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Mad Men season 1

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Mad Men season 1
Season 1
Season 1 promotional poster
No. of episodes13
Release
Original networkAMC
Original releaseJuly 19 (2007-07-19) –
October 18, 2007 (2007-10-18)
Season chronology
Next →
Season 2
List of episodes

The first season of the American television drama series Mad Men premiered on July 19, 2007 and concluded on October 18, 2007. It consisted of thirteen episodes, each running approximately 47 minutes in length. AMC broadcast the first season on Thursdays at 10:00 pm in the United States. Actors Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Bryan Batt, Michael Gladis, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, and Maggie Siff receive main cast billing.

Season One takes place between March 1960 and November 1960. It introduces the fictional 1960s advertising agency Sterling Cooper on new secretary Peggy Olson's first day. As the season unfolds, the mysterious backstory of enigmatic ad man Don Draper is revealed.

The first season was highly praised for its excellence in writing, acting, and art design. It was acknowledged with numerous honors from industry awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, the Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Series, and a Peabody Award.

Cast

See also: List of Mad Men characters

Main cast

Recurring cast

2

Plot

The first season opens in March 1960 as genius advertising executive Don Draper meets Peggy Olson, his new secretary. They both work at the prestigious agency Sterling Cooper. Though Don is welcoming towards her, Peggy is subject to passive-aggressive hostility from office manager Joan Holloway and sexual harassment from her male colleagues. Junior accounts manager Pete Campbell, who is about to get married, takes a liking to Peggy and the two have sex that night after his bachelor party. Don, meanwhile, has trouble balancing his life as he cheats on his repressed wife, Betty Draper, with a beatnik named Midge Daniels. Roger Sterling, the acerbic son of a founding partner of Sterling Cooper, cheats on his wife with Joan, whom he is in love with. Sterling Cooper begins working for the 1960 Nixon presidential campaign.

Betty begins seeing a therapist after she has a nervous breakdown and crashes the family car. Draper, initially resistant to the idea of therapy, allows Betty to seek help. Behind Betty's back, Don has Betty's therapist report back to Don what Betty says in therapy. Meanwhile, Don Draper begins to have a flirtatious relationship with Rachel Menken, the Jewish owner of a department store who seeks marketing help at Sterling Cooper.

Don also has to deal with the arrival of his younger brother, Adam Whitman, who seems to know Don by the name of 'Dick Whitman'. Don pays Adam off and tells him to make a new life for himself, as Don did.

Flashbacks to Don Draper's childhood under the name "Dick Whitman" during the Great Depression depict Dick's relationship with his abusive father Archibald Whitman, who cheats a homeless man out of cash. Dick had grown friendly with the vagrant, and the incident further degrades his image of his father.

Peggy begins writing copy after ad man Freddy Rumsen recognizes her talent. She is soon given control of her own account, creating a campaign for a weight loss machine that has similar qualities to a vibrator. Peggy's work on the weight loss machine coincides with her own weight gain. Roger Sterling suffers two heart attacks, drastically changing his outlook on life. The Sterling Cooper ad men throw a raucous party the night of the 1960 presidential election, only to have their man Richard Nixon lose the election.

Further flashbacks revolve around Dick Whitman's origin story in the Korean War, in which he is put under the command of a Lieutenant Donald Draper. After an attack, an accidental explosion kills Draper and injures Whitman. Whitman switches dog tags with his lieutenant and takes the name 'Don Draper' as a way to escape the war. The Army has Whitman take back the body back to his family. The coffin is dropped off by train, but Dick does not come out to greet his family. A female train passenger notices his look of grief and tells him to "forget that boy in the box". Whitman turns his back on his family and begins his new life as 'Don Draper'.

Pete Campbell, after someone mistakes him for Don, receives a package from Adam Whitman filled with Don Draper / Dick Whitman's childhood photographs (Adam posted the package immediately prior to hanging himself). Pete confronts Don with the information that he knows that 'Don' is not his real name, but Dick Whitman, and attempts to blackmail him for a promotion. This becomes irrelevant after founding partner Bert Cooper is told, who brushes it off with a "Who cares?"

