Countless reports this morning, especially here in the Washington, DC, area, emphasized that “nobody was hurt” in Wednesday’s hostage-taking episode in the lobby of Discovery Communications’ headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.

(Several reports heard in Discovery’s backyard mistakenly called the huge silver structure “Discovery Channel’s headquarters.”)

Many of the reports ended there. Nobody hurt, situation over.

While it’s true, thankfully, that Montgomery County police, Discovery employees and other authorities combined to evacuate nearly 2,000 people, including children in the daycare center, it’s a bit dismissive of the media to end its coverage with the statement that “nobody was hurt.” It also might be wrong.

We understand news reports are measured in seconds, as in ‘The Discovery story gets 25 seconds.’ And no Discovery employee or police officer was physically hurt. But, according to reports, three employees were held hostage in the building for nearly 5 hours. Apparently authorities were negotiating with the gunman. When he removed a weapon from his pocket and aimed it at the head of one of the employees, sharpshooters took him out.

Does the media or anyone else know the extent of the damage that was inflicted on the hostages’ psychological health? Being held for 5 hours by a man with a gun, and apparently armed with explosives, can’t be good for one’s mental health. Apparently two Discovery employees and a security guard were detained in the building yesterday. Watching anyone get shot and killed can’t be good either. What about the mental health of anguished relatives and friends of those held inside? The relatives and friends of police on the scene, particularly the officer who pulled the trigger? How about the negotiator?

The Department of Defense has begun to acknowledge the influence of extended combat on the psychological well being of soldiers. Granted, soldiers are exposed to months of combat, killing and witnessing death are regular occurrences. Is it clear what damage is sustained by being in a hostage situation for several hours? Heavily traumatized? Effected for life?

For the most part, human beings are resilient. The two employees who were held hostage-if their identities become widely known, the security guard’s identity is known by those who work in the building-likely will be supported by co-workers and friends. Knowing the excellent reputation of Discovery—it’s routinely a member of our Top Places to Work in Cable list—those employees, and any others who request it, also will receive psychological counseling.

In time, the psychological ravages of the incident probably will fade and we again will use the term “taken hostage” to apply to myriad situations that have nothing to do with terrorism. That’s the way language is used.

Eventually normalcy will return to the Discovery building and work will resume in another triumph over violence. After all, nobody was hurt.

In a season of good and very good episodes, Waldorf Stories might have been the best. Certainly it was the tightest, with no wasted scenes.

In addition, just when we thought Peggy was on her way up—a liberated woman, smoking grass and conversing easily at wild parties and smoothly fielding amorous advances from both sexes—the reality of the professional world she inhabits smacks her down.

This also was an episode where Don’s personal, alcoholic side impinges on his tightly controlled office demeanor. Yes, the incident with Allison, where she threw a paperweight at him, came close to exposing Don’s seamy personal life, but the alcohol-soaked performance in front of the Life cereal reps could have serious consequences. On the other hand, Life liked Don’s plagiarized slogan, so SCD&P will get the gig. In that case, money will rule the day. Really, what’s a little boozing between business colleagues, right?

Plus in this episode we’re introduced to a character who may be more of an inappropriate chauvinist than Roger and Don combined. The dramatic, comedic and purely entertaining possibilities for new SCDP art director Stan Rizzo (Jay R. Ferguson) and his leather jacket are vast.

And this was a true ensemble episode, with scenes for every lead in the cast, save Bert Cooper, who didn’t appear at all, not even at the CLIO awards. Of course, the irony of premiering an ep about awards on the same night that Mad Men captured yet another Emmy was thick. Was it a coincidence?

Silence is Golden: On a somewhat related matter, one of the pleasures of Mad Men is that there’s so much to ponder. Several plot elements are purposely left murky, sparking debate (and plenty of fodder for bloggers). In much of television drama, little is left unsaid. Characters tend to talk about everything. What’s left unspoken in Mad Men is part of the series’ charm; this also was the case in The Sopranos, where Matt Weiner worked for years.

An example of this on Sunday was the moment when Don and Roger were holding Joan’s hands under the table at the CLIOs. Was that a product of Don’s nervousness? Was it evidence of his amorous interest in Joan or was it the alcohol talking? Was it one more illustration of Don encroaching on Roger’s territory?

Another obvious illustration was Don waking up in bed on Sunday at noon with Doris the waitress, who calls him Dick, instead of the woman from the CLIOs, whom he bedded Friday night. What happened to Saturday? Was Dr Fay(e) Miller involved?

Recall that Don ‘rescued’ Dr Miller at the CLIOs by saying “Mom was looking for you.” And Doris the waitress (Becky Wahlstrom) mentions that she and Don hit it off after his 3rd order of french fries and after his sister left. Was he passing off Dr Miller as his sister to Doris, too? Or was his ‘sister’ the woman he met at the CLIOs? Were the two CLIO winners grabbing something on Saturday at Doris’ establishment? Once she left, Don began with Doris.

It seems Don’s excessive drinking, which we mentioned in a previous blog this season, is taking its toll.

Speaking of remembering, did Roger actually hire Don? At first, in the flashback, he swears he did not. Did he also lose a day’s memory from drinking? In an episode loaded with irony, it certainly would be ironic if heavy-drinking Roger can’t recall heavy-drinking Don’s hiring because of an alcohol-induced blackout.

Another alcohol-related and barely-commented-upon incident was Duck Phillips’ (Mark Moses) drunken outburst at the CLIOs. Recall that Duck supposedly was on the wagon a few seasons back. Apparently he slipped off. And note the reaction of Roger to CLIOs host Wallace Harriman’s (John Aniston) admonition to go easy on the sauce, “Gentlemen, let’s pace ourselves.” Upon hearing Jen Aniston’s dad’s line, Roger hoists his glass for a swig as Joan looks on disapprovingly.

Recapture Your Youth: You certainly can be young again. Forget about Pond’s Cold Cream, flashbacks are the way to go.

Kidding aside, the theme of age and youth, discussed in previous blogs, was dominant in this episode.

The obvious example was Roger’s flashbacks, as mentioned above, which had an age vs youth theme to theme. The young, eager, smiling fur salesman Don attempting to lure experienced ad man Roger with several tricks and a lie or two (Don says he had a meeting in Roger’s building, thus the coincidental meeting of the two in the lobby—even at that point Don, er Dick, was a good bull spreader).

Then the ironic turn on the flashback, as Don’s “little friend” and Jane’s cousin, Danny Siegel (Danny Strong), attempting to land a job with SCDP in much the same way Don pleaded with Roger for a job.

Of course Roger’s reminiscing about his youth for his book brought about the revelation (to him, not us) that he’s not actually done much with his life. In a related youth reference, Lane the Brit says, “Roger Sterling is a child,” as he explains to Pete why the firm will be hiring Ken Cosgrove. Certainly Roger’s behavior throughout this episode re the CLIOs could be seen as a grown man acting like a child. You could also say that about Don’s behavior concerning the CLIOs.

Roger’s revelation that he’s not really done much more than drink, smoke and chase women, leads him to become jealous of Don, particularly Don’s talent, his relative youth and eventually his CLIO. I’d never really seen Roger as a sad person. Empty and immature yes, but not sad. That’s changed.

A larger youth-age theme, though, came from Pete and Peggy together. Each pushed around the older SCDP hands. Peggy, visiting disheveled, disoriented Don at his disheveled, dark bachelor pad, insisted that he “fix” the Life cereal slogan mess, the bulk of which he expropriated from young Danny. Of course Don’s first instinct is to obfuscate—call the Life people and tell them it was [a terrible slogan], he says. Come up with 10 new taglines, he orders Peggy, who flatly refuses. Youth triumphs.

Then Pete and Peggy are embarrassed by the behavior of old guys Don and Roger in the meeting with the Life people. Pete even ushers Roger out of the room before the meeting starts. Youth had the upper hand here, too.

Last, Pete pushes around Lane the Brit a bit re the aforementioned Cosgrove hiring. While Lane makes it clear the hiring is a done deal, Pete summarily kicks out Lane before he holds his conference room summit, telling Cosgrove how things “have changed around here…I need to know you will do as told,” Pete says arrogantly.

