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Mad Men
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Mad Men is an American period drama TV series surrounding an advertising firm on Madison Avenue, New York City, during The '60s. The series deconstructs nostalgia of the "good old days" of America's past and explores the changing American landscape through the eyes of Sterling-Cooper Advertising and the world of advertising at the dawn of the decade that would change the country forever.The series, while an ensemble piece, focuses mainly on Don Draper (Jon Hamm), a charming rogue Living a Double Life and chasing things he can't have — making him perfect for advertising. Other characters include: Peggy Olsen (Elisabeth Moss), who starts out as Don's new secretary but aspires to break into the advertising business herself... and has the talent to counter the misogyny of the '60s. Her arc involves not only her growth into a High-Powered Career Woman but her Heterosexual Life Partnership with Don. Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks), office manager and head secretary at Sterling-Cooper. A Head-Turning Beauty and the Hypercompetent Sidekick who keeps the agency running, Joan faces similar challenges to Peggy but has somewhat different answers. Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser), an accounts mannote He speaks to the client and finds out what they want. He then hands that information over to Creative, which Don is in charge of, and they actually execute on the client's orders. with large aspirations but somewhat less talent. His wedding to Trudy Campbell (Alison Brie) is one of the defining events of the first season. His constant chafing about what he thinks he deserves forms the bulk of his character arc. Betty Draper (January Jones), Don's Trophy Wife. Privileged and sheltered, she is living the suburban housewife dream but nonetheless balks at how empty her life is. Sally Draper (Kiernan Shipka), Don and Betty's oldest child. 6 years old at the start of the series, her slow growth into maturity defines her character arc. She has a younger brother named Bobby (Mason Vale Cotton, eventually); the Drapers add a second son, Gene, in a later season. Roger Sterling (And Starring John Slattery): the son of the man who founded the firm. He is Don's mentor, but more importantly one of his closest friends, drawn together by their shared love of drink and womanizing, not to mention experiences in the service (World War II for Roger, The Korean War for Don). Like Betty, he is the scion of a rich family, and has rarely found a problem he can't solve by throwing money at it; like Betty, he's not exactly mature. Bertram Cooper (And Starring Robert Morse): the other co-founder of the firm. An Eccentric Mentor who flits in and out of the office at his own whims, he nonetheless knows the business inside and out.As the show progresses through the 1960s, many seasons are tied to and punctuated by milestone events. Season 1 starts around the time the combined oral contraceptive pill is cleared for public consumption, laying the foundation for huge cultural shifts, and culminates in the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy. Season 2 takes place during 1962 (not before beginning with a brief recap of what everyone’s been doing since 1961) and ends with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Season 3 runs through 1963 and features the JFK assassination in its penultimate episode. Season 4 (1964-65) breaks this pattern, though much of it centers around The Vietnam War. Season 5 (1966-67) continues to deal with Vietnam. Season 6 (1968)*OK, technically, it begins in December 1967 skipping the "Summer of Love" is highly chaotic (just like the year) and delves into the racial tensions at the time, including the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The first half of Season 7 begins with Nixon's inauguration in January 1969 and ends with man's first moonwalk later in July. The final half continues and closes in 1970, with less focus on current real-life events and more on the professional and personal turmoils of the main cast.The series is the brainchild of showrunner Matthew Weiner, at one point the Number Two man on The Sopranos. Weiner originally pitched to HBO—with whom he had a working relationship, after all—but they turned it down. He then turned to AMC, which has run with the ball as far as Mad Men being to AMC as The Shield (or Sons of Anarchy) is to FX Network.The show ran for 7 seasons from July 19, 2007 to May 17, 2015, and aired as a Sunday Evening Drama Series; receiving fifteen Emmys and four Golden Globes along the way. After the success they had with splitting Breaking Bad's last season into two parts, AMC elected to do the same with Mad Men; the first half of Season 7 aired in spring 2014, and the second half aired in spring 2015.A character sheet and recap page are currently under construction; show them some love. | |
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Mad Men / int_11cdc5d8 | type |
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant | |
Mad Men / int_11cdc5d8 | comment |
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: Much of the cast, but especially Pete Campbell and Betty Draper. | |
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Cannot Keep a Secret | |
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Cannot Keep a Secret: In "Dark Shadows", Roger asks Ginsberg if he can keep a secret and Ginsberg says "Nope." Sure enough, later in the episode, he tells Peggy the secret. | |
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Goodbye, Cruel World! | |
Mad Men / int_12a59731 | comment |
Goodbye, Cruel World!: A rather fitting one for Lane Pryce: | |
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Mad Men / int_12dd1d4c | type |
Rape as Drama | |
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Rape as Drama: Joan gets raped by her fiancé in Don's office. Don was raped in the past while staying in a brothel as a child. | |
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Drunk Driver | |
Mad Men / int_1392fbe7 | comment |
Drunk Driver: Don rolls his car while tooling around with Bobbi Barrett. Lois the secretary gets hammered and takes the John Deere tractor in the office for a spin. It ends with an amputated foot. | |
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Mad Men / int_1420a9b8 | type |
Scenery Censor | |
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Scenery Censor: Roger is nude in "Time Zones", but a very, very carefully placed telephone covers his naughty bits. | |
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Amazingly Embarrassing Parents | |
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Megan is fairly eclectic, but seems to like wine — as do her Amazingly Embarrassing Parents, who (surprise, surprise) are French-Canadian intellectuals. | |
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Heroic BSoD | |
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Heroic BSoD: Don's little California adventure, until he's snapped out of it by a visit to Anna. Later he has a very realistic and scary panic attack when an ill-advised government contract puts his past in more danger than ever of being discovered. Don in the elevator and lobby of his apartment building in "Favors" after Sally catches Don and Sylvia having sex in Sylvia's apartment. | |
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Crosses the Line Twice | |
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Kids are running around the house at Sally's birthday party. One of them breaks a glass after jostling a table. A man grabs him, slaps his face, and reprimands him. Then the boy's father shows up and makes the child apologize to the man who slapped him. And then he tells the boy to have his mother clean up the mess. | |
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Darker and Edgier | |
Mad Men / int_14beeefd | comment |
Darker and Edgier: The series shows the darker side of The '60s, averting the Nostalgia Filter. | |
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Does This Remind You of Anything? | |
Mad Men / int_14ed6ab7 | comment |
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Since season 6 takes place when the Vietnam War is unfolding, the show references the topic using the Chevrolet account as an analogue. Pete clutches his .22 rifle awfully protectively while getting yelled at by Trudy for trading a wedding gift for it. A drugged-up Betty, undergoing childbirth, dreams pleasant dreams. A smash cut back to reality shows a hospital vending machine being violently jostled until a nurse finally "delivers" a box of cigarettes. | |
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Mad Men / int_15395adc | type |
The Mistress | |
Mad Men / int_15395adc | comment |
The Mistress: All of Don's girlfriends before his divorce could be said to be this, except for the also-married Bobbi and Sylvia. Suzanne, the schoolteacher that he forms a genuine emotional bond with, might be the most typical example of this trope. Jane is also this before she becomes Roger's trophy wife. | |
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Mad Men / int_170128e9 | type |
Right Behind Me | |
Mad Men / int_170128e9 | comment |
Right Behind Me: Harry makes sexist comments about Megan to Stan. Megan eventually walks in on them, and Harry ignores Stan's "Hi, Megan!" warning, proceeding to Dig Himself Deeper. | |
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Mad Men / int_1722aaf | type |
Hitler Ate Sugar | |
Mad Men / int_1722aaf | comment |
Hitler Ate Sugar: "All I can get from this story is that Hitler didn't smoke, and I do." — Roger in "Red in the Face" | |
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Mad Men / int_1779f10e | type |
"Well Done, Son" Guy | |
Mad Men / int_1779f10e | comment |
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Don to Peggy. Don himself suddenly decides that he's not up for one of these relationships with Connie Hilton after having been made to feel like he did something wrong by not living up to Hilton's weird standards. Pete never got this with his own father and desperately seeks it from Don and Duck. Joan was shown to be shocked in "To Have And To Hold" when her usually irritating and tradition-leaning Mother remarks about being proud of the fact she's the mother of a junior executive and said it even stunned her to be so proud. | |
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Mad Men / int_17ce80aa | type |
All There in the Manual | |
Mad Men / int_17ce80aa | comment |
All There in the Manual: Each episode has multiple commentaries on the DVDs, which have writers, directors, actors, and even sound guys talking about the decisions they made and what everything means. | |
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Mad Men / int_17fe01d4 | type |
Girl Watching | |
Mad Men / int_17fe01d4 | comment |
Girl Watching: When the men of SC watch the secretaries through a one-way mirror in "Babylon" as the secretaries sample lipstick. | |
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Mad Men / int_18d15922 | type |
Title Drop | |
Mad Men / int_18d15922 | comment |
Title Drop: Roughly one-third of all episodes have their titles dropped in one way or another. The most prominent example is probably "Shut the Door, Have a Seat." "The Phantom" is used by Megan's mother as a metaphor for how Megan keeps trying to do things that she is unable to do. | |
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Mad Men / int_1994ba0b | type |
Gone Horribly Right | |
Mad Men / int_1994ba0b | comment |
Gone Horribly Right: Throughout the series, the characters will work really hard to get a new client, but once the client signs up with the agency, it creates a a ton of conflict and makes everyone miserable. The Jaguar deal is a great way for SCDP to show that it is a serious contender in the ad world, but it means having to work with slimy Entitled Bastard Herb. The Chevy deal really puts the agency in the spotlight but the auto executives end up almost killing Ken. The merger allows the agency to win the Chevy contract, but it creates massive stresses among the partners, with Cutler being on the verge of taking control of the agency. Opening a California office brings in a lot of new business and Pete and Ted get away from the problems they have in New York. However, the separation only increases the tension in the agency and both Pete and Ted end up miserable. Taking out a newspaper ad to attack one of their competitors after their employees are caught racially abusing some civil rights protesters gets SCDP some favorable publicity... and roughly two dozen African-Americans showing up looking for employment, forcing the already struggling agency to hire one as a secretary just so they don't look like hypocrites. Subverted when the person they hire, Dawn, proves extremely competent at her job (and just the right person to replace Joan as office manager when Joan moves to Accounts). | |
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Mad Men / int_19fe3478 | type |
Daddy's Girl | |
Mad Men / int_19fe3478 | comment |
Daddy's Girl: Played mostly straight with Sally Draper, who comes to loathe her mother. Her relationship with Don gets rocky as Don's life gets rockier in later seasons, but in Season 7A they have a rapprochement. Pete and his young daughter Tammy fall into this role in Season 7B. Trudy even discusses and deconstructs the trope with her friend. Played around with Betty and her father, Gene; she was shown to be really protective of him when his dementia kicks in and names her youngest (and favorite) child after him. Peggy was implied to have had a close relationship with her father before he died; she takes it hard when her mother states that the late Mr. Olson would be disappointed in her for "living in sin" with Abe. | |
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Mad Men / int_1b596e24 | type |
The Beard | |
Mad Men / int_1b596e24 | comment |
The Beard: Kitty Romano, Sal's wife. The scene where Sal gets a little too enthusiastic about the choreography in a commercial, and his wife figures this out, is pretty funny, yet deeply sad. Bob Benson flirts with Joan in hopes of making her one. When he suddenly proposes to her in "The Strategy", she tells him that she is aware of his sexuality and that if she marries again, it will be with someone she loves. | |
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Mad Men / int_1ba17583 | type |
The Ghost | |
Mad Men / int_1ba17583 | comment |
The Ghost: Harry Crane's much-hated rival Mitch. Mrs. Blankenship is one for the first three seasons as Cooper's secretary. She then becomes Don's secretary and plays a much-loved recurring role in Season 4. Then she dies, and becomes a literal ghost. | |
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Mad Men / int_1ba8eb64 | type |
Visual Pun | |
Mad Men / int_1ba8eb64 | comment |
Visual Pun: After Pete Campbell's father dies, the family's in the parlor, discussing everything but the death. Then his mother finally points out the elephant in the room. An actual pink ceramic elephant on the mantel, that she hates and immediately gives away. Also this elephant is given away to Trudy, who never felt completely comfortable with her old money in-laws who made it clear they found her to be merely Nouveau Riche, she's the elephant in the room as well. | |
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Mad Men / int_1c3d047e | type |
The Rival | |
Mad Men / int_1c3d047e | comment |
The Rival: Several firms hold this position with varying degrees of amicability. Peggy and "Cutler, Gleason, and Chaough" is probably the most prominent example. | |
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Mad Men / int_1c445e86 | type |
Poor Communication Kills | |
Mad Men / int_1c445e86 | comment |
Poor Communication Kills: Peggy finds flowers on her secretary Shirley's desk on Valentine's Day. Peggy assumes that the flowers were sent to her by a secret admirer. When she asks Shirley who the flowers are from, Shirley tries to explain that they are from her own fiancé, but she doesn't have the heart to tell Peggy this. Peggy assumes that Ted sent the flowers and sends him an angry call telling him that "that account" is lost forever. Ted assumes that Peggy is actually talking about a real account and is somewhat worried for the agency. | |
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Mad Men / int_1c5002bc | type |
The Stoic | |
Mad Men / int_1c5002bc | comment |
The Stoic: Don, to the point that it's startling whenever he does show any emotion. | |
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Badass Israeli | |
Mad Men / int_1c785368 | comment |
Badass Israeli: Referenced in an episode where executives of the company try to learn about Israel while considering how to pitch it as a tourist destination. All they can figure out on their own is that the women are attractive and have machine guns. When asked for her opinion on Israelis, a New York Jew can only advise Don Draper not to cross them. | |
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Wrong-Name Outburst | |
Mad Men / int_1c96f945 | comment |
Wrong-Name Outburst: See Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!, above. | |
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Green-Eyed Monster | |
Mad Men / int_1d2400e9 | comment |
Green-Eyed Monster: In "The Quality of Mercy", Don does just about everything in his power to sabotage Peggy and Chaough's burgeoning relationship. | |
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Mad Men / int_1e7c47ab | type |
Stealth Pun | |
Mad Men / int_1e7c47ab | comment |
Stealth Pun: "Every job has its ups and downs." Said by Hollis, the elevator attendant. Herb Rennet's wife's nickname is Peaches... as in the musical duo Peaches and Herb. | |
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Fingore | |
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Fingore: In Season 4, Joan gives her own finger a nasty slice while cutting oranges. | |
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No Hero to His Valet | |
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No Hero to His Valet: The secretaries are privy to information about their bosses that could easily ruin them in some cases. | |
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I Need a Freaking Drink | |
Mad Men / int_1f250372 | comment |
I Need a Freaking Drink: So often. And a smoke, too. A particularly direct one in "Flight 1": After being informed his father was on the infamous crashed flight, Pete's first reaction is to pour a glass of whisky and step, speechless, out of his office, where he downs the whole drink in a single gulp and makes his way to Don's office to ask for advice... and Don promptly pours him another. | |
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Mad Men / int_1fcf563d | type |
Directed by Cast Member | |
Mad Men / int_1fcf563d | comment |
For his directorial bit in "Signal 30", John Slattery seems to like these. This episode features a Match Cut with Ken opening a door, cutting to Pete in the same position opening a different door, and an audio Match Cut from a woman tapping her shoes to Pete Campbell's dripping faucet. | |
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Mad Men / int_200c8312 | type |
Alternate Company Equivalent | |
Mad Men / int_200c8312 | comment |
Alternate Company Equivalent: Almost every important member of SCDP has a direct CGC counterpart, sometimes with a physical resemblance. This creates some confusion when they merge. | |
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Mad Men / int_20989d05 | type |
Parents as People | |
Mad Men / int_20989d05 | comment |
Parents as People: So many examples and from the POV of the parents and the kids (like Sally and Bobby) themselves, the characters have rich, varied personalities and lives but they don't exactly live up the term Good Parents but often are dealing with their own issues; discussed by Peggy and Stan in "Time and Life". | |
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Wrong Genre Savvy | |
Mad Men / int_20a14df0 | comment |
Wrong Genre Savvy: It's soon clear that after being assigned as Don's secretary, Maureen labors under the belief the two are going to engage in a series of bantering that will ultimate in an epic romance and Don is just "playing the game" to be professional in the office. The truth, of course, is that Don has no idea of Maureen's feelings and is baffled when, after a bad deal, she gives him a kiss and says "we'll get through this together." | |
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Mad Men / int_21d47bb7 | type |
Nouveau Riche | |
Mad Men / int_21d47bb7 | comment |
Also this elephant is given away to Trudy, who never felt completely comfortable with her old money in-laws who made it clear they found her to be merely Nouveau Riche, she's the elephant in the room as well. | |
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Mad Men / int_21f3e32e | type |
Chekhov's Boomerang | |
Mad Men / int_21f3e32e | comment |
Chekhov's Boomerang: Don's desertion/identity switch in Korea. | |
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Mad Men / int_21f3e32e | |
Mad Men / int_222dc873 | type |
Black Comedy | |
Mad Men / int_222dc873 | comment |
Black Comedy: On occasion and most definitely in "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency", in which the titular Guy gets his foot chopped up by a lawnmower. Anything having to do with Miss Blankenship in "The Beautiful Girls". Lane's attempt to use his new Jaguar as an instrument of suicide in "Commissions and Fees" is possibly one of the most exquisite examples of black comedy ever put on television, incorporating Brick Jokes, riffs on Lane's characteristic stoicism, and just general good acting to produce a scene where you can't help but laugh and then feel very guilty about laughing because what's happening is so horrifying. | |
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Mad Men / int_222dc873 | |
Mad Men / int_22a27b19 | type |
Alpha Bitch | |
Mad Men / int_22a27b19 | comment |
Betty Draper Francis and her friend Francine Hanson. Both are unhappy homemakers with distant and unfaithful husbands and share a Alpha Bitch-like personality and wit with the common prejudices of that time. But while Betty tries to look perfect and is tearing up inside, Francine acknowledges more of her own insecurities and how imperfect her life is; Betty was a glamorous model in Manhattan who spent a year in Italy while Francine was a schoolteacher somewhere less glamorous. Francine is more honest and aggressive, has a healthier relationship with her children for the most part, confronts her husband and stays married to him, and later becomes a working mom when she attempts a real estate exam and starts her own travel agency. Betty maintains that facade, is very cold to her children, divorces Don and marries another man quickly, and voices skepticism about being a working mother and wife before starting on a Masters in Psychology. | |
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Mad Men / int_22a27b19 | |
Mad Men / int_22cf536c | type |
Chekhov's Gun | |
Mad Men / int_22cf536c | comment |
All of the Jaguars in season five, especially the cherry red one Joan and Don test drive in "Christmas Waltz", and the Chekhov's Gun green one Lane's wife buys for him in "Commissions and Fees". Subverted in that the XKE is rather unreliable. | |
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-0.3 | |
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1.0 | |
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Mad Men / int_22cf536c | |
Mad Men / int_23698fa8 | type |
Aborted Arc | |
Mad Men / int_23698fa8 | comment |
Aborted Arc: The first episode where we really get to meet Betty introduces her suffering some kind of affliction which causes her to lose control of her hands, serious enough that she wound up in a driving accident. Though immediately after she starts going to a psychiatrist this is dropped, being shrugged off as psychosomatic and never shown or referenced to again. | |
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Mad Men / int_23698fa8 | |
Mad Men / int_237404cc | type |
Ironic Echo | |
Mad Men / int_237404cc | comment |
Ironic Echo: When Pete gets his father-in-law to sign with the agency, Ken is excited and comments that he needs to get married to someone like Pete's wife, who has a powerful executive for a father to get him to do business with the agency. Several years and seasons later, Ken marries the daughter of an important businessman and promptly freaks out when the agency asks if he can get his father-in-law to hire the agency, commenting that he doesn't intend on bringing his family into his work and wanting to keep them separate. Season 7's "Time & Life" contained quite a few Call Backs to the Season 3 finale, "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." Most notably, the Partners attempt to make another power move to avoid being absorbed into McCann, only this time it blows up in their face. "The Suitcase" had Peggy lament to Don that men don't stop and look at her on the street, and then on "Lost Horizon", she is doing her stride in the narrow hallways of McCann Erickson with several men turning around to look at her in amazement and Peggy is giving no fucks whatsoever. | |
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Mad Men / int_237404cc | |
Mad Men / int_2493b31d | type |
Fire-Forged Friends | |
Mad Men / int_2493b31d | comment |
Fire-Forged Friends: Don and Pete don't become close, but their working relationship develops a lot. In the first season Don fires Pete until Roger is forced to hire him back. Pete retaliates by revealing Don's Dead Person Impersonation, to Bert Cooper's utter indifference. Contrast that to the fourth season, where Pete takes the fall for losing a defense contract so that Don won't have to reveal his true identity, and Don covers the difference for Pete when partnership stakes go up. Joan and Peggy may be an even straighter example. Joan initially sees Peggy as one of numerous interchangeable secretaries under her charge, to the frustration of the ambitious Peggy. Peggy's rise through the ranks in the Creative department rankles Joan, who's apparently hit her own glass ceiling. At the end of the series, when Joan leaves McCann Erickson, Peggy is the first person she wants to work with. | |
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Mad Men / int_2493b31d | |
Mad Men / int_259d5879 | type |
Anachronism Stew | |
Mad Men / int_259d5879 | comment |
Anachronism Stew: Has its own page. | |
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1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_259d5879 | |
Mad Men / int_25b5600 | type |
Captain Ersatz | |
Mad Men / int_25b5600 | comment |
Captain Ersatz: In-universe, the title song and scene from the 1963 film version of Bye Bye Birdie is duplicated, frame for frame, and re-purposed as an ad for diet cola. | |
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Mad Men / int_25b5600 | |
Mad Men / int_2629c82a | type |
Breaking the Glass Ceiling | |
Mad Men / int_2629c82a | comment |
Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Peggy is the first female copy writer. She starts out simply feeding ideas to the male copywriters who then present the ideas as their own. During this time, she's paid as a secretary (a much lower salary) and expected to complete all of her secretarial work during billing hours and do copy writing in her free time. Later, she is promoted to junior copywriter, even though there are no male junior copywriters. Eventually, she is made a full copywriter, and later copy chief, with the implication that she'll make creative director before long. | |
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Mad Men / int_2629c82a | |
Mad Men / int_267ce120 | type |
Dirty Old Man | |
Mad Men / int_267ce120 | comment |
Dirty Old Man: Roger Sterling is at least as promiscuous as Don. Bert Cooper too. The man keeps a print of "Dream of the Fisherman's Wife" on his office wall. Jim Cutler in Season 6, especially when he enjoys watching the teenage daughter of recently deceased Frank Gleason have sex with Stan in the office after Gleason's funeral. | |
