TVSquad

Mad Men is that rare show that is damn near perfect. Of course, I say "near" perfect though I can't figure out what fault the show has. Everything, from the acting to the writing to the direction to the set design to the music to the costumes - is so well done. Heck, even the secondary characters are drawn in a way you hardly ever see on a television drama.

OK, it is perfect.

Rich Sommer plays Harry Crane, the Sterling Cooper ad exec with the glasses and bow tie. The character is so well written and Sommer plays him so well. You know guys like Harry, whether it's 1960 or 2008. He's the nice, married guy with glasses, but he's not so nice that he isn't above joining in on the sexist talk with his buddies and drinking too much.

Rich was nice enough to talk to me via e-mail while he was filming the second season of the show, which debuts this Sunday (new day) at 10pm on AMC.

(S01E01) I think it's really appropriate that the Emmy Award nominations were announced on the same day this show premiered, because if there's any justice in this TV land, we'll be hearing a lot about Mad Men at this time next year.

The television landscape is filled with a lot of shows that are just the same as other shows on other networks. Even when we say "there's nothing else like this on TV right now," it's usually not true. There's usually something a bit (or a lot) like the show we're talking about. Mad Men is one show we can truly say is rather original. Of course, it's original by being retro. It's New York City, 1960. The world of Madison Avenue advertising men. And it is men, as most of the women are in the secretarial pool or gum chewing telephone operators.

But the women have power too, in ways the men don't see.

Actress Yancy Butler is in trouble with the law again. She was arrested on Tuesday for driving under the influence and crashing her Saab 900 into a guard rail. Butler also got into legal troubles a few years ago and just last month she argued with a former boyfriend and was charged with disorderly conduct. She was released and will be in court later this month.

All of the stories on Butler call her "fomer Witchblade star Yancy Butler," but I'll always remember her from Mann and Machine, the short-lived sci-fi action series on NBC in the 90s. It wasn't a very good show, but it was cool to see a series like that on one of the major networks, a show about two cops and the female cop is a robot!

This week Ray Liotta was arrested for drinking and driving. With so many stars getting taken in for DWI's it makes you think that maybe Hollywood is suffering from a severe alcohol problem. But upon closer look, it's clear that folks like Ray Liotta, Nicole Richie and Mel Gibson enjoy paraphrasing the popular bumper sticker... They get drunk, they drive, their expensive lawyers and publicists get them off the hook and do damage control...no problem!

I've been amazed at the attention this whole Miss USA story is getting. It just proves once again how disgusting the gossip TV shows are, and how lame cable news is.

First off, the press conference that she held with Donald Trump (owner of the pageant) was broadcast live as BREAKING NEWS on the cable networks. At first I thought the Donald had used his hair to sled down Mt. Hood and rescue those guys, but that's another breaking news story. No, this news conference was to announce that...um, hot blonde chicks sometimes drink a lot and dance and party in New York City and do drugs. But she's sorry! And she thanks God for helping her! But mostly she thanks Donald Trump for letting her keep her crown. (Side note: can someone please tell me why Trump is always yelling? Whether it's this press conference or those PSAs for families he does on NBC, he's always yelling. He does know there's a microphone in front of him, right?)

Rather odd clip at AOL TV, from last night's Jay Leno. Mel Gibson was on the show, to talk about his new movie Apocalypto and, you know, what he's been up to the past few months. It's not the whole interview (maybe NBC.com has it?), but it's a snippet that shows Gibson munching on a big cookie while answering questions about sobriety and healing.

Gibson makes a joke that a security guard at the show told him that if he could walk a straight line he'd get a cookie, but it seems to me like Gibson was trying to do something casual and funny to take a bit of the edge off of the interview and what reaction the audience would have. From the sound of the laughter and applause, from the audience and Leno, it seems like Gibson is back and everything's OK. Wheeeeeeee! (As for the reference to Danny DeVito and George Clooney, I don't think Gibson meant it literally, I think he was making a joke about DeVito's recent appearance on The View and DeVito's drinking with Clooney the night before.)

This might be Mel Gibson's "Hugh Grant moment," going on Leno and making jokes and coming out of it OK. Now, can Michael Richards be far behind?