Notes: We noted in a previous blog (episode 4) about how Don had expropriated Peggy’s idea on Pond’s Cold Cream, calling it “my idea.” Apparently something similar occurred on the Glo-Coat wax campaign, and Peggy’s not pleased. Notice how she immediately grabbed the CLIO off the table when Don brought it into the meeting with the Life people. – The vintage NY Mets pennant in Lane the Brit’s office is duly noted. In a series where most things are significant, this banner must carry some meaning. Perhaps Lane is trying to show he’s becoming more American. The stuffy Brit has adopted a new and exciting baseball team, but one that, in 1965 at least, has shown a talent for losing. – Yes, that was Betty modeling a wedding dress in the ad for Miller’s Furs that Roger slapped down in the flashback. – By the look Roger gave Don as Don smooched Joan full on the chops when the CLIO win was announced, Roger was not pleased. – Loved the bit where young Joey expects Joan to fix him a drink during the pre-CLIO celebration in the conference room. Joan’s retort, “You have legs.” That was just one example of a woman asserting herself. The other, of course, was Peggy’s domination of Rizzo, both his mind and body.
[Note: This blog will be updated later in the week.]

A fine episode last night, weaving in themes we’ve seen nearly every ep (falsities, for example) and a few we’d seen before, but not in a long while (racism, forgiveness and Betty Draper’s bad parenting).

This ep also solidified Don’s elderly secretary, Miss Blankenship, as a humorous Greek chorus (more on this below) or perhaps she represents the inability of the older generation to embrace new ways of doing business and living. Moving forward Americans will transact business with their former enemies and use things like intercoms, which Miss Blankenship just can’t seem to fathom. Oh, and eventually lily white firms like SCDP will increasingly become relics. As they sing in the musical Hairspray, “Welcome to the 60s.”

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines: Right off the bat we get another Mad Men look at racism, with talk of the Selma riots, which “won’t go away,” Sterling and Cooper lament. Why are blacks still mad? Because Lassie can stay at the Waldorf and they can’t, young Pete tells old Roger and Bert.

Indeed Selma won’t go away, as little Sally and Bobby Draper see on NBC’s Huntley-Brinkley Report that Unitarian Minister James Reeb was cremated one day after segregationists beat him to death over Selma.

[An aside: Why are the Draper kids watching the news at their age? In fairness to Don, there wasn’t much for parents to choose from in those pre-cable days. Thanks to cable and other deliver technologies, parents today can plant their kids in front of an infinite supply of cartoons and videos for hours. Don't you just love progress?]

Just a bit later we get a demonstration of Roger’s racism against his former enemies in the Pacific theater (and some witty writing, more below). Actually, I don’t think Roger’s attitude is unusual for veterans of those times.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: The brief but effective pre-date scene at Don’s not-quite-as-dark-as-usual apartment: Phoebe, the nurse and part-time baby sitter says to Don, “Which one is it?” intimating that Don’s quite the ladies man. (We know he is.) She quickly corrects herself, “I mean which restaurant, in case I need to reach you.” Good save, Phoebe. Good save.

But Sally, wearing her heart on her sleeve, as usual, plays Betty here. Told that Daddy is going out to meet a girl named Bethany, she says, “I don’t like that.” Don’s response to Sally (Betty): “Well, you don’t have to.”

But also notice how little Bobby Draper snuggles up to Phoebe on the couch later on, when Sally is further transforming herself into Betty, by cutting her hair. Could it be that Bobby doesn’t get such warmth from his mother, the Ice Princess?

And speaking of ice, notice how newly short-haired Sally is terrified to approach the babysitter, figuring if she’s like mom, watch out. Even Don is most concerned not with his kid, but with “the river of shit” he’s going to get from Betts on this.

Ah, but the root (sorry) of Sally’s hair cutting comes when she says to Phoebe, “But you have short hair and daddy likes it.” She craves her father’s attention and love (as Dr Miller says later on).

And then Sally delivers the infamous line to her babysitter: “Are you and daddy doing it?…I know what it is.” While she said a girl at school told her (that the man pees inside the woman), we can thank creepy Glen Bishop for jump starting Sally’s puberty. Glen mentioned “doing it” to her a few eps ago during a phone call.

For my 2 cents, Don should not have told his kids where he was going that night. What business is it of theirs where he’s going or whom he’s meeting? Don, take your own advice, and don’t talk about everything.

But, boy, does Don let Phoebe have it when he gets home and finds Sally’s cut her hair. I don’t care what anyone says, this man loves his kids, even if he can’t express it. Of course, we have to wonder if Don will ever bed Phoebe now. Look on the bright side, Don’s forgiven the Japanese for WWII. So should a few blond hairs cut down in the prime of their lives prevent him from receiving some tender loving nursing, especially when she’s just across the hall? I say not.

Surprise Attack: Roger is getting to be like Tony Soprano. We fear the consequences of his presence. When he walks into the secret Honda meeting and attacks the Japanese, it’s obvious he’s upset, but the subtlety of his quips, I think, get past the Japanese. “I know how some people like surprises,” he says in reference to Pearl Harbor.

Then, after Pete tells Roger the meeting is over, Roger says, “They [the Japanese] won’t know it’s over until you drop the big one…twice.”Far more direct is his “we beat you once, we’ll beat you again…we don’t want any of your Jap crap. So, sayonara.” Of course, Pete tries to obfuscate: “His wife has been sick. He’s drinking too much,” he tells the Japanese of Roger. But then Roger, in his office, still has a good line left in him. Told by Don, “You don’t get to kill this account,” Roger retorts, “You know those people. Maybe it’ll kill itself.”

Some other fun writing for Roger occurs at the beginning of the ep, when Pete announces he’s gotten some, er, movement out of the CCor laxative folks regarding TV ads. “Did you have to soften them up?” Roger jokes. “How did you squeeze it out of them?” he adds during a lunch meeting. Bert Cooper was not amused.

Lies and More Lies: “Henry, I went to a psychiatrist once,” Betty tells her new husband. A lie! When did you go? he asks. “Years ago.” Another lie. It didn’t help much, she says. (That’s true in Betty’s case.)

But Henry prevails, having experienced the good work done by a shrink with his daughter Ellie. Yes, of course SCD&P is able to pull off a great stunt to confound Ted Chaough. It should be clear by now that falsities and lies are the mother’s milk of these people, as are drinking, smoking and racism.

And the wily Dr Fay/Faye Miller isn’t married, we and Don learn over a few glasses of sake. And oddly, Don, who’s decried “everybody talking about everything,” proceeds to tell Dr Miller a lot. He fears he’s not a good father to his 3 kids, whom he admits he doesn’t see often enough. But when he does see them, “I don’t know what to do…but I miss them.”Then later, “It is not going well,” he tells her in perhaps one of his most honest moments in the past 4 seasons.

So, OK, is this Dr Miller getting Don to open up (as she boasts is her talent)? Or is this Don genuinely wanting to open up? Or is it Don opening up because he thinks Fay/Faye wants to hear him say these sorts of things? And upon hearing them she’ll eventually hop into bed with this sensitive, caring guy? I’m not sure where my money is on this one.

The last pack of lies is opened in the playfully decorated office of Dr Edna, the child psychiatrist. Betts says the doctor will never meet Don as he’s not interested (that’s a lie, he’s interested). She also claims she had to get divorced. (Really?) Betty also tells the doctor that she’s fine and doesn’t need counseling herself. (Incredible amount of bull, that.)

Of course the team at SCDP can pull off a great charade to convince Ted Chaough that they’re filming a Honda commercial. Isn’t it obvious by now these people are masters of deception and falsities? That’s been a theme of this series from the start.

