End of Mad Men

"Hummm...  hummm..."

"Mad Men" had meaning for me as I graduated college in 1959 and the 60's were my "coming of age years," love, marriage, success, disaster all in one decade.  I did some work in advertising, enough the get the flavor this series captured, even if grotesquely.   Most of my work was in the production of educational films, amateur and professional photographic magazine articles and books. 

1971 Coca Cola Commercial

Production is like a battlefield without bullets.  Everything has to work.  People have to be on time and ready to go.  Every movie is a minor miracle even when it is a bad movie.  Many interaction scenes in "Mad Men" were overdone, most were not.  I have seen, and been in, what were called "swordfights in the hall."  Personalities collide when large amounts of money and careers are at stake, but it is an exhilarating place to be and I would not have missed any of the battles.  Even the ones I lost.

It was a very different world:  In 1959 if you were a young man in my class looking for sex you got married.  There was nothing to discuss.  How quaint that seems today and watching it change was incredible.  When I went from teaching to publishing and film, running with a different crowd, we were always introduced as "The straight couple" and everybody would study us for while and ask what we ate.

When my first marriage ended in 1969 I found myself in a world where taking a lady out for dinner meant you would have, or be, a breakfast guest.  Many great adventures, but after five years of it I was ready to throw up and jumped into another marriage. 

Regardless experience my selection process had not improved.  Perhaps it cannot be perfected, but I think we were better at it in 1959.  I learned in elementary school girls are smarter than boys and therefore they are responsible for all these problems.

Scenes from "Mad Men" leapt from the screen at me; too many to note. The research and writing for that show were excellent.  I saw no glaring errors.  It was perfect as a weekly show.  The marathon was too much.  I could not take more than a few hours of it a day and did not record it.  

I have no doubt a 70's continuation of "Mad Men" will be done. The producers telegraphed intent leaving Don Draper on a seaside knoll in California aping Buddhism.  LA was a cutting edge of the crime scenes generated by Gloria Steinham's "Second Sex" book that gave the guns to girls.  New York City was the birthplace.

Were they ending the show Don Draper would have lept from a tall building to tie the opening graphic sequence and close the loop of the concept; document the creator's span, genius and foresight.  That could have been big bucks in the career bank.

It is surely the end for the 60's cast and a fresh story line more seventy-ish, set in Los Angeles.

Hopefully the same writers and producers, Jon Hamm and a new cast will do it as these guys have not only hit on something, but the way to do it and in the entertainment business that is rare. This was not the end of "Mad Men."

Adrian Vance