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Mad Men / int_267ce120 | |
Mad Men / int_26b2747 | type |
Alliterative Title | |
Mad Men / int_26b2747 | comment |
Alliterative Title: Mad Men | |
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Mad Men / int_26b2747 | |
Mad Men / int_26eb6287 | type |
Funny Background Event | |
Mad Men / int_26eb6287 | comment |
Funny Background Event: Bert Cooper lurking in his own reception area in "The Rejected". In the same episode, Peggy standing on her desk and peering into Don's office above his head as Allison quits. Also, in "Beautiful Girls" when Don, Faye, and Ken are deciding on an ad campaign with Fillmore Auto Parts, only to be interrupted because of the abrupt death of Don's ancient secretary Miss Blankenship. Don tells the secretaries to take care of it. The meeting resumes, while in the background, Pete and Joan try to cart away the chair, with the body covered in a blanket. And Harry protesting that his mother made that blanket. An earlier example in "Ladies Room" — Don is discussing the possibility of working on the Nixon campaign with Roger and Bert, and through the window to his office you can see a fireball as Ken Cosgrove and some of the other guys in the office set a spray of the deodorant they're playing with aflame. Roger casually offering Don a ride home while junior executives brawl in the background in "Shoot". | |
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Mad Men / int_26eb6287 | |
Mad Men / int_27690f66 | type |
Literary Allusion Title | |
Mad Men / int_27690f66 | comment |
Literary Allusion Title: "Marriage of Figaro" "The Mountain King" "Meditations in an Emergency" "Love Among The Ruins" "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword" "Lady Lazarus" "A Tale of Two Cities" Shout-Out to Shakespeare: "The Quality of Mercy" "Lost Horizon" "The Milk And Honey Route" | |
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Mad Men / int_27690f66 | |
Mad Men / int_27a42ebc | type |
Spiritual Successor | |
Mad Men / int_27a42ebc | comment |
Spiritual Successor: Many of Don Draper's traits have been traced back to Tony Soprano (to name a few; duality, chronic and casual infidelity, a broken ace with a blonde Stepford Smiler wife, parental issues, childhood traumas). Creator Matthew Weiner was The Sopranos producer and main co-writer for years. Both shows share a fair number of narrative and artistic elements and Matthew Weiner has compared Peggy's standing at Sterling Cooper as Don's protegee to his own standing while working under David Chase on The Sopranos. Notably, the series was first pitched to Chase for HBO, but Weiner, as Peggy, had to move on without his mentor. | |
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Mad Men / int_27a42ebc | |
Mad Men / int_27ba9b64 | type |
What Did I Do Last Night? | |
Mad Men / int_27ba9b64 | comment |
What Did I Do Last Night?: After several rejections, Roger ends up hiring Don after the two share plenty of drinks one night. When Don shows up the next day, Roger doesn't remember anything of it. Don in "Waldorf Stories," after having far too much to drink at the Clios (a Friday afternoon). He idiotically does a pitch to Quaker Oats for Life cereal—that works, but in the worst possible way—heads to the bar with Roger, where he gets drunker, and ends up taking home a woman (actively looking for him) who had apparently written the jingle for the award-winning cake batter/topping commercial...and wakes up Sunday afternoon with an entirely different woman next to him (a waitress from a nearby diner, apparently—who calls him Dick as she leaves). As things turn out, Peggy has to remind him about what he did at the Life pitch. In "In Care Of," Don wakes up in the drunk tank. He apparently punched an obnoxious evangelist. | |
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Mad Men / int_27ba9b64 | |
Mad Men / int_27be0280 | type |
Porn Stache | |
Mad Men / int_27be0280 | comment |
Porn Stache: They were big in The '70s, and sure enough, when the show jumps to 1970 with Season 7B, Roger Sterling is sporting a ridiculous pornstache. Surprisingly, mild-mannered Ted Chaough is too. | |
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Mad Men / int_27be0280 | |
Mad Men / int_2828fd9a | type |
Promotion to Opening Titles | |
Mad Men / int_2828fd9a | comment |
Promotion to Opening Titles: Kiernan Shipka, who plays Sally Draper, in Season 4. Jessica Pare, who plays Megan, in Season 5. | |
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Mad Men / int_2828fd9a | |
Mad Men / int_28c1d543 | type |
Defrosting Ice Queen | |
Mad Men / int_28c1d543 | comment |
Defrosting Ice Queen: Dr. Faye Miller in Season 4. | |
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1.0 | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_28c1d543 | |
Mad Men / int_294ed981 | type |
Bilingual Bonus | |
Mad Men / int_294ed981 | comment |
Bilingual Bonus: Pete Campbell's nickname for Trudy is "Tweety." OK, that's nice and cutesy. Then you realize that Trudy's maiden name, Vogel, is German for "bird"... | |
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Mad Men / int_294ed981 | |
Mad Men / int_297ab1b9 | type |
Parental Abandonment | |
Mad Men / int_297ab1b9 | comment |
Parental Abandonment: Dick Whitman's mother dies at childbirth and his father dies when he was ten. He's raised by his abusive step-mother and later her new husband "Uncle Mac", who has a brothel and is a decent man. | |
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Mad Men / int_297ab1b9 | |
Mad Men / int_2af6bbeb | type |
Break the Haughty | |
Mad Men / int_2af6bbeb | comment |
Break the Haughty: Joan. See Character Development for the full version, but believe us, she's the preeminent example. Pete pretty much gets this when he's fired and rehired in the first season, and spends the rest of the show trying to catch up to where he thought he was. Roger in season one, and then periodically throughout the series. In Season 5, he seems to make peace with being the "professor emeritus" of Accounts, and acts as a mentor to junior account exec Cosgrove. Season Four did quite a number on Don Draper. Season Five does one on Lane Pryce, though it starts with his father's treatment in S4's "Hands and Knees". Season Seven starts this way for Don, as his actions at the end of Season Six torpedoed his career at SCDP and trying to get things back on track ends up being a long Humiliation Conga for him. Previously, no matter how bad his personal life got, he could always just focus on his work ,but now even that has been taken from him. | |
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Mad Men / int_2af6bbeb | |
Mad Men / int_2b2abf36 | type |
Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense | |
Mad Men / int_2b2abf36 | comment |
Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Lee Garner Jr., who owns Lucky Strike and seems to show up to make everyone at Sterling-Cooper's lives miserable. Crosses the Moral Event Horizon in "Wee Small Hours" when he basically ruins Sal's life out of pettiness. His father scolds him for being clueless about how his own product is made. At SCDP's Christmas party, he humiliates Roger and gets friendly with his wife, knowing full well how reliant the agency is on Lucky Strike's account. The next day, Don and Roger refer to him as Hitler. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_2b2abf36 | |
Mad Men / int_2bc77899 | type |
I Am Not Pretty | |
Mad Men / int_2bc77899 | comment |
"The Suitcase" had Peggy lament to Don that men don't stop and look at her on the street, and then on "Lost Horizon", she is doing her stride in the narrow hallways of McCann Erickson with several men turning around to look at her in amazement and Peggy is giving no fucks whatsoever. | |
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Mad Men / int_2bc77899 | |
Mad Men / int_2bdb6280 | type |
The Big Rotten Apple | |
Mad Men / int_2bdb6280 | comment |
The Big Rotten Apple: As the show moves into the late '60s, it really shows New York City's decay. | |
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Mad Men / int_2bdb6280 | |
Mad Men / int_2be15316 | type |
Ambiguously Jewish | |
Mad Men / int_2be15316 | comment |
Ambiguously Jewish: Joan's doctor husband's last name is Harris, which (like Miller and Siegel) is sometimes but not always a Jewish name; Joan says he's not Jewish, but Roger thinks he "used to be." Dr. Faye Miller | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_2be15316 | |
Mad Men / int_2bf993ad | type |
Secret Relationship | |
Mad Men / int_2bf993ad | comment |
Secret Relationship: The series has lots of secret relationships, often involving an Office Romance and/or infidelity: Don Draper's first mistress is a bohemian artist Midge. Her friends know about them, but people in Don's job don't, and he keeps it secret from his wife. Don Draper sleeps with Rachel Menken, a Jewish client of Sterling Cooper advertising company. Rachel starts falling in love with him, but breaks it off when Don offers to run away with her without any consideration for his wife or kids. Joan Holloway and Roger Sterling have a long and passionate love affair. He is one of the bosses in their advertising agency and married with a teen daughter while she is a single secretary (who more or less runs the office as an unofficial office manager). Some people know, for example Roger's older business partner Mr. Cooper tells Joan she should not waste her youth, but most are oblivious to the relationship. They break up when Joan gets engaged. Roger continues to have a soft spot for Joan. They later have a baby together after they sleep together once, and Roger tries to tag along. Roger starts a romance with Jane, Don's new hot secretary. Roger gets divorced and marries Jane very soon after. It was a great surprise for everyone in the office. In season 2, Don Draper has an ugly affair with Bobbie Barrett, a wife and manager to an obnoxious comedian Jimmy. The relationship started as professional but they soon begin sleeping together. Jimmy strongly suspects they slept together, and Don's copy writer Peggy also finds out about the affair. Don ends their relationship after he learns she's been gossiping about him. Don Draper, still married to Betty, romantically pursues Susan Ferrell, his daughter's young idealistic teacher. She resists — at first. Later she is sorry they can't date publicly for fear that they would be seen. Susan's brother visits her when they are together and figures out something is off. Don breaks it off when his marriage starts crumbling. Don starts sleeping with Faye Miller. She is a marketing researcher hired by SCDP, and probably the healthiest of Don's post-divorce relationships. They kept it secret from all people in the office, and not many knew about it because Faye left the job when SCDP lost their tobacco account. Megan starts at SCDP as Don's new secretary, they sleep together and very soon Don decides to marry her, as he was infatuated with her model looks, magical-nanny abilities and desire to work in advertising as a copy writer. Many people are so surprised when he announces the engagement that they don't even know who Megan is. Ted Chaough has an affair with Peggy, his head writer. He wants to leave his wife for her, but breaks it off very soon and leaves Mannhatten. He insists he loves her deeply, but Penny is very hurt by his treatment of her. Pete (married to Trudy) has an affair with a young depressed housewife. Her husband eventually finds out and he and Pete have a fight on a train. Don Draper sleeps with Sylvia Rosen, an older but beautiful housewife of a doctor who live in the same building as Don and his wife Megan. Don is disgusted with himself when his daughter Sally accidentally sees them in bed. | |
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Mad Men / int_2bf993ad | |
Mad Men / int_2c17dca | type |
Ends with a Smile | |
Mad Men / int_2c17dca | comment |
Ends with a Smile: The series ends with Don Draper meditating on a hillside as a smile creeps onto his face, then the show cuts to the famous "hilltop" Coca-Cola ad, the implication being that Don just came up with the idea. | |
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Mad Men / int_2c17dca | |
Mad Men / int_2cc736e4 | type |
Bondage Is Bad | |
Mad Men / int_2cc736e4 | comment |
Bondage Is Bad: Don doesn't really get the concept of "Safe, Sane, and Consensual" with Bobbi Barrett. In contrast, most of the sex he's shown having that doesn't involve kink is seen as "good". Further supported by Don having Candace, the hooker he begins seeing regularly after the divorce, slap him repeatedly in bed. It's depicted as one of Don's darkest and least glamorous sexual encounters. In "Mad With a Plan", Don makes Sylvia follow his rules after isolating her in a hotel room. It gets off to a good start, but ends with him getting dumped. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_2cc736e4 | |
Mad Men / int_2d364c81 | type |
Tomboy and Girly Girl | |
Mad Men / int_2d364c81 | comment |
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Peggy and Joan, respectively as adult 1960s skirt-clad versions of the trope. Joan takes great pride in looking sexy and feminine: curve hugging clothing, elaborate yet work-appropriate up-dos, perfect make-up, and the beginning of the series has her aiming for more traditional feminine goals and shows her shakingly harnessing her power as a partner. Peggy, while not the traditional image of the tomboy, dresses in a manner that more or less mimics menswear (when it's not schoolgirl or simple dresses) and is short haired with some basic makeup. She takes charge more at work and one time asked Dawn "Do you think I act like a man?" only to be told by the latter that it might be necessary. | |
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Mad Men / int_2d364c81 | |
Mad Men / int_2d38ee1b | type |
Fratbro | |
Mad Men / int_2d38ee1b | comment |
In "Severance". After dealing with some Frat Bro like clients, Peggy states that Joan invited their behavior due to the way she dresses. Joan then implies Peggy's just jealous of how good looking she is and Peggy angrily shoots back that Joan is "filthy rich". No one looks good there. | |
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Mad Men / int_2d38ee1b | |
Mad Men / int_2dc0d2bf | type |
Hidden Depths | |
Mad Men / int_2dc0d2bf | comment |
Hidden Depths: Lots, to the point that it's nearly as prominent a part of the show's approach as Deliberate Values Dissonance. After two or three seasons with a major character, we generally have a pretty good idea of what they're like inside, but even then some unexplored facet of their personality or history will pop up to surprise us. Crotchety old Miss Blankenship, according to Roger's memoirs, was quite the "Queen of Perversions" in the late 1940s. Naturally, both Don and Peggy find this hilarious. Played straight with Joan; while early episodes basically portray her as a woman who is more adept to general office politics of lying for your boss when he cheats on his wife and whoring and boozing with your coworkers, later episodes have shown that Joan was one damn effective secretary/office manager and that without her, the agency routinely falls into utter chaos. It was already known that Ken Cosgrove had written and published one story, but Season 5 reveals he's published over 20 science fiction and fantasy stories under a pseudonym, something he's mildly embarrassed about but that both his wife and Peggy seem genuinely impressed by. When Roger finds out, he's less impressed, giving Ken a tongue lashing for dividing his focus. | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_2dc0d2bf | |
Mad Men / int_2dd7023a | type |
Death as Comedy | |
Mad Men / int_2dd7023a | comment |
Death as Comedy: Miss Blankenship croaks in the office and has to be removed while important clients are there for a meeting. | |
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1.0 | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_2dd7023a | |
Mad Men / int_2e032e41 | type |
Latin Lover | |
Mad Men / int_2e032e41 | comment |
Latin Lover: The caretaker Pete hires for his mother. It turns out that he's gay — which does not stop him from marrying her, and apparently chucking her off a cruise ship. | |
Mad Men / int_2e032e41 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Mad Men / int_2e032e41 | |
Mad Men / int_2fa14a9b | type |
Freudian Couch | |
Mad Men / int_2fa14a9b | comment |
Freudian Couch: Played completely straight in Season 1. Don sends Betty for psychoanalysis, and the setup is correct for free association: the couch is set away from the chair the therapist is sitting in, and he freaks out slightly when she sits up and makes eye contact. A laid-back guy like Roger enjoys it in a slouchy way during his Season 6 sessions. | |
Mad Men / int_2fa14a9b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_2fa14a9b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_2fa14a9b | |
Mad Men / int_2fd7200b | type |
Dead Guy Junior | |
Mad Men / int_2fd7200b | comment |
Dead Guy Junior: Eugene Scott Draper, named after his maternal grandfather. Don doesn't much care for the name (having hated the original) and Sally is freaked out (having loved her Grampa Gene and now having to deal with a "replacement" with the same name living in the same room). | |
Mad Men / int_2fd7200b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_2fd7200b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_2fd7200b | |
Mad Men / int_30fb1442 | type |
'60s Hair | |
Mad Men / int_30fb1442 | comment |
'60s Hair: Season 2-7A sees a great progression of hairstyles in the Sixties where the younger men lose the Bryllcreem and/or grow their hair (including facial) out, Joan gets a beehive that loosens up into a elaborate artichoke, Peggy loses her ponytail and gets a flipped bob, Betty's hair gets a little bigger and more flipped before trading in for a more political wife look (think Jackie Kennedy, Ladybird Johnson, or Pat Nixon). | |
Mad Men / int_30fb1442 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_30fb1442 | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_30fb1442 | |
Mad Men / int_313d7228 | type |
Previously on… | |
Mad Men / int_313d7228 | comment |
Previously on… | |
Mad Men / int_313d7228 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_313d7228 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_313d7228 | |
Mad Men / int_3149c4b0 | type |
It Will Never Catch On | |
Mad Men / int_3149c4b0 | comment |
It Will Never Catch On: Don says this about Jai Alai. He is right. Admiral Television has something of a similar response to the idea of race-targeted advertising. In the second episode, Roger dismisses psychiatry as "just this year's candy pink stove". By Season 6, he's seeing a shrink. In 1965, Don is skeptical about a green Joe Namath and about the whole concept of celebrity endorsement. Both things become a hot trend in the following years. In the third episode, Don and a few others in Creative dismiss the Volkswagen "Think Small" and "Lemon" campaigns; they don't see it as "the future," although Don admits it must be working for Volkswagen (with the implication it's probably a fluke). By Season 4, this kind of "Creative Revolution" advertising is what SCDP lives and breathes. The creative team is contemptuous of the arrival of the room-sized IBM computer in "The Monolith." In the pilot, Don says "It's not like there's a magical machine that makes identical copies of things." Then in Season 2, the Xerox machine arrives at the office. | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3149c4b0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3149c4b0 | |
Mad Men / int_315a122 | type |
Hospital Hottie | |
Mad Men / int_315a122 | comment |
Hospital Hottie: Don's new neighbor in season four. | |
Mad Men / int_315a122 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_315a122 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_315a122 | |
Mad Men / int_31bd1ba1 | type |
Twin Threesome Fantasy | |
Mad Men / int_31bd1ba1 | comment |
Twin Threesome Fantasy: Roger tries to pull this off with the models for a double-sided aluminum campaign in Season 1. It's creepy and sad, even before it leads to his heart attack. | |
Mad Men / int_31bd1ba1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_31bd1ba1 | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_31bd1ba1 | |
Mad Men / int_31fa019d | type |
All Psychology Is Freudian | |
Mad Men / int_31fa019d | comment |
All Psychology Is Freudian: Justified for the era, as this was when Freudian psychology was just starting to became obsolete. | |
Mad Men / int_31fa019d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_31fa019d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_31fa019d | |
Mad Men / int_32cb267a | type |
Magical Negro | |
Mad Men / int_32cb267a | comment |
Magical Negro: Betty has a slight tendency to see black housemaids as this, seeking their sage advice; particularly true respecting her father's housemaid Viola (who had apparently taken care of the Hofstadt household for a long time). Viola's advice, it must be admitted, is pretty good. | |
Mad Men / int_32cb267a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_32cb267a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_32cb267a | |
Mad Men / int_33ba37ca | type |
Out with a Bang | |
Mad Men / int_33ba37ca | comment |
When Roger almost goes Out with a Bang, he's mumbling the name of the one-night-stand he was with, and an overwrought Don slaps him and tells him, "Mona! Your wife's name is Mona!" | |
Mad Men / int_33ba37ca | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_33ba37ca | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_33ba37ca | |
Mad Men / int_348e3263 | type |
'50s Hair | |
Mad Men / int_348e3263 | comment |
'50s Hair: Season 1 has chock full of late 50s carryover styles with all of the men sporting side parts and crew cuts, and the women having diversity with Betty sporting the classic short and wavy, Joan with the artichoke, and Peggy with the ponytail and bangs. | |
Mad Men / int_348e3263 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_348e3263 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_348e3263 | |
Mad Men / int_34dcfc96 | type |
Kick the Dog | |
Mad Men / int_34dcfc96 | comment |
Kick the Dog: No puppy is safe! Duck almost makes this trope literal. | |
Mad Men / int_34dcfc96 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_34dcfc96 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_34dcfc96 | |
Mad Men / int_35850a4f | type |
The Fellowship Has Ended | |
Mad Men / int_35850a4f | comment |
The Fellowship Has Ended: SC&P being absorbed into McCann ultimately leads to this. Several minor characters are laid off from the merger. Joan is chased out of the industry by McCann's sexism, Pete leaves for a better job, and Don walks out of McCann and whether he returns is left for the audience to decide. | |
Mad Men / int_35850a4f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_35850a4f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_35850a4f | |
Mad Men / int_358d6f63 | type |
Anachronistic Soundtrack | |
Mad Men / int_358d6f63 | comment |
Anachronistic Soundtrack: A few times. For example, the first scene of "Maidenform" is set to "The Infanta" by The Decemberists. In reverse: Certain stock music pieces were created after the decade that the series takes place in; for example, "Satin Sounds" by Dick Walter was composed in the '80s. | |
Mad Men / int_358d6f63 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_358d6f63 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_358d6f63 | |
Mad Men / int_35e077 | type |
Fourth-Date Marriage | |
Mad Men / int_35e077 | comment |
Fourth-Date Marriage: Don and Betty both enter into their second marriages after very brief courtships. Betty and Henry do well. Don and Megan, not so much. | |
Mad Men / int_35e077 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_35e077 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_35e077 | |
Mad Men / int_35e9f6f8 | type |
Executive Excess | |
Mad Men / int_35e9f6f8 | comment |
Executive Excess: All the Sterling-Cooper executives get up to a lot of debauchery over the course of the show, though most of them are Work Hard, Play Hard types who balance their hedonism with genuine productivity. The exception, and the truest example of this trope, can be found in Roger Sterling: because he was born wealthy and inherited his position, he doesn't treat the job seriously, and can often be relied upon to waste time or drink heavily at work. Also, it's not uncommon for him to be seen in the aftermath of orgies or experimenting with drugs. In one memorable instance, he actually had a heart attack during an attempt to carry on with his playboy lifestyle and nearly died. | |
Mad Men / int_35e9f6f8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_35e9f6f8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_35e9f6f8 | |
Mad Men / int_3618ebb9 | type |
TheSixties | |
Mad Men / int_3618ebb9 | comment |
The '60s: Get their start in Season 4. If you don't believe us, look at the Sterling Cooper-Draper Pryce logo. Just look at it! Look at Peggy's little trip to what appears to be an outpost of the Factory or (for that matter) what she wore to it. There's also Roger Sterling's new office, seemingly straight from the mind of Eero Saarinen himself, decked out in black, white, clear glass, and chrome, with circles everywhere and hardly a straight line to be found. Also underscored by Don's new mod apartment and the new Mrs. Draper in a miniskirt. Hippies show up for the first time in Season 6. | |
Mad Men / int_3618ebb9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3618ebb9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3618ebb9 | |
Mad Men / int_36215b80 | type |
Sex Sells | |
Mad Men / int_36215b80 | comment |
Sex Sells: Don describes this expression as over-simplifying things ("people who say that think that monkeys can do [our job]"). Basically, he argues, people want to be the product. | |
Mad Men / int_36215b80 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_36215b80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_36215b80 | |
Mad Men / int_364b9be6 | type |
Flipping the Bird | |
Mad Men / int_364b9be6 | comment |
Flipping the Bird: Stan does this to Peggy in "To Have and to Hold" after finding out that she used information he told her in confidence to get an advantage at work. | |
Mad Men / int_364b9be6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_364b9be6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_364b9be6 | |
Mad Men / int_37065c74 | type |
Hangover Sensitivity | |
Mad Men / int_37065c74 | comment |
Hangover Sensitivity: Peggy is downing Alka-Seltzer and wincing at work in "Severance" after drinking too much during a blind date. | |
Mad Men / int_37065c74 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_37065c74 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_37065c74 | |
Mad Men / int_371aec84 | type |
Chekhov's Gift | |
Mad Men / int_371aec84 | comment |
Chekhov's Gift: Don receives Anna Draper's engagement ring in "Tomorrowland." | |
Mad Men / int_371aec84 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_371aec84 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_371aec84 | |
Mad Men / int_38b33e8d | type |
Love Epiphany | |
Mad Men / int_38b33e8d | comment |
Love Epiphany: Somehow, Mad Men managed to have this happen as we see Peggy realize she loves Stan in the series finale. | |
Mad Men / int_38b33e8d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_38b33e8d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_38b33e8d | |
Mad Men / int_38d02d44 | type |
Batman Gambit | |
Mad Men / int_38d02d44 | comment |