Notes: Notice how the mention of fictitious Dr Lyle Evans (whom not even Joan knows) is followed by a true story, Chet Huntley reporting that the body of Rev James Reeb was cremated a day after being beaten by segregationists in Selma, Ala, as the Draper kids watch this on the TV news. Reeb was killed March 11, 1965, which dates our episode. – Hey, for someone who told The NY Times he didn’t know who Ted Chaough was, Don seemed to recognize him pretty quickly at Benihana. Lying to The NY Times? That can’t be a good thing to do, right? – Also notice how Don immediately lights up a cigarette when Ted—“A fly I keep swatting away”—bothers him at Benihana. – Also note how Bethany is totally into Don. “As far as I’m concerned (Ted’s) no competition (for you),” she somewhat suggestively coos to her date Don. – And speaking of Bethany, Don, just 3 dates in 5 months? And she still goes out with you? How is that possible? And was this really a date? Nah, it was a doubleheader. Don gets to bone up on Japanese customs, writes it off on the business (maybe) and takes Bethany out to “an expensive place.” 2 birds with one stone. Beautiful, Don, beautiful. – More on the hair thing. Note that Henry and Don are allies against Betty slapping Sally. “Hey!” they both exclaim, nearly simultaneously after Betty belts Sally for cutting her hair. On the other hand, we find out a bit why Betts is the way she is—when I was bad, my mother threatened to cut my hair, she says. Oh, a good example of parenting there. Or how about the time when her brother bought a nudist magazine and Betty’s mother nailed it to his bedroom door? – “I want him dead!” Betty says loudly of Don, perhaps loud enough for little Sally to hear. Again, a nice job of parenting, Betty. – Now a word about wise, old Henry. He’s not a bad guy, really. Oh, sure, he played around with Betty before her divorce, but he’s a good influence on the kids, for sure, and maybe on Betty. At any rate, “soft” Henry tells Betty that girls cut their hair and “not just girls from broken homes.” Apologize to her, take her to the beauty parlor and let her go to the sleepover, he counsels. (After all, where else can she begin to learn the rudiments of playing with herself?) — Having a meeting with Honda right under Roger’s nose raises the duplicity quotient about as high as it’s been on this series. And the script writing in that sequence was clever, particularly the humorous translations and the “not too subtle” bit with Joan. – Good to see Honda chief Ichiro Kamura played by veteran actor Sab Shimono, whose work as Dr Kumagai, the incompetent coroner in Presumed Innocent (1990), was memorable. — Was Miss Blankenship attempting to call the first Mrs Draper in California about halfway through the episode? It’s not clear as there was no answer, she says. Then she tells Don that Misters Pryce and Peters (Pete Campbell) are here to see you. Blankenship has become a humorous Greek chorus, announcing (too loudly, sometimes incorrectly and often late) who is entering the arena of Don’s consciousness. She’s also a straight shooter, a rarity in a series about liars. “You’re always asleep in [your office],” she tells Don. True. – Poor Sally, she succumbed to the charms of Ilya Kuriakin, the Russian agent in the popular Man From U.N.C.L.E. series, played by the handsome Scottish actor David McCallum. If Betty had known who the object of Sally’s early masturbatory episode was she might have shown more sympathy. OK, maybe not. At least it wasn’t creepy Glen Bishop. – Some good parenting by Betty, telling Sally she’ll “cut” her “fingers off,” for masturbating. – Note that when Betty climbs back into bed with Henry after being told Sally was “playing with herself,” she quickly lights up a cigarette. So, too, did Don light up when Ted interrupted him and Bethany at Benihana. – Nice touch toward the end of the ep for Betty to looking longingly at Dr Edna’s doll house. – And speaking of Dr Edna, how could Betty have missed Sally’s first appointment with the doctor? Instead this somewhat troubled first born is relegated to the housekeeper, Carla, for her initial session with Dr Edna. While Henry berated Don for “taking a night off” and leaving his kids with a sitter (leading to Sally’s impromptu haircut), it appears Betty and Henry took the day off when it was time for little Sally’s first session with Edna. OK, so I guess I like Henry a bit less than I thought.

[This blog's Notes section was updated Aug 20.]

After a relatively sleepy episode last week, sparks flew this past Sunday, especially around Don, but the consequences are not yet clear.

The Clips: An interesting prelude to the evening came in the “previously on Mad Men” clips. All related to plot lines that figured in the evening’s episode, except one, where Joan with disgust told her nominal husband, Dr Greg, that while he’s counting down the days to his Vietnam deployment, she’s planning their life. Joan and Greg’s marriage was never mentioned in Sunday’s ep, yet the lack of matrimonial harmony they demonstrated in the clip was one of the dominant themes of the night.

Office Space: The problems in the SCD&P physical plant were highlighted, putting a kink into the idea discussed here a few weeks ago that the office, which is always bright in Mad Men, contrasts with Don’s dark and somber flat. In this ep the Campbell’s home, which is relatively upbeat, is lighted brighter compared to Don’s apartment.

But back to the SCD&P offices, we repeatedly were reminded of the inadequacy of Pete’s semi-dark, windowless space, which has a beam smack in the middle of the floor. Hardly the type of lodgings you’d expect a partner to occupy, but Pete wanted to be near Roger, as Harry reminds us. “I hate this office,” Pete says to Harry, referring to the office itself but also to the directive that he’s to jettison Clearasil, his father-in-law’s account.

Another office problem is that the one-way window to the focus group room is in Joan’s space. While Don, Freddy and Peggy are watching Dr Faye Miller test Peggy’s “indulge yourself” concept with the Pond’s Cold Cream focus group, Joan relocates to Roger’s office. Rather than go quietly, however, she announces she’s leaving, perhaps hoping to be asked to stay and watch; she’s not.

Speaking of watching, poor Freddy Rumsen, still smoking and eating to avoid drinking, has no office, he cutely reminds us. Dr Miller could have changed her outfit for the focus group in his office, if he had one, Freddy says. Of course, Freddy might have insisted he stay to supervise, right?

To Be or Not To Be: The episode featured a bevy of people showing different sides of their personalities, most of them turning on a dime. This theme about quick changes in peoples’ behavior and mood goes right to what Don says about Dr Miller’s focus group, “You can’t tell how people are going to behave based on how they have behaved.”

The biggest revelation was Peggy, who, for once, didn’t seem to be perpetually struggling (the struggling ones in this episode obviously were Don and Allison). Peggy toked on grass at the loft party; mixed relatively well with bohemians there, despite their scoffing at her advertising gig; whimsically joked away a lesbian nibble from Joyce Ramsey (Zosia Mamet) of Life magazine (her boyfriend doesn’t own her vagina, but at the moment he’s renting it, she casually tells Joyce); and confidently moved in for a kiss with Abe Drexler (Charlie Hofheimer), the writer, at the loft party.

Yes, Peggy seems to have moved from struggling to experimenting, with grass, with sexual openness and with spying. Notice after the Allison-Don explosion is over she’s peering comically over the barrier between their offices to eavesdrop on Don, whose response is predictable—he pretty quickly heads to the drinks cart for a belt.

On the other hand, Peggy also displayed the mood switches that were all over this episode. Initially she was “shocked” by Joyce’s rejected nude shots (just one of many rejections in this episode, whose title is, after all, “The Rejected”). But then she admits that one of the photos is beautiful. At the loft party, she chats casually with one of the nude models, but somewhat stiffly asks her, “What does your mother say about [you modeling nude]?” (Peggy’s overbearing mother strikes again.) Peggy also at first consoles Allison after her tearful exit from the focus group. Then she turns on her when Allison insinuates that Peggy, too, has bedded Don. “My problem is not your problem…Get over it,” Peggy snaps at Allison.

The usually subdued Allison, too, has a huge mood swing in this episode, blurting out evidence of her one-nighter with Don to Peggy. Later she calmly speaks with Don about moving on to another job and then explodes, throwing a paperweight at him. In her talk with Peggy she notes Don Draper turns on the charm one minute and pulls it away the next. “I don’t know how you can stand it,” she says.

That master of multi-sided personality, Pete Campbell, was in fine form, too. He turns on a dime to apologize to Ken Cosgrove at lunch for calling him names; and he totally surprises his wife Trudy when he tells her doesn’t care that he wasn’t the first to know about their impending pregnancy. He becomes a cuddly bear rather than a ferocious one almost instantly. While he’s genuinely happy and it seems that Pete’s changed from the SOB that we (and his father-in-law) know him to be, we (and Peggy) know he’s not a first-time father.

Oh, but that lunch was profitable. He learned from Cosgrove’s talk about BBDO and Pepsi. He insisted that his father-in-law get him the entire Vick’s cough lineup.

Old and Old and Married: Those motifs hit us repeatedly, from the secretary who joked she and Joan weren’t needed in the focus group because they were “old and married,” to the photo of the first Mrs Draper and Don in CA (‘Stephanie says we don’t look too old in this photo’), to the old couple at the episode’s coda, one of whom had gone shopping and the other inquired whether she had bought pears.

