28:17.910 --> 00:28:20.670 Pete's lineage is too valuable to lose. So Don 00:28:20.670 --> 00:28:22.490 and Roger have to put on this whole theatrical, 00:28:22.690 --> 00:28:24.849 humiliating show for Pete, claiming that Don 00:28:24.849 --> 00:28:27.309 actually fought with management to save his job. 00:28:28.309 --> 00:28:30.329 It's all smoke and mirrors to keep Pete in line 00:28:30.329 --> 00:28:32.970 without letting him know he's unfirable. But 00:28:32.970 --> 00:28:36.269 Pete's insecurity and his propensity to snoop 00:28:36.269 --> 00:28:39.029 lead to the most explosive conflict of the entire 00:28:39.029 --> 00:28:42.410 season. Yes, the blackmail plot. This is where 00:28:42.410 --> 00:28:45.359 the tension between Don and Pete just boils over. 00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:47.779 Remember the box that Adam Whitman mailed to 00:28:47.779 --> 00:28:49.940 Don before he took his own life? Well Pete is 00:28:49.940 --> 00:28:51.839 sitting in Don's office waiting for him one day 00:28:51.839 --> 00:28:54.880 when a mailroom boy walks in. The boy mistakes 00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:58.240 Pete for Don and hands him that exact package. 00:28:58.619 --> 00:29:01.720 Pete being Pete opens it. He finds Dick Whitman's 00:29:01.720 --> 00:29:03.960 dog, tags the childhood photos, and a letter. 00:29:04.140 --> 00:29:07.180 Pete suddenly realizes he holds the key to destroying 00:29:07.180 --> 00:29:09.819 his boss. He has the ultimate leverage. During 00:29:09.819 --> 00:29:12.359 episode 12, Nixon versus Kennedy, when Don refuses 00:29:12.359 --> 00:29:14.660 to promote Pete to the position of head of accounts, 00:29:14.779 --> 00:29:17.019 Pete corners him with the box. He thinks to blackmail 00:29:17.019 --> 00:29:19.319 Don. He basically says, give me the promotion 00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:22.180 or I am going to expose you to the partners as 00:29:22.180 --> 00:29:24.779 a deserter and a fraud. It's a brilliant high 00:29:24.779 --> 00:29:28.400 stakes sequence. Don is utterly terrified. This 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:30.440 is the moment that triggers that panicked visit 00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:32.319 to Rachel Menken we discussed earlier, where 00:29:32.319 --> 00:29:36.119 he begs her to run away. But when Rachel rejects 00:29:36.119 --> 00:29:39.400 him, Don realizes he can't run. He has to face 00:29:39.400 --> 00:29:43.279 the music. He goes back to the office and completely 00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:46.119 neutralizes Pete's threat in the most strategic 00:29:46.119 --> 00:29:49.019 Machiavellian way possible. He calmly tells Burt 00:29:49.019 --> 00:29:51.420 Cooper that he has already hired an external 00:29:51.420 --> 00:29:53.240 candidate, a man named Herman Duck Phillips, 00:29:53.660 --> 00:29:55.460 to be the new head of accounts. He knows this 00:29:55.460 --> 00:29:57.420 will push Pete over the edge. He's baiting him. 00:29:57.619 --> 00:30:01.140 Exactly. And it works. Pete is furious. He marches 00:30:01.140 --> 00:30:03.220 straight into Burt Cooper's office with Don and 00:30:03.220 --> 00:30:05.420 steals the entire secret. He tells Burt that 00:30:05.420 --> 00:30:08.640 Don is a fraud, a deserter from the army, that 00:30:08.640 --> 00:30:10.740 his real name is Dick Whitman, and he shouldn't 00:30:10.740 --> 00:30:12.799 be working at this agency. I want to focus on 