Batman Gambit: Several. With a master manipulator like Don in the mix, plus a few others, how can it not have these? One particularly crucial one: In "A Night to Remember" (Season 2, Episode 8), Don and Duck have a disagreement about how to market Heineken. Duck — along with the clients themselves — just want to increase the brand's bar exposure. But Don has the idea to do some Up Marketing: play on the "Imported from Holland" angle and set it off as "better" than other beer, to be presented to well-off, educated housewives as something to serve at parties (like wine), rather than hide in the garage like the cold ones her husband drinks. To prove his point, Don makes sure the store that Betty (who as the wife of an ad executive and Bryn Mawr College graduate is definitely part of the target demographic) shops at is part of the test market, and invites Duck along to dinner at his place (along with the Sterlings and some other friends). Sure enough, when Betty is running through her "tour-of-the-world" selection of courses, she presents the Heineken "from Holland" as an alternative to the French wine also on offer. Everyone laughs heartily...except for Betty, who resents being used as a guinea pig. As a result, although the plan works perfectly from a business perspective (they even consider using Betty's menu verbatim), it's a catastrophe for Don personally: it leads to Don being Exiled to the Couch for the first time. Don runs a Kansas City Shuffle against Chaough's firm CGC in "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword." When Honda's visit to SCDP is ruined by Roger's obnoxious, racist, and obnoxiously racist behavior towards their executives, Don realizes he has no chance of winning, and probably no chance to resign. He does not, however, want to give CGC another "win". So he proceeds to give every indication SCDP will make a really high-quality but budget-busting spec ad for Honda (which was against the rules, and which Chaough would recognize as the kind of gambit Don would run) in order to get CGC to actually make a high-quality but budget-busting spec ad, then resigns the account when asked to meet with the Honda execs (who had seen and liked CGC's spec ad), saying that since they had broken their rules, he could not honorably do business with them. Honda decides in the end to remain for the moment at Grey, but allowed SCDP to bid to develop the advertising for their new automotive division. In Season 7A finale "Waterloo", Roger cuts off Jim Cutler's power play by selling SC&P to McCann. | |
Mad Men / int_38d02d44 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_38d02d44 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_38d02d44 | |
Mad Men / int_3929e0db | type |
You Need to Get Laid | |
Mad Men / int_3929e0db | comment |
You Need to Get Laid: Ginsberg's father tries setting him up with a nice Jewish girl because he believes that his son's eccentricity will be cured once he loses his virginity. | |
Mad Men / int_3929e0db | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3929e0db | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3929e0db | |
Mad Men / int_3ac583f4 | type |
SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism | |
Mad Men / int_3ac583f4 | comment |
Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Rather firmly in the middle, with the slightest lean towards cynicism: despite the downer endings and shadiness, the characters are too complex for the series to fall anywhere else. | |
Mad Men / int_3ac583f4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3ac583f4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3ac583f4 | |
Mad Men / int_3b113b7 | type |
Character Development | |
Mad Men / int_3b113b7 | comment |
Trudy Campbell. Despite some Character Development, she still relentlessly pursues the suburban dream, glossing over her husband's weaknesses and infidelities and ignoring his wishes to remain in Manhattan. | |
Mad Men / int_3b113b7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3b113b7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3b113b7 | |
Mad Men / int_3b79029a | type |
Crapsaccharine World | |
Mad Men / int_3b79029a | comment |
Crapsaccharine World: 1960s New York, devolving into a Crapsack World in the late '60s, as it did in real life. | |
Mad Men / int_3b79029a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3b79029a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3b79029a | |
Mad Men / int_3c0a4666 | type |
Noodle Incident | |
Mad Men / int_3c0a4666 | comment |
Noodle Incident: Joan talked to her friend, Kate, about marrying a "Scotty" and how it was the "worst 6 months of my life". | |
Mad Men / int_3c0a4666 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3c0a4666 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3c0a4666 | |
Mad Men / int_3c88d6c2 | type |
Flat "What" | |
Mad Men / int_3c88d6c2 | comment |
Flat "What": Don has a penchant for these Peggy has two of these when Stan confesses that he's in love with her. | |
Mad Men / int_3c88d6c2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3c88d6c2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3c88d6c2 | |
Mad Men / int_3d0e614c | type |
Gay Cruising | |
Mad Men / int_3d0e614c | comment |
Gay Cruising: Implied Trope. Sal Romano, a closeted gay man working at Sterling Cooper, is fired after he refuses the advances of an important client who happens to be a Depraved Homosexual. Sal is last seen calling his wife from a truck stop, telling her he's going to be working late that night. | |
Mad Men / int_3d0e614c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3d0e614c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3d0e614c | |
Mad Men / int_3d699462 | type |
Curb-Stomp Battle | |
Mad Men / int_3d699462 | comment |
Curb-Stomp Battle: Robert Pryce takes down Lane with one quick smack across the head with his cane and then steps on his hand to force him to go back to England and deal with his family. | |
Mad Men / int_3d699462 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3d699462 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3d699462 | |
Mad Men / int_3dfdc686 | type |
Time-Passes Montage | |
Mad Men / int_3dfdc686 | comment |
In season 1's "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", Don takes a nap on a couch, time passes by, and he's woken later by secretary Peggy. In season 5's "Far Away Places", Peggy takes a nap on a couch, time passes by, and she's woken later by secretary Dawn. | |
Mad Men / int_3dfdc686 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3dfdc686 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3dfdc686 | |
Mad Men / int_3eb0f889 | type |
Pun-Based Title | |
Mad Men / int_3eb0f889 | comment |
Pun-Based Title: And in-universe, too! | |
Mad Men / int_3eb0f889 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_3eb0f889 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_3eb0f889 | |
Mad Men / int_40c57041 | type |
Manipulative Bastard | |
Mad Men / int_40c57041 | comment |
Manipulative Bastard: Don himself is extremely manipulative and will exploit just about any weakness just to gain an advantage or get out of trouble. Ted Chaough, the Don Draper of rival ad agency CGC. Claims Don's "got him in his rear-view mirror", engineers a meeting with Don at Benihana and sends Don a bottle of sake claiming victory after Roger sinks SCDP's chances of landing the Honda account. Then in Season 5, he steals Peggy Olson away from SCDP (see Benevolent Boss above). | |
Mad Men / int_40c57041 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_40c57041 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_40c57041 | |
Mad Men / int_40cc0c7e | type |
Bittersweet Ending | |
Mad Men / int_40cc0c7e | comment |
Bittersweet Ending: Sterling Cooper is absorbed into McCann Erickson. After being chased out of the advertising industry, Joan starts her own business, although this costs her her relationship with Richard. While Peggy doesn't like her job at McCann, she is thriving there and finally gets together with Stan. Betty is terminally ill, but she has accepted her fate and is at peace. Don is stranded in a hippy commune and it's unclear if he ever intends to return to his old life, but he is finally happy. It is implied, however, that he returns to his old job and uses his commune experience to create the "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke" ad. | |
Mad Men / int_40cc0c7e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_40cc0c7e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_40cc0c7e | |
Mad Men / int_4143f84f | type |
Leg Focus | |
Mad Men / int_4143f84f | comment |
Leg Focus: Megan does a sexy song and dance for Don while wearing a very short miniskirt and fishnet stockings at his surprise party. | |
Mad Men / int_4143f84f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4143f84f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4143f84f | |
Mad Men / int_4215e3e | type |
Keeping Secrets Sucks | |
Mad Men / int_4215e3e | comment |
Keeping Secrets Sucks: What Don decides after having a panic attack over the possibility that his might be discovered. In Season 5, we find out that Don learned a lesson from his problems with Betty and told his new wife about Dick Whitman. And at the end of Season 6, a humbled and jobless Don is telling his children about his past. | |
Mad Men / int_4215e3e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4215e3e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4215e3e | |
Mad Men / int_421ae215 | type |
Mysterious Past | |
Mad Men / int_421ae215 | comment |
Mysterious Past: Don is a mysterious person to viewers, to his colleagues and even his family. His father-in-law remarks how Don has no folks (he never introduced them to his family and never talks about them) and that you can't trust such a person. Viewers eventually find out about his troubled past and how he stole someone else's identity. Bob Benson in Season 6. He's set up as Don 2.0. Pete Campbell finds out he uses a fake name and that he can't be traced back. It's revealed that he's a closeted gay and he's likely involved in a murder but not much more is known about him. | |
Mad Men / int_421ae215 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_421ae215 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_421ae215 | |
Mad Men / int_42215dce | type |
Ambiguous Ending | |
Mad Men / int_42215dce | comment |
Ambiguous Ending: The series ends with Don practicing Yoga and smiling. Then the famous Coca-Cola commercial, "I Would Like to Buy the World a Coke" plays. What this means for Don is left for the viewer to decide. The strong implication is that Don invented that commercial, given the resemblance between the clifftop setting of the yoga session and the hilltop setting of the commercial, as well as the physical resemblance between the desk clerk at the retreat and one of the women in the ad, and the chiming bell that implies a moment of inspiration. The thematic meaning of that ending is also ambiguous. Has Don finally achieved real peace and happiness? Or has he simply taken a genuine moment and spun it into another cynical piece of emotionally manipulative advertising, demonstrating that he hasn't changed at all? | |
Mad Men / int_42215dce | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_42215dce | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_42215dce | |
Mad Men / int_4371a515 | type |
Beatnik | |
Mad Men / int_4371a515 | comment |
Beatnik: Midge and her circle of friends. Paul Kinsey is kind of a wannabe. | |
Mad Men / int_4371a515 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4371a515 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4371a515 | |
Mad Men / int_43a045de | type |
Dropped a Bridge on Him | |
Mad Men / int_43a045de | comment |
Dropped a Bridge on Him: In "Waterloo", Bert Cooper passes away off screen. | |
Mad Men / int_43a045de | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_43a045de | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_43a045de | |
Mad Men / int_44f5d199 | type |
Pretty in Mink | |
Mad Men / int_44f5d199 | comment |
Pretty in Mink: Quite a few furs show up. | |
Mad Men / int_44f5d199 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_44f5d199 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_44f5d199 | |
Mad Men / int_45d22aad | type |
Sweet and Sour Grapes | |
Mad Men / int_45d22aad | comment |
Sweet and Sour Grapes: Season 3 ends with Pete finally agreeing to adopt. He finally gets Trudy pregnant in Season 4. | |
Mad Men / int_45d22aad | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_45d22aad | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_45d22aad | |
Mad Men / int_4655ec83 | type |
Important Haircut | |
Mad Men / int_4655ec83 | comment |
Important Haircut: Peggy. She started with a shy and naive young woman with a ponytail, becomes tougher and more outspoken with a short haircut (bouffant, bobs, pageboy, and flip). | |
Mad Men / int_4655ec83 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4655ec83 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4655ec83 | |
Mad Men / int_46ee4d3 | type |
Eye Take | |
Mad Men / int_46ee4d3 | comment |
Eye Take | |
Mad Men / int_46ee4d3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_46ee4d3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_46ee4d3 | |
Mad Men / int_4756a7f | type |
Bourgeois Bohemian | |
Mad Men / int_4756a7f | comment |
Bourgeois Bohemian: Paul Kinsey. He even dates a black woman in part for the shock value, and lives in Montclair before it became suburban and long before Hoboken became Hipsterville. | |
Mad Men / int_4756a7f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4756a7f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4756a7f | |
Mad Men / int_479f9ad0 | type |
Characterization Marches On | |
Mad Men / int_479f9ad0 | comment |
Characterization Marches On: In Season 1, Paul Kinsey, Harry Crane, and Ken Cosgrove had little personality beyond being sexist friends of Pete. Ted Chaough's reinvention as Peggy's Benevolent Boss doesn't match all that well with the douchey Chaough as he was initially presented, although his wife's attitude toward his feud with Don implies he wasn't acting normal at the time. | |
Mad Men / int_479f9ad0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_479f9ad0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_479f9ad0 | |
Mad Men / int_47fea76b | type |
Butt-Monkey | |
Mad Men / int_47fea76b | comment |
All the men are either this or the Butt-Monkey (or both), but particularly Lee Garner Jr. and Joan's husband. | |
Mad Men / int_47fea76b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_47fea76b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_47fea76b | |
Mad Men / int_4968ed35 | type |
Door-Closes Ending | |
Mad Men / int_4968ed35 | comment |
Door-Closes Ending: Numerous times, finally deliberately averting it in "The Suitcase." | |
Mad Men / int_4968ed35 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4968ed35 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4968ed35 | |
Mad Men / int_4a3e547f | type |
Leaning on the Fourth Wall | |
Mad Men / int_4a3e547f | comment |
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In "The Better Half", Bobby exclaims "I'm Bobby #5!", referring to all the Bobbys at his summer camp. He then explains that Bobby #1 went home. The actor playing Bobby was the fourth to play that role. In "Person to Person", Peggy worries that Don is going to commit suicide. It seems to be a nod to the fan theory that, based on the title sequence, Don would leap to his death in the final episode. | |
Mad Men / int_4a3e547f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4a3e547f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4a3e547f | |
Mad Men / int_4a8c4e5f | type |
Big "WHAT?!" | |
Mad Men / int_4a8c4e5f | comment |
Big "WHAT?!": Lane Pryce upon hearing of the Kennedy assassination. | |
Mad Men / int_4a8c4e5f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4a8c4e5f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4a8c4e5f | |
Mad Men / int_4abd0b32 | type |
I'll Take Two Beers Too | |
Mad Men / int_4abd0b32 | comment |
I'll Take Two Beers Too: When Jimmy and Bobbi Barrett come to dinner with the Drapers and the Schellings (the owners of Utz) at Lutèce, Jimmy orders two Johnnie Walkers on the rocks and then asks Bobbi what she would like. | |
Mad Men / int_4abd0b32 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4abd0b32 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4abd0b32 | |
Mad Men / int_4b316d47 | type |
Break the Cutie | |
Mad Men / int_4b316d47 | comment |
Break the Cutie: Betty and, initially, Peggy. If Sally catching her father banging his mistress hasn't broken her yet, nothing will. | |
Mad Men / int_4b316d47 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4b316d47 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4b316d47 | |
Mad Men / int_4bfcfa7c | type |
Kansas City Shuffle | |
Mad Men / int_4bfcfa7c | comment |
Kansas City Shuffle: See Batman Gambit, above. | |
Mad Men / int_4bfcfa7c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4bfcfa7c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4bfcfa7c | |
Mad Men / int_4e3d253b | type |
Downer Ending | |
Mad Men / int_4e3d253b | comment |
Season 5 finale "The Phantom" is a Downer Ending for most of the characters, although once again, SCDP's prospects are looking up. | |
Mad Men / int_4e3d253b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4e3d253b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4e3d253b | |
Mad Men / int_4eddbc06 | type |
Animated Credits Opening | |
Mad Men / int_4eddbc06 | comment |
Animated Credits Opening | |
Mad Men / int_4eddbc06 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4eddbc06 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4eddbc06 | |
Mad Men / int_4f6d87f7 | type |
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl | |
Mad Men / int_4f6d87f7 | comment |
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Quite a few couples can fill this role. Mr.◊ and Mrs.◊ Schilling are a gender-reversed version of this, she's very obese and he's a more average middle-aged man Herb Rennet is very fat in comparison to his ditzy little wife Peaches◊. The finale has the petite Peggy getting together with large Stan. | |
Mad Men / int_4f6d87f7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4f6d87f7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4f6d87f7 | |
Mad Men / int_4f84cdef | type |
Smug Snake | |
Mad Men / int_4f84cdef | comment |
Smug Snake: Duck Phillips and Pete Campbell. St. John Powell in Season 3 is another example. | |
Mad Men / int_4f84cdef | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4f84cdef | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4f84cdef | |
Mad Men / int_4fa3a61f | type |
The Barnum | |
Mad Men / int_4fa3a61f | comment |
The Barnum: Madison Avenue and the ad industry in general; specific examples would be Roger, Don, and Pete. | |
Mad Men / int_4fa3a61f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4fa3a61f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4fa3a61f | |
Mad Men / int_4fe1aa4c | type |
Gorgeous Period Dress | |
Mad Men / int_4fe1aa4c | comment |
Gorgeous Period Dress: Too bad they must all reek of cigarette smoke. | |
Mad Men / int_4fe1aa4c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_4fe1aa4c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_4fe1aa4c | |
Mad Men / int_505ec51b | type |
Immigrant Patriotism | |
Mad Men / int_505ec51b | comment |
Immigrant Patriotism: Lane loves living in America and embraces all things New York (putting a Mets pennant and a little copy of the Statue of Liberty in his office). This doesn't keep him from being proudly British (including cheering on England in the '66 World Cup), but on multiple occasions he's made it clear he wants to stay in America. | |
Mad Men / int_505ec51b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_505ec51b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_505ec51b | |
Mad Men / int_510e5a9 | type |
Sassy Black Woman | |
Mad Men / int_510e5a9 | comment |
Sassy Black Woman: Shirley, contrasted with the more demure Dawn. | |
Mad Men / int_510e5a9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_510e5a9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_510e5a9 | |
Mad Men / int_513596c6 | type |
Up Marketing | |
Mad Men / int_513596c6 | comment |
One particularly crucial one: In "A Night to Remember" (Season 2, Episode 8), Don and Duck have a disagreement about how to market Heineken. Duck — along with the clients themselves — just want to increase the brand's bar exposure. But Don has the idea to do some Up Marketing: play on the "Imported from Holland" angle and set it off as "better" than other beer, to be presented to well-off, educated housewives as something to serve at parties (like wine), rather than hide in the garage like the cold ones her husband drinks. To prove his point, Don makes sure the store that Betty (who as the wife of an ad executive and Bryn Mawr College graduate is definitely part of the target demographic) shops at is part of the test market, and invites Duck along to dinner at his place (along with the Sterlings and some other friends). Sure enough, when Betty is running through her "tour-of-the-world" selection of courses, she presents the Heineken "from Holland" as an alternative to the French wine also on offer. Everyone laughs heartily...except for Betty, who resents being used as a guinea pig. As a result, although the plan works perfectly from a business perspective (they even consider using Betty's menu verbatim), it's a catastrophe for Don personally: it leads to Don being Exiled to the Couch for the first time. | |
Mad Men / int_513596c6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_513596c6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_513596c6 | |
Mad Men / int_51509ce7 | type |
Convenient Miscarriage | |
Mad Men / int_51509ce7 | comment |
Convenient Miscarriage: Megan admits to this after the fact in "The Collaborators," confessing she is relieved that she didn't have to decide whether she should have an abortion. | |
Mad Men / int_51509ce7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_51509ce7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_51509ce7 | |
Mad Men / int_52196c03 | type |
Age-Gap Romance | |
Mad Men / int_52196c03 | comment |
Age-Gap Romance: Office manager Joan Holloway and one of the partners Roger Sterling have a long love affair. She's in her early thirties, he is in his fifties (as evidenced by him remembering the 1919 World Series). Most people in the office don't know about it. Bert Cooper advises Joan she could "do a lot better" — She thinks he means a professor she had a date with and Joan explains "he's just a friend", Cooper insists, "that's not what I'm talking about, my dear. Don't waste your youth on age." Betty's second husband Henry Francis is about two decades older than her. Henry met Betty when she was married and pregnant with her third baby and he was simply charmed with her beauty. His mother doesn't approve of the relationship, thinking he need not marry her. Roger started an affair with Jane Siegel, a college graduate and new secretary, and later they got married. One day she told him that their souls were the same age. At a country club party hosted by Roger to help Jane socialize with his colleagues and friends, Jane becomes wildly drunk and expresses her frustration at not being accepted. Roger's mother confused Jane with his daughter from his first marriage Margaret. Margaret was very upset by Jane's attempts to befriend her and she did not want Jane to attend her wedding Peggy Olson had an affair with Duck Phillips. She was a young talented copywriter at her early twenties and he was a middle-aged guy. They met at Sterling Cooper and he later tried to get her to work for another company. She refused, but they started to sleep together in secret. Don Draper and Megan. After they get married and Megan throws Don a surprise birthday party, we find out that Don is forty while Megan is in her mid-to-late twenties. Don is not super excited about Megan's younger friends and her modern ideas. | |
Mad Men / int_52196c03 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_52196c03 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_52196c03 | |
Mad Men / int_52fbbe7 | type |
Yellow Peril | |
Mad Men / int_52fbbe7 | comment |
Yellow Peril: Roger Sterling is really anti-Japanese, having failed to grow past his days in the Navy in World War II, and deeply insults the Honda representatives. | |
Mad Men / int_52fbbe7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_52fbbe7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_52fbbe7 | |
Mad Men / int_5313c266 | type |
Bookends | |
Mad Men / int_5313c266 | comment |
Book Ends: "The Quality of Mercy" opens with Don sleeping in a fetal position on Sally's bed after having ruined his relationship with her in the previous episode. It ends with Don curled up in a fetal position on his office's couch after ruining his relationship with Peggy. When Jimmy Barrett first appears on the show, he's filming a monologue that begins, "Imagine my horror when a night on the town turned ugly...." In his last appearance, he is enjoying a night on the town when he encounters Don, who knocks him down. | |
Mad Men / int_5313c266 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5313c266 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5313c266 | |
Mad Men / int_53c9fc92 | type |
Flashback | |
Mad Men / int_53c9fc92 | comment |
Flashback: This is how we learn Don's whole backstory. | |
Mad Men / int_53c9fc92 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_53c9fc92 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_53c9fc92 | |
Mad Men / int_5565bf30 | type |
Three-Way Sex | |
Mad Men / int_5565bf30 | comment |
Three-Way Sex: Don, Megan, and Megan's friend Amy in Season 7's "The Runaways — at Megan's insistence. | |
Mad Men / int_5565bf30 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5565bf30 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5565bf30 | |
Mad Men / int_56691220 | type |
Even the Girls Want Her | |
Mad Men / int_56691220 | comment |
Even the Girls Want Her: Joan's roommate Carol makes a pretty overt proposal. Joan pretends that she doesn't understand. In season four, Peggy gets hit on by Joyce, a female Life editor at a Warhol-esque art show. Though Peggy blocks the flirtation, she not only handles it very casually, but the two of them go on to be such close friends that Joyce regularly comes to visit the SCDP offices; by season five, they even kiss each other on the cheek as a greeting. Megan's sexy swinger boss Arlene makes advances to her in Season 6 in both "To Have and To Hold" and "The Better Half." Megan laughs it off both times. | |
Mad Men / int_56691220 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_56691220 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_56691220 | |
Mad Men / int_5670cddb | type |
Troubled Backstory Flashback | |
Mad Men / int_5670cddb | comment |
The backstory flashbacks of Don often account for his twisted personality in the present day. Hell, even his very name, Dick Whitman, has a Freudian origin; his mother's fondest wish was to cut off his father's dick and boil it in hog fat for getting her pregnant. | |
Mad Men / int_5670cddb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5670cddb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5670cddb | |
Mad Men / int_56725578 | type |
Driving a Desk | |
Mad Men / int_56725578 | comment |
Driving a Desk: Don and Megan not really driving through upstate New York in "Far Away Places". | |
Mad Men / int_56725578 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_56725578 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_56725578 | |
Mad Men / int_57980ca0 | type |
Smoking Hot Sex | |
Mad Men / int_57980ca0 | comment |
Smoking Hot Sex: Fairly frequently; in fact, barely five minutes into the first episode. Duck in particular seems to be fond of the practice. | |
Mad Men / int_57980ca0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_57980ca0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_57980ca0 | |
Mad Men / int_5798bfbf | type |
Reassigned to Antarctica | |
Mad Men / int_5798bfbf | comment |
Lane Pryce from Putnam, Powell, and Lowe. Though it works for him in the short term, considering he was almost sent to Bombay by his superiors for doing such a good job. Eventually he turns out to be more of a Bait-and-Switch Tyrant, considering he joins Don, Roger, and Bert to start the new company. | |
Mad Men / int_5798bfbf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5798bfbf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5798bfbf | |
Mad Men / int_58030b25 | type |
Visual Innuendo | |
Mad Men / int_58030b25 | comment |
Visual Innuendo: Pete peruses magazines, preparing to give a semen sample at a fertility clinic. He makes his selection...and we cut to Roger operating a paddle ball toy at crotch level. | |