The lunch with Pete, Ken and Harry also pushes home the theme of family, as Ken and Pete discuss marriage, kids etc. Ken says family is “really all that matters.” Pete never says whether he agrees, but offers news of his wife’s pregnancy. The young men are growing up; soon they’ll all be married, perhaps all with children. In the scene in his office with Lane, Pete is filling out life insurance papers, again, a reminder that this boyish-looking cad is growing older.

We also get a look into Pete’s seemingly good marriage (his apartment is lit relatively brightly) and Trudy’s parents’ more problematic one. Yes, Trudy’s dad Tom Vogel (Joe O’Connor) tells Pete that the two of them are lucky to have such nice wives, yet Tom, in the bar, notes offhandedly that Trudy’s mom Jeannie (Sheila Shaw) had her uterus removed due to “a cyst or something.” He doesn’t show much interest in what should be an important event. Plus, Trudy notes her father was drunk when he called to apologize about spilling the pregnancy details prematurely.

Dr Faye or Fay? What can we say about Dr Miller? Only that her multiple falsities make her perfectly suited to consult at SCD&P. First she changes clothes to conduct the focus group; then she removes her wedding ring (and gives it to Peggy, who’s obsessed with it, to Don’s amusement); and asks for her name tag to be misspelled, proving to the secretaries that she’s not important enough to have her name spelled correctly. Ah, but it works. The young women, Allison, Dottie, Megan (Jessica Pare) and the others, open up to her. Ultimately, Peggy/Don’s idea about how to sell Pond’s doesn’t work, according to Fay/Faye. Selling the product is all about marriage, as old-fashioned Freddy Rumsen predicted.

Notes: Nice job by John Slattery directing this ep. Unfortunately that limited Roger Sterling to a few well-delivered quips, including his knock on Don’s elderly secretary, Miss Blankenship (Randee Heller) —“How did you get her out of mothballs?” Also good was his line during the call with Lee Garner Jr knocking sail boats, “For that price it should have a motor.” More mocking of Lee Jr was Roger’s explanation about smoking and horse racing. “Lee, the jockey smokes the cigarette.” – I’m wondering if it was Slattery’s humorous director’s touch that had Peggy peering over the wall into Don’s office or Bert Cooper sitting in the background of a scene at Megan’s reception desk. Bert was on a couch, shoeless, reading a magazine and munching on an apple. Either way, it was funny stuff. – Harry Crane had few lines in this ep, but they were pungent. He offers Pete and Trudy used “baby crap”if they need it. He also contrasts his modest father-in-law with Ken’s wealthy soon-to-be one. Ken’s can take him anywhere, Harry’s, a bus driver, can only take him to the Moon (a reference to fictional bus driver Ralph Cramden, who swore he’d send his wife to the Moon with one of his punches). Also note that Harry continues to use Yiddish words, saying “the goniffs (a Yiddish word for scoundrel) at CBS” are giving him fits. – Interesting detail in this ep. Lucky Strike is upset that it’s being billed too much by SCD&P. Could that come back to hurt the firm or is it merely more evidence of the falseness of the place? – The theme of old vs new we’ve discussed in previous post occurs many times in this ep, as we noted above. More examples include the battle over the approach to selling cold cream (interestingly, the old way, linking Pond’s to matrimony, is the one that triumphs in the focus group); Don’s moving from a young secretary to an old one (you can bet Joan had something to do with that); and the idea of a new era that’s dawning (and perhaps threatening people like Don, Roger and Freddy Rumsen) appears in one of the images in Davey Kellogg’s film in the loft, it says ‘Technology of Tomorrow.’ – Love Trudy’s comeback to Pete about the conflict between Clearasil and Ponds. “It’s a conflict. I’m familiar with the term. You use it all the time.” – Back to the coda, Joyce’s friends insist on meeting Peggy in her office “so they could see Meaghan.” The irony, of course, is that Meaghan is a natural beauty, who uses nothing but water to wash. This is a contrast to the effort SCD&P is expending to get women to purchase Ponds. –The above comments notwithstanding, Peggy isn’t totally struggle-free in this ep. Clearly she’s upset when she hears of the Campbells’ impending baby and lightly pounds her head on her desk after telling Pete she’s happy for him. Of course, Pete pounds his head during this ep, too, on the aforementioned column in his office. – Did you notice Don expropriated Peggy’s Pond’s idea, calling it “my idea”? That occurred in his office, when he and Dr Miller debated old vs new ways to sell Pond’s. – One subtle touch was beautiful in this ep. When Tom calls his son-in-law Pete an SOB, the cad admits it silently and shrugs. Another wonderful touch by the writers, the actors and the director.

Roger, We Miss You

[Note: This blog was updated August 11 at 1:50pm ET.]

There was some grumbling about last Sunday’s ep, The Good News, especially from people who joined the series late and never caught up with episodes they missed from earlier seasons (you know who you are, shame on you). Gruff also came from those who actually have a full life and so lack the spare brain capacity to store information from previous seasons, much less from episode one, season one (you people are excused, of course).

We also heard complaints from fans of Roger Sterling. Clearly they missed the big guy’s wit and wisdom. These chattering masses include your blogger, who usually can churn out a decent amount of blog copy just by making note of Roger’s latest elocutionary pearls. Having Roger appear in an episode where he doesn’t open his mouth is as wasteful as having Cesar Milan to your house and not asking him to assess your pooch.

To the above and others who felt a bit shortchanged by Sunday’s episode, we understand your pain. Remember, there were plenty of eps of The Sopranos where major characters appeared briefly or not at all. Sopranos alum Matthew Weiner knows what he’s doing, right? This latest ep, although a bit slow, touched on many of the themes we’ve discussed in this blog previously, so we can’t complain too loudly.

Doctor Who? Yes, boys and girls, you get extra credit if you remembered that the smoking gynecologist Joan consulted in Sunday’s ep, and who said her plumbing seemed to be in order, was in fact Dr Emerson (Remy Auberjonois), the same doc who appeared in ep 1, season 1. (You get double extra credit if you spelled Auberjonois correctly.)

You remember now, right? Joan relayed to Peggy on Peg’s first day at Sterling Cooper some of the golden rules for “the girls”: Always cover your typewriter before leaving at night; show a bit of leg (is that Peg leg?); have plenty of liquor ready for the boss; and visit Dr Emerson, who’ll fix you up with birth control pills.

You might also recall the good doctor, in between puffs on his cigarette, admonished Peggy in that initial ep. These pills are not a license to “go spreading your legs all over town,” he told her. Ah, such fatherly advice and what a way with words. Peggy listened to the sawbones, for the most part, although we know she’s partial to lovemaking when Duck or Campbell’s soup is on the menu.

Unhappy Holidays: OK, we get it. Don Draper is not going to enjoy the 1964 holiday season. Last time it was Thanksgiving and Christmas. This week it was New Year’s. And, Don, please don’t try to console Allison by telling her there are plenty of sailors at Times Square on New Year’s Eve. But, seriously, check Don’s pained expression whenever Allison is around. As a wise person said, sex can change everything. It really can, you know.

Themes: There was the darkness and the light motif throughout. Don’s apartment remains dark, as do restaurants and clubs. The office, even when nobody’s there, always seems to be light. California is light, NY is dark (except when we’re in the SCD&P office).

Also we have the theme of old vs new, which one of our readers, Steve, pointed out last week in his blog comment. Certainly Don and Stephanie’s (Caity Lotz) dialogue was all about old and new, both in his rented car and earlier at the “place with beer and abalone.” It’s Weiner’s tip to the generation gap, which was a large part of the 60s. Note how Stephanie is repulsed when Don tells her he works in advertising. “It’s pollution!”

Don and Steph argue over war (Vietnam in this case) and the corny song on the jukebox Old Cape Cod (just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s bad, Don tells her, meaning the song AND himself).

Also note the exchange when Stephanie finds out Don is dating, a convention where people sit there and ask each other questions. Stephanie sounds a theme that’s been at the root of the series: people don’t know what’s wrong with themselves, but everyone can see it right away, she says of people finding out about each other on dates.

A final theme, falseness, comes from Mrs Anna Draper (Melinda Page Hamilton), who’s apparently been living in the dark with cancer (yes, Don’s whole life is dark, so is his apartment) and her talk about UFOs. “I saw something once and I’m telling you it knocked me sideways…I started to question everything I was sure was true and how flimsy it all might be,” she tells Don as he paints her wall in his shorts.