00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:14.960 Burt Cooper's reaction here because to me, this 00:30:14.960 --> 00:30:17.099 is one of the most defining moments of the show's 00:30:17.099 --> 00:30:19.700 entire philosophy. Burt, who is this elder statesman 00:30:19.700 --> 00:30:23.099 of the agency, looks at Pete. He processes this 00:30:23.099 --> 00:30:25.619 massive revelation of federal treason and identity 00:30:25.619 --> 00:30:28.079 theft and desertion, and he simply says he doesn't 00:30:28.079 --> 00:30:30.660 care. He literally says, Mr. Campbell, who cares? 00:30:30.779 --> 00:30:33.859 It is the ultimate expression of raw mid -century 00:30:33.859 --> 00:30:35.559 American capitalism. I mean, think about it. 00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:38.960 Does identity theft matter to Bert? No. Does 00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:41.809 desertion matter? No. Don Draper is a creative 00:30:41.809 --> 00:30:44.950 genius who is making the agency millions of dollars. 00:30:45.529 --> 00:30:47.609 The truth of his identity, his morality, his 00:30:47.609 --> 00:30:50.309 past, all of it is completely irrelevant compared 00:30:50.309 --> 00:30:52.730 to his output and his value to the bottom line. 00:30:53.150 --> 00:30:56.329 Burke then turns to Don and says, one never knows 00:30:56.329 --> 00:30:59.529 how loyalty is born, effectively giving Don the 00:30:59.529 --> 00:31:02.069 power to either fire Pete right then and there 00:31:02.069 --> 00:31:04.849 or keep him close knowing Pete's ultimate weapon 00:31:04.849 --> 00:31:07.690 is now entirely useless. Results matter far more 00:31:07.690 --> 00:31:10.500 than truth. One never knows how loyalty is born. 00:31:10.859 --> 00:31:13.039 It's chilling. It's a profound takeaway about 00:31:13.039 --> 00:31:15.799 how corporate America operates. Don decides to 00:31:15.799 --> 00:31:18.200 keep Pete on forging this bizarre, incredibly 00:31:18.200 --> 00:31:20.700 tense alliance built on mutual destruction. But 00:31:20.700 --> 00:31:22.940 Pete isn't the only one causing chaos in the 00:31:22.940 --> 00:31:25.299 upper ranks. Let's talk about Roger Sterling, 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:27.819 played by John Slattery. Roger is the acerbic 00:31:27.819 --> 00:31:30.220 silver spoon son of the agency's founder. He's 00:31:30.220 --> 00:31:32.000 coasting on his father's name, he's cheating 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:34.180 on his wife Mona with Joan, and he's drinking 00:31:34.180 --> 00:31:37.410 heavily and smoking constantly. And his lifestyle 00:31:37.410 --> 00:31:40.490 catches up with him in a major way. Yes, in episode 00:31:40.490 --> 00:31:43.390 10, Long Weekend. It's Labor Day weekend and 00:31:43.390 --> 00:31:46.369 Roger's feeling lonely and rejected because Joan 00:31:46.369 --> 00:31:48.269 turned down his offer to spend the weekend together 00:31:48.269 --> 00:31:50.230 in the city. She chose to hang out with her roommate, 00:31:50.509 --> 00:31:53.569 Carol, instead. And as a side note, in a surprising 00:31:53.569 --> 00:31:56.289 twist during that weekend, Carol actually reveals 00:31:56.289 --> 00:31:59.170 she has deep romantic feelings for Joan. Which 00:31:59.170 --> 00:32:01.210 Joan politely rebuffs for their complicating 00:32:01.210 --> 00:32:03.069 Joan's understanding of her own desirability. 