Youth, however, is in the air at the office. Cooper seems to have been replaced by his son - (actually not, as my vigilant commentators have informed me (see Comments); the arrogant youngo is Duck Phillips, introduced late last season (I knew he looked familiar :) -no one likes him much, of course - and Don gets a directive from Roger (apparently recovered from his heart attack) to hire some younger people. Don's take on youth - that they don't know anything but don't know it - was one of the savvier interludes of the show. (I disagree, by the way - I'm still pretty sure I knew just about everything of importance in life by the time I was 20, maybe even 17. But, then, again, I still pretty much feel like 17.)
Also excellent, as always, is Don's astute take on what it really takes to make an effective ad. In the case of the firm's airline client, it's not adventure or sex but coming home safely to family.
The flavor of the show was a bit more muted than I recall last year, but this is just the first course. One thing is clear - as was the case last year, Mad Men is unique, and a xerox of nothing that came before it.
The xerox machine, by the way, would go on to revolutionize all aspects of business and literary life - or, as Marshall McLuhan would later put it, "the xerox makes everyone a publisher" (see my Digital McLuhan, 1999, p. 120, for more). The xerox machine, in other words, was one of the first steps towards blogging...See also: 2.2: The Advertising Devil and the Deep Blue Sea ... ... 2.3: Double-Barreled Power ... 2.4: Betty and Don's Son ... 2.5: Best Montage Since Hitchcock ... 2.6 Jackie, Marilyn, and Liberty Valance ... 2.7: Double Dons ... 2.8: Did Don Get What He Deserved? ... 2.9: Don and Roger ... 2.10: Between Ray Bradbury and Telstar ... 2.11: Welcome to the Hotel California ... 2.12: The Day the Earth Stood Still on Mad Men
Also: Reviews of Mad Men, Season One: Mad Men Debuts on AMC: Cigarette Companies and Nixon ... Mad Men 2: Smoke and Television ... Mad Men 3: Hot 1960 Kiss ... Mad Men 4 and 5: Double Mad Men ... Mad Men 6: The Medium is the Message! ... Mad Men 7: Revenge of the Mollusk ... Mad Men 8: Weed, Twist, Hobo ... Mad Man 9: Betty Grace Kelly ... Mad men 10: Life, Death, and Politics ... Mad Men 11: Heat! ... Mad Men 12: Admirable Don ... Mad 13: Double-Endings, Lascaux, and Holes
20-minute interview with Rich Sommer (Harry Crane) at Light On Light Through
6 comments:
Paul,
I'm not quite sure to whom you're referring when you talk about Bertram Cooper's son. There is no such character on the show.
The actor Mark Moses (http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2008/04/interview-with-mark-moses.php) portrays Duck Phillips, who is the character strongly urging the Sterling Cooper ad agency to hire younger personnel.
He is not related to Cooper.
The Xerox was the vaunted Xerox 914, which I had in the copy shop I managed in Austin in the 70's, with self service copies on plain paper for 4 cents. Wow. See History of Xerox description of the amazing machine that started an avalanche of anonymous butt-shot notes to bosses, starting in 1960... ;-)
The character you think is Cooper's son is Duck Philips, played by Mark Moses, and introduced at the end of last season.
Cooper will be back.
Thanks, David and Deborah - I've put a correction in the text - Infinite Regress commentators to the rescue again :)
Farnham - too bad all we got was a face shot last night then...
They made made certain to point out Don's 36 which apparently was middle-aged in 1962. He seems about ten years older than that by today's standards.
In reviewing last season's pilot after all 13 episodes had aired, I realized just how many seeds had been planted through the dialogue. I can't help but wonder what started germinating Sunday night. I guess we'll find out in about 12 weeks.
Glad to see you blogging again this season.
And glad to have you commenting here, LA ....
On apparent age of the characters - I've realized for a long time that people in 1950s in their high teens and twenties often looked in their forties (by our standards of appearance). Take a group like The Fleetwoods - they had big hits in 1959, Come Softly to Me, and Mr. Blue. The two women, especially, looked (now) as if they easily were in their 40s. In fact, they were 18 or 19.
Mad Men, of course, is right on the cusp of our revolution. Betty, for example, actually looked a little younger this season than last - and I take that to be a reflection of the slight improvement (from our point of view) in women's styles.
Don did look a older and a little more hefty than last year ... Possibly that comes with his more executive position.... (but hard to say).
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