Peggy seeks out a doctor for severe stomach pain. The doctor quickly realizes that Peggy's weight gain is a result of a pregnancy. Peggy has been carrying Pete Campbell's child without knowing. After the delivery of the child, the nurse tries to get Peggy to hold the baby. Peggy refuses.

The season ends near Thanksgiving 1960 as Betty and Don bicker over Don's disdain for attending Thanksgiving dinner with Betty's family. Don cites his work load as reason for him to stay home. Soon afterwards, Betty discovers that Don was receiving calls from her therapist detailing her meetings with him. Don also learns that his brother, Adam Whitman, has hanged himself.

Don subsequently makes a new campaign presentation for the Kodak Carousel that revolves around the 'power of nostalgia'. During a train ride, Don has a vision of returning home to announce that he will be joining the family for Thanksgiving. Instead, Don returns home to find the house dark and empty. He sits alone at the bottom of the family staircase as the season closes.

Episodes

See also: List of Mad Men episodes
No. # Title Directed by Written by Original air date
11"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"Alan TaylorMatthew WeinerJuly 19, 2007 (2007-07-19)
22"Ladies Room"Alan TaylorMatthew WeinerJuly 26, 2007 (2007-07-26)
33"Marriage of Figaro"Ed BianchiTom PalmerAugust 2, 2007 (2007-08-02)
44"New Amsterdam"Tim HunterLisa AlbertAugust 9, 2007 (2007-08-09)
55"5G"Lesli Linka GlatterMatthew WeinerAugust 16, 2007 (2007-08-16)
66"Babylon"Andrew BernsteinAndre Jacquemetton & Maria JacquemettonAugust 23, 2007 (2007-08-23)
77"Red in the Face"Tim HunterBridget BedardAugust 30, 2007 (2007-08-30)
88"The Hobo Code"Phil AbrahamChris ProvenzanoSeptember 6, 2007 (2007-09-06)
99"Shoot"Paul FeigChris Provenzano and Matthew WeinerSeptember 13, 2007 (2007-09-13)
1010"Long Weekend"Tim HunterBridget Bedard and Andre Jacquemetton & Maria Jacquemetton and Matthew WeinerSeptember 27, 2007 (2007-09-27)
1111"Indian Summer"Tim HunterTom Palmer and Matthew WeinerOctober 4, 2007 (2007-10-04)
1212"Nixon vs. Kennedy"Alan TaylorLisa Albert & Andre Jacquemetton & Maria JacquemettonOctober 11, 2007 (2007-10-11)
1313"The Wheel"Matthew WeinerMatthew Weiner and Robin VeithOctober 18, 2007 (2007-10-18)

Production

Filming

The pilot episode was shot at Silvercup Studios and various locations around New York City; subsequent episodes have been filmed at Los Angeles Center Studios.[1][2] It is available in high definition for showing on AMC-HD and on video-on-demand services available from various cable affiliates.[3] The writers, including Weiner, amassed volumes of research on the period in which Mad Men takes place so as to make most aspects of the series—including detailed set designs, costume design, and props—historically accurate,[4][5][6] producing an authentic visual style that garnered critical praise.[7][8][9] Each episode has a budget between $2–2.5 million, though the pilot episode's budget was over $3 million.[4][10] On the scenes featuring smoking, Weiner stated: "Doing this show without smoking would've been a joke. It would've been sanitary and it would've been phony."[6] Since the actors cannot, by California law, smoke tobacco cigarettes in their workplace, they instead smoke herbal cigarettes.[6][10]

Crew

In addition to having created the series, Matthew Weiner is the showrunner, head writer, and an executive producer; he contributes to each episode—writing or co-writing the scripts, casting various roles, and approving costume and set designs.[4][10] He is notorious for being selective about all aspects of the series, and promotes a high level of secrecy around production details.[4][10]

Along with Matthew Weiner, the writing staff of the first season consisted of co-executive producer Tom Palmer, who wrote two episodes; producer Lisa Albert, who wrote two episodes; producers and writing team Andre and Maria Jacquemetton, who wrote three episodes; writer's assistant Robin Veith, who wrote two episodes; and freelance writers Bridget Bedard and Chris Provenzano, who each wrote two episodes. Other producers included co-producer Blake McCormick, producer Todd London, and co-executive producer Scott Hornbacher. Primary directors of the first season were Tim Hunter, who directed four episodes, and Alan Taylor, who directed three including the pilot episode. The remaining episodes were directed by Ed Bianchi, Lesli Linka Glatter, Andrew Bernstein, series cinematographer Phil Abraham, Paul Feig, and series creator Matthew Weiner, who directs each season finale.

