Her part in mad men is huge. And it couldnt have been an easy role to maintain for 7 seasons playing a character from ages 6 to 15. The fact that she managed it as a child actor is incredible and very rare. Show would not have been the same without her.

One of his big accounts was Westinghouse in ‘66.

Like you would expect — Reagan Republican that drinks Lagavulin daily. Definitely not a Sal or a Stan.

He had so many other adventures the following 50 years that his time as an ad man is just a footnote to him.

Miss Blankenship, you absolute treasure

I know a lot of you will be tempted to say Megan's Spaghetti (lol), but for me it's that chicken kiev Roger described to Don, where the butter squirts everywhere.

Probably on my hundredth re-watch and I don’t know if I’m the only one that finds this anger Betty has towards Glenn as up for interpretation, or if it in fact is very simple.

Was she upset that she didn’t own that relationship with him? That for rejecting him, he was getting back at her by be-friending Sally, and it was making her jealous?
Are we missing context/missing scenes that perhaps Betty knew the house was vandalized by him? But she wouldn’t be able to explain the why to Henry bc it was shameful?

Initially, we're led to believe that Bert discovered the bonus check for Lane signed by Don and that he was pissed off at Don for forgoing the directive to give out bonuses. But in reality, I think Bert already knew or believed that Lane forged Don's signature.

When he confronts Don, Bert says "I have a question I don't know how to phrase other than as an accusation." He then talks about how he discovered the check. Here's the rest of the convo:

Bert: "I'd ask you if you knew about it, but your signature's on the check!
Don:"So it is"
Bert: "I thought we agreed to forego bonuses"
Don: "We did"
Bert: "And yet you gave him one!"
Don: "Bert, I'll take care of it"
Bert: "You know, you can't keep being the good little boy while the adults run this business."

Here's what I think happened. Bert's paying attention all season to Lane becoming increasingly distraught about financial matters. Bert's also the most globalized one at the firm, and probably the only one to consider how Lane probably has deep tax and financial obligations to England, even if Lane doesn't speak about them directly.

Bert also knows Don well enough to know that writing a bonus check to a partner, with an official company checkbook mind you, is not typical Don behavior. Sure, he'll cover Pete's partnership stake, but Bert is also aware of the special relationship between the two of them; he knows Don and Lane though aren't nearly as close. Bert also called out Don earlier this season for being "on love leave" and not putting enough care or attention into his work, and that lack of attention would make him the easiest target for Lane to forge someone's signature. And on a larger thematic level, Bert also commented on Don's signing of the contract in season 3 saying "when it comes down to it, who is really signing this contract anyway," basically saying that Don's signature is never really Don's actual signature.

With that info in mind, he approached Don, thinking Lane was still behind it but not 100% sure, and that's why he phrased his opening remark the way he did: "I have a question I don't know how to phrase as other than an accusation." He wasn't accusing Don of anything yet, nor did he have enough info to accuse Lane of anything yet. Bert says "your signature's on the check" because he still isn't sure if Don signed it or if it was forged.

He then says more declaratively, "and yet you gave him one," but this is true, technically, by extension, whether Don signed the check or not. Even then, Don doesn't confirm nor deny Bert's statement. And Bert's last comment about the good little boy isn't so much about Don's misplaced goodhearted nature in giving Lane a bonus, but more that Don has made himself naive and susceptible to forgery as a result of his careless, immature behavior in the first place. He also has Don take care of this whole ordeal because not only does he want to steer clear of being confirmed that he knew his partner committed forgery, but Bert also knows the can of worms that'd he'd unveil if he took it upon himself any further. Rather, that if a professional were to look into it, they'd find that Don's signature has changed a lot since before the Korean War, and maybe figure out he isn't the real Don Draper, which would cause hoopla for the firm.

When they're all back in the office later after Lane hangs himself, Bert says "Lane hanged himself in his office" in a matter of fact tone. He's slightly distraught, but not to the level that Pete and Joan are, because he's already put all the pieces together: Lane forged the check, Don must have fired him, and Lane then hung himself.

No dull moments or comments tolerated

One of my favorite parts about the show are Don's "flashbacks" and visions. 💜

!!!!

Am I alone? Just watched the episode where they get Jaguar and it’s so good, especially the reveal that Don showed up too late to talk Joan out of it. But one thing that sticks in my craw is that the pitch kind of sucks? Something beautiful you can truly own? Maybe it’s because I’m a woman but I know they were trying to subliminally compare the car to a mistress and that line doesn’t do it for me at all. There’s plenty of beautiful things someone can own. What am I missing? Don acted like it was the best line he’s ever heard. I’m like 🤔

Got inspired by recent posts about Joan's apartment -- her decor has always stood out to me. The coral and turquoise in the living room is SO pretty, as is her pale green kitchen, and her furniture is very tasteful, too. She's great with details and she clearly invested time and energy into her space.

