‘Mad Men’ sells story of 1960 — and today

< Prev | 1 | 2

Television video

SyFy reimagines ‘Alice in Wonderland’
Dec. 5: Caterina Scorsone, who plays Alice in the network’s modern adaptation of the classic novel, joins NBC’s Lester Holt and Amy Robach to discuss the series.

Stage star Chenoweth on new gig

‘Monk’ actor on show finale

Will LL Cool J show off his abs?

‘Chuck’ actor on ‘Chipmunks’ role

It's a man's world
Smart, kicky and cosmopolitan, "Mad Men" is redolent of John Cheever short stories and "The Apartment," the multi-Oscar-winning film about corporate climbers that happens to have been released in 1960.

"By talking about that era," says Weiner, "I can talk about everything right now that I care about." Social mores. Civil rights. Sex. Gender roles. The definition of adulthood.

"I love the division that has existed since then," he adds — "a countercultural wave and a conservative wave that keep co-opting each other."

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Weiner wrote the pilot script seven years ago, when he was 35 and had three children (he has four now) and already had been married for a decade.

"I was thinking about what it means to be a man," he recalls, "and I realized: This is more complicated than I thought it was gonna be."

His credits included the TV comedies "Becker" and "Andy Richter Controls the Universe." But his "Mad Men" script came to the attention of "Sopranos" mastermind David Chase, who hired Weiner as a writer for this lofty drama at the start of its fifth season.

Then AMC bought "Mad Men." A day after Weiner completed work on the first half of "The Sopranos'" sixth season in March 2006, he began casting the pilot. Shooting wrapped a few weeks later and he returned to "The Sopranos" for its final stretch.

He finished up last January. The next day, production began on the 13-episode "Mad Men" season.

Will viewers buy it?
Among the countless challenges the series has imposed is its exacting period look, from the men's natty suits to the plush midtown saloons.

Behold the IBM Selectric typewriters! A high-tech marvel in 1960 but nearly impossible to find in 2007, this is just one detail of the Sterling Cooper set, whose design is plenty modern for its day but also comes across as appropriately lived-in.

"We try to keep things dirty and cluttered enough," says Weiner, "and to keep the ashtrays filled."

Regular visual updating awaits "Mad Men," if it's a hit. Its first season will carry the story through December 1960, but successive seasons would likely advance in two-year increments.

"In five years, we would be at 1970," Weiner says. And what of Don Draper? His creator hopes to have the chance to take him all the way, while continuing to show that rules are made to be broken.

< Prev | 1 | 2