00:32:03.259 --> 00:32:05.839 So Roger, feeling sorry for himself, goes to 00:32:05.839 --> 00:32:08.359 an advertising casting call, meets a pair of 00:32:08.359 --> 00:32:11.059 young twin models, and propositions them. And 00:32:11.059 --> 00:32:13.640 the physical toll of his hedonism finally hits. 00:32:14.079 --> 00:32:15.799 While attempting to have sex with one of the 00:32:15.799 --> 00:32:18.619 young women, Roger suffers a massive, debilitating 00:32:18.619 --> 00:32:21.740 heart attack. He survives, but it drastically 00:32:21.740 --> 00:32:24.240 changes his outlook on life, and more importantly, 00:32:24.420 --> 00:32:26.420 it sends shockwaves through the agency's clients. 00:32:26.619 --> 00:32:29.420 The vulnerability of the agency is suddenly exposed. 00:32:29.940 --> 00:32:32.380 Lee Garner Sr., the abrasive owner of Lucky Strike, 00:32:32.599 --> 00:32:34.579 their biggest client, warns Burt Cooper that 00:32:34.579 --> 00:32:36.799 keeping their massive account requires Sterling 00:32:36.799 --> 00:32:39.160 Cooper to show Don Draper that they appreciate 00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:42.259 him. Garner knows Roger is incapacitated and 00:32:42.259 --> 00:32:44.819 fears Don might jump ship to a rival agency. 00:32:45.069 --> 00:32:48.349 This external pressure forces Burt to officially 00:32:48.349 --> 00:32:51.849 offer Don a 12 % partnership stake in the business. 00:32:51.950 --> 00:32:55.529 Which is huge. Don is finally an owner. And it's 00:32:55.529 --> 00:32:57.769 a good thing, too, because Roger actually suffers 00:32:57.769 --> 00:32:59.910 a second heart attack shortly after returning 00:32:59.910 --> 00:33:01.809 to the office right in the middle of a meeting 00:33:01.809 --> 00:33:04.410 with Lee Garner Sr. But we can't talk about Don 00:33:04.410 --> 00:33:07.190 and Roger without talking about my absolute favorite 00:33:07.190 --> 00:33:09.549 dynamic between them, which happens earlier in 00:33:09.549 --> 00:33:12.230 the season in episode 7, Red in the Face. Ah, 00:33:12.230 --> 00:33:15.049 the oyster revenge plot. It is so p - and so 00:33:15.049 --> 00:33:17.650 brilliant, Roger, feeling entitled, invites himself 00:33:17.650 --> 00:33:20.289 to dinner at the Draper's suburban house. He 00:33:20.289 --> 00:33:22.609 gets completely drunk and blatantly makes a pass 00:33:22.609 --> 00:33:25.190 at Betty while Dawn's back is turned. Dawn is 00:33:25.190 --> 00:33:27.509 absolutely furious, but he doesn't just yell 00:33:27.509 --> 00:33:29.710 at Roger. He actually takes some of his anger 00:33:29.710 --> 00:33:32.690 out on Betty, first accusing her of leading Roger 00:33:32.690 --> 00:33:35.029 on and calling her a little girl. Which terribly 00:33:35.029 --> 00:33:37.250 echoes exactly what Dr. Wayne, the psychiatrist, 00:33:37.309 --> 00:33:39.509 told him in those secret phone calls. It's a 00:33:39.509 --> 00:33:42.109 classic Don Draper deflection projecting his 00:33:42.109 --> 00:33:44.809 anger and his own guilt about his infidelities 00:33:44.809 --> 00:33:48.289 onto his wife. But his actual revenge on Roger 00:33:48.289 --> 00:33:51.869 is meticulously coldly calculated. Don doesn't 00:33:51.869 --> 00:33:55.390 confront his boss. Instead, he plots. He bribes 00:33:55.390 --> 00:33:57.349 the elevator attendant at their office building 00:33:57.349 --> 00:33:59.589 to claim the elevator is broken at a specific 00:33:59.589 --> 00:34:03.160 time. He then takes Roger out for a massive indulgent 00:34:03.160 --> 00:34:06.180 lunch. He aggressively encourages Roger to eat 00:34:06.180 --> 00:34:08.940 plates and