Mad Men / int_58030b25 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_58030b25 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_58030b25 | |
Mad Men / int_590c9468 | type |
Hunting Is Evil | |
Mad Men / int_590c9468 | comment |
Hunting Is Evil: Betty is bothered by the birds in her garden, however, it's only after she loses her chance at modeling again thanks to Don, and realizes that she is still trapped in an unfulfiling and unhappy family and marriage that she takes a gun out to the garden and calmly shoots them. Ken gets his eye shot out on a hunting trip with Chevy executives. | |
Mad Men / int_590c9468 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_590c9468 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_590c9468 | |
Mad Men / int_596f675a | type |
Smoking Is Cool | |
Mad Men / int_596f675a | comment |
Smoking Is Cool: SO damn cool. The dashingly beautiful cast doing it helps a lot on emphasizing this. However, there are also a lot of shots of the characters coughing in the morning, or while smoking, effectively deconstructing the trope while still looking cool on a superficial level. Peggy swaggers into McCann Erickson at the end of "Lost Horizon" with a cigarette dangling from her lips and cool sunglasses on (plus Bert Cooper's copy of Hokusai's Dream of the Fisherman's Wife under her arm). Totally deconstructed in "The Milk and Honey Route" when someone finally gets advanced lung cancer. | |
Mad Men / int_596f675a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_596f675a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_596f675a | |
Mad Men / int_5989e3b6 | type |
Enemy Mine | |
Mad Men / int_5989e3b6 | comment |
Enemy Mine: In "For Immediate Release", Don and Chaough merge their agencies to get the GM account. | |
Mad Men / int_5989e3b6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5989e3b6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5989e3b6 | |
Mad Men / int_59b9f4df | type |
You Are Fat | |
Mad Men / int_59b9f4df | comment |
You Are Fat: Happens between a few women as a reflection of the emphasis on women's looks. Oddly comments like these came from Pauline Francis to Betty (after Betty gained weight yet was still smaller than her mother-in-law) and the buxom Joan to petite Peggy ("The Summer Man" has Joan telling Peggy she needs the steps). | |
Mad Men / int_59b9f4df | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_59b9f4df | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_59b9f4df | |
Mad Men / int_5a310772 | type |
Standard Office Setting | |
Mad Men / int_5a310772 | comment |
Standard Office Setting: It is set in a New York advertising company. Secretaries sit in a secretarial pool, some people have their own office, sometimes shared with more employees. Men leading a department or dealing with clients usually have their own offices. The partners have gorgeous, spacious offices decorated with awesome art (e.g. Bert Cooper has some Japanese woodblock prints or Roger Sterling has some amazing op art pictures in later seasons). Meetings are held in big rooms or people's offices. Sometimes we see characters trying to get a better office or being envious of each other. | |
Mad Men / int_5a310772 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5a310772 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5a310772 | |
Mad Men / int_5abe5b74 | type |
Everybody Must Get Stoned | |
Mad Men / int_5abe5b74 | comment |
Everybody Must Get Stoned: In "The Crash", Jim Cutler brings a "doctor" to the office to give most of the cast speed to help them get through a very sad and busy day. | |
Mad Men / int_5abe5b74 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5abe5b74 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5abe5b74 | |
Mad Men / int_5b0323a5 | type |
Spontaneous Choreography | |
Mad Men / int_5b0323a5 | comment |
Spontaneous Choreography: See Sudden Musical Ending below. | |
Mad Men / int_5b0323a5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5b0323a5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5b0323a5 | |
Mad Men / int_5b9dcd73 | type |
Empty Promise | |
Mad Men / int_5b9dcd73 | comment |
Empty Promise: Don's decision to offer these to Betty after Kennedy was assassinated rather than genuine comfort and emotion catalyzed the dissolution of their marriage. | |
Mad Men / int_5b9dcd73 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5b9dcd73 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5b9dcd73 | |
Mad Men / int_5c5d0032 | type |
Eyepatch of Power | |
Mad Men / int_5c5d0032 | comment |
Eyepatch of Power: Zig-zagged. When Ken gets shot in the face while out hunting with GM executives, he dons an eyepatch which everyone seems to regard as alternately amusing and kind of cool. He himself hates it, since he's about to become a father and does not relish the prospect of only having the use of one eye then. | |
Mad Men / int_5c5d0032 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5c5d0032 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5c5d0032 | |
Mad Men / int_5c71cdf5 | type |
Plucky Office Girl | |
Mad Men / int_5c71cdf5 | comment |
Plucky Office Girl: Peggy began as one of these. Meredith and Dawn join her ranks later on. | |
Mad Men / int_5c71cdf5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5c71cdf5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5c71cdf5 | |
Mad Men / int_5e2e55e4 | type |
The Casanova | |
Mad Men / int_5e2e55e4 | comment |
The Casanova: Don Draper, 'nuff said. His middle name should be this trope. He's so good, actually, that he has to make excuses to the point of being apologetic when NOT hitting on a woman (with Peggy, for example). | |
Mad Men / int_5e2e55e4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5e2e55e4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5e2e55e4 | |
Mad Men / int_5ecabcc0 | type |
One Drink Will Kill the Baby | |
Mad Men / int_5ecabcc0 | comment |
One Drink Will Kill the Baby: Averted by Betty and other pregnant women. Accurate for the time period. | |
Mad Men / int_5ecabcc0 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5ecabcc0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5ecabcc0 | |
Mad Men / int_5f3bb274 | type |
Late-Arrival Spoiler | |
Mad Men / int_5f3bb274 | comment |
Late-Arrival Spoiler: It would be very hard to start watching the show now and completely avoid the knowledge that Don will eventually marry Megan. Also, Don's real identity. | |
Mad Men / int_5f3bb274 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5f3bb274 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5f3bb274 | |
Mad Men / int_5f54a67b | type |
Enter Stage Window | |
Mad Men / int_5f54a67b | comment |
Enter Stage Window: Creepy Glen Bishop does this to see Sally at a girls' boarding school in "The Quality of Mercy". | |
Mad Men / int_5f54a67b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5f54a67b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5f54a67b | |
Mad Men / int_5f6c6cc1 | type |
Can't Get Away with Nuthin' | |
Mad Men / int_5f6c6cc1 | comment |
Can't Get Away with Nuthin' At the end of the pilot, Peggy has a one night with Pete — on the eve of Pete's wedding. She delivers a surprise baby in the Season Finale. Separated Don and Betty have sad, confusing sex in her childhood bedroom after her father Gene has had a stroke, thus producing Baby Gene 9 months later. Joan and Roger, both married, re-consummate their relationship against a wall after being mugged. Joan gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby and pass it off as her absent husband's. It's also often subverted. A number of instances of cheating (like Pete's one night stand with a model, or Don and Betty sleeping together at Bobby's camp) result in no consequences and are not discovered by their spouses. | |
Mad Men / int_5f6c6cc1 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Mad Men / int_5f6c6cc1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5f6c6cc1 | |
Mad Men / int_5ff30573 | type |
Long Game | |
Mad Men / int_5ff30573 | comment |
Long Game: Jim Hobart's attempts to get Don to work for McCann- since season 1! -finally pay off in Season 7A when SC&P merges with McCann. | |
Mad Men / int_5ff30573 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_5ff30573 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_5ff30573 | |
Mad Men / int_6023a9bc | type |
Bloody Hilarious | |
Mad Men / int_6023a9bc | comment |
Bloody Hilarious: The lawnmower incident. | |
Mad Men / int_6023a9bc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6023a9bc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6023a9bc | |
Mad Men / int_60b03a94 | type |
Parental Issues | |
Mad Men / int_60b03a94 | comment |
Parental Issues: Hoo boy. | |
Mad Men / int_60b03a94 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_60b03a94 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_60b03a94 | |
Mad Men / int_60d73edb | type |
Drink-Based Characterization | |
Mad Men / int_60d73edb | comment |
Drink-Based Characterization: Roger seems to drink whatever's handy, but has a particular liking for vodka and especially vodka martinis; ever since he got his super-modern office in Season 4, it seems that there's always a bottle of Smirnoff around. Although to be frank, he's always gone in for Smirnoff; in Season 1, he was seen pouring Smirnoff into milk (apparently because his doctor recommended milk to calm his gastric ulcer). Don's a whisky guy — rye for preference; he even has it in his Old Fashioned, a cocktail that usually uses bourbon. His brand of choice is Canadian Club, which is as prevalent in his office as Smirnoff is in Roger's. Megan is fairly eclectic, but seems to like wine — as do her Amazingly Embarrassing Parents, who (surprise, surprise) are French-Canadian intellectuals. Joan's choices are also eclectic, but she does seem to like gin drinks. If she's feeling stressed, she'll even drink straight gin. The emphasis on cocktails and hard liquor in general. The post-Prohibition decades in America were the Golden Age of the Mixed Drink and the sophisticate's choice was nearly always a cocktail of some sort. Wine, unless it was French with a price like a car payment, was either "ethnic" or something that bums drank from paper bags; beer was strictly an industrial product consumed only in the most informal settings, and hard cider was completely off the radar, while non-alcoholic drinks were strictly for children and members of weird teetotal religions. | |
Mad Men / int_60d73edb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_60d73edb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_60d73edb | |
Mad Men / int_61313315 | type |
Off the Wagon | |
Mad Men / int_61313315 | comment |
Off the Wagon: Duck, a recovering alcoholic, relapses with dire consequences. Don in "The Monolith" — he's saved from exposing his intoxication in the office by Freddy Rumsen. | |
Mad Men / int_61313315 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_61313315 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_61313315 | |
Mad Men / int_6143ce68 | type |
Dine and Dash | |
Mad Men / int_6143ce68 | comment |
Dine and Dash: Subverted in the last season. Don Draper takes his teenage daughter Sally out to dinner during a period where he's not in good graces with his own company, essentially being on paid suspension, on the verge of being outright fired. When they're finished he tells Sally in a worried tone to go outside and get the car engine running, then admits he's just kidding. | |
Mad Men / int_6143ce68 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Mad Men / int_6143ce68 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6143ce68 | |
Mad Men / int_615fdb1f | type |
Dream Sequence | |
Mad Men / int_615fdb1f | comment |
Dream Sequence: Betty has a pretty funky one in "The Fog" when she gets drugged up while giving birth. And another in "Tea Leaves" during her cancer scare. Those are topped by "Mystery Date", wherein Don Draper dreams of murdering an old flame. Don smokes hasish at an L.A. party in "A Tale of Two Cities," resulting in visions of pregnant hippie Megan and the dead PFC Dinkins. It ends with him face down in the pool, unsure of how he got there. | |
Mad Men / int_615fdb1f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_615fdb1f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_615fdb1f | |
Mad Men / int_618dc1ea | type |
Parent with New Paramour | |
Mad Men / int_618dc1ea | comment |
Parent with New Paramour: After Betty's mother dies, her father takes up with a new woman, whom Betty determinedly hates. Sally Draper initially does not like Betty's new husband, Henry Francis, or his family. In fairness to Henry, he tries to be kind to Sally and encourages Betty to do the same; it's just that Sally still sees him as a manifestation of Betty's hatred for Don. Curiously, her brother Bobby doesn't seem to have this problem. Bobby has fully taken to Henry as a father figure, as evidenced when he expresses worry to Don about Henry's safety during the MLK riots. Sally, Bobby, and Gene take well to Megan. Sally, though, doesn't take to Sylvia (who was having an affair with Don and she walked in on them). Margaret Sterling hates Jane, who is only two years older than her. Although, considering Jane's onslaught of unwanted showy gifts and borderline-creepy marriage advice, delivered to Margaret right before her own wedding, you can kind of see her point. The 4th Season premiere shows Henry Francis's adult daughter ignoring Betty at the Thanksgiving dinner. Season 7B shows Megan walking in after her mother Marie and Roger have finished having sex, there follows an argument, then later Megan's gloomy, whiny devout sister blames Megan for their parents splitting. Megan then tells her that wallowing in misery and other's misery is a sin and that at least their mother did something about her unhappiness. | |
Mad Men / int_618dc1ea | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_618dc1ea | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_618dc1ea | |
Mad Men / int_61b8f9e2 | type |
Bunny-Ears Lawyer | |
Mad Men / int_61b8f9e2 | comment |
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Bert Cooper. | |
Mad Men / int_61b8f9e2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_61b8f9e2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_61b8f9e2 | |
Mad Men / int_62434fe2 | type |
Sanity Slippage | |
Mad Men / int_62434fe2 | comment |
Sanity Slippage: Peggy toward the end of Season 1. Ginsberg full blown in Season 7A. | |
Mad Men / int_62434fe2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_62434fe2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_62434fe2 | |
Mad Men / int_62907b90 | type |
Bottle Episode | |
Mad Men / int_62907b90 | comment |
Bottle Episode: "The Suitcase," which mostly focuses on Don and Peggy becoming more intimate while pulling an all-nighter to come up with a commercial for Samsonite. | |
Mad Men / int_62907b90 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_62907b90 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_62907b90 | |
Mad Men / int_629de9ad | type |
'70s Hair | |
Mad Men / int_629de9ad | comment |
'70s Hair: Season 7B sees longer sideburns, loosened up looking hairstyles, loose tendrils, Jean Shrimpton style wavy hair, and Don with a little less brylcreem. | |
Mad Men / int_629de9ad | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_629de9ad | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_629de9ad | |
Mad Men / int_62fd5552 | type |
Bavarian Fire Drill | |
Mad Men / int_62fd5552 | comment |
Bavarian Fire Drill: Nobody hired Bob Benson. He kept showing up at the office after having an interview with Ken and acted like he was an employee until everybody assumed that someone else hired him. | |
Mad Men / int_62fd5552 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_62fd5552 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_62fd5552 | |
Mad Men / int_6383a034 | type |
The Mutiny | |
Mad Men / int_6383a034 | comment |
The Mutiny: The formation of SCDP at the end of Season 3. | |
Mad Men / int_6383a034 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6383a034 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6383a034 | |
Mad Men / int_63cad64b | type |
Threatening Shark | |
Mad Men / int_63cad64b | comment |
Threatening Shark: Both of Pete's parents die at sea and within the respective episodes for each death someone makes sure to point that it was possible, nay, probable that they were eaten by sharks. | |
Mad Men / int_63cad64b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_63cad64b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_63cad64b | |
Mad Men / int_64e975cf | type |
Manly Tears | |
Mad Men / int_64e975cf | comment |
Manly Tears: Don's breakdown in "The Suitcase." Roger at the end of "The Doorway" when he receives the shoeshine kit from the shoeshine guy who has died, but is obviously also crying about his mother's death earlier in the episode. Don again, when having an emotional catharsis with another man at the Esalen Institute in "Person to Person". | |
Mad Men / int_64e975cf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_64e975cf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_64e975cf | |
Mad Men / int_657f77e4 | type |
Caught with Your Pants Down | |
Mad Men / int_657f77e4 | comment |
Caught with Your Pants Down: Don's ten year old daughter Sally is watching The Man from U.N.C.L.E. when she starts masturbating, without really knowing what it is she's doing, to Ilya Kuryakin at a friend's house while her friend is sleeping on the couch. She gets in trouble when the friend's mother walks in, and when she takes Sally back home, her mother yells at her and threatens to cut her fingers off if she does it again — in public or in private. All the while Sally doesn't even know why the adults are mad at her. | |
Mad Men / int_657f77e4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_657f77e4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_657f77e4 | |
Mad Men / int_658f7193 | type |
Lack of Empathy | |
Mad Men / int_658f7193 | comment |
Lack of Empathy: When Roger's mother dies, he's not only callously unaffected, he's also annoyed by his secretary genuinely mourning over his loss. | |
Mad Men / int_658f7193 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_658f7193 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_658f7193 | |
Mad Men / int_65bc92fc | type |
Four-Temperament Ensemble | |
Mad Men / int_65bc92fc | comment |
Four-Temperament Ensemble: the four partners in SCDP: Don (Phlegmatic), Roger (Choleric), Cooper (Sanguine), and Lane (Melancholic). Although, of course, Don is Choleric as well and Roger can be very Sanguine. | |
Mad Men / int_65bc92fc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_65bc92fc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_65bc92fc | |
Mad Men / int_664bc28f | type |
British Brevity | |
Mad Men / int_664bc28f | comment |
British Brevity: Seasons usually have about 13 episodes. | |
Mad Men / int_664bc28f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_664bc28f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_664bc28f | |
Mad Men / int_66dfe36a | type |
Missing Mom | |
Mad Men / int_66dfe36a | comment |
Missing Mom: Don's mother died at childbirth and his step-mother was abusive. Margaret bails on her husband and small son. Her father, not a paragon of fatherhood himself, tries to set her straight and get her back to her family, telling her that she is a mother first. Stephanie talks about how she feels judged for abandoning her son in "Person to Person", only for another member of the therapy group to essentially say that she should feel bad. | |
Mad Men / int_66dfe36a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_66dfe36a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_66dfe36a | |
Mad Men / int_67fe4b8e | type |
Ship Sinking | |
Mad Men / int_67fe4b8e | comment |
Ship Sinking: Don and Joan after Don fires Jaguar without consulting anyone. For Pete and Peggy in the season two finale. | |
Mad Men / int_67fe4b8e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_67fe4b8e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_67fe4b8e | |
Mad Men / int_680f950 | type |
Gilligan Cut | |
Mad Men / int_680f950 | comment |
Gilligan Cut When a younger Don first met Roger Sterling and offered to buy him a drink, Roger fired back, "It's 10:30 a.m.!" Cut to Roger in a bar enjoying a drink. Lane's wife drags him to go meet some fellow Englishmen in a pub and watch a soccer game; Lane, never having been much a fan of his home country, drags his feet and only grudgingly promises to pretend to have fun. Cut to him belting "God Save the Queen" with total sincerity as England wins the 1966 World Cup. | |
Mad Men / int_680f950 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_680f950 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_680f950 | |
Mad Men / int_68df9a56 | type |
OverCrank | |
Mad Men / int_68df9a56 | comment |
Over Crank: When Don arrives in Los Angeles in the season 7 premiere, Megan meets him at the airport and she gets out of her cool new sports car convertible, wearing a sexy baby doll minidress and kisses him in slow motion, as the Spencer Davis Group's "I'm a Man" plays. | |
Mad Men / int_68df9a56 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_68df9a56 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_68df9a56 | |
Mad Men / int_69121204 | type |
The Un-Favourite | |
Mad Men / int_69121204 | comment |
The Un Favourite: Pete is this to his WASP family. Don to his adoptive mother (even before she had a son of her own). Peggy and her sister Anita both feel this way — Peggy because of the baby and because she's putting her career ahead of finding a husband, and Anita, interestingly, because she feels like Peggy gets away with those things when she couldn't. Mrs. Olson provides enough guilt for everyone to partake. In an office version, Peggy thinks of herself this way to Don - everyone else thinks of her as the favorite, because unlike everyone else she actually seems to have Don's respect. This eventually prompts Peggy to leave SCDP for the sake of her career. | |
Mad Men / int_69121204 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_69121204 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_69121204 | |
Mad Men / int_6ac3af76 | type |
Divorce Is Temporary | |
Mad Men / int_6ac3af76 | comment |
Divorce Is Temporary: Pete and Trudy separate in Season 6 and are in the process of divorce by the season's end. However, they never officially finalize it, and eventually graduate to Amicable Exes before getting back together in the penultimate episode (which would've roughly taken place two and a half years after the initial separation). | |
Mad Men / int_6ac3af76 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6ac3af76 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6ac3af76 | |
Mad Men / int_6b05b601 | type |
Jerkass Has a Point | |
Mad Men / int_6b05b601 | comment |
Jerkass Has a Point: In a series where characters behave as jerkasses, these moments are plenty. Joan is often an Alpha Bitch, yet when she gives advice or has to settle issues in the office, she's shown often to be in the right (though her methods may be questionable). Don is this, especially when he chides Peggy for being so meek about demanding something. He tells her that she gave a performance like a man, so to ask like one. Bobbie is one unscrupulous woman, yet her advice to Peggy about channeling her femininity and developing a backbone worked in Peggy's favor. Peggy's mom really shames her daughter for considering cohabitation with Abe, telling her that he will use her "for practice" until he finds another woman to marry. She tells Peggy that if she doesn't want to be alone, get a cat. Obviously Slut-Shaming? Yes. Pointing out that her daughter is getting the raw deal in the relationship and that it's better to be an Old Maid rather than be an in All Take and No Give relationship? Yes. Arguably Bert, Peggy, and Joans' attitudes towards Don in 7A: Don cost them Big Tobacco and his marriage with Megan seeped into the office (Bert), Don lost the Jaguar account and is irresponsible (Joan), and Don basically put Ted through hell in the last season and split Peggy's romance with him (Peggy, and that's just the iceberg). Bert and Peggy get over this by the end of 7A, whereas it takes about one more year in-universe for Joan to warm right back to Don. Joan and Peggy's uncomfortable elevator convo after dealing with Frat Bro like execs. Peggy states that Joan should consider the sort of attention she got was a result of how she dresses. Joan is righteously incensed and tells Peggy that she (Joan) is prettier. Peggy then angrily shoots back that Joan is filthy rich and can do anything she wants. | |
Mad Men / int_6b05b601 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6b05b601 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6b05b601 | |
Mad Men / int_6b7e3069 | type |
Birth-Death Juxtaposition | |
Mad Men / int_6b7e3069 | comment |
Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Betty's father, Eugene, dies in one episode; the next, she gives birth to a son. She names him Eugene. In 4x11, David Montgomery dies and Pete Campbell's daughter is born. | |
Mad Men / int_6b7e3069 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6b7e3069 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6b7e3069 | |
Mad Men / int_6bd689ca | type |
Meaningful Echo | |
Mad Men / int_6bd689ca | comment |
Meaningful Echo/Strange Minds Think Alike: It's constantly happening to Don that someone unwittingly says something that gets right at the heart of whatever's torturing him at the moment. | |
Mad Men / int_6bd689ca | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6bd689ca | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6bd689ca | |
Mad Men / int_6bda9a30 | type |
Meaningful Name | |
Mad Men / int_6bda9a30 | comment |
Meaningful Name: Don Draper, first and last. Freddy Rumsen also qualifies, given his struggle with alcoholism. | |
Mad Men / int_6bda9a30 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6bda9a30 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6bda9a30 | |
Mad Men / int_6c81c95 | type |
True Art Is Incomprehensible | |
Mad Men / int_6c81c95 | comment |
True Art Is Incomprehensible: When Cooper hangs a Rothko in his office, the guys worry about what they're supposed to say if he asks them about it. The real reason Bert Cooper bought it was because he expected the price to double in a year and sell it to make a profit. | |
Mad Men / int_6c81c95 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6c81c95 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6c81c95 | |
Mad Men / int_6d332aea | type |
Driven to Suicide | |
Mad Men / int_6d332aea | comment |
Driven to Suicide: Don's brother Adam, who hangs himself after Don sends him away. Lane Pryce. | |
Mad Men / int_6d332aea | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6d332aea | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6d332aea | |
Mad Men / int_6d7026fa | type |
Punny Name | |
Mad Men / int_6d7026fa | comment |
Punny Name: Dick Whitman gets his name (unbeknownst to his family) from his mother's fondest wish — cutting off his father's johnson and boiling it in hog fat for getting her pregnant. | |
Mad Men / int_6d7026fa | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6d7026fa | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6d7026fa | |
Mad Men / int_6d7cd3e | type |
Dead Person Impersonation | |
Mad Men / int_6d7cd3e | comment |
Don and Pete don't become close, but their working relationship develops a lot. In the first season Don fires Pete until Roger is forced to hire him back. Pete retaliates by revealing Don's Dead Person Impersonation, to Bert Cooper's utter indifference. Contrast that to the fourth season, where Pete takes the fall for losing a defense contract so that Don won't have to reveal his true identity, and Don covers the difference for Pete when partnership stakes go up. | |
Mad Men / int_6d7cd3e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6d7cd3e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6d7cd3e | |
Mad Men / int_6e37c196 | type |
Once Done, Never Forgotten | |
Mad Men / int_6e37c196 | comment |
Once Done, Never Forgotten: Don's anti-tobacco ad. Two and a half seasons later, it's still costing the agency business but it can't be overlooked that it did help them first from bankruptcy. In Season 7, his Hershey's proposal fiasco is making the rounds in the ad industry rumor mill. | |
