So we all saw legendary ad agency McCann Erickson buy Sterling Cooper in the season finale of Mad Men. Some people might not know that McCann Erickson is a real-life ad agency (that's one of the reasons I love this show, they use real companies and products). Well, the company welcomes Sterling Cooper in this video on their web site.
The agency is also buying big ads in magazines like Adweek and Brandweek to welcome Sterling Cooper. Has their ever been a show based in a particular industry that is loved by the real-life industry it depicts more than Mad Men?
It was an eventful week in TV, especially for fans of Mad Men. This week, Jason Hughes and Bob Sassone join me to talk about the show's finale and what may be in store for next season. We also talk about:
Why November sweeps don't mean as much as they used to,
Another dip into our Ask TV Squad mailbag, where we discuss why we promote SlashControl and other AOL-related ventures,
Are you a fan of Mad Men? Are you a fan of X-Men? Have you been hoping that Matt Weiner and Stan Lee would somehow meet up at an exclusive Hollywood party and eventually create a series that combines your two favorite television franchises?
If so, please get out of your house more.
And that hasn't exactly happened but the funny folks at Madatoms have done that for you with their new line of Mad Men/X-Men mash-ups. The shows are actually eerily similar when you think about it. Both of them feature ruthless characters who will stop at nothing for ultimate power. Both deal with the changing intolerance of their respective ages. The only thing missing are the tight fitting spandex outfits, but hey, a man can dream, right?
OK, that headline is a lie. Nothing can hold us over until Mad Men season 4. We'll just have to suffer until next summer.
But these five Mad Men parodies that our friends at URLesque have compiled are pretty clever. Some are better than others (I still think the Sesame Street one could be better). Here are my two favorites (these might be mildly NSFW).
You've read Allison's review and Joel's take on the Mad Men season finale, and I'd just like to add that I think it was the best episode of any TV series I've seen in years. Brilliant, dramatic, funny, even exhilarating. Here's a behind the scenes look at the episode, including interviews with Matthew Weiner and the cast.
That was some Mad Men finale, wasn't it? If you haven't seen it yet, please stop reading now, because there was just too much going on for me not to just launch into some discussion.
OK, I'll wait until after the jump to really get into things. But, suffice to say, the end of season three left some characters going down a pretty well-determined path, but others have entered a sort of limbo state, where we don't quite know what their roles will be in season four.
(S03E13) It's a cold Friday, December 13, 1963. The President's been killed and the world as Don Draper knows it has pretty much fallen apart. For most of the season, the ground has been shifting under Don's feet and he's be holding on, trying to right himself and his life. He's tried with Betty. He's tried for Sally and Bobby and Gene -- at least as much as Don is able to try.
With Conrad Hilton he's never been on a level playing field, and from the moment he was forced to sign the contract, Sterling Cooper has not been his domain as it had been. With this episode, this season finale, all was changed and, perhaps, all has been righted. More after the jump.
The assassination of JFK on Sunday's episode of Mad Men may have been the catalyst for Betty Draper's "awakening," but it's been a long time coming.
Here comes my rant: I, for one, am sick and tired of seeing the women in this show get walked all over! I know it's the way things were back then, but the times they are a changin', so I'm hoping we'll get to see more women stand up and take charge of their lives.
I was cheering when Betty stood up to her lying, cheating, skank of a husband Don and told him she didn't love him anymore. Bonus points for driving off to meet your lover, Betty. Hopefully, he won't cheat on you.
Now if Joan would leave her loser fiance who raped her at the office and then went about his business like nothing happened -- that'd be the icing on this women's movement cake. I'd say that she and Roger Sterling belong together, but she's too good for him.
One of the things I love (out of many, many things) about Mad Men is the advertising, business, and social history that serves as a background to much of what goes on in the lives of the characters on the show. For example, Conrad Hilton has been a character on the show this season, hiring Don and Sterling Cooper as an ad agency. I assumed that Matt Weiner and his writers approached the Hilton family and/or the Hilton chain about using him on the show. But that's not what happened.