plates of rich oysters and drink heavily 00:34:08.940 --> 00:34:11.219 right before they have a crucial afternoon meeting 00:34:11.219 --> 00:34:13.199 with officials from Richard Nixon's presidential 00:34:13.199 --> 00:34:15.860 campaign. Yes. They get back to the building 00:34:15.860 --> 00:34:18.679 and the attendant, right on cue, tells them the 00:34:18.679 --> 00:34:20.940 elevator is out of service. They have to walk 00:34:20.940 --> 00:34:23.909 up 23 flights of stairs. Roger, an older man 00:34:23.909 --> 00:34:26.150 filled with dozens of oysters and martinis, is 00:34:26.150 --> 00:34:28.329 absolutely exhausted. They reach the top and 00:34:28.329 --> 00:34:30.389 Roger projectile vomits right in front of the 00:34:30.389 --> 00:34:32.869 Nixon campaign officials. It is a perfect example 00:34:32.869 --> 00:34:36.070 of how Don wheels power silently. He destroyed 00:34:36.070 --> 00:34:38.269 Roger's dignity without ever throwing a punch. 00:34:38.519 --> 00:34:41.260 Speaking of the Nixon campaign, we have to discuss 00:34:41.260 --> 00:34:44.440 how the series weaves real world history into 00:34:44.440 --> 00:34:47.340 its narrative. The backdrop for the climax of 00:34:47.340 --> 00:34:50.320 the season is the 1960 presidential election 00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:53.380 between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator 00:34:53.380 --> 00:34:56.019 John F. Kennedy. And the show handles this in 00:34:56.019 --> 00:34:58.820 a fascinating way. Sterling Cooper is actually 00:34:58.820 --> 00:35:01.639 working for Nixon's campaign gratis, meaning 00:35:01.639 --> 00:35:04.760 for free, unbidden, because the partners believe 00:35:04.760 --> 00:35:08.030 a Nixon victory a Republican administration will 00:35:08.030 --> 00:35:10.730 be better for their corporate interests and deregulation. 00:35:10.989 --> 00:35:12.969 It's really interesting to watch them strategize 00:35:12.969 --> 00:35:15.289 for a political campaign the same way they strategize 00:35:15.289 --> 00:35:18.130 for a deodorant or a car. We should note that 00:35:18.130 --> 00:35:20.329 we are impartially looking at the tactics they 00:35:20.329 --> 00:35:22.989 use based entirely on the source material. Pete 00:35:22.989 --> 00:35:25.289 Campbell comes up with a particularly ruthless 00:35:25.289 --> 00:35:28.650 strategy. He suggests buying up television advertising 00:35:28.650 --> 00:35:31.309 space in crucial swing states, but not for Nixon 00:35:31.309 --> 00:35:34.269 ads. Instead, he suggests buying the space for 00:35:34.269 --> 00:35:36.730 one of their clients, Secor laxatives. Right. 00:35:36.909 --> 00:35:39.070 By taking up the limited television inventory 00:35:39.070 --> 00:35:41.429 with laxative commercials, they prevent the Kennedy 00:35:41.429 --> 00:35:43.389 campaign from being able to purchase that airtime 00:35:43.389 --> 00:35:46.150 to run their own competing political ads in those 00:35:46.150 --> 00:35:48.989 vital markets. It's a backdoor way of suppressing 00:35:48.989 --> 00:35:51.860 the opposition's airtime. It shows how advertising 00:35:51.860 --> 00:35:54.519 and politics were becoming deeply intertwined 00:35:54.519 --> 00:35:57.199 mediums in the television age. But what makes 00:35:57.199 --> 00:35:59.780 it so compelling for the audience is the dramatic 00:35:59.780 --> 00:36:03.099 irony. You, the listener, know exactly how the 00:36:03.099 --> 00:36:06.079 1960 election turns out. You know Kennedy wins. 00:36:06.320 --> 00:36:08.579 But the characters in the show are living through 00:36:08.579 --> 00:36:11.300 history in real time. They don't know the outcome. 