Embedded Files
"You have everything. And so much of it." - Peggy Olson
Season 1
Season 1
begins in March 1960. It introduces the fictional Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency. As the season unfolds, the mysterious backstory of enigmatic ad man Don Draper is revealed very slowly. In his former life he was Dick Whitman. There is no way that the kid they picked to play young Dick Whitman could ever grow up to be the handsome Don Draper - bad casting.
Season 2
Season 2
It begins in February 1962 and culminates with the Cuban Missile Crisis. It expands on Peggy's rise to Copy Writer in the workplace and the marital strife between Don and Betty Draper as Don's infidelities intrude on his family life. It's not that I approve of infidelity but it's sure fun to watch when Don does it. Season 2 also reveals more secrets about Don's past.
Season 3
Season 3
It begins in April or May 1963 and it chronicles the end of the "Camelot era" as the characters go through immense change in their professional and personal lives. The whole office ground to a halt when John Kennedy was assassinated.
Season 4
Season 4
This season premiered with the new firm that Draper, Sterling, and Pryce set up struggling for business, so Pete and Peggy resort to a cheap publicity stunt to lure a client. Let's just say it involves a lot of "ham". Meanwhile, Don's personal problems and an unflattering newspaper interview puts him and the firm's image in jeopardy.
Season 5
Season 5
It premiered with a two part episode. There is a focus on Don Draper's new life married to Megan Calvet. His ex-wife Betty has married a would-be politician and becomes fat-Betty for a while through the use of a fat suit and very effective facial makeup. She is finally motivated to loose weight and become her beautiful svelte self once again.
Season 6
Season 6
This season begins in December 1967 with the characters struggling to adjust to the changing office dynamics based on the ongoing counterculture movement. Peggy and Don both have quit a bit of grief trying to adjust.
The Last Episode (Spoiler Alert) - The series ends with a montage of the fates of the major characters.
Season 7
Season 7
This season consisted of 14 episodes that were split into two 7-episode parts, airing April 13 to May 25, 2014 and April 5 to May 17, 2015. I'm sure this was a sneaky way to sell more DVDs. Part 1 was titled "The Beginning" while Part 2 will be titled "The End of an Era". Don continues to run amuck until the last episode.
Pete, Trudy, and their daughter board a Learjet that will take them to their new lives in Wichita.
Roger marries Megan's mother, Marie. They sit in a cafe in Paris during their honeymoon and muse about an elderly couple seated nearby.
Joan goes into business as a publicist, from her dining room while her mother looks after her son.
Peggy gets together with Stan which seemed very strange to me. I never liked Stan.
Sally does housework and tends to her younger brothers, while Betty who is dying from lung cancer and has only weeks to live smokes a cigarette and reads a magazine.
Don's journey ends in California with Anna's niece, Stephanie. She took him to a New Age Retreat where he unwillingly contemplates his future.
The final episode ends with Don, seated in the lotus position, meditating and chanting in the ocean-side setting. A half-smile comes to his face and the show smash cuts to the groundbreaking commercial called "I Want to Buy the World a Coke".
This ending was confusing to many but of course it meant that Don has come up with that ad - the most watched ad of all time. It also intimates that he will return to New York City and resume his position with McCann with his career and fame as "The AD MAN" assured. How cleaver and smart was that? Extremely!!!
I hated to see the show end but did love the ending. Read why in the Collapsible Text.
Why I Loved the Ending?
Why I Loved the Ending?
My personal connection to the ending of Madmen and to the Coke ad is tenuous at best but I think it's worth telling.
I worked for the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command in Huntsville, AL from 1987 - 1997. SSDC was at the forefront of Missile Defense while I worked there. It was called "Star Wars" at that time but after Reagan left office, SSDC lost it's champion and was renamed to "hide" as government entities are wont to do.
During the time of plenty, we had a lot of contractors creating designs and prototypes for all sorts of missile defense projects. I was the chief of the Visual Information Branch and as such was responsible for the creation of visuals for presentations, printed materials and displays. In the area of display, we had a huge professional display that was taken on the road in a semi. The Public Affairs Office used it at various trade shows, expositions, and other places where SSDC could present itself as being at the vanguard of Missile Defense. We had many different 3 star generals in charge of SSDC in Huntsville, AL but one 4 star general in Washington decided he wanted to get into the act. He was a self-styled "hands on visual guy" or so he said.
In our efforts to give him what he thought he wanted, we needed more money than we had in our display budget so it was suggested that we use a defense contractor like Teledyne Brown to provide display services in addition to our regular visual arts contractor. This was approved by the powers that be in procurement and we met with TB to explain our needs for a dynamic display with great graphics and some new catch phrases. They were quite excited about the project and said they already had a great "AD MAN" on their staff. I was told he was a guy from New York City and that he was the very one who had created the popular and memorable Coke commercial "I Want to Buy the World a Coke".
He showed up and I have to say that I was unimpressed. I'm a bit suspicious by nature and though I couldn't remember exactly when the commercial aired I knew it had been back in the 70's. I did the math. It was well into the mid 1990's by then and quite frankly the numbers didn't add up...he was too young. I figured anyone could say he created that catch line for that commercial. The internet was in it's infancy and "Googling it" wasn't the norm so I couldn't look it up easily but I felt right away that he wasn't the guy.
Recently I "Googled it" and my research revealed that the commercial came out in 1971 and the idea came from an ad executive named Bill Backer. Unfortunately I don't remember the guy's name who worked for TB but I really don't think it was Bill. Also, the information about Backer proved to me that I was right about the numbers - they just don't work. Backer was born in 1926 so my feeling about the guy being too young was totally right. Also, they had photos of Backer when he was younger and the guy I met from TB didn't look anything like him. From what I've read, Backer (who died recently) enjoyed his life after the Coke ad. He left McCann Erickson and created his own firm and later retired to raise thoroughbred horses. There is no mention of his ever working for or being a contractor for TB or any such company.
Plus, the guy from TB didn't live up to his billing. He didn't came up with anything exciting. The art and write-up he created was vetoed by the general - he hated it. We sh*tcanned it and had our original display contractor do the work. So because of this experience, I totally understood the ending of Madmen and I felt a real connection to it having met an impostor who claimed to be "The AD MAN".
It is my understanding that Bill Backer got a big kick out of Madmen using the ad and intimating that Don Draper dream it up in the last episode.
I came across a video recently that explained in depth how Don (in the series) came up with the idea. I had missed many of the tells that forecast his big idea. You might find it interesting. Sadly it has a lot of commercials but you can "skip" most of those and I think it is worth watching if you are really into Mad Men Like I was.
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