Mad Men / int_6e37c196 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6e37c196 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6e37c196 | |
Mad Men / int_6eb4e408 | type |
Artistic License – Military | |
Mad Men / int_6eb4e408 | comment |
Artistic License – Military: In "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", Roger relates briefly about his time on a U.S. Navy destroyer. He starts talking about "a young PFC" (private first class). This rank does not exist in the U.S. Navy — the Navy equivalent would be Seaman (E-3). Also, while some Navy ships had a Marine Corps contingent aboard (the USMC does have PFC as a rank), destroyers did not. | |
Mad Men / int_6eb4e408 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_6eb4e408 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_6eb4e408 | |
Mad Men / int_70506bc7 | type |
Going Cold Turkey | |
Mad Men / int_70506bc7 | comment |
Going Cold Turkey: Don tries this in "In Care Of" after the night in the drunk tank. Ted Chaough convinces him to have a drink before a big meeting, saying "My father... you can't just stop like that." | |
Mad Men / int_70506bc7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_70506bc7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_70506bc7 | |
Mad Men / int_71105dfc | type |
Everybody Smokes | |
Mad Men / int_71105dfc | comment |
Everybody Smokes: to the point of Lampshade Hanging when the first season's DVD packaging looked like a giant Zippo lighter and the first episode is titled "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." Gynecologists drinking and smoking while working. The producers said that their general rule was if the actor either smokes or used to smoke and since quit, the character smokes, too. If the actor has never smoked, neither does the character. Which makes you really wonder about Hollywood.... Pete Campbell doesn't, which makes for a gag in one episode where he tries cigarettes and can't stop coughing. A new generation gets addicted to nicotine when teenaged Sally Draper starts lighting up in Season 7A. | |
Mad Men / int_71105dfc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_71105dfc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_71105dfc | |
Mad Men / int_71152dd | type |
One Dialogue, Two Conversations | |
Mad Men / int_71152dd | comment |
One Dialogue, Two Conversations: In "A Little Kiss", Harry thinks that Roger called him into his office to fire him. Roger is actually trying to convince Harry to swap offices with Pete and assumes that Harry already knows about his intent. | |
Mad Men / int_71152dd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_71152dd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_71152dd | |
Mad Men / int_712d19c7 | type |
Trophy Child | |
Mad Men / int_712d19c7 | comment |
Trophy Child: Don and Betty Draper seem to be the living embodiment of the wholesome 1960s nuclear family with a professional dad, a stay at home mom, and two perfect kids, one girl and one boy. However, the Drapers are more in love with the idea of marriage and children than their actual spouse and kids. Neither spends much time with their children and the emphasis is placed on the children looking immaculate and behaving well at all times. Once Don and Betty have their third child and divorce, the kids are used at chess pieces to punish each other with most of the child care falling to nannies and respective step-parents. In one episode, both Don and Betty and their respective spouses spend most of the episode thinking the other is taking care of the kids while the kids are actually in Don's apartment with a house burglar who is pretending to be an old friend of Don's while actually robbing the place. | |
Mad Men / int_712d19c7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_712d19c7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_712d19c7 | |
Mad Men / int_722b3319 | type |
Camp Gay | |
Mad Men / int_722b3319 | comment |
Camp Gay: The party planner at Don's 40th birthday party in Season 5's "A Little Kiss". The Chevalier Blanc men's cologne guy in Season 5. According to Bob Benson, Pete Campbell's mom's nurse Manolo. | |
Mad Men / int_722b3319 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_722b3319 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_722b3319 | |
Mad Men / int_72e1bd14 | type |
Bungled Suicide | |
Mad Men / int_72e1bd14 | comment |
Bungled Suicide: In "Commissions and Fees", this is subverted. Although Lane's attempt to use his Jaguar to asphyxiate himself fails, it is revealed at the end of the episode that he successfully hanged himself. | |
Mad Men / int_72e1bd14 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Mad Men / int_72e1bd14 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_72e1bd14 | |
Mad Men / int_740f59b4 | type |
ColorCodedForYourConvenience | |
Mad Men / int_740f59b4 | comment |
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: This is a testament to the psychology of the scripts and to the costume design of Janie Bryant. There is usually a color theme running throughout a season (brown and blue for 7B and blue and green for 6) and often a scheme for the characters (blue for Betty, purple for Joan, and yellow for Peggy) with concepts like dressing couples somewhat alike or tying their clothing into their surroundings or the person they're talking to. One example being Peggy's pitch to Burger Chef at the end of 7A where she's wearing colors identical to Julio, a little boy she befriended before and another being that blue and white for Betty represent her role as a wife and mother (aside from showing off the looks she works hard to maintain). | |
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Mad Men / int_740f59b4 | |
Mad Men / int_7426582d | type |
Token Minority | |
Mad Men / int_7426582d | comment |
Token Minority: In-universe with two different minorities. The sarcastic "equal opportunity employer" ad in Season 5 premiere "A Little Kiss" basically forces lily-white SCDP to integrate, and in "Tea Leaves" Dawn the secretary has been hired as their first black employee. In the same episode, SCDP hires a Jewish copywriter, which Roger thinks makes the business seem more "modern". (In the first season Sterling Cooper had to pluck some random Jewish employee out of the mailroom when meeting with the Jewish owners of Menken's department store.) Dawn is basically the Token Minority in a meta-sense as well, given her lack of storyline (apart from that one scene with Peggy) and the continuing whiteness of the rest of the cast. She does get some background characterization, which is more than we can say about the other secretaries (except, of course, for the ones who are no longer secretaries). Also, by Season 7, she is also joined by another black secretary. | |
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Mad Men / int_7426582d | |
Mad Men / int_7464705c | type |
Arc Words | |
Mad Men / int_7464705c | comment |
In "The Rejected", Allison pointedly says to Don "this actually happened", as a reference to the Arc Words "this never happened". | |
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Mad Men / int_7464705c | |
Mad Men / int_74e2ef76 | type |
Orphaned Punchline | |
Mad Men / int_74e2ef76 | comment |
Orphaned Punchline: Lampshaded by Roger in "The Wee Hours." | |
Mad Men / int_74e2ef76 | featureApplicability |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_74e2ef76 | |
Mad Men / int_751bd286 | type |
Is This Thing Still On? | |
Mad Men / int_751bd286 | comment |
Is This Thing Still On?: In "A Day's Work", the New York and California offices are engaging in a conference call, when the call gets messed up so the New York office can't hear what the California office is saying. The New York office falsely assumes that the call was dropped altogether and start badmouthing the California office. Pete is not amused. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_751bd286 | |
Mad Men / int_754df088 | type |
Put on a Bus | |
Mad Men / int_754df088 | comment |
Put on a Bus: Sal Romano's fate remains unknown after SC fired him in Season 3. | |
Mad Men / int_754df088 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_754df088 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_754df088 | |
Mad Men / int_75e2bf23 | type |
Chiaroscuro | |
Mad Men / int_75e2bf23 | comment |
Chiaroscuro: The light is always amazingly specific; illumination defines the location (from time of day to which side of a building an office is on), and also artistically defines a character (Don's always hiding in the shadows). | |
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Mad Men / int_75e2bf23 | |
Mad Men / int_775a1af6 | type |
Married to the Job | |
Mad Men / int_775a1af6 | comment |
After Peggy has broken up with both Abe and Chaough in Season 6, and taken over Don's office and assumed the pose that ends the opening credits, she seems more and more to be Married to the Job. | |
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Mad Men / int_77dd4ff0 | type |
Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty | |
Mad Men / int_77dd4ff0 | comment |
Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Quite shiny, most of the time. Most of the main characters are either corporate executives or corporate executives' wives, for God's sake! More specifically, Matthew Weiner is interested in using the "visual vocabulary" of the early Sixties, which had the slightest tendency to over-shiny things, but on account of the realistic depiction, it provides a bit of dissonance. Don's flashbacks to his childhood fall on the grittier side however, taking place in rural America during the Great Depression. The visual dissonance between the flashbacks and the main story just makes them all the more jarring. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_77dd4ff0 | |
Mad Men / int_7870735b | type |
From Bad to Worse | |
Mad Men / int_7870735b | comment |
From Bad to Worse: Don was in a downward spiral at the start of season four, breaking his own rules about sleeping with employees and hiring a prostitute to slap him in the face as they have sex. So he goes to California to spend some time with Anna Draper, his safety net and the only person who he feels he can truly be himself around. And then he learns she has terminal cancer. In Season 6, this happens to Don again, but even worse, as his alcoholism worsens and his job performance suffers, leading to him getting fired. | |
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Mad Men / int_7870735b | |
Mad Men / int_7a0374eb | type |
Impoverished Patrician | |
Mad Men / int_7a0374eb | comment |
Impoverished Patrician: Pete. His mother's family is old New York Dutch Blue Blood stock, and had owned half of Upper Manhattan before 1929. Pete's dad squandered what was left of the family fortune, and thus Pete is resentful, working as a mid-level ad executive, and has to marry Trudy, whose family isn't as old as his but has more money (as her father is a bigshot at Richardson-Vicks). Of course, he eventually comes out better for it (and eventually settles down about Trudy for good...probably). | |
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Mad Men / int_7a0374eb | |
Mad Men / int_7a10d16a | type |
Divorce in Reno | |
Mad Men / int_7a10d16a | comment |
Divorce in Reno: Betty flies to Reno to get a divorce. The state of Nevada was then considered the easiest option in the U.S. for un-hitching, allowing marriages to dissolve if one spouse became a state "resident" for six weeks. (New York would be the last state in the union to allow no-fault divorce, not changing the law until 2010.) | |
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Mad Men / int_7a10d16a | |
Mad Men / int_7ad2c23d | type |
ShoutOutToShakespeare | |
Mad Men / int_7ad2c23d | comment |
Shout-Out to Shakespeare: "The Quality of Mercy" | |
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Mad Men / int_7ad2c23d | |
Mad Men / int_7b3ebb57 | type |
Buxom Beauty Standard | |
Mad Men / int_7b3ebb57 | comment |
Buxom Beauty Standard: "Can I see them?", says a loathsome pig Jaguar dealer to busty Joan in "The Other Woman". | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_7b3ebb57 | |
Mad Men / int_7d89315b | type |
"The Reason You Suck" Speech | |
Mad Men / int_7d89315b | comment |
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Roger, to Pete Campbell. Also, Don to Pete in the very first episode. Come to think of it, Pete gets this a lot. Pete finally nails Roger with one in "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword". Don's tend to be short and sweet, as in "My Old Kentucky Home": Sweet, demure Allison, pushed to the breaking point, finally hits Don with the harshest one she can muster: Three seasons after her husband raped her, Joan finally lets him have it in "Mystery Date". Joan: unloads one on Don after he scuttles the Jaguar account in "For Immediate Release." Peggy to Ted in "In Care Of:" "Well, aren't you lucky — to have *decisions*!" Megan to Don in "New Business" while divorcing him: Mathis to Don as he's being fired in "The Forecast": "You don't have any character. You're just handsome! Stop kidding yourself!" | |
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Mad Men / int_7d89315b | |
Mad Men / int_7e043a42 | type |
Suicide Is Painless | |
Mad Men / int_7e043a42 | comment |
Suicide Is Painless: Subverted in "Commissions and Fees". The scene where Lane tries to kill himself by stuffing the tailpipe of his Jaguar with a rag and asphyxiating himself is played like this, but then the attempt fails. Lane's actual suicide- - by hanging — is played with no music whatsoever, just dialogue and horrified reactions when first Joan, then Pete, and finally Don and Roger, discover his body. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_7e043a42 | |
Mad Men / int_7eebe99c | type |
The Alcoholic | |
Mad Men / int_7eebe99c | comment |
The Alcoholic: Duck Phillips, who had been sober until "Maidenform" and proceeds to go spectacularly Off the Wagon. Freddy Rumsen, who joined AA and seems to have sobered up. Roger Sterling, who can drink the table under the table. When schmoozing clients, though, he's careful not to be the drunkest guy in the room; he casually reveals to Lane in Season 5 that he only ever drinks about half of any drink he orders when he's out with a client before ordering another. Don teeters on the edge of this in Season 4. And in Season 6, when he's drinking in the morning and vomiting in public, he seems to have completed the transition. | |
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Mad Men / int_7eebe99c | |
Mad Men / int_7efd2e30 | type |
Expository Hairstyle Change | |
Mad Men / int_7efd2e30 | comment |
Expository Hairstyle Change: Done in Season 6 to let people know we're now heading into the late Sixties. Most of the men at SCDP have grown sideburns (see, e.g., Harry, and to a limited extent, Pete and Roger), mustaches (see, e.g., Ginsburg), or beards (see, e.g., Stan).note This last makes him nigh-unrecognizable. Don's hair still remains the same. Betty dyes her hair brunette after an encounter with Hippies at an East Village flophouse who deride her for being the establishment. Ted and Roger grow mustaches as well in Season 7B. Don grows slight sideburns to keep up and his hair is slightly longer, but otherwise the same part and comb style. note Don's whole gimmick is that any fashion change he makes is slight, so that he remains eternally cool and stylish because he never goes overboard into fads that later generations will/would make fun of. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_7efd2e30 | |
Mad Men / int_7fbb2a3 | type |
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! | |
Mad Men / int_7fbb2a3 | comment |
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "For Immediate Release", Don insults the Jaguar exec Herb and deliberately blows the account, due to a combination of Herb insulting him one too many times and sexually extorting Joan, costing SCDP their most prestigious account. Even Joan gets upset with Don over this, as it means that her sleeping with Herb had no purpose. In "In Care Of", Don realizes how much of an ass he's been and decides to quit drinking and become a better husband and father. He winds up ruining his relationship with Megan and costs the agency a chance at getting the Hershey account. The latter is the last straw for the other partners, who force him to go on indefinite leave. Roger convinces the other partners to sell the agency to McCann to save Don's career and so Roger can prove to himself that he is a leader. Unfortunately, this winds up destroying Sterling Cooper for good when McCann absorbs SC&P in "Time and Life"... ....when Pete's well-intentioned decision to tell Peggy that McCann is absorbing the agency starts a rumor mill that destroys any faith the SC&P staff had in the partners. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_7fbb2a3 | |
Mad Men / int_7febc23b | type |
Establishing Character Moment | |
Mad Men / int_7febc23b | comment |
Establishing Character Moment: In addition to the examples on the page itself, Dr. Greg Harris's rape of his then-fiancee Joan colored every scene the character ever appeared in afterwards. | |
Mad Men / int_7febc23b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_7febc23b | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_7febc23b | |
Mad Men / int_808cbaeb | type |
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking | |
Mad Men / int_808cbaeb | comment |
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "You're fired for costing this company millions of pounds, you're fired for insubordination, you're fired for lack of character!!!" | |
Mad Men / int_808cbaeb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_808cbaeb | |
Mad Men / int_815d5a99 | type |
The Three Faces of Eve | |
Mad Men / int_815d5a99 | comment |
The Three Faces of Eve: Deconstructed with the main female characters from Season 1 to 4: Betty appears to be the Wife, literally Don's wife and the mother of his children. However, it is immediately obvious that she is unstable, deeply unhappy, and unsuited to the role of motherhood. In fact, she actually has the Child's mentality. Peggy appears to be the Child: the Naïve Newcomer to the world of advertising, the youngest, ambitious and hopeful. By season 2, she fits the surprising mould of The Seductress much more closely, as she has had a baby with the married Pete out of wedlock. Then, by Season 4, she has become the most stable and professional woman in the cast, and thus fits the role of the Wife much more easily, despite being single and constantly unlucky in love. Joan is initially the Seductress, Roger's hotblooded and sexual mistress, but even midway through Season 1 it is clear that she is in fact much more like the Wife, as a stable, constant, and intelligent influence upon Sterling Cooper, and especially Roger and Don. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_815d5a99 | |
Mad Men / int_8185b8c6 | type |
What Is Going On? | |
Mad Men / int_8185b8c6 | comment |
What Is Going On?: Don in "The Grown-Ups" when he wanders into the bullpen to find every single telephone ringing and all the secretaries huddled in a corner around a radio. What Is Going On is news of the Kennedy assassination. Betty has an epic "What is going on?!?!?" in the same episode after watching Lee Harvey Oswald get murdered on live TV. Also, Don and Roger walk in on the entire office huddled around a different radio in season two, to learn that a jet liner just crashed off the coast of Queens (Roger initially assumes they're excited about John Glenn). Meredith in "Time and Life" to Don when she hears rumors of the McCann takeover. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_8185b8c6 | |
Mad Men / int_820ac3c5 | type |
Dysfunction Junction | |
Mad Men / int_820ac3c5 | comment |
Dysfunction Junction: Where do we start? Every single character on this show is screwed-up. | |
Mad Men / int_820ac3c5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_820ac3c5 | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_820ac3c5 | |
Mad Men / int_8387bb18 | type |
Good Girls Avoid Abortion | |
Mad Men / int_8387bb18 | comment |
Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Treated probably realistically. Betty is all for having one, if unwilling to say so in so many words, when she realizes she's pregnant in the middle of her estrangement from Don, but is discouraged from it by her doctor, who claims that "that option is for young girls," and as a "married woman of means" she should just roll with the punches. Joan, who goes so far as to convince Roger that she went through with one (probably because she actually has in the past). Megan was taught about the evils of abortion by the nuns of her Catholic school and is relieved when a miscarriage terminates her pregnancy before she takes a decision about it. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_8387bb18 | |
Mad Men / int_83a903f6 | type |
Stepford Smiler | |
Mad Men / int_83a903f6 | comment |
Stepford Smiler: In one way or another, just about all the women: Betty Draper is the name that most immediately springs to mind. Joan in all of season 3, especially on her last day at Sterling-Cooper. Trudy Campbell. Despite some Character Development, she still relentlessly pursues the suburban dream, glossing over her husband's weaknesses and infidelities and ignoring his wishes to remain in Manhattan. A recurring exception seems to be the women Don tends to cheat on his wife with, perhaps precisely because they aren't an example of this. | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_83a903f6 | |
Mad Men / int_83b44e80 | type |
Straight Gay | |
Mad Men / int_83b44e80 | comment |
Straight Gay: The Belle Jolie man in Season 1, although he gets slightly Camper in his "date" with Sal. | |
Mad Men / int_83b44e80 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_83b44e80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_83b44e80 | |
Mad Men / int_83d3bf25 | type |
Anvilicious | |
Mad Men / int_83d3bf25 | comment |
Anvilicious: Paul's Star Trek script, "The Negron Complex," is an in-universe example. According to Harry, it involves aliens called the Negrons oppressed by a race called the Caucasons. The twist is that the Negrons are white. | |
Mad Men / int_83d3bf25 | featureApplicability |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_83d3bf25 | |
Mad Men / int_842426f3 | type |
Grande Dame | |
Mad Men / int_842426f3 | comment |
Grande Dame: Mona. Henry's mother, Mrs. Francis. Alice, Bert Cooper's sister and part owner of Sterling Cooper. Pete's mother Dorothy Dyckman. | |
Mad Men / int_842426f3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_842426f3 | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_842426f3 | |
Mad Men / int_8498284 | type |
Be a Whore to Get Your Man | |
Mad Men / int_8498284 | comment |
Be a Whore to Get Your Man: Peggy finally gets Chaough to sleep with her by dressing in revealing clothing and claiming that she has a date with another man. This is Megan's mother's advice to her daughter about how to repair the relationship with an increasingly distant Don. | |
Mad Men / int_8498284 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_8498284 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_8498284 | |
Mad Men / int_853b7948 | type |
Ambiguously Evil | |
Mad Men / int_853b7948 | comment |
Ambiguously Evil: Bert Cooper. It is never made clear whether he is willing to follow up on the threats he makes or if he really had his old doctor killed, a doctor who surgically removed Bert's testicles accidentally. | |
Mad Men / int_853b7948 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_853b7948 | |
Mad Men / int_853e45d1 | type |
Mistaken for Pregnant | |
Mad Men / int_853e45d1 | comment |
Mistaken for Pregnant: Inverted in Season One where everybody (including herself) thought Peggy was just getting chubbier; in the end, it turned out she was pregnant. | |
Mad Men / int_853e45d1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_853e45d1 | |
Mad Men / int_853f8327 | type |
Unconfessed Unemployment | |
Mad Men / int_853f8327 | comment |
Unconfessed Unemployment: In Season 4, Roger's entire job boils down to the Lucky Strike account. When Lucky Strike drops SCDP (which may as well mean the death of the company), he keeps it a secret trying to somehow control the disaster. When the truth gets out, Roger puts up a shameful charade trying to keep face. In Season 5: Lane doesn't tell his wife that he's been forced to resign from SCDP after Don catches him embezzling. In Season 7: Don gets a turn. | |
Mad Men / int_853f8327 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_853f8327 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_853f8327 | |
Mad Men / int_85557b38 | type |
Reality Is Unrealistic | |
Mad Men / int_85557b38 | comment |
Reality Is Unrealistic: Some viewers found Peggy being pregnant without realizing it at the end of Season 1 to be asinine and completely unrealistic; but 'surprise pregnancies' actually do happen. Season 5 opens with African-American protestors getting doused with paper bag water bombs by employees of Young & Rubicam, one of SCDP's non-fictional competitors, who then march upstairs to complain and catch the pranksters red handed. The scene ends with a protestor remarking "And they call us savages!" Several critics chided the scene, claiming it was ham-handed, especially the final line... only for it to be revealed that that event actually happened exactly how it was depicted, including the infamous line. Most of the critics who initially criticized the scene stuck to their guns, however, saying that the scene was still ham-handed even if it was true. Hanna Rosin, writing for Slate, thought that the sexual harassment Joan suffers in "Lost Horizon" was too crude to be believable for the era. Scott Lemiuex, writing for the blog Laywers, Guns & Money, pointed out that a lot of modern sexual harassment cases are far worse than what was portrayed on the show. | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_85557b38 | |
Mad Men / int_856a425a | type |
TheFifties | |
Mad Men / int_856a425a | comment |
The '50s: While the show starts in March of 1960, many aspects of '50s fashion and culture are still very present until around the assassination of John F. Kennedy. | |
Mad Men / int_856a425a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_856a425a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_856a425a | |
Mad Men / int_863fa679 | type |
What Happened to the Mouse? | |
Mad Men / int_863fa679 | comment |
What Happened to the Mouse?: Many characters return after long absences (see The Bus Came Back above), but there never was any hint as to the fate of Sal Romano after he was fired in Season 3 episode "Wee Small Hours". | |
Mad Men / int_863fa679 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_863fa679 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_863fa679 | |
Mad Men / int_875615dd | type |
Truth in Television | |
Mad Men / int_875615dd | comment |
Truth in Television: The show seems to be slapping you in the face with Deliberate Values Dissonance, but things really were like that in the 1960s in a lot of places. | |
Mad Men / int_875615dd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_875615dd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_875615dd | |
Mad Men / int_87ab7f69 | type |
Sharp-Dressed Man | |
Mad Men / int_87ab7f69 | comment |
Sharp-Dressed Man: Being the 1960s, a smart suit is practically a must for men in business. Three-piece or two-piece is an interesting generational divide: three-piece for older suits like Roger, while younger execs like Don and Pete wear more modern two-pieces with dangerously sharp and narrow lapels. Don epitomizes this trope, but pretty much all male staff in the corporate world, outside most of creative, are always seen in suits of different cuts. The optional fedoras and trilbies, waistcoats, and overcoats during the colder months, may add to the look. This takes an interesting turn in Season 7, when 70s-era fashions like tan plaid sport coats (a favorite of Ken and Harry) start showing up, making you realize why these fashions (which seem ridiculous today) might have seemed stylish at the time. | |