00:36:11.599 --> 00:36:13.420 They are completely invested in their bubble. 00:36:14.119 --> 00:36:16.760 Exactly. Episode 12 is literally titled Nixon 00:36:16.760 --> 00:36:19.519 vs. Kennedy. The employees at Sterling Cooper 00:36:19.519 --> 00:36:22.480 throw a raucous all -night office party on November 00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:25.840 8, 1960 to watch the election results roll in. 00:36:25.980 --> 00:36:28.260 They are drinking heavily, making out in the 00:36:28.260 --> 00:36:30.920 offices, tearing the place apart, absolutely 00:36:30.920 --> 00:36:32.699 convinced that Nixon is going to pull it out. 00:36:32.760 --> 00:36:35.179 And the episode ends with Don having just survived 00:36:35.179 --> 00:36:37.440 Pete's blackmail attempt standing in the quiet 00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:40.000 of his own home watching Nixon's concession speech 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:42.000 on the television. The old guard is changing 00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:44.199 both in the country and within the wells of the 00:36:44.199 --> 00:36:47.900 agency. The shifting of eras is so palpable in 00:36:47.900 --> 00:36:50.699 that final shot. And that brings us to the meta 00:36:50.699 --> 00:36:53.210 story of the show itself. The man behind the 00:36:53.210 --> 00:36:55.110 curtain, Matthew Weiner, was the showrunner, 00:36:55.230 --> 00:36:57.670 head writer and executive producer. He contributed 00:36:57.670 --> 00:37:00.489 to every single episode. The source notes he 00:37:00.489 --> 00:37:03.170 was notorious for his extreme secrecy regarding 00:37:03.170 --> 00:37:05.829 plot points and his selectiveness and casting 00:37:05.829 --> 00:37:08.769 and design. He essentially applied the same obsessive 00:37:08.769 --> 00:37:11.510 control over the show that Don Draper tries to 00:37:11.510 --> 00:37:14.130 apply to his advertising campaigns. And the result 00:37:14.130 --> 00:37:16.829 was a cultural phenomenon. It really was. It 00:37:16.829 --> 00:37:19.730 shifted the entire landscape of what basic cable 00:37:19.730 --> 00:37:21.969 television could be. So what is this? all mean 00:37:21.969 --> 00:37:24.710 for television history? The accolades listed 00:37:24.710 --> 00:37:26.869 in the source material are just staggering. The 00:37:26.869 --> 00:37:29.489 first season scored an 85 % on Rotten Tomatoes 00:37:29.489 --> 00:37:32.489 and a 77 on Metacritic. It won a Peabody Award 00:37:32.489 --> 00:37:34.949 for Outstanding Achievement in Television. It 00:37:34.949 --> 00:37:37.289 won the Golden Globe for Best Drama Series and 00:37:37.289 --> 00:37:40.309 Jon Hamm won Best Actor. And then there was the 00:37:40.309 --> 00:37:43.590 massive Emmy sweep. 15 nominations and 6 wins 00:37:43.590 --> 00:37:46.059 for the first season alone. outstanding drama 00:37:46.059 --> 00:37:48.579 series, outstanding writing for the pilot, and 00:37:48.579 --> 00:37:51.059 creative arts Emmys for art direction cinematography, 00:37:51.300 --> 00:37:53.940 hairstyling, and main title design, it completely 00:37:53.940 --> 00:37:56.550 dominated the conversation. But here's the paradox 00:37:56.550 --> 00:37:58.429 that I find most interesting, and I think it 00:37:58.429 --> 00:38:01.489 requires some context. Despite being the defining 00:38:01.489 --> 00:38:04.949 critical show of 2007, the ratings were incredibly 00:38:04.949 --> 00:38:08.909 modest. The premiere episode hit a 1 .4 household 00:38:08.909 --> 00:38:10.949 rating. Wait, I need some context on that. A 00:38:10.949 --> 00:38:12.969 1 .4 household rating, which the source says 00:38:12.969 --> 00:38:16.170 was about 1 .2 million households. Was that considered 00:38:16.170 --> 00:38:20.269 good or bad in 2007? Because 900 ,000 average 00:38:20.269 --> 00:38:22.369 viewers sounds tiny for a show that won the Emmy. 00:38:22.670 --> 00:38:25.510 In the context of 2007, network television shows 00:38:25.510 --> 00:38:28.730 like CSI or Grey's Anatomy were pulling in 15 00:38:28.730 --> 00:38:31.289 to 20 million viewers a week. Even on premium 00:38:31.289 --> 00:38:33.230 cable, The Sopranos, which ended the same year 00:38:33.230 --> 00:38:35.670 Mad Men premiered, was a massive juggernaut. 00:38:35.789 --> 00:38:37.989 But AMC was a network primarily known for showing 00:38:37.989 --> 00:38:40.369 old classic movies. They had no original programming 00:38:40.369 --> 00:38:42.909 footprint. So a 1 .4 rating was actually the 00:38:42.909 --> 00:38:45.070 highest ever for an AMC original series at the 00:38:45.070 --> 00:38:47.010 time. However, it was not a mass market hit. 00:38:47.369 --> 00:38:49.610 It was a niche show that demanded patience from 00:38:49.610 --> 00:38:52.639 its audience. It really did. The critical reviews 00:38:52.639 --> 00:38:55.340 reflected that split, too. You had critics like 00:38:55.340 --> 00:38:57.380 Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter saying 00:38:57.380 --> 00:39:00.199 each episode unfolded like a small movie, calling 00:39:00.199 --> 00:39:04.019 it an adult drama of introspection. Robert Bianco 00:39:04.019 --> 00:39:07.400 of USA Today called it a smart, complex drama, 00:39:07.900 --> 00:39:10.579 grappling with generation gaps and sexual revolutions. 00:39:11.099 --> 00:39:13.099 The New York Times praised it for breaking new 00:39:13.099 --> 00:39:15.920 ground by luxuriating in the not -so -distant 00:39:15.920 --> 00:39:18.159 past. But not everyone was on board with the 00:39:18.159 --> 00:39:20.519 slow burn. Tom Shales of the Washington Post 00:39:20.519 --> 00:39:23.320 wrote a very negative review. He called the pacing 00:39:23.320 --> 00:39:26.280 desultory and dry, complaining that the directors 00:39:26.280 --> 00:39:28.480 loved long pauses that just made it look like 00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:30.840 the actors forgot their lines. Which is a fundamental 00:39:30.840 --> 00:39:32.679 misunderstanding of what the show was trying 00:39:32.679 --> 00:39:35.679 to achieve. Those long pauses, the deliberate 00:39:35.679 --> 00:39:38.440 pacing, the quiet moments of characters just 00:39:38.440 --> 00:39:40.559 smoking and thinking that was revolutionary for 00:39:40.559 --> 00:39:42.980 basic cable. Television audiences were used to 00:39:42.980 --> 00:39:45.380 fast -paced dialogue, constant action, or procedural 00:39:45.380 --> 00:39:47.780 case -of -the -week formats. Mad Men trusted 00:39:47.780 --> 00:39:50.139 the audience to read the subtext. It asked you 00:39:50.139 --> 00:39:52.900 to watch the micro -expressions on John Ham's 00:39:52.900 --> 00:39:56.019 or Elizabeth Moss's faces to understand what 00:39:56.019 --> 00:39:58.949 they weren't saying. It paved the way for a new 00:39:58.949 --> 00:40:01.630 era of prestige television that wasn't afraid 00:40:01.630 --> 00:40:03.769 to be novelistic. It's an incredible journey. 