But right after that Don gets into parental mode, consoling her as he might console his kids, “that’s not a great way to think about things.” Then it’s Mrs Draper’s turn to go parental, lavishing motherly praise upon Don/Dick: “I know everything about you and I still love you.” She might be the only one who knows everything about Don and still loves him; Betty doesn’t. Will Don be able to meet a woman, tell her all about himself (as Stephanie mentions happens on dates) and still have her love him? Will he love her?

Notes: Lane the Brit really is a total sh…well, you know. How did you like the way he turned around Joan’s request for a few days off after New Year’s with “what if some nurse asked your husband for days off after a holiday?” Joan is “some nurse,” Lane? Hmmm. Certainly, though, Lane was upset BEFORE Joan came into his office offering breast and thigh (we’re talking fried chicken here, not herself). Of course Lane’s alter ego, courtesy of strong drink, also plays on a Mad Men theme, how people aren’t always what they seem. – Also note chicken is mentioned later in the episode, when Joan’s husband Dr Greg (Sam Page) takes some of “your chicken.” Now is that Joan’s chicken or is it left over from the office? Are we making too much of chicken? Probably, but we’re a bit hungry as we write this blog. – Speaking of hunger, Don still hasn’t eaten much. Lane the Brit proffers a large sandwich, but Don chooses liquid nourishment. – OK, so we didn’t know Joan had “2 procedures.” I guess that’s important, but it seemed to be one of the few revelations in this action-lacked episode. – Pretty obvious Greg and Joan’s marriage is rocky. She barely trusted him to repair her badly cut finger and he treated her like a child while doing the medical handiwork. Moreover, if they work at different times of the day no wonder they haven’t gotten pregnant. Perhaps Joan is upset over Greg’s imminent deployment to Vietnam, or she’s concerned about having a child with this guy. Our guess, Greg dies or gets hurt there. – Loved the musical touch. The same track used as Don was on the airplane and driving in a convertible along the California coast came back for the episode’s last scene, when SCD&P’s top brass (but not Bert Cooper) were planning 1965′s budgets. Apparently the familiar music signaled Don was still thinking about California and the first Mrs Draper. – Yes, it’s ironic that Mrs Draper has cancer, while Don, er, Dick’s biggest account is cancer-causing Lucky Strike cigarettes. – We got a replay of Dr Faye Miller’s words from the previous episode. When Lane the Brit asks Don in the restaurant whether he should fly to England to try to reclaim his wife, Don (who says he doesn’t like to give advice on this sort of thing), asks ‘Is that what you want to do or is it what you think you are expected to do?’ As we pointed out last week, Dr Miller’s conversation with Don during the Christmas party included her “in a nutshell” summary of advertising. She believes advertising is a way to help people with their “deepest conflict.” And what is that? Don asked. “In a nutshell, it’s what I want vs what’s expected of me.”

Ep Title: Christmas Comes But Once a Year:

Like many series, Mad Men alternates between deeper and lighter episodes. While episode 2 Sun night was on the lighter side (compared with the season’s opener), there was plenty of depth.

The overriding themes of the episode revolved around power and sex, with a fair amount of the falseness that dominated last week’s season opener. [There's also a good take on the episode in the comments section below, from loyal reader Steve.]

Cold War: Was Freddy Rumsen’s (Joel Murray) return to the agency an act of kindness by SCD&P? Not a chance. Freddy could return to the remains of his old ad agency only because he brought with him a sizable account—Pond’s Cold Cream and its $2 million worth of ad business. Can you imagine SCD&P welcoming him back without that prized package tucked under his arm? Of course, we don’t know the specifics of why he’s shown up on SCD&P’s doorstep (and neither does SCD&P). My hunch is we’ll find out. What we know is that SCD&P is so desperate to diversify its portfolio beyond Lucky Strike that it will accept a poached account with very few questions asked.

The power theme (and SCD&P’s desperation) was beautifully illustrated by the holiday party. For perhaps the first time in the series, Roger was a sympathetic character. At least for a moment or two. When he knew the health of the business dictated that he bow to the will of Lucky Strike’s Lee Garner Jr (Darren Pettie) and don the Santa Claus outfit, we felt for him. More than that, he had to submit to countless pictures with male employees on his knee as Lee Jr snapped away with his new toy, a Polaroid.

Lee Jr seems to be the epitome of power, controlling Lucky Strike, which controls SCD&P at the moment. He can say and do what he wants at SCD&P, right, Donnie? Right, Jeeves? In that sense he’s a lot like Roger, who says and does nearly everything he wants to do, too. It was a nice piece of ironic writing that had Roger being Lee’s biggest victim.

Lee Jr also is a terrific character in that his power inspires tremendous fear, much the way Tony Soprano did in a series that Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner also was heavily involved with. We’ve seen Lee Jr in previous seasons. If he’s a recurring character this season, my hunch is we’ll discover Lee Jr’s Achilles heel.

It was clear what struggling Peggy was wrestling with last night. She is the embodiment of the old dilemma—a sexually experienced man is player and to be admired, but a sexually active woman is immoral and in the 1960s, not marriage material. Freddie drives that home to her in his “two cents” input in her office (which used to be his office)—if you like your boyfriend Mark (Blake Bashoff) and are thinking about marriage with him, don’t do anything with him (sexually).

Peggy also is struggling with her past, having born a child out of wedlock and far, far worse, she made love to a water fowl; a much older water fowl.

Don’s one-nighter with his secretary Allison (Alexa Alemanni) was a variation on Peggy’s amorous episode with Mark. Again, Don escapes the evening unscathed (and sexually satisfied); he’s a man after all. His secretary gains? Possibly a reputation, two $50s (which she would have gotten anyway), sadness and plenty of awkwardness when she’s around Don in the office.

Certainly she knew what might happen by going to Don’s place. More than that, she felt a bond with Don as he allowed her to open and read little Sally’s heartfelt letter to him. She also knew that Sterling had left his wife and married Jane, who briefly was Don’s secretary. Since Don is no longer married and he’d shared some family details with her, she thought he might be a good bet to go the way of Roger Sterling. Just as Peggy found out last week, courtesy of Don, thinking ahead doesn’t always work out.

Don’s Drinking Heavily: One of the biggest takeaways from last night was mostly non-verbal—Don’s heavy steps telegraphed the awful condition he’s in by the time he staggers drunk to the dark hallway of his dark Greenwich Village apartment. It was an eye opener about a man who could barely keep his open.

As we know, Don prefers to control nearly every situation he faces. His drinking, though, allowed others to control him to an extent. His amorous neighbor, Nurse Phoebe (Nora Zehetner), puts him to bed and is able to deter his inebriated sexual advance. His secretary Allison controlled the situation, too, but hers was a more complex equation. She certainly had the upper hand and could have walked away, leaving an inebriated Don on his couch with his bottle of whiskey, keys and aspirin. She didn’t and in the calculus of 1964 America, she’ll pay the price.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Freddy and Lee Jr weren’t the only returnees last night. Betty Draper’s much younger man, the somewhat creepy Glen Bishop, is back and he’s got his eye on Betty’s offspring, little Sally. An old, sexist and often incorrect theory of dating holds that a man must always check his date’s mother so he’ll know what his date will look like when she gets older. It’s doubtful Glen is aware of this theory, although he’s pretty wise in some of the ways of the world due, in part, to his parents’ divorce. He’s had to grow up fast. At any rate, Little Sally tells him on the phone she’s so sad to be living at Chez Draper without her daddy. That’s when he assures her that “one day” his first love Betty and her new husband will “want to move” out. The trashing of the kitchen and certain bedrooms was the result of that assurance. Since Glen is the type of deviant who likes to leave his mark on the crime scene (the lanyard in Sally’s bed), we’re wondering if he left a lock of Betty’s hair in her bed?

Describe Your Father: The night’s deepest moment was the meeting in Don’s office with the beautiful PhD, Faye Miller (Cara Buono). She’s interested in Don for sure, but she controlled the situation in a way that neither Peggy nor Don’s secretary did or could. While she didn’t understand why Don left her presentation when her handout asked participants to describe their father, she analyzed perfectly the Glo-Coat wax ad’s first 30 seconds, “clearly that’s about somebody’s childhood,” she said. And her “nutshell” summary of advertising goes to one of the series’ main themes about Don. She believes advertising is a way to help people with their “deepest conflict.” And what is that? Don asks. “In a nutshell it’s what I want vs what’s expected of me.” Ah, the good doctor has figured out one of Don’s root problems.