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1.0 | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_87ab7f69 | |
Mad Men / int_890d4ef2 | type |
Humiliation Conga | |
Mad Men / int_890d4ef2 | comment |
Humiliation Conga: Don's return to SC&P in "Field Trip." 1. Roger forgot to tell the other partners that Don was coming, so Don returns to a bunch of awkward looks. 2. While Dawn and the creative team are glad to see him, everyone else treats him like a fossil. 3. Lou schedules a meeting with the creative team just to strip Don of the few people who are happy to see him, Peggy stops by just to tell him that she's still upset with him over his role in breaking up her and Ted, and the partners only allow Don back in exchange for agreeing to several burdensome restrictions — in particular, having his responsibilities massively reduced, and a warning that even the slightest act of misconduct will result in him not only being fired, but forfeiting all his shares in the agency. 4. This continues in the next episode where Don is not given any real work for the first few weeks, and when he is finally assigned to a project, he is subordinate to Peggy and is given a task more appropriate to a new copywriter than someone of Don's experience. 5. It thus becomes quite clear that the other partners are just waiting for an excuse to fire him for good. | |
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New Year Has Come | |
Mad Men / int_89897126 | comment |
New Year Has Come: Season 6 premiere "The Doorway" ends with Dec. 31-Jan. 1, 1967-68. Don and Megan have some neighbors over for a New Year's party. | |
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Quitting to Get Married | |
Mad Men / int_89dcfbdb | comment |
Quitting to Get Married: Joan's new husband forces her to quit her job because he feels that if she keeps on working it will look like he cannot support his family. Then it turns out that he really cannot support them financially and Joan has to take a much less prestigious and lower paying job at a department store. Averted when Don marries his secretary. He is actually quite supportive of her working at the firm as a copywriter and is disappointed when she quits the job to pursue an acting career. | |
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Bratty Teenage Daughter | |
Mad Men / int_8a1215e0 | comment |
Bratty Teenage Daughter: Roger's daughter Margaret in earlier seasons and played with Sally in Season 5. By Season 6 Sally, who is about 13 and smarting off to Betty, has fully become this trope. | |
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Cool Car | |
Mad Men / int_8a295a46 | comment |
Cool Car: Don's Cadillac Coupe DeVille, Gene's (later Betty's) 1961 Lincoln Continental, Betty's '57 Ford wagon from the first season... practically every outdoor shot is chock-full of Gorgeous Period Cars. Don even goes as far as replacing his first Coupe DeVille with a newer one in season 5. All of the Jaguars in season five, especially the cherry red one Joan and Don test drive in "Christmas Waltz", and the Chekhov's Gun green one Lane's wife buys for him in "Commissions and Fees". Subverted in that the XKE is rather unreliable. | |
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Rape Discretion Shot | |
Mad Men / int_8aa496df | comment |
Rape Discretion Shot: Joan's Bad Date isn't shown. The camera pulls away and we see what she's seeing: the floor under the sofa. | |
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Mad Men / int_8ae880f7 | type |
Deconstruction | |
Mad Men / int_8ae880f7 | comment |
Deconstruction: Of the "good old days" Nostalgia Filter view of the Fifties, which are still prevalent well into the Sixties. Needless to say, America was not a perfect and happy place back then like such views claim. See the entry below for Deliberate Values Dissonance for some good examples. | |
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Sibling Yin-Yang | |
Mad Men / int_8af7b342 | comment |
Sibling Yin-Yang: Open-minded free spirit Anna Draper's sister is uptight and conservative. Peggy is a modern, liberated career girl, while her sister is a traditional Catholic housewife who resents Peggy for this. In a more dysfunctional vein of the Olson Sisters, there is the glamorous, semi-bohemian, struggling actress Megan and her depressive, devout Catholic Housewife sister Marie-France. | |
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Stalker with a Crush | |
Mad Men / int_8b68d9a7 | comment |
Stalker with a Crush: Glen Bishop. First to Betty in seasons one and two, and as of season four to Sally. The stalker gets overcome, as Glen's relationship with Sally ends up being a fairly innocent friendship. The dynamic with Glen and Betty reappears in "The Forecast" in Season 7B. | |
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Ethical Slut | |
Mad Men / int_8c170cb1 | comment |
Joan enjoys her sexuality and as she works at an advertising agency, she's mostly surrounded by married men who all want her. She has an affair with Paul Kinsey, but ends it because he bragged about her, a one-night stand with Harry Crane, and has a lengthy affair (covering a period of years) with professional partner Roger Sterling. Although Joan and Roger's relationship is loving, she implies later that she viewed sex as her purpose, as she feels intense guilt for Lane's suicide because she feels she could have stopped it if she slept with him. However, Joan actually goes out of her way to tell her partners that she doesn't intend for them to leave their wives. | |
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Out-of-Character Moment | |
Mad Men / int_8ca20b69 | comment |
Out-of-Character Moment: The usually kind, level-headed, and doting Henry telling Betty to keep her opinions to herself and leave the thinking to him in "The Runaways" was this for many fans. | |
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Didn't Think This Through | |
Mad Men / int_8d0785d5 | comment |
Didn't Think This Through: When one of their rival companies gets some bad press because their employees mistreated some civil rights protesters, Roger decides to twist the knife by running an ad for Sterling Cooper that proudly touts that they are equal opportunity employers. The result of this stupid in-joke prank is that the next day their offices are flooded with black applicants, who they can't turn away for reasons of optics. | |
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Mad Men / int_8d0785d5 | |
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Simultaneous Arcs | |
Mad Men / int_8d630561 | comment |
Simultaneous Arcs: "Far Away Places" uses this to show a single day from Peggy, Roger, and Don's perspectives. | |
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Mad Men / int_8d630561 | |
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Dumb Blonde | |
Mad Men / int_8e4a0f15 | comment |
Dumb Blonde: Meredith, the new receptionist who started appearing in Season 5. Herb Rennet's wife Peaches in the dinner scene from "For Immediate Release." For the most part, the trope is averted with characters like Betty and Sally. | |
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Asshole Victim | |
Mad Men / int_8ed5c6e4 | comment |
Asshole Victim: Most of the male leads, but especially Pete. It's hard to feel bad for Pete Campbell a lot of the time, considering his treatment of his wife, his smug egocentric personality, and his patronization of anyone who isn't Don. And even Don isn't safe from him, since at one point Pete tries (unsuccessfully) to blackmail him. Perhaps one of the most entertaining times Pete is kicked is when he picks a fight with Lane, likely thinking he'd be too mild mannered to respond. Lane, tired of putting up with Pete, socks him a couple good ones in the nose, humiliating him in front of everyone. Don himself has some pretty low points, especially in season 6. But considering how selfish he is most of the time, and that the low points he has are often his own fault, it's hard to truly feel sorry for him. | |
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Soccer-Hating Americans | |
Mad Men / int_8f1f3f3e | comment |
Soccer-Hating Americans: | |
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Overly Long Name | |
Mad Men / int_8f900ccd | comment |
Overly Long Name: The name for the new firm becomes a problem — Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Cutler Gleason and Chaough is a mouthful, and so is SCDPCGC — so the owners settle for Sterling Cooper and Partners or SC&P. | |
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Ominous Pipe Organ | |
Mad Men / int_91d3ab1e | comment |
Ominous Pipe Organ: Well, it's not a pipe organ, and it's played for laughs. But in "Lost Horizon", Peggy is getting her stuff from the abandoned offices of the shuttered Sterling Cooper & Partners, when she hears ominous organ music coming out of nowhere. Peggy is pretty spooked until she finds the source — Roger Sterling playing an organ that for some damn reason just happened to be in his office. | |
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Mad Men / int_91d3ab1e | |
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Sleeping with the Boss | |
Mad Men / int_920b5728 | comment |
Sleeping with the Boss: This is a frequent occurrence. Roger and Don have a habit of sleeping with their secretaries and both married one of them after divorcing their first wives. Peggy had a one night stand with Pete when she was still a secretary, and people falsely assume that she was promoted to copywriter because she slept with Don. Megan is propositioned by her female boss when she gets an acting job on a soap opera. | |
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Mad Men / int_920b5728 | |
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The Bus Came Back | |
Mad Men / int_927b2f11 | comment |
The Bus Came Back: Many characters pop up again after long absences. Smitty Smith resurfaces at a rival ad agency in "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword". Rachel Menken popped up in one episode after her affair with Don ended to let the viewers know she got married. She dies in the first episode of Season 7B. A drunk-off-his-ass Duck Phillips heckles the Cleo host in "Waldorf Stories" and makes an ass out of himself to Peggy in "The Suitcase". He shows up again sober and working as a headhunter is Season 6. He pops up yet again towards the end of Season 7B, drinking heavily again but still working as a headhunter, and helping to resolve Pete's final story arc. Freddy Rumsen (rehabbed and sober) returned to join SCDP two seasons after he was loaded into a taxi and shoved off for being a hopeless drunk. Then in Season 7A he pops up again as Don's unofficial AA sponsor. Midge, Don's Bohemian lover in the beginning of the first season, shows up in Season Four's "Blowing Smoke" after encountering him outside his office. She's fallen on hard times. Nearly two seasons after the SCDP mutineers did not take him along at the end of Season 3, Paul Kinsey appears in "Christmas Waltz". He's a Hare Krishna and a wannabe writer for Star Trek. Burt Peterson, Sterling Cooper's former head of accounts, whom Roger Sterling fired in Season 3, reappears working for Cutler Gleason and Chaough in Season 6. When SCDP and CGC merge, Roger took great pleasure in firing him again posthaste. Danny Siegel, the nerdy copywriter and in-law of Roger Sterling, pops up at a Hollywood party in Season 6's "A Tale of Two Cities" looking very California and apparently now in the movie business. Jim Hobart from McCann, who tries to lure Don away from Sterling Cooper in Season 1 episode "Shoot", appears again six seasons later, and proves crucial to the resolution of Season 7A. | |
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Mad Men / int_927b2f11 | |
Mad Men / int_94e4b975 | type |
Vomit Indiscretion Shot | |
Mad Men / int_94e4b975 | comment |
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Roger, after having a huge lunch and climbing 23 flights of stairs. Even better when you realize that this was planned by Don as revenge for hitting on Betty. At the end of "A Night to Remember", after Jimmy Barret confronts Don and Betty about Don's affair with his wife, Don and Betty are driving home, both obviously very upset, and Betty nervously upchucks all over the dash of Don's new Coupe DeVille. Don at Roger's mother's funeral in "The Doorway", apparently after getting an early start on his drinking. | |
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Age Cut | |
Mad Men / int_953a8ee8 | comment |
Age Cut: Done in reverse several times. In "Babylon", Don is flat on his back after tripping and falling on the stairs. We cut to little Dick Whitman in the same position, letting us know we're in a flashback. | |
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First Period Panic | |
Mad Men / int_9588c44b | comment |
First Period Panic: In episode "Commissions and Fees", Sally has a date with Glenn in New York when she's staying at Don and Megan's (her divorced father and his young wife). She suddenly feels uncomfortable and excuses herself. She discovers she's had her first period. Megan comes home and finds Glen's gym bag but no Sally. It turns out Sally took a taxi and went back to the Francis's residence, her permanent home. She runs into the bathroom, tells Betty that she got her period and didn't know what to do, that she just wanted to come home. Betty is usually not a very good or caring mom, but in this episode she's nothing but sweet and supportive and explains to Sally that she's become a woman and that it only means that everything is working normally. | |
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On the Next | |
Mad Men / int_974a9fe0 | comment |
On the Next: With a supernatural ability to air random bits while not actually giving the viewer an idea of what's going to happen. | |
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Sleep Cute | |
Mad Men / int_975ba595 | comment |
Sleep Cute: In "The Suitcase", Don and Peggy falling asleep on each other in Don's office. | |
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Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior! | |
Mad Men / int_9820c37a | comment |
Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Miss Blankenship. | |
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"Not So Different" Remark | |
Mad Men / int_984ef9ef | comment |
"Not So Different" Remark: Peggy tries to tell Abe in "The Beautiful Girls" that what blacks go through isn't that different to what she goes through. The comparison falls a little flat, though: | |
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The Man Is Sticking It to the Man | |
Mad Men / int_9895cff9 | comment |
The Man Is Sticking It to the Man: In "Person to Person," it's heavily implied that Don was inspired by his experience on the hippie commune to create the famous "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" ad. In real life, the ad was created by McCann. | |
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Wall Bang Her | |
Mad Men / int_99e4958e | comment |
Wall Bang Her: Don does this to Megan in "For Immediate Release". Don and Diana the waitress in "Severance." | |
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When You Coming Home, Dad? | |
Mad Men / int_99e87707 | comment |
When You Coming Home, Dad?: Don's habits often lead him to forget about his kids, but truth be told he's a mild case in comparison to some of his coworkers: Roger was too busy with his work and completely ignored his daughter when she was growing up. This eventually drives her to follow his example and abandon her husband and son to join a bunch of luddite hippies. Pete's involvement in his daughter's life is so minuscule that she doesn't even recognize him. Granted, he moves to California, but even before then he wasn't particularly engaged. | |
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Mad Men / int_99e87707 | |
Mad Men / int_9a1d239e | type |
Been There, Shaped History | |
Mad Men / int_9a1d239e | comment |
Been There, Shaped History: Sterling Cooper in general (a fictional company) is shown to be responsible for a few pieces of real life advertising. For example, in the first episode, Don coins the Lucky Strike slogan "it's toasted", and in the first season finale, he names the Kodak Carousel (previously called the Wheel). Downplayed, since these are not exactly huge historical events. Don himself also creates the famous "I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke" ad based on his spiritual awakenening at a hippie retreat. | |
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Mad Men / int_9a1d239e | |
Mad Men / int_9bcd82c0 | type |
Took a Level in Badass | |
Mad Men / int_9bcd82c0 | comment |
Took a Level in Badass: Peggy in Season 2, she gets Freddy Rumsen's office (much to Harry "I'm Head of Television!" Crane's chagrin) then in season 3 she bitches about her "girl" to Joan, much like Don does about his "girl" in season 2. Standing up to Roger's imperiousness at the end of Season 3 continues her arc. Season 5, Roger tries to get Peggy to come up with an ad campaign on the fly because he forgot to get the dedicated copywriter for his account to do it. Peggy agrees, but only after shaking him down for $400+ (in 1966 money). "The lie costs extra," indeed. She doesn't even take him seriously when he threatens to fire her for not doing it. Joan clocking Greg with that vase just made her even more badass. Pete Campbell, in "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", verbally eviscerating Roger for his anti-Japanese prejudice. Each season, Betty takes another level. Lane Pryce, at the end of season 3. Goes from being PPL's overly dutiful employee to standing up and basically hijacking SCDP from under their noses. Lane again in "Signal 30" when he beats down Pete for insulting him. In "The Other Woman," Peggy finally gets fed up with Don's mistreatment and leaves the agency for a rival firm. At the episode's end she's seen confidently marching onto the elevator with her box of stuff. | |
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Mad Men / int_9bcd82c0 | |
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The Hecate Sisters | |
Mad Men / int_9c209a57 | comment |
The Hecate Sisters: Deconstructed with the women in Season 5: Megan is the Maiden, as Don's younger new wife. Betty is the Mother, newly married to Henry but having gained a great deal of weight, feels unattractive and disconnected. Joan is the Crone, following her abandonment by her husband, she is a more bitter single mother, but she also takes on more responsibility at Sterling Cooper, and becomes more empowered and professional. | |
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Mad Men / int_9c209a57 | |
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Depraved Homosexual | |
Mad Men / int_9cad69bf | comment |
Depraved Homosexual: Lee Garner Jr., unfortunately for Sal. And, as stated in "The Quality of Mercy," for Roger as well. | |
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Mad Men / int_9cad69bf | |
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Stay in the Kitchen | |
Mad Men / int_9cbf01d6 | comment |
Joan was shown to be shocked in "To Have And To Hold" when her usually irritating and tradition-leaning Mother remarks about being proud of the fact she's the mother of a junior executive and said it even stunned her to be so proud. | |
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Mad Men / int_9cbf01d6 | |
Mad Men / int_9d12bbc1 | type |
Foreshadowing | |
Mad Men / int_9d12bbc1 | comment |
Foreshadowing: In season three, Sterling Cooper successfully woos the city of New York for the Madison Square Garden project, only to be shot down by Putnam, Powell, & Lowe. Because of "a conflict", followed up with a monetary explanation. It turns out that PPL only wanted SC to strip and sell to an American company, and long term plans with MSG would have conflicted. Pryce is also a sacrificial lamb. An early Season 3 arc has them filming a commercial based on Bye Bye Birdie, which was a hit movie at the time. Birdie is the affectionate nickname Don has for his wife Betty who divorces him at the end of the season. When the British overseers from Putnam, Powell, & Lowe visit Sterling Cooper in "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency," Joan suggests to them that they see Oliver! on Broadway while they're in New York. One of the British men replies by calling it "a tragedy with a happy ending," which is certainly an apropos summary of the episode's events. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9-XthPUaHg Season 5 is replete with dialogue and imagery]] alluding to death, which foreshadows Lane Pryce's suicide. A dark example, in "Tea Leaves"; Peggy's first impression after meeting Michael Ginsberg: "He's certifiable!" In Season 7A finale "Waterloo", Roger has seemingly pulled off a coup when he foils off Cutler's power play by selling the agency to McCann. But the show and the season end with Bert Cooper singing "The Best Things in Life Are Free". Sure enough, in Season 7B, less than a year later in show time, SC&P is dissolved and absorbed into McCann-Erickson. Multiple references to Coca-Cola in Season 7B, such as Jim Hobart dangling the Coke account before Don, Peggy asking Don if he wanted to work on Coke, and Don's attempt to fix a Coca-Cola machine in "The Milk and Honey Route". This pays off in the final scene of the series and the iconic "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" commercial. The first time Hobart meets Don (and the first time the viewer is introduced to [McCann]-Erikson) way back in season 1, he tries to entice Don to leave Sterling Cooper by offering Betty a modeling gig for a Coca-Cola campaign. The Hilltop ad for Coca-Cola paid off series-long foreshadowing. | |
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My Nayme Is | |
Mad Men / int_9d3f4777 | comment |
My Nayme Is: Ted Chaough, pronounced "Shaw". | |
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Fag Hag | |
Mad Men / int_9d6f3607 | comment |
Fag Hag: Peggy asks out one of her coworkers only to find out he's gay. He still hangs out with her for the night, and ends up giving her a new haircut to give her a more assertive attitude at work. And later in season 4, she becomes good friends with a lesbian who tried to ask her out. Joan and Bob Benson in Season 6 appear to have this dynamic. | |
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Mad Men / int_9d6f3607 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_9d6f3607 | |
Mad Men / int_9ee4e873 | type |
Artistic Stimulation | |
Mad Men / int_9ee4e873 | comment |
Kinsey claims to get Artistic Stimulation from "Mary Jane." He never shows it, however; the one time we see him smoking anything (besides cigarettes or his pipe), it's Peggy who gets the idea. She also has a wonderful time. | |
Mad Men / int_9ee4e873 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_9ee4e873 | |
Mad Men / int_9f970427 | type |
Secret-Keeper | |
Mad Men / int_9f970427 | comment |
Secret-Keeper: Numerous people for Don, including Pete, Cooper, Betty, Faye, and Megan. In "Chinese Wall" — and for other secrets a long time beforehand — Joan for Roger. | |
Mad Men / int_9f970427 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_9f970427 | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_9f970427 | |
Mad Men / int_a036d3df | type |
Sarcastic Confession | |
Mad Men / int_a036d3df | comment |
Sarcastic Confession: Harry mistakes Stan's discreet warning for a sarcastic joke; after he fails to take the him, Stan just plays along, encouraging Harry to dig himself a little deeper: | |
Mad Men / int_a036d3df | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a036d3df | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a036d3df | |
Mad Men / int_a1d70162 | type |
I Just Shot Marvin in the Face | |
Mad Men / int_a1d70162 | comment |
I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Poor Ken Cosgrove gets a faceful of birdshot while out hunting with some Chevrolet executives. He survives, albeit with the loss of one of his eyes, but resigns the account. The same bunch of executives also almost got him killed in a car accident and he wants out before their recklessness kills him. | |
Mad Men / int_a1d70162 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a1d70162 | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a1d70162 | |
Mad Men / int_a24670a4 | type |
Benevolent Boss | |
Mad Men / int_a24670a4 | comment |
Ted Chaough, the Don Draper of rival ad agency CGC. Claims Don's "got him in his rear-view mirror", engineers a meeting with Don at Benihana and sends Don a bottle of sake claiming victory after Roger sinks SCDP's chances of landing the Honda account. Then in Season 5, he steals Peggy Olson away from SCDP (see Benevolent Boss above). | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a24670a4 | |
Mad Men / int_a2484b0e | type |
The Beautiful Elite | |
Mad Men / int_a2484b0e | comment |
The Beautiful Elite: Don meets the lovely Joy and her friends in season 2's "The Jet Set," and they memorably whisk Don off to their palatial house in Palm Springs. Don's beautiful enough that he's invited to join the club, but he declines. | |
Mad Men / int_a2484b0e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a2484b0e | |
Mad Men / int_a3509d95 | type |
The Password Is Always "Swordfish" | |
Mad Men / int_a3509d95 | comment |
The Password Is Always "Swordfish": In "Six Months Leave", Don, Roger, and Freddy Rumsen go to an underground casino. Roger gives the password "Swordfish" to the bouncer at the elevator. Roger has to bribe the bouncer to prove they aren't cops; it turns out the password is actually "Milwaukee". | |
Mad Men / int_a3509d95 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a3509d95 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a3509d95 | |
Mad Men / int_a4962175 | type |
Cyclic National Fascination | |
Mad Men / int_a4962175 | comment |
Cyclic National Fascination: From the late '50s to the early '60s, American society was positively obsessed with the inner workings of advertising agencies. As a period drama, the series revisits the topic through a more objective lens. It also revives much of the old adman slang. | |
Mad Men / int_a4962175 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a4962175 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a4962175 | |
Mad Men / int_a4be7043 | type |
Da Chief | |
Mad Men / int_a4be7043 | comment |
Da Chief: Bert Cooper, full stop. The door might say Sterling Cooper, and Roger and Bert nominally have equal power, it's just generally understood that Cooper has the final say on everything. The "Sterling" in Sterling Cooper is actually Roger's father. | |
Mad Men / int_a4be7043 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a4be7043 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a4be7043 | |
Mad Men / int_a4c37cbe | type |
Mood Whiplash | |
Mad Men / int_a4c37cbe | comment |
Mood Whiplash: "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency": Starts out as a farewell party to Joan, who tries her best to disguise her dissatisfaction with leaving Sterling Cooper (people think she's overwhelmed with the goodbyes) when HOLY CRAP WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!? In "The Arrangements", after Don takes away the World War I German helmet Gene gave to Bobby, Gene pulls a fan out of his box of memorabilia, opens it, and says, "There was this girl...", followed by a cut to the next scene. In Season 5's "Christmas Waltz", the plotline with Harry reuniting with Paul starts out being humorous, what with Paul becoming a member of the Krishnas, only to become more bleak once it becomes clear just how broken Paul has become. "The Crash" is twenty minutes of speed-induced hilarity, forty minutes of demonstrating why getting high isn't that great. Nobody gets any work done, Stan has sex with a minor, Don leaves his kids unattended, and everybody makes a fool of themselves. At the end of "The Other Woman," Peggy quits SCDP and bids a very sad goodbye to Don... and then The Kinks start singing "You Really Got Me" as she gets into the elevator. | |
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Mad Men / int_a4c37cbe | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a4c37cbe | |