00:40:04.090 --> 00:40:06.789 To briefly recap what we've unpacked today, Season 00:40:06.789 --> 00:40:09.670 1 establishes this intoxicating, deeply toxic, 00:40:09.969 --> 00:40:14.010 1960s ad world. We witness the complete psychological 00:40:14.010 --> 00:40:16.610 unraveling of Don Draper's fabricated identity 00:40:16.610 --> 00:40:19.699 and the tragedy of his brother Adam. We followed 00:40:19.699 --> 00:40:22.519 the cutthroat ambition and heartbreaking secret 00:40:22.519 --> 00:40:25.159 trauma of Peggy Olson. We looked at the tragic 00:40:25.159 --> 00:40:27.199 constraints placed on women like Betty Draper 00:40:27.199 --> 00:40:29.960 who were trapped in golden cages. We explored 00:40:29.960 --> 00:40:32.539 the ruthless corporate survival tactics of Pete 00:40:32.539 --> 00:40:35.239 Campbell and the cold capitalism of Burt Cooper. 00:40:35.400 --> 00:40:38.239 And all of it is set against the monumental historical 00:40:38.239 --> 00:40:40.280 backdrop of the changing of the guard in the 00:40:40.280 --> 00:40:43.079 1960 presidential election. It is a season of 00:40:43.079 --> 00:40:45.099 television that forces you to look beneath the 00:40:45.099 --> 00:40:47.519 pristine surface of mid -century America. It 00:40:47.519 --> 00:40:49.559 strips away the gloss. the beautiful costumes, 00:40:49.679 --> 00:40:52.119 and the clever advertisements to reveal the complicated, 00:40:52.480 --> 00:40:55.079 often broken humans creating them. It asks us 00:40:55.079 --> 00:40:57.559 to confront the fact that the good old days were 00:40:57.559 --> 00:40:59.539 actually deeply painful for a lot of people. 00:41:00.019 --> 00:41:02.019 And that leads me to a final provocative thought 00:41:02.019 --> 00:41:04.639 for you to mull over. We talked about Don Draper's 00:41:04.639 --> 00:41:07.539 legendary pitch to Kodak where he defines nostalgia 00:41:07.539 --> 00:41:10.400 as a twinge in your heart far more powerful than 00:41:10.400 --> 00:41:13.119 memory alone. He notes that in Greek nostalgia 00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:16.789 literally means the pain from an old wound. So 00:41:16.789 --> 00:41:20.949 if nostalgia is fundamentally about pain, masquerading 00:41:20.949 --> 00:41:24.469 as comfort is the entire first season of Mad 00:41:24.469 --> 00:41:26.789 Men, actually a warning to us, the audience. 00:41:27.030 --> 00:41:29.789 Are we in our own romanticization of the fashion 00:41:29.789 --> 00:41:32.469 during the mid -century modern aesthetics of 00:41:32.469 --> 00:41:35.650 the 1960s, buying into the exact same illusion 00:41:35.650 --> 00:41:38.190 the ad men are selling? Are we the ultimate consumers 00:41:38.190 --> 00:41:40.789 being manipulated by the myth of Don Draper from 00:41:40.789 --> 00:41:43.269 beyond the screen? That is a brilliant question 00:41:43.269 --> 00:41:45.969 to leave on. It asks us to examine our own relationship 00:41:45.969 --> 00:41:48.530 with the past and the media we consume. Are you 00:41:48.530 --> 00:41:50.449 nostalgic for a time we never actually lived 00:41:50.449 --> 00:41:52.489 in? Thank you so much for joining us on this 00:41:52.489 --> 00:41:54.690 deep dive into the smoke and mirrors of Sterling 00:41:54.690 --> 00:41:56.969 Cooper. Keep questioning the sources, keep looking 00:41:56.969 --> 00:41:58.989 past the pitch, and keep exploring the stories 00:41:58.989 --> 00:42:00.329 around you. We'll see you next time.