Mad Men on AMC • Fifth Season Thread

I dug the Ginsburg character. He seems interesting.

built the whole TV department and probably kept both firms afloat

re: the former afaict the "TV department" is just Harry and I seriously doubt the latter is true, not sure what you're basing that on

u guys shd watch the How to Succeed movie for the Morse metajoke

good movie/good metajoke imho

I don't even get why he would be mad that Betty told Don about the tumor.

Probably because Betty didn't tell him she had told Don? That would seem slightly shady to me.

Betty and Don have three children together. I'm sure there are conversations they have that Henry doesn't know about and Henry should be smart enough to realize this happens.

Henry doesn't strike me as particularly smart

BUT I think Henry has some weird inferiority complex re: Don and has to act out in some way.

altho he IS divorced and has told Betty to get over it in terms of dealing with Don and raising their children so yeah I dunno

I really liked the Betty/Don drama in this. 'Tell me everything will be alright' was pretty awesome. Also i loved how Harry was too high to notice he was being scammed by the non-Rolling Stones.

I really don't understand the Harry hate. He seems more like a good-natured goof than anything.

Didn't Harry basically go to Roger "maybe we should have a TV department" and Roger went "okay, you're the head of the TV department" because he didn't really care. And yeah the TV department is one person. It's pretty difficult to work out what he actually does other than occasionally meeting with TV execs and being a hapless buffoon. He's actually a lot less fat than he used to be and has becoming increasingly buffoonish with time. I don't hate him, but he is kind of comically inept.

Speaking of hapless buffoons, they're never going to bring Kinsey back are they?

Yeah, I think the guys who are gone are now gone for good.

we'll see - they brought back Ken and Midge

They brought back Ken and Midge before all that offseason contract rodeo that happened.

I loved Harry talking about Charlton Heston. I think that he comes off as intensely over-eager and also kinda smarmy which I think is why most people are turned off by him.

I could see them bringing anyone back for a guest spot (a la Midge). I think it's not terribly likely than any of the former regulars, come back as regulars at this point cuz really what's left to say about Sal or Kinsey at this point.

yeah I could see them being brought back to serve a particular plot point, but not as recurring characters

Don bumps into Sal on Fire Island in the show finale lol

Yeah, I think if any former regulars/featured(s) come back, it might be a drop-in from Duck or Freddy Rumsen.

best line of the show, Roger re: Ginsberg - "we share the same dream of one day throwing something through this window."

Wait, they're both still alive right? For some reason, I'm thinking one or both of them is/are dead. xp

Both last seem alive.

they were both in season 4 (and mentioned already in season 5)and still alive

Ginsburg is the first character I've felt any identification with on this show at all (well, apart from maybe Peggy's latest boyfriend)

this x100 and i hope they don't blow it with a 'jews are weird' fixation. i'd think matthew weiner would know better tbh.

roger had a p good 'always darkest before the dawn' half-drunken slur line also

Harry is good-natured but has a lot of weak good ol' boy-isms that he keeps trying on. It's like he is trying to look young, but already has this mentality built up so that all his jokes and references just seem dated. Kind of hilarious when he's telling a story that obviously seems pretty cool to him about Heston, and he's high and stumbling over it in a near-giddy manner, completely oblivious to the fact that he's speaking to someone who has no clue what he's talking about.

so if jane and her cousin are jewish, they just kind of overlooked the fact that they hired a jew in the past?

Never picked up on Jane and Danny being Jewish I think?

even roger?

I mean I didn't.

But man Season 3 was forever ago now.

I thought it was kind of hilarious that Harry telling stories stoned is kinda the same as Harry telling stories straight: completely oblivious that the person receiving the story has no interest in whatever he's talking about <3

i never thought it was clear about Danny and Jane, but thought some people on here felt pretty certain.

Yeah, Jane is def Jewish (her maiden name is Siegel), but I think Jewish secretaries don't count in terms of the firm seeming "modern."

siegel can just be a german name though.
but if they are jewish then they already had a jewish copywriter at the same level as ginsburg.

yeah but not JEWISH jewish

Oh, I forgot all about Danny.

so did don and peggy when they needed to hire a copywriter

"but if they are jewish then they already had a jewish copywriter at the same level as ginsburg."

No way. Ginsburg has an ACCOUNT that he's working on, the other dude was basically a flunky. And I don't think the issue was that they had a jewish copywriter anyway, just that Mohawk would primary copywriter would be jewish.

OK, here we go. From the horse's mouth:

To me, I’m telling a story about segregation and assimilation, and who’s coming along at what time. I hope people can tell Faye Miller is Jewish. I hope people know at some level that Jane Siegel, Roger’s wife, is Jewish. They are assimilated. Not everyone can be an heiress like Rachel Menken, who feels absolutely bulletproof. Bobbie Barrett and Jimmy Barrett certainly were transparently Jewish.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/matthew-weiner-closes-the-books-on-season-4-of-mad-men/

Caught Faye, missed Jane. Hm. Invisible or coded Jews a big deal in the history of Hollywood of course.

What were the "diet pills" that Betty was seeking anyway? Amphetamines?

from Wiki Amphetamines (marketed as Benzedrine) became popular for weight loss during the late 1930s. They worked primarily by suppressing appetite, and had other beneficial effects such as increased alertness. Use of amphetamines increased over the subsequent decades, culminating in the "rainbow pill" regime. This was a combination of multiple pills, all thought to help with weight loss, taken throughout the day. Typical regimens included stimulants, such as amphetamines, as well as thyroid hormone, diuretics, digitalis, laxatives, and often a barbiturate to suppress the side effects of the stimulants. In 1967/1968 a number of deaths attributed to diet pills triggered a Senate investigation and the gradual implementation of greater restrictions on the market. This culminating in 1979 with the FDA banning the use of amphetamines, then the most effective of the diet drugs, in diet pills.[11]

I love the 60's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfGYSHy1jQs

I have to say after being up to my ears in Stones catalog for the past 2 weeks with ILM's Stones Poll, I have been kinda loving the synergy of Mad Men having a Rolling Stones side-story

even the stupid 'time is on my side' dinner table convo made me grin like a dork. And the groupie who said she was Brian's 'Lady Jane'. <3

She had good taste! Or maybe I'm just saying that because Brian died when he was still hot and never got a chance to make "She's the Boss".

we must part ways, then, lol. Brian was a vaccuum of hottness in my eyes

can someone clarify to me the situation whereby pete would get away with being so blatantly rude to a senior partner (roger)? it doesn't really ring true to me that behaviour like that would fly, even if roger is largely incompetent. but, as i said, maybe i missed or forgot something.

I think Pete only joined SCDP when they spun off with the understanding that he was a lesser partner of some sort? They then continued treating him like he was less than the other partners, and this is him asserting himself since they agreed he'd come on board with that status due to the clients he brought.

pete really is the biggest rainmaker at that job
money talks bullshit walks iirc

i was wondering that too.
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