Mad Men / int_a5096c48 | type |
Joisey | |
Mad Men / int_a5096c48 | comment |
Joisey: Of the "Shore-As-Place-Where-Rich-White-New-Yorkers-Go-In-The-Summer" flavor: Betty's family has a house on Cape May, and her father seems to live there much if not most of the time. (Betty even seems to have been born there.) Of course, the Hofstadts are rich white Philadelphians, but same difference. Also, in Season 2, Paul Kinsey lives in Montclair; everyone complains how much of a pain it was to get there from New York. In "Waterloo", little Julio cries "I don't want to go to Newark!" and Peggy shoots back with "No one does". | |
Mad Men / int_a5096c48 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a5096c48 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a5096c48 | |
Mad Men / int_a54534a0 | type |
Parental Neglect | |
Mad Men / int_a54534a0 | comment |
Don's frequent lapses when it comes to taking care of his kids is a form of emotional neglect, especially as it literally endangers them, emphasized when a thief breaks into the apartment when the children are left alone and threatens them with harm. Don eventually lays bare where his Parental Neglect stems from. | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a54534a0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a54534a0 | |
Mad Men / int_a5de0ab9 | type |
Polyamory | |
Mad Men / int_a5de0ab9 | comment |
Polyamory: Season 7A premiere "Time Zones" reveals that Roger has some sort of polyamorous group relationship going on at home. In his first scene, there are about a half-dozen naked people lying around. Later in the episode, he gets in bed with a woman and another man. When Roger finds out a few episodes later ("The Monolith") that his daughter has abandoned her family to live in a hippie sex commune, he doesn't take it well. | |
Mad Men / int_a5de0ab9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a5de0ab9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a5de0ab9 | |
Mad Men / int_a681bfc6 | type |
Amicable Exes | |
Mad Men / int_a681bfc6 | comment |
Amicable Exes: It takes a while, but Don and Betty eventually settle into this, particularly by Season 7B. To a lesser extent, Roger and Mona do as well. | |
Mad Men / int_a681bfc6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a681bfc6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a681bfc6 | |
Mad Men / int_a7382a73 | type |
Imagine Spot | |
Mad Men / int_a7382a73 | comment |
Chaough kisses Peggy in "For Immediate Release". In that same episode, Peggy has an Imagine Spot where she makes out with Chaough instead of Abe. They eventually have sex in the season 6 finale. | |
Mad Men / int_a7382a73 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a7382a73 | |
Mad Men / int_a78aead3 | type |
Hide Your Pregnancy | |
Mad Men / int_a78aead3 | comment |
Hide Your Pregnancy: January Jones was pregnant, but in Season 5 Betty's just gaining weight. | |
Mad Men / int_a78aead3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a78aead3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a78aead3 | |
Mad Men / int_a8abe9d1 | type |
Separated by a Common Language | |
Mad Men / int_a8abe9d1 | comment |
Separated by a Common Language: The Israeli tourism board all speak English, but it's not their first language. The staff of Sterling Cooper are put off when the Israelis say they came to them because they wanted something 'old fashioned', since that is almost an insult in the advertising world. One of the other members has to explain that they meant 'classic'. | |
Mad Men / int_a8abe9d1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a8abe9d1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a8abe9d1 | |
Mad Men / int_a8b5a55e | type |
Welcome Episode | |
Mad Men / int_a8b5a55e | comment |
Welcome Episode: In the pilot, Peggy starts her new job at Sterling Cooper. | |
Mad Men / int_a8b5a55e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a8b5a55e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a8b5a55e | |
Mad Men / int_a8b68a9c | type |
No Pregger Sex | |
Mad Men / int_a8b68a9c | comment |
No Pregger Sex: Averted during one of Don's flashback scenes in Season 6 when his heavily pregnant stepmother has sex with the owner of a brothel. | |
Mad Men / int_a8b68a9c | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a8b68a9c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a8b68a9c | |
Mad Men / int_a8de2a46 | type |
Eccentric Millionaire | |
Mad Men / int_a8de2a46 | comment |
Eccentric Millionaire: Bertram Cooper, with his Japanese-themed office and general mild craziness. Conrad Hilton, who demands advertising for a hotel on the moon. | |
Mad Men / int_a8de2a46 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a8de2a46 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a8de2a46 | |
Mad Men / int_a90f0639 | type |
Entitled Bastard | |
Mad Men / int_a90f0639 | comment |
The Jaguar deal is a great way for SCDP to show that it is a serious contender in the ad world, but it means having to work with slimy Entitled Bastard Herb. | |
Mad Men / int_a90f0639 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a90f0639 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a90f0639 | |
Mad Men / int_a94eaaa4 | type |
Odd Friendship | |
Mad Men / int_a94eaaa4 | comment |
Odd Friendship: Joan and Lane Pryce, who run into rough patches initially (in "The Good News"), but who are acknowledged by the junior employees as "basically running" SCDP. Further solidified in "A Little Kiss" when Joan breaks down to Lane about missing her job and people thinking that they didn't need her. Lane kisses Joan in "Signal 30" after beating up Pete. She doesn't push him off, slap him, or otherwise act disgusted. She simply indulges him for a moment (leaning her head with his instead of pulling away immediately), opens the office door afterward and responds to his apology with "For what? Everyone in this office has wanted to do that to Pete" - as if to tell him he doesn't have to apologize for kissing her. Lane makes a pass at Joan before killing himself. Later, a remorseful Joan wonders why she didn't go along with it. | |
Mad Men / int_a94eaaa4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a94eaaa4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a94eaaa4 | |
Mad Men / int_a9de87d2 | type |
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass | |
Mad Men / int_a9de87d2 | comment |
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Bert Cooper, especially in his verbal smackdown of Pete Campbell in the season one finale. | |
Mad Men / int_a9de87d2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_a9de87d2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_a9de87d2 | |
Mad Men / int_aa4be36a | type |
The Three Faces of Adam | |
Mad Men / int_aa4be36a | comment |
The Three Faces of Adam: Pete is the Hunter: hungry, ambitious, seeking more wealth and more power, advocating risky business moves. Don is the Lord: he makes partner in Season 1, and is officially at the top of his field; he wants to be great, but he now has so much to lose (and he loses a lot). Cooper is the Prophet, satisfied with his life (except for that operation), wanting only to secure his legacy in the form of leaving a healthy firm. Roger is in the middle of transitioning from Lord to Prophet: at first uncomfortable with his increasing irrelevance, he gradually settles in to a role as "Professor Emeritus of Accounts" and leaves the heavy lifting to Pete and Ken. | |
Mad Men / int_aa4be36a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_aa4be36a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_aa4be36a | |
Mad Men / int_aabe2fb | type |
Deliberate Values Dissonance | |
Mad Men / int_aabe2fb | comment |
Deliberate Values Dissonance: The whole damn point of the show. Sterling Cooper finds some random Jewish guy from the mailroom to attend a meeting with a department store owned by a Jewish family, pretending he's a "rising star" in the art department. Then they serve their prospective clients cocktail shrimp (extremely non-kosher). At one point, a character loses a foot due to a lawnmower accident. Aside from the fact that OSHA would've had a field day with the circumstances involved, nearly everybody seems to think it's obvious this means his career, in a desk job, is over because of the new disability. Everything involving children: Sally running around with a plastic bag over her head. Betty calls her over... and tells her the clothes that were in that bag better not be on the floor, or else. Sally is expected to make her father drinks, clean up and make dinner when her brother misbehaves, and her parents are having shouting matches, and sneaks drinks at Don's office. She's between six and ten during these scenes. Little Dick Whitman gets a sip of moonshine, right before his father dies. Trick-or-treating in pitch darkness with mostly black costumes and no flashlights. (Though the show flubbed something that time — the kids almost certainly would not have had their parents with them back then.) Kids are running around the house at Sally's birthday party. One of them breaks a glass after jostling a table. A man grabs him, slaps his face, and reprimands him. Then the boy's father shows up and makes the child apologize to the man who slapped him. And then he tells the boy to have his mother clean up the mess. No seatbelts. Bobby and Sally are climbing all over the back seat when Betty crashes the car into a neighbor's yard. Sally isn't allowed to go to her grandfather's funeral, because "a graveyard is no place for children." Neither of her parents even really realizes how close she became to Gene when he was living with them. Environmental awareness. Or more specifically, the lack thereof: When they have a picnic, it's almost laughable the mess they left behind when they leave. When discussing Pampers brand diapers. "What's best about these? They're disposable!" Drunk driving with a crash resulting is penalized only with a fine payable all at once, because the driver was under the then-legal limit of 0.15. Repeating this for emphasis — the legal limit was 0.15. A BAC of 0.08 is the highest you will find in any developed country these days. Pete Campbell buys a .22 and proceeds to point it at random people in the office while he and his friends have a good laugh about it. Not to mention the conversation he has with Peggy afterwards. Trudy even calls it "a toy" when she finds out. All over the place with smoking — in "The Gypsy and The Hobo," a possible client notes that her husband just died at 51 from lung cancer, and the focus immediately shifts to Don, casually lighting a cigarette. Peggy's mom all but disowns her after she decides to move in with her boyfriend Abe without marrying him. There will often be comments, jokes, and actions that would be deemed very sexist today — many times openly in front of the women. Peggy's gynecologist openly berates her, all but calling her a slut for being an unmarried woman asking for birth control. Bert vetoes Joan's attempt to transfer Dawn to reception on the grounds that having a "Negro" at the front desk will hurt the agency. Pete's plan for the Admiral Television execs to target market to the black consumers who are already buying Admiral's TV's in droves is met with horror and offense, with one executive stammering that "Maybe negros are buying our TV's because they know that white people like them" and not wanting to be a "colored" TV manufacturer. Don's doctor telling him that his blood pressure is "a little high" during his checkup. Said blood pressure is 160/100, or stage 2 hypertension. In other words, very very bad, but in a world where everybody smoked and drank like crazy was closer to the norm. | |
Mad Men / int_aabe2fb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_aabe2fb | |
Mad Men / int_aaece264 | type |
Rousing Speech | |
Mad Men / int_aaece264 | comment |
Rousing Speech: Don, numerous times. Particularly notable in "Chinese Wall" and "Christmas Waltz". Played for laughs in "The Crash" when the speech is nonsensical due to an injection of amphetamines Don received. Subverted at the end of "Time and Life" when Don starts the rousing speech and the staff immediately ignore him and walk away. | |
Mad Men / int_aaece264 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Mad Men / int_aaece264 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_aaece264 | |
Mad Men / int_ab8e26e2 | type |
Slipping a Mickey | |
Mad Men / int_ab8e26e2 | comment |
Slipping a Mickey: Don falls victim to an Outlaw Couple of thieves in a hotel room ("Seven Twenty-Three"). | |
Mad Men / int_ab8e26e2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ab8e26e2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ab8e26e2 | |
Mad Men / int_abdc0b3f | type |
Held Gaze | |
Mad Men / int_abdc0b3f | comment |
Held Gaze: This is combined with the Longing Look at the end of "The Rejected." Peggy and Pete lock eyes wistfully as they each follow their separate paths (her with new counterculture friends, him with businessmen in suits). However, you can tell there's always going to be a bit of longing and a "what could have been" vibe between them, even though neither one wants to travel down that path again. | |
Mad Men / int_abdc0b3f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_abdc0b3f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_abdc0b3f | |
Mad Men / int_ac36578e | type |
Or Was It a Dream? | |
Mad Men / int_ac36578e | comment |
Or Was It a Dream?: In "Waterloo", Bert's performance of "The Best Things in Life are Free" is implied to take place in Don's head, but Bert's office door is open before the vision starts and remains closed after Bert shuts it at the end of the performance, the implication being that Don really was visited by Bert's ghost. | |
Mad Men / int_ac36578e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ac36578e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ac36578e | |
Mad Men / int_acecb17d | type |
Chekhov's Skill | |
Mad Men / int_acecb17d | comment |
Chekhov's Skill: Pete's lack of skill at the wheel. He only learns to drive in Season 5 and he rarely does it anyway. Come Season 6, he has to drive stick in Detroit at the request of some General Motors rowdy executives, and disaster ensues. | |
Mad Men / int_acecb17d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_acecb17d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_acecb17d | |
Mad Men / int_ad1db87c | type |
Oh, Crap! | |
Mad Men / int_ad1db87c | comment |
Don in "Waldorf Stories," after having far too much to drink at the Clios (a Friday afternoon). He idiotically does a pitch to Quaker Oats for Life cereal—that works, but in the worst possible way—heads to the bar with Roger, where he gets drunker, and ends up taking home a woman (actively looking for him) who had apparently written the jingle for the award-winning cake batter/topping commercial...and wakes up Sunday afternoon with an entirely different woman next to him (a waitress from a nearby diner, apparently—who calls him Dick as she leaves). As things turn out, Peggy has to remind him about what he did at the Life pitch. | |
Mad Men / int_ad1db87c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ad1db87c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ad1db87c | |
Mad Men / int_ad34c38a | type |
Predatory Prostitute | |
Mad Men / int_ad34c38a | comment |
Predatory Prostitute: Don was raped as a child by a woman at the brothel where he grew up, just as he was starting to see her as a mother / maternal figure. Manolo is implied to be a gigolo who seduced Pete's elderly mother, married her for her money, and then pushed her off a cruise ship. Maybe. | |
Mad Men / int_ad34c38a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ad34c38a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ad34c38a | |
Mad Men / int_ad786c6b | type |
Hookers and Blow | |
Mad Men / int_ad786c6b | comment |
Hookers and Blow: When Midge makes her depressing return in Season 4 we learn that she's prostituting herself to feed a heroin habit. | |
Mad Men / int_ad786c6b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ad786c6b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ad786c6b | |
Mad Men / int_adc34767 | type |
Serial Homewrecker | |
Mad Men / int_adc34767 | comment |
Serial Homewrecker: Joan enjoys her sexuality and as she works at an advertising agency, she's mostly surrounded by married men who all want her. She has an affair with Paul Kinsey, but ends it because he bragged about her, a one-night stand with Harry Crane, and has a lengthy affair (covering a period of years) with professional partner Roger Sterling. Although Joan and Roger's relationship is loving, she implies later that she viewed sex as her purpose, as she feels intense guilt for Lane's suicide because she feels she could have stopped it if she slept with him. However, Joan actually goes out of her way to tell her partners that she doesn't intend for them to leave their wives. Don starts off as a subversion (he genuinely believes he can run away with Rachel in Season 1 and loses interest in Midge when he realizes she's in love with someone else). However, after his marriage to Megan between Season 4 and 5, he seems to prefer married women, such as his downstairs neighbor, because he won't be asked to leave Megan. | |
Mad Men / int_adc34767 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_adc34767 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_adc34767 | |
Mad Men / int_add9abb3 | type |
The Missus and the Ex | |
Mad Men / int_add9abb3 | comment |
The Missus and the Ex: Betty can't stand the idea of Don rebuilding his life with another woman and she is particularly mean and malignant whenever Megan is involved or crosses her path in season 5. By season six, her feelings have softened considerably, even referring to Megan as "that poor girl." | |
Mad Men / int_add9abb3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_add9abb3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_add9abb3 | |
Mad Men / int_ae3d6438 | type |
Deadpan Snarker | |
Mad Men / int_ae3d6438 | comment |
Deadpan Snarker: Roger. Almost everyone else; it's perhaps harder to find a character who never fulfilled this trope than it is to find a needle in the haystack. | |
Mad Men / int_ae3d6438 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ae3d6438 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ae3d6438 | |
Mad Men / int_aebae11c | type |
Viewers Are Morons | |
Mad Men / int_aebae11c | comment |
Viewers Are Morons: Very much, in-universe; perfectly straightforward advertising pitches are often rejected on the assumption that potential consumers would be either confused or bored. | |
Mad Men / int_aebae11c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_aebae11c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_aebae11c | |
Mad Men / int_b06bbf4b | type |
Be Careful What You Wish For | |
Mad Men / int_b06bbf4b | comment |
Be Careful What You Wish For: Don asks Lane to resign after catching him embezzling. He delivers his resignation letter as his suicide note. | |
Mad Men / int_b06bbf4b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_b06bbf4b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b06bbf4b | |
Mad Men / int_b0cd3349 | type |
Fridge Brilliance | |
Mad Men / int_b0cd3349 | comment |
Roger, after having a huge lunch and climbing 23 flights of stairs. Even better when you realize that this was planned by Don as revenge for hitting on Betty. | |
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Mad Men / int_b0cd3349 | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b0cd3349 | |
Mad Men / int_b11ac9f5 | type |
Abusive Parents | |
Mad Men / int_b11ac9f5 | comment |
Abusive Parents: Don's father abused him, physically. His stepmother was cold and distant, and she's shown beating him when he's a teenager. Betty is abusive to her children during her particularly rageful periods in season 4 and 5, emotionally and physically, having hit Sally for cutting her hair and implying she does it often and it "doesn't do any good". She's calmed down quite a bit in season 6. Don's frequent lapses when it comes to taking care of his kids is a form of emotional neglect, especially as it literally endangers them, emphasized when a thief breaks into the apartment when the children are left alone and threatens them with harm. Don eventually lays bare where his Parental Neglect stems from. Lane's father, who strikes Lane — a grown-ass man — with a goddamn cane. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b11ac9f5 | |
Mad Men / int_b3de4c5b | type |
Sex God | |
Mad Men / int_b3de4c5b | comment |
Sex God: Bobbi Barrett confirms that the good things she heard about Don are true. Faye calls Don "Mr. Bond" in bed. Betty tells Don in the first season how much she's physically attracted to him. Seriously, Don's idea of solving problems with a client's wife is shagging her in a coat room. It works too! SNL even posted a guide to how you can be one too. | |
Mad Men / int_b3de4c5b | featureApplicability |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b3de4c5b | |
Mad Men / int_b3f4b615 | type |
Raging Stiffie | |
Mad Men / int_b3f4b615 | comment |
Raging Stiffie: Unapologetic sexist Stan suggests that he and Peggy "get liberated" and take their clothes off during a brainstorming session. Peggy surprises him by taking him up on it, and Stan gets an erection, much to his embarrassment. | |
Mad Men / int_b3f4b615 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b3f4b615 | |
Mad Men / int_b53077b3 | type |
Take That! | |
Mad Men / int_b53077b3 | comment |
Take That!: "I wouldn't have told Roger if I intended it to remain a secret." It's George Romney that Henry Francis was talking about, of course, but it can't be a coincidence that in episode "Tea Leaves", airing in the spring of 2012, Henry says "Romney's a clown". Megan lambasts Dark Shadows in the episode of that name, which just happened to air the same weekend that the Dark Shadows movie was released. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b53077b3 | |
Mad Men / int_b532f68b | type |
Everybody Has Lots of Sex | |
Mad Men / int_b532f68b | comment |
Everybody Has Lots of Sex: SO MUCH, especially Don. | |
Mad Men / int_b532f68b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_b532f68b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b532f68b | |
Mad Men / int_b537784e | type |
Fauxlosophic Narration | |
Mad Men / int_b537784e | comment |
Fauxlosophic Narration: Don's voiceover of his memoirs in "The Summer Man". | |
Mad Men / int_b537784e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_b537784e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b537784e | |
Mad Men / int_b58c51d8 | type |
My Beloved Smother | |
Mad Men / int_b58c51d8 | comment |
Peggy to Joan: hard-working, they both lost their fathers and were raised by critical mothers in a lower-middle class environment, both worked their way out of the secretarial pool while dealing with the misogyny of their workplaces, both lied about their sexual history to their boyfriends, rarely seen with genuine female office friendships, were impregnated by one of the SC&P partners, both are smokers with a sharp wit and intellect to match, and both end the series with their careers on top and with their stars rising. Peggy grew up in a devout Catholic environment in Brooklyn with her mother and sister, witnessed her father die, went to secretarial school after high school, experiments with the counter culture, she works in a more creative field (also one that is more open-minded about women in positions other than secretary), both have depended on the Men giving the thumbs up to advance, and tries not to play up her sensuality at work and dresses more simply. She also gets a guy (Stan) who loves her for who she is and isn't threatened by her strength and talents but appreciates them, was separated from her baby, and is on the fast track to become Creative Director (if Pete's predictions, good chance, are correct). Joan was raised by a mother who raised her to be "admired" by men and likely saw her father leave the family, she had two failed marriages, went to college and moved to New York from Spokane, is more conventional in attitude than Peggy, works as a partner and under accounts, dresses sexily and uses her womanly wiles to get things done, takes great pride in being "the most gorgeous" woman in the office, raised her baby under the guise of being conceived by her and Greg, and breaks off with yet another man that wants to keep her as a woman of leisure and not work, and starts her own production agency. | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_b58c51d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b58c51d8 | |
Mad Men / int_b5e63cc4 | type |
Shadow Archetype | |
Mad Men / int_b5e63cc4 | comment |
Shadow Archetype: Been a few in the show. Margaret Sterling to Peggy. For one, they started off as young women with a rather childlike 50s state of dress with their brown hair in ponytails and with a relationship with a father/mentor figure, the name "Margaret", parents that want them married, having sacrificed motherhood for a more fulfilling adult life, and slightly Joan wanting them to pick up some style tips from her; the resemblance ends there with Peggy having a more direct approach (especially later on) towards things she's entitled to (the directness impressing Roger) and having been trying to make peace with having her baby taken away, Roger also shares his working life with Peggy and has a night of bonding before they move on to McCann Erickson, Peggy lacks the relationship Margaret has with her father because he died before her 13th birthday, she didn't go down the traditional path her family wanted for her, and she develops a medium between the counter culture and the more traditional adult life set by her era albeit one that doesn't place her in the home; Margaret was Daddy's Spoiled Brat who looked like a miniature of her Mother, got married after high school, has a strained relationship with her father, did the job her parents expected her to do (get married), yet later leaves her husband and young son for a hippie commune and becomes "Marigold". Peggy to Joan: hard-working, they both lost their fathers and were raised by critical mothers in a lower-middle class environment, both worked their way out of the secretarial pool while dealing with the misogyny of their workplaces, both lied about their sexual history to their boyfriends, rarely seen with genuine female office friendships, were impregnated by one of the SC&P partners, both are smokers with a sharp wit and intellect to match, and both end the series with their careers on top and with their stars rising. Peggy grew up in a devout Catholic environment in Brooklyn with her mother and sister, witnessed her father die, went to secretarial school after high school, experiments with the counter culture, she works in a more creative field (also one that is more open-minded about women in positions other than secretary), both have depended on the Men giving the thumbs up to advance, and tries not to play up her sensuality at work and dresses more simply. She also gets a guy (Stan) who loves her for who she is and isn't threatened by her strength and talents but appreciates them, was separated from her baby, and is on the fast track to become Creative Director (if Pete's predictions, good chance, are correct). Joan was raised by a mother who raised her to be "admired" by men and likely saw her father leave the family, she had two failed marriages, went to college and moved to New York from Spokane, is more conventional in attitude than Peggy, works as a partner and under accounts, dresses sexily and uses her womanly wiles to get things done, takes great pride in being "the most gorgeous" woman in the office, raised her baby under the guise of being conceived by her and Greg, and breaks off with yet another man that wants to keep her as a woman of leisure and not work, and starts her own production agency. Rachel Menken and Betty Draper in the 1st season: well-educated, both lost their mothers, came from very comfortable backgrounds, Daddy's little princesses, soon die from cancer, and involved with Don. But Rachel grew up motherless and quite lonely, is Jewish, urban, fights for her familys' business and what she's entitled to, is more open and kinder, relies on her intelligence rather than looks, and finally got the husband and children she's always wanted without sacrificing her career. Sharp contrast to the spoiled, passive, WASP-ish, suburbannote In both her current life and her upbringing; she grew up in Lower Merion Township in Philadelphia's posh Main Line suburbs. Betty who grew up with a mother that sent the message that women's worth lie in their beauty, and gave up a lively career of being a model and the humanities for marriage and motherhood, and was an unhappy homemaker. Betty Draper Francis and her friend Francine Hanson. Both are unhappy homemakers with distant and unfaithful husbands and share a Alpha Bitch-like personality and wit with the common prejudices of that time. But while Betty tries to look perfect and is tearing up inside, Francine acknowledges more of her own insecurities and how imperfect her life is; Betty was a glamorous model in Manhattan who spent a year in Italy while Francine was a schoolteacher somewhere less glamorous. Francine is more honest and aggressive, has a healthier relationship with her children for the most part, confronts her husband and stays married to him, and later becomes a working mom when she attempts a real estate exam and starts her own travel agency. Betty maintains that facade, is very cold to her children, divorces Don and marries another man quickly, and voices skepticism about being a working mother and wife before starting on a Masters in Psychology. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b5e63cc4 | |
