Secrets of the City

30 rock is free (network TV).

that is all.

P.S. Here’s a trailer for “Art & Copy,” a documentary about modern-day Mad Men.

Confession: When I was in high school, I wanted to become Jerry Della Femina. I thought the ad world was soooo cool.

I love Mad Men and want to marry it. Beyond the stellar costumes and art direction, my mom and I have illuminating conversations about how, yes, the business world was really like that for women. It’s really weird knowing that some slob made your mom polish his desk so he could get a really good view of her caboose.

I’m never embarrassed for not caring about a TV show. For example, I never cared and still do not care about Buffy, Lost, or Arrested Development.

I do like Mad Men. It has really good writing. The character development might be the best I’ve seen on television. Every character is complicated and nuanced.

I think the show is weakest when they overplay the “times were different then,” meme. Those rarely are illuminating and make the show self conscious. It’s a small complaint, though, when the show is consistently excellent otherwise.

I keep hearing about this show. Maybe I should watch it. I have a hard time committing to a television series anymore.

On the subject of Huffington Post… any one know if there’s a local version planned for Minneapolis….and St. Paul, too.

Rat, I think you’d like it. I haven’t met anyone yet that dislikes it.

I tried watching Mad Men a couple of times. I was unable to get past the fact that I was unable to breath just watching all those people smoke. I can’t imagine what those offices/homes/clothes/dogs/people smelled like.

Now the idea of drinking at work has merit and should be investigated (as long as you have mass transit to get you home).

Memo to JC65: People smoked in the 60s.

I love Mad Men. Its one of the three shows I keep tabs on.

Don’t get me start with 30 Rock – outside of Baldwin’s work the show has no redeeming value.

So it’s not just me. I made a similar comment to my sister (a more avid consumer of fiction/reality), on Madison Avenue of all places, just this weekend.

Hint: for-pay TV shows are often available cheaply on Netflix, which pays for itself if you rent two fewer movies per month, skip just one trip to the theater, or drop digital cable. That said, I’m happy limiting my television consumption to current events and sports.

Never seen it.

To be fair, advertising in Minneapolis is pretty much as white now as Mad Men was then.

Pretty much.

I enjoy Racialicious’ commentary on Mad Men. The show does pretty much make it seem like relatively smooth sailing for minorities compared to the racial upheaval that we all know damn good and well was going on.

I second (or whatever) 30 Rock. And, while I watch Mad Men, I’m a season behind and would rather watch 30 Rock.

I can’t imagine what those offices/homes/clothes/dogs/people smelled like.

Far more people smoked back then, so stale tobacco odors were everywhere. You’d hardly notice it unless you visited a friend’s house that hadn’t been aired out in years. Heck, I can recall my parents smoking while shopping at the grocery store in the days when the stores were named Piggly Wiggly or A&P or Country Club.

Those were the days.

“I can’t imagine what those offices/homes/clothes/dogs/people smelled like.”

You’d probably scurry away and crinkle your little nose.

EEEEEWWWWWW!

I watched one episode. Beyond the costumes, which are admittedly snappy, there isn’t much there I haven’t seen many times before. I was also disappointed by the fact that some dialogue seemed unrealistically modern. Only the old dude seemed to speak correct vernacular for the era.

@Steve: And just what would the correct vernacular be ca. 1963?

I’m guessing not as vulgar as you hear in offices, now.

You know what, if I worked in a professional office environment, I’d rather be around someone who smoked than someone who cursed constantly. And I’m not a smoker.

My greatest joy is hearing my straight-laced boss let the F-bomb slip. It’s like hearing a kindergarten teacher swear…so wrong, but so right.

A person can reserve the right to do it. But if you do it all the time, it has no effect.

Everything you think of as being politically-correct nowadays had an opposite cousin that was widely used 40-50 years ago. Oh, sure, maybe “f***” wasn’t used much in the office but there were other vulgarities available.

Btw, here’s a collection of photos from the glory days of air travel (roughly from 1955-1975). Most of the photos are from the post-Mad Men time frame but do evoke a je ne sais quoi compared to air travel from the 1980s onward.

I’d pay cash money to see male flight attendants in a pair of those hot pants, nood.

The stewards on international routes wore tight-tight pants, aliecat. And vests.

mahvahlous!

how can you justify paying for cable when network tv has such gems as Shaq VS.

Srsly don’t pay for cable, internet(other than phone), rarely go to the movies and occasionaly do the red box dealie….just not big on paying for entertainment

We do the Season Pass from iTunes for our Mad Men viewing. It is a bit expensive, but we get to watch it the next day and is a hell of a lot cheaper than cable. I also do it for Top Chef and would do it for Project Runway if available. All three together would cost about the same as a month of premium cable.

As for smoking… my parents smoked in the house I grew up in. In high school I’d let my smoking friends smoke inside. They always got this look of terror on their face and say, “oh no, I don’t want you to get in trouble.” You couldn’t tell my parents smoked inside because they knew the tricks to covering the smell.

And while I picked up smoking from them, I never picked up the smoking inside thing. Smoking inside was always a treat.

I just figured up that it’s cheaper for me to keep my cable for an extra two months than it would be to go to the college hockey games I want to this year. Instead, I’ll not go to the games, cancel the cable after baseball season and listen to hockey games on the radio over the Internet.

Are you asking a question, and to who?

Hint: for-pay TV shows are often available cheaply on Netflix,

Well, if you’re willing to wait 6 months to a year after the season is over for the dvds to come out.

Far more people smoked back then, so stale tobacco odors were everywhere. You’d hardly notice it unless you visited a friend’s house that hadn’t been aired out in years. Heck, I can recall my parents smoking while shopping at the grocery store in the days when the stores were named Piggly Wiggly or A&P or Country Club.

Ah, Piggly Wiggly. We also had Red Owl.

In the 80s, I helped my dad move a printer at his department’s office (a big dot matrix printer, in a sound proof box). When we picked it up, there were countless cigarette butts behind and under it from the secretaries smoke breaks. 

I grew up in a household where both parents smoked. (Both quit together in the early ’60s.) Of the four kids, I was the only who picked up the habit later in life. Well, not a whole lot later, I guess. I reached for a lit cigarette out of an ashtray at age three and took a puff. Mom said I turned a beautiful shade of green.

I remember going to my Grandma’s house in the 80s and sitting in the basement. It would be filled with smoke because every sibling of my mom’s and their spouses smoked except one. Us kids would sit on the floor to escape the smoke.

I also remember, more than once, picking up a can of pop or beer and taking a swig to get a mouth full of cigarette buts and ash. Yet somehow I thought smoking was a good idea when I started, at 22. Gah.

I miss it though.

KC, you know PR is on the internets for free this season, right?

For the record, my dad used to work for Hinky Dinky chain of grocery stores.

I’ll put “Mad Men” on my netflix queue.  Right now, I’m watching “The Wire” season 3.  I don’t mind being behind…

per Mad Men, mad ave was fueled by booze sex and cigs. I get the feeling that, based on era and energy, the early-daze mpls ad agencies were fueled by white powder

I’m currently attending an international business travel expo and a photo from the current flight attendants from Korean Air and/or Air Emirates could be inserted into those pics nood put up and you wouldn’t know the difference. It’s not a coincidence that I spent a disproportionately large amount of time yesterday checking out their respecive, um, exhibit booths.

Douglas I loved The Wire. Started earlier this year and was sad to finish all 5 seasons by early summer. I also like Mad Men a lot, and am currently working my way through season 2.

Thanks to summer, I’m way behind on my tv watching and podcast listening. Thanks a lot, summer!