Notes: It was hard not to notice Roger’s older, somewhat homely secretary. You know his wife Jane insisted on her, of course. Well, so much for our theory about Roger being able to do and say anything he wants to in the office. – While we welcome back Freddy Rumsen, we wonder how he looks so well. In nearly every scene he’s either smoking or eating or doing both together. Have cigarettes and food replaced the sauce for fearless Freddy? – Peggy’s boyfriend Mark is a piece of a work. He deserves an Oscar for that speech about Sweden and sex. What a dog. Since Peggy slept with him, did she succumb to his charms or did she decide that he’s not really marriage material and so decided to sleep with him, per Freddy’s advice? – I’m wondering about Henry’s reaction to the house trashing by Glen and his sideman. Henry seemed so calm, almost like it wasn’t a surprise. Was he trying to be like Don, always projecting a cool exterior, or was it just bad acting? – The contrast we mentioned last week about the brightness of the office and the darkness of home life was again present last night. Even Roger mentioned to Joan that home is home but the office is life. – Brilliant camera work last night. The camera following Joan from behind, which also was Roger’s point of view, as she sashayed down the hall away from his office after verbally jousting with him in her throatiest coo about her attire for the holiday party. Roger and Jane’s just-beneath-the-surface relationship is a joy to behold. Second piece of fine camera work was the morning-after shot of Don’s secretary Allison, via Don’s point of view, from down the hall, typing. Excellent. – Naturally with Christmas as a backdrop, there were quite a few references to childhood (Lee Garner Jr with his Polaroid, the letter from Little Sally, the various scenes with the Draper kids and creepy Glen and Dr. Miller’s reference to the child in the wax ad. And then there’s Pete Campbell as Santa Claus. Now there’s a scary concept. – While Roger got off a few good lines last night—“we’ve got to change the rating on this party from convalescent home to Roman orgy” and his offer of a drink to penny pinching Lane the Brit with “I brought it from home” – Chuckled at the prologue to Dr. Miller’s presentation on what people are really thinking. Her colleague explains that the company’s research into human emotions and motivations is as exact as a surgical incision. Hmmm, here we are some 50 years later and researchers continue to struggle with consumer motivation and emotions. – Lee Jr trumped him and Santa with “that looks like a heavy bag, we don’t want you getting a 3rd heart attack, Roger.” Still, in many ways it was Roger’s show last night and made us appreciate what a good job John Slattery is doing in that role.

Mad Men Blog, Season IV, Ep 1 Public Relations

Welcome back, loyal readers (or newcomers) to the next few months of blog posts examining season IV of Mad Men. As this blog is dedicated to allowing all of us to gain a slightly deeper understanding of Mad Men, I urge you to send your comments, questions, criticisms and corrections (goodness knows, I make many mistakes, more so as I hurry to send out this blog for your inspection early each Monday). I thank you in advance for reading and your comments.

So, let’s dive in. Last night’s opening ep was loaded with many of the elements—strong writing, fine production values, apposite music, good acting—we expect from this series, although it fell short of last season’s opener. The 2009 opening ep was nearly flawless in its pace and content. And not a word was wasted. Still, we received plenty to chew on last night (it would be done best with false teeth, however, as you’ll see below).

The Preliminaries: Based on Don’s date Bethany Van Nuys’s (the wonderful Anna Camp) mention of Andrew Goodman losing his life in Mississippi working for civil rights (he was killed in June 1964 trying to register black voters) and Don’s telling The Wall St Journal reporter about the firm’s good fortune “months” after founding the new Sterling, Cooper, Draper and Pryce), we know we’ve moved on at least 1 year from last season, to 1964 apparently.

Also new is a spunky copywriter Joey Baird (Matt Long), who’s working with Peggy. Is this a working relationship or do we smell romance here? The two clearly get along on a certain level. Note their little gag, with performing Stan Freberg’s song parody of soap opera drudgery (“John…Marsha”).

And Celia, Don’s new housekeeper, starts off her Mad Men career with a bang, talking sotto voce about Don’s not eating anything and leaving his (shoe) shine kit in the middle of the floor of his dark apartment (more on interior lighting below). We want to see more of Celia’s sarcasm, she seems great.

One of the motifs in this opening episode is starting over. Don and Betty are starting new lives. Don’s professional life is new, too, new firm, new clients, new women to conquer. This life ‘mulligan’ is a creative piece of work from Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, a point made a few weeks ago in The NY Times by Alessandra Stanley.

The night’s overarching theme follows closely from the previous 3 seasons and concerns an idea running through many of Hitchcock’s films—things are not always what they appear. For Mad Men, this could be modified to ‘there are a lot of people slinging bull around.’ And, yes, that bull is abundant in an episode’s titled Public Relations probably is not a coincidence.

The Opening Scene: The word is that we’re going to learn much about Don Draper’s life this season. Knowing that, Matt Weiner’s opening scene was brilliant. The screen goes black and we hear the Ad Age reporter asking the $64,000 question: ‘Who is Don Draper?’ Will we ever know the answer?

But from there we go quickly to the night’s, and one of the series’, main themes, falseness, lies, deceit, whatever way you wish to describe the enormous load of untruths that permeate the lives of the characters and situations in Mad Men.

Don gets the falseness off to a quick start by failing to correct the Ad Age reporter, Jack Hammond, regarding the facts of his life: “knockout wife, 2 kids, house in Westchester…”

Then the two discuss the Glo-Coat TV commercials that Don devised to intentionally mislead people. He didn’t want them to think they were watching a commercial, “at least not for the first 30 seconds,” he says. And those first 30 seconds, which we see later in the episode, show a little boy seemingly in jail. “Let me out of here,” he cries. Actually he’s under his mother’s kitchen table. Is the boy a representative of Don’s unpleasant childhood? Of Don’s disgust with himself for messing things up to such an extent that he’s alone in a Greenwich Village apartment on Thanksgiving?

After the reporter’s false step, the journalists heaps on the falseness motif-he’s got a false leg, courtesy of Korea. After the reporter hobbles away, Roger Sterling chimes in with another example of falsehood. He notes his uncle lost a leg hitching a trailer. “He used to ask me to scratch his toes—he didn’t have any.”

Immediately after that Roger, Don and Pete Campbell head to the Jantzen “party,” as Don calls it. Another falsehood. In reality it’s a cattle call—the type of set-up that Don would not have had to lower himself to attend previously, but now, as a “scrappy upstart,” Sterling Cooper Draper and Pryce has to grin and bear this sort of thing. At any rate, the meeting is with the sportswear company Jantzen, whose prudish owners insist they’re “a family company,” despite the fact that they manufacture the suggestive outer garment known as a bikini, er, two-piece swimsuit (hey, this is still 1964, remember). But are Jantzen’s garment’s revealing? Well, they passed the Roger Sterling test. “I’ve spent a lot of time with the catalog…I’d say no concerns at all,” Roger coos suggestively. After that, upon entering the new S,C,D, P offices (more on the new space below), even Sterling complains of Jantzen’s falseness. “I love how they sit there like a couple of choirboys, you know one of them is leaving NY with V.D.,” he tells Don.

Later, falsehood again comes to the fore with Don’s presentation to Jantzen, when he argues there’s little difference between a bathing suit and underwear. The cut and the print of the cloth, and “some sort of gentlemen’s agreement.” In other words, nothing. Ultimately, as we know, Don can’t stand the falseness and explodes. Is he reacting to the Jantzen people, who are selling sex but insist they’re not? To the false nature of advertising? To the falseness of his created life, whose layers are beginning to be peeled back by Ad Age?

The other major piece of falsehood last night came courtesy of Peggy Olson, who always seems to be struggling on some level. It’s she who hatches the idea to stage some sort of incident to keep ham purveyor Sugarberry happy. Eventually the team settles on paying actresses to pretend to be fighting over a ham before Thanksgiving.

(Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking—Peggy has always longed for Draper, played by Jon Hamm, so here’s a case of art imitating life imitating art, right? Sorry, I don’t buy it. Just a coincidence. What is not coincidence is that right after Don gets only to first base with Bethany in the cab, one of Peggy’s hired actresses, sitting with Peggy in a diner, says, referring to her acting partner, “She doesn’t know when to stop.”)