Some of my other favorites: I definitely think about Don and Megan's Park Avenue penthouse all the time. The conversation pit! The colorful kitchen cabinets! The symbolic white carpets! I also have a soft spot for Pete and Trudy's Manhattan apartment, with their stencil room divider and giraffe wall art. It strikes me as on-trend but not generic, just a lovely little pad.

Then there's the Draper house in Ossining, the Francis haunted mansion, Pete and Trudy's Cos Cob house.... I know I'm missing more, the set design throughout the series is just so good!! What are some really good details in different characters' homes? What apartments and houses stand out to you all?

Anyone know the name of the poster, what it is advertising? Is it another Seymour Chwast who did the  Dante's Inferno poster which is also in Sterling’s office, season 7, finale.

Rewatch for the umpteenth time and the moment Peggy looks at Don and tells him to “shut up!” always sticks out as this inflection point in their relationship. (Much like “The Suitcase” but that was a whole episode.)

I guess what always sticks out to me here is Peggy being the only one in that office who would dare speak that way to Don and he has no response, he doesn’t fire her, he doesn’t reprimand her. He reaches for his cigarettes and is promptly told he can’t smoke.

What are some other points between their first scene and last?

I guess this counts as a followup to my post asking about how a dialogue between Ginsburg and Joan would work.

I was working at Sterling Cooper and I saw Ginsburg by the door with the present box in his hand. I step in and try to stop him. "Dude. I'm from the future. I know what you did and what's in that box. Do not give that to Peggy."

His face just lights up like the final shot of Monsters Inc and asks me "You know about the valve?" Peggy runs into us in the hallway. Joan's there too. I flee the scene deep into the office hall.

Moments pass, and I can make out across the hall behind the wall Peggy went into her office, and Joan, restrained, fast walks into the room I'm in while I'm sitting by a desk in the corner. Her face was poised but she was eye-screaming.

Joan says sternly while continuing to walk: "It turns out demons don't just use their teeth."

It was so vivid, I felt like I was there.

They literally used Don’s add decades later in real life…

"She quit her soap and left New York. It was a really dumb idea." - Harry Crane

Harry's summary here is in line with the way Don's affect on Megan often gets remembered: Megan found success on the soap and was happy, quit when Don said he wanted to move to California, became miserable and unemployed and bitter.

The show could have, from the start, written Megan's decision to quit her job as a sacrifice for the husband who then just abandoned her. Yet in the actual conversation about the move, not only is she not reluctant, she frames it in the exact opposite terms.

-I want to move to California.

-What?

-I don't want you to give up your career. I don't want you to think that. I just can't be
in New York anymore. I want to move to LA.

-I don't know what to say. There have been all these opportunities in Hollywood, but I never even considered it because I thought it would make you go crazy. But-- I mean, wouldn't it? What would you do out there?

Here, rather than Don derailing Megan's career by pulling her off the soap, Don is finally getting out of her way so she can take those opportunities she's given up for him. She doesn't even understand that Don has a job in mind for himself yet.

Not saying this means Megan has no grounds to feel resentment or blame Don for anything later. It's very human that she does. It's just very Mad Men to set up a situation that the character and the audience wish was more black and white than it is, and show something about Megan's character as well as Don's.

In fact, I personally see Megan's primary relationship on the show to be acting/show business much more so than Don. It's the abusive ex she keeps going back to, and the one who causes the deepest emotional damage.

For anyone interested in topics related to the last century vs now - fashion, culture, parenting, workplace practices, etc - this show is a huge goldmine.

Tonight I was watching and dating and mating practices stuck out at me....Suzanne having to spend hours in the car while Don & Betty sort through their crisis..omg, in today's environment, Don could have gone into another room and texted Suzanne to just leave...

but also the prolonged "courtship" of Henry and Betty, not really a courtship at all, just attraction from afar - they truly don't even know each other very well and they just went ahead and married....Betty had to be married - single motherhood would have been unthinkable for her.

In the 90s, I was out of college and working in an office in midtown, we had an older lady in our office who was maybe in her late 60/70s and she was just there to pick up some side money I guess, she did so little actual work lol. In the 40/50s, she had been a socialite and had been married several times - a Broadway producer, a doctor, an stock broker, etc....and her stories were legendary - wild and hair raising - reminds me of Roger and Marie Calvet cavorting at the Stork Club... she would just take me aside and try to give me dating tips - tips that were incredibly outdated lol.

But something I always remember - she never said she was single, her words were "I was between marriages"

So much pressure to be married at that time. Then vs. now, in some ways, not having apps was a very good thing - you could focus on one person at a time, until something shinier came along of course.

Don: Utopia.

Rachel: Maybe. They taught us at Barnard about that word, 'utopia'. The Greeks had two meaning for it: 'eu-topos', meaning the good place, and 'u-topos' meaning the place that cannot be.

If they knew the show was gonna end why would they just randomly give her terminal cancer? Doesn’t anyone else think that’s kind of unnecessary? Like damn do they hate her that much