Reception

Ratings

Viewership for the premiere at 10:00 pm on July 19, 2007, was higher than any other AMC original series to date.[11] The premiere attracted 900,000 viewers.[12]

Critical reception

The first season was given a score of 77/100 by review aggregator Metacritic, indicating generally favorable reviews.[13] Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter said each episode "unfolded like a small movie", calling it "one of the best character studies anyone has put on television in some time -- an adult drama of introspection and the inconvenience of modernity in a man's world."[14] Robert Bianco of USA Today said the show "hopes to come to grips with both what was lost and what has been gained since generation gaps, sexual revolutions, racial divides and Vietnam blasted the '60s apart" and called it a "smart, complex drama".[15] The New York Times called it "both a drama and a comedy and all the better for it, a series that breaks new ground by luxuriating in the not-so-distant past."[16] Writing for DVD Talk, Jeffrey Kauffman considered the season to be "one of the most literate and unique series to come down the pike in a long while", noting that it was "kind of refreshing to find a series that trusts its audience enough not to spill every bean possible in the first 30 second tease".[17] Fellow DVD Talk writer Adam Tyner described the season as "virtually flawless", praising the depth with which each of the characters has been written.[18] Andrew Johnston, writing in Time Out New York, praised the initial episode, stating: "Inspired by cynical Eisenhower-era comedies of manners (Sweet Smell of Success, The Apartment) and the stories of John Cheever, frequent Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner's Mad Men is a scathing chronicle of the ad industry’s boozy midcentury heyday, and one of the freshest series to hit basic cable in years."[19]

Variety's reaction to the first season was more mixed, commenting that "as a serialized drama, the program's situations aren't especially stirring, even with its solid, perfectly outfitted cast. The sheer atmosphere, however, proves intoxicating."[20] Tom Shales of The Washington Post wrote a negative review, stating that "the stories unfold in a dry, drab way and the pacing is desultory. Series directors are fond of long pauses that serve no purpose other than to give the impression that an actor forgot his next line."[21]

Accolades

The first season of Mad Men was nominated for and won numerous industry awards, including fifteen Emmy nominations and six Emmy wins. At the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, Mad Men won Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (Matthew Weiner for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"). The series also won Creative Arts Emmys for Art Direction, Cinematography, Hairstyling, and Main Title Design.[22][23][24][25]

The series also received nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Jon Hamm), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (John Slattery), Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Robert Morse), Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series (Alan Taylor), again for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes") and a second nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (Weiner and Robin Veith, for "The Wheel").[26]

Mad Men won a Peabody Award for Outstanding Achievement in Television for the first season in 2007. AMC Executive Vice President Charles Collier called the award an "incredible honor".[27] The first season was also honored by the American Film Institute as one of the ten greatest television achievements of 2007, called it brilliant for depicting "the discomfort that hides in the dark corners of nostalgia", and said "The show's extraordinary writing, characterizations and art direction neatly package a time filtered through the haze of cigarettes and sexism, but the message is for today — that those who sell a way of life are often mad for a world that is not their own."[28]

The series won Best Television Drama Series at the 65th Golden Globe Awards, while Jon Hamm won Best Actor – Television Series Drama.[29] "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" also won a Casting Society of America Artios Award for Outstanding Casting in a Television Pilot, Drama.[30] Alan Taylor won a 2007 Directors Guild of America Award for Drama Series directing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".[31] The series also won 2007 Writers Guild Awards for Best Dramatic Series and Best New Series. Chris Provenzano for "The Hobo Code" was nominated for the Episode Drama award, but lost to The Sopranos episode, "The Second Coming".[32]

The first season was also honored by the Television Critics Association Awards, winning Program of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Drama, and Outstanding New Program of the Year. Jon Hamm was also nominated for Individual Achievement in Drama at the 24th TCA Awards.[33]