The New Digs: At first blush the scene upon entering the new offices seems hokey and purposeless. On second thought it goes directly to Dorothy Rabinowitz’s point that the office in Mad Men is where things are cool, lights are bright, there’s lots of glass and chrome, people move about with determination and energy. It’s a cool place. At home, however, things are different. Their interiors are drab and dimly lit. Look at Don’s new bachelor pad, a dark, funereal place. Definitely not cool.

The falsehood theme also finds its way into architecture with the new office’s so-called 2nd floor. Cooper wants “no part of” this fabrication, but Don uses it to his advantage (we assume) in his 2nd of two press interviews (at the show’s end). The phantom 2nd floor also figures (pun intended) into Don’s pitch to Jantzen (see below).

Another Voice of Truth: In an episode with falsehood at its core, in a series populated by a bevy of bull slingers, with little Sally Draper the lone voice of truth, Henry’s mother, Pauline (Pamela Dunlap) is a welcome addition to the fold. She shoots from the hip for the most part. Pauline figured out Betty quickly (“She’s a silly woman”) and speaks her mind to her son, if a bit ruthlessly (“I know what you see in her, and you could have gotten it without marrying”) and with a large dose of meddlesome-ness (“Honestly, Henry, I don’t know how you can stand living in that man’s dirt”).

It’s interesting that she and little Sally, the only straight shooters in the bunch, begin their relationship being at odds with each during Thanksgiving. We’re hoping for an alliance.

Speaking of the truth, Peggy’s office scene with Don might be the most honest of the night. Since the ham thing blew over, the agency’s reputation is intact, Peggy says after Don tells her, “I try to stay away from those kinds of shenanigans.” (True, Don, but you’re hardly a saint.) Later Don says she brought her date to his (Don’s) apartment on Thanksgiving Day to get the ham payoff money because she thought (Don) wouldn’t embarrass her. “At least I’m thinking ahead,” she says. “It doesn’t always work, does it?” Don answers. And then Peggy’s coda: We’re all here for you, Don, just to please you.

Dandy Don: Oh, Don. You’ve made such progress. You’re handling the divorce with a tremendous amount of class, allowing Betty and her new husband to squat freely in the former chez Draper. And you seem to be improving your parenting skills, you hug and kiss the kids, you look at them longingly when you put them to bed, you can sew enough to attach a button (presumably in a pinch you cook a bit, too). At least in comparison to that icy cold ex-wife of yours, you are the better parent. (Although, sure, that’s not too much of a compliment. And in truth, prior to your divorce, you were a parent on the weekends only. Running the house and raising the kids were Betty’s jobs, right?)

Oh, and Don, have you become a prude? When you accountant asks, “So, how’s your balls? Are you enjoying yourself? “ you blush. Although you admit to Roger when he’s trying to set you up that “I’ve hardly been a Monk.”

On the other hand, you’re still Don, er Dick. Whomever. Your “plans” on Thanksgiving include holing up in your Greenwich Village bachelor pad and having your prostitute slap your face (“harder”) while she earns her money astride you. Anybody want to comment on what all that means? A thought: Don simply is thankful for hookers with a good right hook.

Saturday Night Live: Clearly Weiner’s been watching Jon Hamm’s flair for comedy on several Saturday Night Live gigs. So he’s given Don a few subtle comic lines. First was his jab at the Jantzen boss for having to make the same case multiple times during the cattle call. “Next time just have 1 meeting.” Another funny line came at Henry’s expense, when they’re discussing Betty and Henry and the kids living in Don’s house and Henry says, “It’s temporary.” And Don retorts, “Trust me, everybody thinks this is temporary.”

Another good shot comes during the early chat with Cooper, regarding the conference table. Cooper says a client thought “a circle of chairs (instead of a conference table) demands a conversation.” Don shoots back, “About why there is no table.”

Roger’s Still Sterling: Roger and Don seem to have made up and Roger’s witty mouth endures. A few examples:
* Roger on Ad Age: “They’re so cheap, they can’t even afford a whole reporter.” (Do people really speak about print reporters like that?)
* Roger on how to treat women: In Don’s office, Roger describes Jane’s friend Bethany for Don—she looks like Virginia Mayo, is 25 years old, Mt Holyoke gymnastics team. Go out with her the weekend before Thanksgiving and if you hit it off, “come Turkey day, maybe you can stuff her.”
* Roger on interviewing: He berates Don for not cooperating with the Ad Age reporter. “You turned all the sizzle from Glo-Coat into a wet fart. Plus, you sound like a prick.”

Of course, Roger and Don both whack at the reporter. After reading the article, Don says: “I learned a valuable lesson…stay away from one-legged reporters.” Roger: “Yeah, I was thinking about that. Who is he to criticize anybody?” And later, noting Bethany liked Don on the first date despite his being “a bit grabby in the car,” he says, “Maybe you should have fondled Peg-leg Pete?”

First Date: Note before Don leaves his apartment for the date—“the first that Roger was involved in”—he makes certain his bed spread is nice and neat. Was Don expecting something to happen on that bed? Hmmm…Also note two incidences of car romance in this episode. Henry is successful, getting Betty in the garage. (Oh, heavens, sex in the car!) Meanwhile Don gets a juicy lip sandwich from Bethany in a taxi, which seems a pretty thorough tonsillectomy, but is not enough for an exasperated Don. Maybe he has been a monk?

A few words about actress Anna Camp, who plays Bethany. This was yet another nice casting job by Weiner and his crew. Camp was terrific as Sarah Newlin in HBO’s True Blood, where she played the wife of a religious zealot leader. Her character in that series switched between being prim and chaste and being a sexually overheated philanderer. That experience should have prepared her well for work on Mad Men, where complicated characters are a staple.

Notes: [Some parts of this section were updated on July 28 as a result of comments from readers. We thank them for the insights.] Gotta love the manipulation of the press by Don (in his 2nd interview at the end of the show) and by Pete Campbell in the ham incident (getting a false story planted in The Daily News). Roger caps the whole thing off and ties into the night’s main theme when he hands a copy of the Ad Age piece to Don saying: “You know, nobody who’s been associated with an actual event has thought it’s been honestly portrayed in the newspaper.” That should get TV critics and bloggers buzzing. — Interesting bit when the older Jantzen guy asks to put his feet up on the table during Don’s pitch. A classless act from someone representing a family company, right? Go ahead, Roger blurts out, “Pretend like it’s your living room.” Seems everyone’s pretending in this episode. – Speaking of the Jantzen pitch, funny how it returns to the false 2nd floor in Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Pryce’s offices. Don’s tagline on the Jantzen ad is that the company’s swimsuit (or the model wearing it) “is so well built, we can’t show you the 2nd floor.” – Three Jewish mentions: the earlier mention of slain civil rights worker Andrew Goodman; Pete’s trashing of Sugarberry for test marketing some of its hams in Jewish neighborhoods (“they’re idiots,” he says of Sugarberry, knowing traditional Jewish dietary laws prohibit the eating of pork products); and Harry’s telling Joan that his trip to Hollywood was not a vacation. “I had a lot of “tsuris” from Lucy and Desi,” he says to her. Tsuris is a Yiddish word meaning trouble or aggravation. I’m guessing Weiner is showing the acceptance of Yiddish words as part of the vernacular by 1964. Recall that in the series’ first show, which depicted 1961, Sterling Cooper was nearly devoid of Jews. Both Roger and Don swore they’d never “hired one.” The office was scoured to find a token Jew, mail room employee David Coen, to attend a meeting with a Jewish client, Rachel Menkin (Maggie Siff) of Menkin’s department store. Don entered the meeting and introduced himself to Coen, unaware that he was a fellow Sterling Cooper employee. Eventually Don had an affair with Rachel. – Let’s dispel the notion that Betty Draper (see photo below) is an ice queen. Heck, she didn’t put the family pooch outside for the night, she tells Henry in bed. “It was cold outside…I locked him in the laundry room.” What a peach. – The night’s theme, indeed the entire series, can be summed up in Roger’s comment to Don in the aftermath of the Ad Age article, “Who knows who you are?”

Another lesson in breaking through the clutter came to us recently from AMC.

While it’s true that the AMC publicity mill already is in overdrive for the Season IV debut of hit series Mad Men (July 25, 10p), the press kit for another AMC original series brought exclamations of “Clever!” from the routinely dyspeptic journalists at our offices, whose initial reaction to mail is to pitch it toward the nearest abattoir.