I had been expecting the JFK assassination to become part of the Mad Men storyline from the moment they showed us the invitation for Margaret Sterling's wedding on November 23, 1963. Expectations are one thing. Watching the way the national tragedy was depicted was quite another. As I watched the scenes unfold, I was riveted to the screen – and that was a surprise to me because on Fox the Yankees and the Phillies were locked in a very tight World Series game, and I cared about the outcome.
But I found myself unable to turn away from Mad Men. It wasn't pleasant to watch those black and white images of anchormen Walter Cronkite and Chet Huntley. The moment I saw the flickering images behind Harry and Pete in the Sterling-Cooper office, I knew what was happening. It was terrific storytelling, by the way, for the viewer to know, but for Pete and Harry to be oblivious.
(S03E12) "The whole country's drinking." - Pete, to Trudy
When Joel talked to Mad Men creator and writer Matthew Weiner last month, he wouldn't say when or how the show would deal with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. We all knew it was coming, since last week's episode was set on Halloween, but I actually thought it would happen in the season finale. But they addressed it tonight.
They say November 22, 1963 is the day America changed, and I would say that the lives of the people in and around Sterling Cooper changed too, in various ways and for various reasons.
Rules are meant to be broken... especially for these ten television characters. For them, the rest of the world has one standard to live by and they have another. It makes them interesting and fun to watch... you just wouldn't necessarily want to be the person having to deal with them because they could drive you to distraction. Here's my ten pack of characters who live in a world of their own, according to no rules except their own. From the not-too-bad to the really bad.
10. Patrick Jane, The Mentalist
You would think that as a consultant to the CBI -- California Bureau of Investigation -- Patrick Jane would be compelled to uphold the rules and regulations of the department. However, Jane is a free spirit when it comes to office protocol. He does his own thing. For instance, bugging the office of a CBI higher-up is definitely not kosher. Jane doesn't care; he did it anyway and will probably get away with it.
I'll admit it: I like Martha (the show and the person). Unlike a lot of daytime shows that feature cooking and other how-to segments, it's not so heavily tilted towards women that men can't get into it. Unlike Rachael Ray, which has way too many segments on makeovers, relationships, and what shoes you should wear.
Today she has Mad Men's Joan Holloway herself, Christina Hendricks. It says in the summary for the episode that Hendricks is going to mix Halloween cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Whenever someone from Mad Men is on Martha they make cocktails. Last season Bryan Batt (Sal Romano) was on and made Manhattans and Rob Roys.
Here's a sneak peek. It doesn't really show too much, except that most of the episode is all about spiders. I hate spiders.
I continue to be amazed by Mad Men. I don't mean the overall quality of the writing, the acting, the direction, the production. It's easy to be amazed by all that. I'm talking about where Matthew Weiner and his writing staff are taking us.
I think we can all agree that, beyond the bigger picture of how the 1960s changed America, the big story on the show has been "Who is Don Draper?" It's the big secret that he's been keeping since episode one and it has really been the driving force of the show. But last night Weiner and Co. blew the show wide open by having Betty confront Don about the box in the drawer. And when she did, Don actually told the truth! And this wasn't even the season finale!
(S03E11) Autumn in New York, why does it feel so inviting... That's a great song, and I thought of it while watching the opening of this episode, with the Draper kids all excited about Halloween. And there was also that chill in the air between Don and Betty. Actually, the icy glare was all Betts. She was off to see her brother about selling their father's home, but what was really on Betty's mind was the contents of Don's desk drawer. More on that and gypsy and the hobo, after the jump. By the way, this was a great Mad Men episode.
So we all saw legendary ad agency McCann Erickson buy Sterling Cooper in the season finale of Mad Men. Some people might not know that McCann Erickson is a real-life ad agency (that's one of the reasons I love this show, they use real companies and products). Well, the company welcomes Sterling Cooper in this video on their web site.
It was an eventful week in TV, especially for fans of 
Are you a fan of Mad Men? Are you a fan of X-Men? Have you been hoping that Matt Weiner and Stan Lee would somehow meet up at an exclusive Hollywood party and eventually create a series that combines your two favorite television franchises? 
The assassination of JFK on 
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
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The Prisoner -- An early look