Jon Hamm and the cast Mad Men were also nominated at the 14th Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series but lost to James Gandolfini and the cast of The Sopranos, respectively.[34]

References

  1. ^ "Lights, camera, plenty of action at downtown Los Angeles Center Studios". Company Town blog. Los Angeles Times. April 7, 2010. Retrieved April 18, 2010.
  2. ^ Feld, Rob (March 2008). "Tantalizing Television". American Cinematographer. 89 (3). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Haugsted, Linda (June 25, 2007). "AMC Mad About VOD, HD Push for Mad Men". Multichannel News. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
  4. ^ a b c d Schwartz, Missy (May 30, 2008). "'Mad Men': Inside Summer TV's No. 1 Hidden Gem". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 19, 2008.
  5. ^ Steinberg, Jacques (July 18, 2007). "In Act 2, the TV Hit Man Becomes a Pitch Man". New York Times. Retrieved August 15, 2007.
  6. ^ a b c Matthew Weiner et al. (2007). The Making of Mad Men (Documentary). AMC. {{cite AV media}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |authors= (help)
  7. ^ Goodman, Tim (July 18, 2007). "New York in 1960, when the 'Mad Men' were in charge – and everything was about to change". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
  8. ^ Salem, Rob (July 19, 2007). "Lost in the '60s with Mad Men". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
  9. ^ Poniewozik, James (July 20, 2007). "Mad Men Watch: Lucky Strike". TIME. Retrieved July 23, 2007.
  10. ^ a b c d Witchel, Alex (June 22, 2008). "'Mad Men' Has Its Moment". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved July 5, 2008.
  11. ^ Nordyke, Kimberly (July 20, 2007). "AMC "Mad" about ratings for series bow". Reuters/Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
  12. ^ Nordyke, Kimberly (July 20, 2007). "AMC "Mad" about ratings for series bow". Reuters/Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
  13. ^ "Mad Men - Season 1 reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  14. ^ Goodman, Tim (July 18, 2007). "New York in 1960, when the 'Mad Men' were in charge -- and everything was about to change". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  15. ^ Bianco, Robert (July 19, 2007). "Mad Men - You'll buy what it's selling". USA Today. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  16. ^ Stanley, Alessandra (July 19, 2007). "Mad Men - Smoking, Drinking, Cheating, and Selling". The New York Times. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  17. ^ Kauffman, Jeffrey (June 26, 2008). "Mad Men - Season One". DVD Talk. Retrieved March 4, 2012.
  18. ^ Tyner, Adam (June 28, 2008). "Mad Men: Season 1 (Blu-ray): DVD Talk Review of the Blu-ray". DVD Talk. Retrieved March 4, 2012.
  19. ^ Johnson, Andrew (July 25, 2007). "Mad Men". Time Out. Retrieved April 3, 2012.
  20. ^ Lowry, Brian (June 11, 2007). "Mad Men". Variety. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  21. ^ Shales, Tom (July 19, 2007). "AMC's 'Mad Men': A Bunch of Cutthroats Without an Edge". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  22. ^ "Primetime Emmy Winners - Art Direction". Emmys.com. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  23. ^ "Primetime Emmy Winners - Cinematography". Emmys.com. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  24. ^ "Primetime Emmy Wins - Hairstyling". Emmys.com. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  25. ^ "Primetime Emmy Wins - Main Title Design". Emmys.com. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  26. ^ "HBO Leads 60th Primetime Emmys". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  27. ^ "Mad Men Wins a Peabody Award". AMC. April 2, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2012.
  28. ^ "AFI Awards 2007". AFI. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  29. ^ "65th Golden Globe Award Winners". Golden Globes. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  30. ^ "2008 Artios Award Winners". Casting Society of America. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  31. ^ "Lionsgate's Acclaimed Drama Series MAD MEN Wins Directors Guild Award". PR Newswire. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  32. ^ "2008 WGA award winners". WGA. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  33. ^ "Past winners of the TCA Awards". Tvcritics.org. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  34. ^ Bruno, Mike (December 21, 2007). "The 14th Annual SAG Award Nominations". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
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