The press kit in question touts Rubicon, a mysterious tale of the intelligence community told in a darkly depressing, nearly empty, low-tech setting. It stars James Badge Dale, whom you’ll recognize from his outstanding work in HBO’s Emmy-heavy The Pacific. The series begins Aug 1 at 8p, with back-to-back eps preceding Mad Men. (Actually, as CableFAX Daily reported, AMC snuck in Rubicon’s pilot after the season-concluding ep of another fine original, Breaking Bad. The first of 2 eps Aug 1 will be a re-showing of the pilot. For those who don’t want to wait AMC’s site has the full pilot available now.)

In a blog, Kim Potts at TV Squad provides 8 reasons to watch Rubicon, with #8 being the amount of thought that was put into the series’ title. The word Rubicon means a point after which one can’t return. “I appreciate that so much thought, obviously, went into the show’s name, and am taking it as one of many signs that just as much thought has gone into other aspects of the show,” Potts writes. There certainly was plenty of thought put into the Rubicon press kit by the always creative duo of Theano Apostolou and Olivia Dupuis, along with Dorothea Donnelly.

Inside the kit is a thumb disc encased in a small, crumpled paper envelope. The disc itself is in the shape of a key. There’s also a message scribbled on a piece of paper inside the envelope: ‘Don’t look back…it’s time,’ it says. Both the key and the message are elements in Rubicon’s pilot.

In most press kits there’s the obligatory packet of papers. But AMC has provided several interesting twists here. First, sealing the package is a sticker with the somewhat imposing logo of the American Policy Institute, a fictional NY City-based federal think-tank where Dale’s character, Will Travers, works.

The package’s contents are totally in keeping with the series, too. For all the important work it does, API is a decidedly low-tech place. Its drab interior is nearly devoid of the electronic gadgetry you’d expect to be de rigueur in an outpost of the intelligence community. You have to strain to find a desktop computer here. In fact, “the computer guy,” called Hal (in what must be a nod to the computer in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey), is located in a cage in the basement. Travers and his colleagues trudge around hauling mountains of paper, similar to the packet AMC has included in the press kit.

And the papers inside the kit don’t disappoint. Like the API analysts receive each morning, journalists got a collection of covert-looking black and white photos and documents. Here, though, the shots show the series’ cast, complete with notes scribbled on them as to time, date and location of the photos. There’s also a crossword puzzle clipped out of a newspaper and a four-leaf clover (watch the pilot, you’ll see why these are important).

The tip off that this isn’t your garden-variety press kit comes in its 1-sheet, which reads: “Dear Journalist, After a thorough background check, you have been granted security clearance to access the enclosed classified information on AMC’s new original series…” A clever ending touch discusses the cast members. “Should you need to speak with any of these individuals for a one-on-one interrogation, we are willing to make the arrangements for you.”

With The Washington Post’s fascinating series about the U.S. intelligence community starting to dominate discussions in the area of the country where I am blogging, I think we can add yet another reason to Potts’ 8 why one will enjoy watching Rubicon this summer.

There are a lot of things, good and bad, being said about Yankees owner George M. Steinbrenner III today: the irascible personality, the meddling with and eventual firing of 22 managers (Donald Trump didn’t invent “You’re fired!”, George did), the sense of humor, the generosity and kindnesses, the appearances on SNL and his numerous ‘appearances’ on Seinfeld (where Larry David—face always obscured—played him). Whatever way you choose to think of him, you have to remember he was a revolutionary, a cable revolutionary.

The Boss, who was ahead of his time in many aspects of sports business, opened the floodgates for team-owned, regional sports networks, which found welcome venues on cable. Later there were cable operator-owned and cable programmer-owned sports networks.

As YES Network President/CEO Tracy Dolgin said today, “His vision of a team-owned regional sports network for the Yankees, resulting in the formation of the YES Network, revolutionized the sports business.” For this alone, Steinbrenner deserves mention (and probably a thank-you from everyone—including Mr Dolgin himself— whose livelihood is influenced by the flow of cable sports network dollars. So, thank you very much, Mr S).

Just think of it, without George cable operators would have had far fewer headaches. There would have been no wars between YES and Cablevision, for example.

Remember the a la carte proposition for sports nets that was a popular stopgap about 7 years ago? Those were fun days, right? And you thought George didn’t have a sense of humor.

And remember all those fun fights around 2003 between Time Warner and Fox Cable over sports nets rates? Wasn’t that a blast?

There would have been no shedding tears over sports tiers, which might not have existed without Steinbrenner’s YES.

Of course, as with most instances of change, plenty of people doubted Steinbrenner’s concept of a team-owned regional sports net. It was just another money grab, many said. Years ago it used to get hot at the National Show—or at least what passed for heat at those tightly scripted, well-mannered forum general sessions—when cable operators would warn team owners that they wouldn’t carry newly formed regional networks. That turned out not to be the case, especially when cable operators themselves began to enter the regional sports business. Well, at least it provided trade reporters with lead stories.

A much more subtle influence lives after George Steinbrenner. With the amount of money involved in certain team-owned sports networks, in baseball, especially, teams have a business reason, an imperative, actually, to win. Without a winning team, viewers won’t watch and ratings and ad rates will fall. The thing is, the unpredictability of sports in the free agent era tends to make winning a less-than-certain proposition. What a headache for team owners, who also own the sports network, right?

George had that covered. Being an old football man, he expected and demanded to win every game. And he opened his wallet to get many of the game’s best players to insure that he’d win every game. Of course in baseball if you lose 62 times in a season you probably win your division. Steinbrenner took a while to make peace with that. The result of his football mentality was that within about 5 years of his owning the Yankees, they began to win on a consistent basis. And YES Network is watched by more people than any other regional. That’s been the case on a consistent basis, too. A pretty good legacy.

In today’s fast-moving world it’s hard to remember what happened last week. It’s even more difficult to remember Showtime circa 2003, before Robert Greenblatt arrived.

In July of that year Greenblatt was given “a mandate to reinvigorate the Showtime brand…,” a press release announcing his departure as President of Entertainment said yesterday.

Reinvigorate? To reinvigorate something assumes it was once vigorous. With due respect, Showtime before 2003 lacked vigor.

That’s not to say Showtime didn’t try hard. In those days what Showtime lacked in quality and star power it made up for with quantity. Early on it seemed like Showtime released an original film almost every week. It was a remarkable output.

While the quality of most of the films didn’t cause HBO to worry, others were excellent. Varian’s War (2001), which starred William Hurt and Julia Ormond, told the little known story of an American socialite who’d seen how the Nazis were treating Jews in occupied France. In the end, with help from Eleanor Roosevelt, Varian Fry helped save some 2,000 artists and intellectuals from certain death.

Besides providing work for plenty of actors, writers and makeup people, the Showtime film factory also filled a journalistic void. Thanks to Showtime’s PR staff TV critics’ shelves always were loaded with material for review.

Showtime enjoyed a bit of momentum just prior to Greenblatt’s entrance. The network decided to zig where others zagged. Recognizing the paucity of solid dramas centered on non-whites, Showtime brought audiences the Latin-based Resurrection Blvd (2002-03, 53 eps) and Soul Food (2000-04, 74 eps), spun off from the 1997 theatrical of the same name.

What Greenblatt really did at Showtime was, again, as the press release said, “establish [it] as a leading premium subscription network with original programming.”

I can recall when Greenblatt was introduced to critics at TCA that year. Showtime chief Matt Blank told critics Showtime was going to vastly reduce its film output and concentrate on fewer but better productions. Greenblatt was going to attract big-name Hollywood talent to Showtime. The TCA critics, never known to be a gullible bunch, had their doubts. HBO still was the only game in town. Showtime was where you went when HBO turned you down.

The thing is, a few years later, Greenblatt and Blank had made good on their promises. Its TCA sessions were brimming with buzz-generating critics, who flocked to hear from big-name talent. Blank and Greenblatt had indeed made more, much more, out of less.

While HBO arguably remains the leader in many branches of programming, including dramas, original films, miniseries and documentaries, Showtime originals like Dexter, Weeds and Nurse Jackie have made the network a force. Although he’s too humble to admit it, that’s mostly Greenblatt’s doing. In a word, the brand is vigorous.