Mad Men / int_b691c1e5 | type |
Come Back to Bed, Honey | |
Mad Men / int_b691c1e5 | comment |
Come Back to Bed, Honey: Don says this to Betty at one point. | |
Mad Men / int_b691c1e5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_b691c1e5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b691c1e5 | |
Mad Men / int_b6cebad3 | type |
Double Standard | |
Mad Men / int_b6cebad3 | comment |
Double Standard: The series! | |
Mad Men / int_b6cebad3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_b6cebad3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b6cebad3 | |
Mad Men / int_b913a5df | type |
Accidental Innuendo | |
Mad Men / int_b913a5df | comment |
Accidental Innuendo: In-Universe: Don's Hawaii ad is suggestive of suicide, which his colleagues and the client point out. | |
Mad Men / int_b913a5df | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_b913a5df | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b913a5df | |
Mad Men / int_b995495a | type |
Previously Overlooked Paramour | |
Mad Men / int_b995495a | comment |
Previously Overlooked Paramour: Peggy goes through a series of relationships, none of which pan out, while working a desk (at most) away from Stan near-constantly since his introduction in the middle of Season 4. The final episode ends with Peggy realizing her love for Stan and their last scene in the series is The Big Damn Kiss between them. | |
Mad Men / int_b995495a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b995495a | |
Mad Men / int_b9fb7790 | type |
When Elders Attack | |
Mad Men / int_b9fb7790 | comment |
When Elders Attack: Lane's dad whacking him across the face with his cane and stepping on his hand. Pete's mother when she succumbs to dementia in Season 6. | |
Mad Men / int_b9fb7790 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_b9fb7790 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_b9fb7790 | |
Mad Men / int_ba0b808e | type |
Tantrum Throwing | |
Mad Men / int_ba0b808e | comment |
Tantrum Throwing: Long-suffering secretary Allison throws a vase at Don in "The Rejected" when he rants and suggests she write her own reference letter. After being dumped by Glo-Coat, Don throws his CLIO award across the office in "Chinese Wall." Megan later fishes it out of the trash and repairs it. Megan throws a plate of pasta against the wall when Don comes home late in "Christmas Waltz." Joan's response to a messenger serving her with divorce papers in "Christmas Waltz" is "Surprise, there's an airplane here to see you!". Don throws money in Peggy's face in "The Other Woman." An angry Don throws his office phone into the bar cart in "The Crash." After a particularly frustrating meeting in "The Monolith," Don throws his typewriter into the wall of his office. | |
Mad Men / int_ba0b808e | featureApplicability |
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Mad Men / int_ba0b808e | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ba0b808e | |
Mad Men / int_ba236071 | type |
It Makes Sense in Context | |
Mad Men / int_ba236071 | comment |
Joan Harris and Bob Benson. Bob is at Joan's apartment as the both of them are about to go on a picnic together. This after Bob takes Joan to the hospital when she accidentally drinks furniture polish. | |
Mad Men / int_ba236071 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ba236071 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ba236071 | |
Mad Men / int_bb18a227 | type |
It's All About Me | |
Mad Men / int_bb18a227 | comment |
It's All About Me: Most of the characters, especially in Season 5. Notable exceptions: Anna Draper, Carla, Henry Francis, Suzanne Farrell. | |
Mad Men / int_bb18a227 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bb18a227 | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bb18a227 | |
Mad Men / int_bbe740e2 | type |
Tyrant Takes the Helm | |
Mad Men / int_bbe740e2 | comment |
Tyrant Takes the Helm: Duck. It usually doesn't work out for him. Lane Pryce from Putnam, Powell, and Lowe. Though it works for him in the short term, considering he was almost sent to Bombay by his superiors for doing such a good job. Eventually he turns out to be more of a Bait-and-Switch Tyrant, considering he joins Don, Roger, and Bert to start the new company. Jim Hobart, Alpha Male of McCann-Erickson — starts in "Time and Life" and picks up speed in "Lost Horizon." | |
Mad Men / int_bbe740e2 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bbe740e2 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bbe740e2 | |
Mad Men / int_bc00493f | type |
Precision F-Strike | |
Mad Men / int_bc00493f | comment |
Precision F-Strike: Roger delivers one in response to Pete Campbell telling him they've lost a $4 million account. | |
Mad Men / int_bc00493f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bc00493f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bc00493f | |
Mad Men / int_bc103f8b | type |
Subverted | |
Mad Men / int_bc103f8b | comment |
It's also often subverted. A number of instances of cheating (like Pete's one night stand with a model, or Don and Betty sleeping together at Bobby's camp) result in no consequences and are not discovered by their spouses. | |
Mad Men / int_bc103f8b | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Mad Men / int_bc103f8b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bc103f8b | |
Mad Men / int_bc3b029b | type |
Impairment Shot | |
Mad Men / int_bc3b029b | comment |
Impairment Shot: The first shot of Season 6 is from the POV of a man having a heart attack. | |
Mad Men / int_bc3b029b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bc3b029b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bc3b029b | |
Mad Men / int_bc74ef27 | type |
Berserk Button | |
Mad Men / int_bc74ef27 | comment |
Berserk Button: Peggy hates it when people imply that she became a copywriter by sleeping with Don. Don't expect Roger to react rationally around the Japanese. Don when Megan locks him out of their apartment after the disastrous trip to Howard Johnson's in "Far Away Places." | |
Mad Men / int_bc74ef27 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bc74ef27 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bc74ef27 | |
Mad Men / int_bd635007 | type |
Fauxreigner | |
Mad Men / int_bd635007 | comment |
Fauxreigner/Obfuscating Stupidity: Kurt, probably. He seems to play up his foreignness in order to get away with saying subversive things. | |
Mad Men / int_bd635007 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bd635007 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bd635007 | |
Mad Men / int_bdd26742 | type |
Tragic Bigot | |
Mad Men / int_bdd26742 | comment |
Tragic Bigot: Roger Sterling has a deep-seated hatred of the Japanese because he served in the US Navy in World War II's Pacific Theater and is implied to have seen Japanese soldiers commit many horrible brutalities. He purposely sabotages a deal with Honda when his colleagues go behind him for the good of their company and has an emotional talk about it with Joan later on who tells him to leave it behind. | |
Mad Men / int_bdd26742 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bdd26742 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bdd26742 | |
Mad Men / int_bddb820f | type |
Must Have Caffeine | |
Mad Men / int_bddb820f | comment |
Must Have Caffeine: When the characters don't have a drink in their hands, they have a cup of coffee. | |
Mad Men / int_bddb820f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bddb820f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bddb820f | |
Mad Men / int_be30e493 | type |
Undignified Death | |
Mad Men / int_be30e493 | comment |
Undignified Death: Miss Blankenship dies in the office. Cooper at least tries to salvage and put some grandeur on it. Don's father was kicked in the head by a horse. | |
Mad Men / int_be30e493 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_be30e493 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_be30e493 | |
Mad Men / int_be6f7ae7 | type |
Brief Accent Imitation | |
Mad Men / int_be6f7ae7 | comment |
Brief Accent Imitation: Courtesy of Don and Roger, toying with All Germans Are Nazis:"Did you enjoy the Führer's birthday? May he live for thousand years". | |
Mad Men / int_be6f7ae7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_be6f7ae7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_be6f7ae7 | |
Mad Men / int_beb932ca | type |
Big Applesauce | |
Mad Men / int_beb932ca | comment |
Big Applesauce: The show makes frequent use of its setting and NYC's history. Pete Campbell's New York blue blood ancestry gets him an apartment. The destruction of the old Penn Station in 1963 to make way for Madison Square Garden (which opened five years later) is a plot point in an episode, and SCDP moves into offices in the then-new Time-Life Building. Lane Pryce has a New York Mets pennant in his office (the baseball team began play in 1962) along with other New York-related tchotchkes (he has the love of being a New Yorker only an immigrant can have). When Peggy is apartment-hunting, the agent notes that the value will increase dramatically when the Second Avenue Subway is finished...something only New Yorkers would realize is a joke (the SAS didn't open until January 2017. You heard us.) The Big Rotten Apple: As the show moves into the late '60s, it really shows New York City's decay. | |
Mad Men / int_beb932ca | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_beb932ca | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_beb932ca | |
Mad Men / int_bec0417c | type |
Happily Married | |
Mad Men / int_bec0417c | comment |
Happily Married: Averted with pretty much everyone. Except maybe Betty and Henry Francis — although they start sniping at each other in Season 7A — and Ken and Cynthia Cosgrove, whom we hardly ever see together. The writers like to tease us sometimes, like Harry and Jennifer Crane before Season 5, Don and Megan Draper during Season 5, and even Pete and Trudy Campbell in Seasons 4 and 5, but inevitably, it ends in shit. | |
Mad Men / int_bec0417c | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bec0417c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bec0417c | |
Mad Men / int_bf1255fa | type |
Really Gets Around | |
Mad Men / int_bf1255fa | comment |
Really Gets Around: Virtually everybody's favorite pastime. You need a scorecard to keep up with the body count. As of Season 6, Don gets the gold with 17 partners, Roger gets the silver at 9, and Pete is bronze with 7. | |
Mad Men / int_bf1255fa | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bf1255fa | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bf1255fa | |
Mad Men / int_bf1c906 | type |
Trophy Wife | |
Mad Men / int_bf1c906 | comment |
Trophy Wife: Jane Siegel Sterling is a perfect example. Roger throws away a decades-long marriage to Mona in order to take up with a sexy young secretary. He soon tires of her, treating her more like a bratty daughter, and in Season 5 they decide to end the marriage. | |
Mad Men / int_bf1c906 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bf1c906 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bf1c906 | |
Mad Men / int_bf9163d9 | type |
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead | |
Mad Men / int_bf9163d9 | comment |
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Betty (blonde), Peggy (brunette), and Joan (redhead). As illustrated by this Rolling Stone cover◊ with Tall, Dark, and Handsome Don Draper. "The Beautiful Girls" ends with a shot of Joan (redhead), Peggy (brunette), and Faye (blonde) in the elevator together. It's very symbolic. Peggy (brunette) with her Mother Katherine (blonde) and older sister Anita (redhead). | |
Mad Men / int_bf9163d9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bf9163d9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bf9163d9 | |
Mad Men / int_bf996668 | type |
Sliding Scale of Continuity | |
Mad Men / int_bf996668 | comment |
Sliding Scale of Continuity: Level 5 (Full Lockout). The ongoing story of Don Draper and the firm of Sterling Cooper. | |
Mad Men / int_bf996668 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_bf996668 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_bf996668 | |
Mad Men / int_c0d32460 | type |
Sexy Secretary | |
Mad Men / int_c0d32460 | comment |
Sexy Secretary: Joan. Also, Jane, Megan, Peggy ... all of them, really, probably even Miss "queen of perversions" Blankenship back in the day. Averted with Peggy, as her sensuality only shows when her confidence develops, which was after she was promoted from secretary. | |
Mad Men / int_c0d32460 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c0d32460 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c0d32460 | |
Mad Men / int_c13c9e38 | type |
Tomato Surprise | |
Mad Men / int_c13c9e38 | comment |
Tomato Surprise: The ending of the very first episode. We've been introduced to Don as The Casanova and office hero, and only when we follow him home do we discover the existence of his wife and two young children. | |
Mad Men / int_c13c9e38 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c13c9e38 | |
Mad Men / int_c145f69b | type |
Subverted Trope | |
Mad Men / int_c145f69b | comment |
Don says this about Jai Alai. He is right. | |
Mad Men / int_c145f69b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c145f69b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c145f69b | |
Mad Men / int_c289826f | type |
Double Standard Rape: Female on Male | |
Mad Men / int_c289826f | comment |
Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: How Dick Whitman lost his virginity. A prostitute who had been caring for him in a motherly fashion suddenly tries to seduce the underage boy. Though reluctant, he submits due to this trope. Lampshaded by Abigail Rines's article in The Atlantic, where she compares Dick's rape with other, then-current, fictional rapes. | |
Mad Men / int_c289826f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c289826f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c289826f | |
Mad Men / int_c326149a | type |
Hobos | |
Mad Men / int_c326149a | comment |
Hobos: Little Dick Whitman meets one in "The Hobo Code". | |
Mad Men / int_c326149a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c326149a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c326149a | |
Mad Men / int_c335b9ec | type |
Irony | |
Mad Men / int_c335b9ec | comment |
Irony: All over the place, but the Situational kind was on prominent display in Season 2's "The Jet Set": when Kurt comes out as gay to some other employees in the break room, most of the others express disgust; Smitty says that Kurt can't have been "the first homo [they've] met in advertising" as the shot turns to Sal standing awkwardly. | |
Mad Men / int_c335b9ec | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c335b9ec | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c335b9ec | |
Mad Men / int_c3648b87 | type |
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork | |
Mad Men / int_c3648b87 | comment |
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Petty and professional rivalries run wild all over the office, where moments of abrasiveness can be followed by a mutual understanding. In season 6, the SCDP and CGC partners retain a mindset that makes them work like two different entities for a while. | |
Mad Men / int_c3648b87 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c3648b87 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c3648b87 | |
Mad Men / int_c3782352 | type |
Exiled to the Couch | |
Mad Men / int_c3782352 | comment |
Exiled to the Couch: Betty does this to Don for much of Season 2. Harry Crane is exiled in season one after a drunken one-night stand with Hildy (a secretary) after the Election Day office party. His wife forgives him, though. Trudy exiles Pete Campbell to his apartment in the city in Season 6. | |
Mad Men / int_c3782352 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c3782352 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c3782352 | |
Mad Men / int_c37a7e2b | type |
No Yay | |
Mad Men / int_c37a7e2b | comment |
No Yay: In-universe, Don and Peggy attempt to play a playful bickering couple in order to sell a Cool Whip ad. It bombs spectacularly. | |
Mad Men / int_c37a7e2b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c37a7e2b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c37a7e2b | |
Mad Men / int_c39846a3 | type |
Pride | |
Mad Men / int_c39846a3 | comment |
Pride: This turns out to be Lane Pryce's undoing. The man started the series as a bit of a Chew Toy who is used as a hatchet man by his bosses and never given the recognition he deserves. In America, he finds the freedom to pursue his own goals and becomes a founding partner of Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce. He is justifiably proud of his achievements, but his pride soon leads him to make questionable decisions. When a business downturn forces the partners to put more money into the company, he commits all his assets to the venture and does not tell anyone about his difficult financial position. More importantly, he fails to pay his taxes, and a year later has to make a very large lump payment that would bankrupt him. Don would have been more than happy to lend Lane the money, but Lane's pride prevents him from asking for a loan. Instead, he forges a check to get an advance on a bonus. When bonuses are canceled, he cannot return the money, and Don fires him when he finds out about the embezzlement. Lane hangs himself in his office rather than face the disgrace. Lane was no longer willing to "suffer the little humiliations" that his life was filled with before he became successful and thus was not able to ask for help when he most needed it. | |
Mad Men / int_c39846a3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c39846a3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c39846a3 | |
Mad Men / int_c3c18143 | type |
Hope Spot | |
Mad Men / int_c3c18143 | comment |
Hope Spot: In "Time & Life", the partners come up with a scheme to save the agency by convincing McCann to allow them to take any accounts that would be lost due to conflicts of interest from the absorption to California. Unfortunately, McCann isn't interested. | |
Mad Men / int_c3c18143 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c3c18143 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c3c18143 | |
Mad Men / int_c40c8b74 | type |
And Starring | |
Mad Men / int_c40c8b74 | comment |
And Starring: John Slattery (starting in Season 2). | |
Mad Men / int_c40c8b74 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c40c8b74 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c40c8b74 | |
Mad Men / int_c4b0faae | type |
Can't Hold His Liquor | |
Mad Men / int_c4b0faae | comment |
Can't Hold His Liquor: Don drinks Ted Chaough under the table in "Man with a Plan". Chaough gets his revenge by scaring the wits out of Don in Chaough's private plane. | |
Mad Men / int_c4b0faae | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c4b0faae | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c4b0faae | |
Mad Men / int_c4db6423 | type |
Yank the Dog's Chain | |
Mad Men / int_c4db6423 | comment |
Yank the Dog's Chain: In "Waterloo", it looks as if Harry Crane will finally get the recognition and respect he deserves, as he is about to become a partner in SC&P and his media department is about to become the centerpiece of the firm's vision for the future. However, he haggles over a few minor details and when he is ready to sign the final legal papers, the firm is sold to McCann and the partnership offer is withdrawn. Harry not only loses out on the partnership but also on a million dollar payout. Ouch. | |
Mad Men / int_c4db6423 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c4db6423 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c4db6423 | |
Mad Men / int_c673210e | type |
Informed Judaism | |
Mad Men / int_c673210e | comment |
Informed Judaism: For some time, the only hint that Jane Siegel Sterling might be Jewish was her maiden name. Then in Season 5, she makes a reference to her father speaking Yiddish, and a couple of episodes later this is made explicit when Roger takes her along for dinner with a Jewish client. Word of God indicated that Dr. Faye is supposed to be an assimilated Jew. | |
Mad Men / int_c673210e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c673210e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c673210e | |
Mad Men / int_c675d08c | type |
Compliment Backfire | |
Mad Men / int_c675d08c | comment |
Compliment Backfire: After Megan helps to land the Heinz account, Peggy congratulates her and tells her to soak in all the adulation she is receiving because this will be as good as it gets. Megan previously was already having reservations about continuing to work for the Ad Agency because of all the cynicism, and Peggy's statement only drove her dislike of the job further. | |
Mad Men / int_c675d08c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c675d08c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c675d08c | |
Mad Men / int_c700e697 | type |
Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter | |
Mad Men / int_c700e697 | comment |
Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Bourgeois housewife Betty Draper once called her daughter Sally "daddy's little lesbian" over her love of handiwork. | |
Mad Men / int_c700e697 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c700e697 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c700e697 | |
Mad Men / int_c7e7529c | type |
Five Stages of Grief | |
Mad Men / int_c7e7529c | comment |
Five Stages of Grief: In "The Milk And Honey Route", Betty is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Henry is in denial, trying to use his political connections to find a cure, while Betty goes straight to acceptance. | |
Mad Men / int_c7e7529c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c7e7529c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c7e7529c | |
Mad Men / int_c82e751f | type |
Unspoken Plan Guarantee | |
Mad Men / int_c82e751f | comment |
Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Inverted in "Lady Lazarus"; Don and Megan run through a proposed bit for a Cool Whip commercial, and their easy chemistry as husband and wife makes it all the more cringe-inducing later on when Peggy tries to take Megan's place during the actual pitch and spectacularly fails. | |
Mad Men / int_c82e751f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c82e751f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c82e751f | |
Mad Men / int_c83751cb | type |
Description Cut | |
Mad Men / int_c83751cb | comment |
Description Cut: Don and Lane decided to catch a movie, checking the movie listings in the newspaper and settling on the French romance film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. "For all the young lovers in the world," reads Lane. Cut to them watching Gamera instead. | |
Mad Men / int_c83751cb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c83751cb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c83751cb | |
Mad Men / int_c868a42a | type |
Freudian Excuse | |
Mad Men / int_c868a42a | comment |
Freudian Excuse: The backstory flashbacks of Don often account for his twisted personality in the present day. Hell, even his very name, Dick Whitman, has a Freudian origin; his mother's fondest wish was to cut off his father's dick and boil it in hog fat for getting her pregnant. Subverted in "The Suitcase". Peggy had gamely took part in a pitch involving football and Samsonite and merely observed all the hubub around the Clay v. Liston fight. Later she notes to Don that her father died in front of her when she was twelve while a sports game was playing. She then states "That's why I hate sports." | |
Mad Men / int_c868a42a | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Mad Men / int_c868a42a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c868a42a | |
Mad Men / int_c87660d5 | type |
Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! | |
Mad Men / int_c87660d5 | comment |
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Roger almost goes Out with a Bang, he's mumbling the name of the one-night-stand he was with, and an overwrought Don slaps him and tells him, "Mona! Your wife's name is Mona!" Don to Peggy in flashback in "The New Girl." Delivered to snap her out of Heroic BSoD. Freddy Rumsen's speech to a hung-over Don at the end of "The Monolith." | |
Mad Men / int_c87660d5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c87660d5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c87660d5 | |
Mad Men / int_c9597a03 | type |
Self-Deprecation | |
Mad Men / int_c9597a03 | comment |
Self-Deprecation: In the premiere of Season 7B (the final run of episodes), Ken speculates about using his work experience as material for an upcoming short story or novel. Pete comments that their line of work is "boring", and that Ken should focus on an adventure tale instead. | |
Mad Men / int_c9597a03 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c9597a03 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c9597a03 | |
Mad Men / int_c972d624 | type |
Slut-Shaming | |
Mad Men / int_c972d624 | comment |
Slut-Shaming: The men are free to romp, so long as they're discreet, and other men don't particularly care, but if a woman steps one toe over the line, she's torn apart. Peggy Olson gets it particularly bad from her family and her priest, for having a baby out of wedlock. Inverted, in that men's 'romps' tend to be much more destructive to others around them, which often comes back to bite them in the ass, like when Don finds out that he has a reputation as a good, easy lay. Subverted in "The Other Woman": Joan sleeps with the Jaguar exec to get the account, and neither Lane nor Don approve, but none of the men is shown treating her with any less respect than they had before. Pete actually seems to respect her more. They had to, since the partners – with the exception of Don — were the ones who coerced her into doing it. Joan's visibly uncomfortable with the whole thing before and during the act, but only accepted it because of the financial security for her and her son (she got a partnership of the company and a voting equity stake in the partnership out of it). In "Severance". After dealing with some Frat Bro like clients, Peggy states that Joan invited their behavior due to the way she dresses. Joan then implies Peggy's just jealous of how good looking she is and Peggy angrily shoots back that Joan is "filthy rich". No one looks good there. | |
Mad Men / int_c972d624 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Mad Men / int_c972d624 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c972d624 | |
Mad Men / int_c9c317cd | type |
Last-Minute Hookup | |
Mad Men / int_c9c317cd | comment |
Last-Minute Hookup: After four seasons of UST, Peggy and Stan finally admit their feelings for one another in the final episode. | |
Mad Men / int_c9c317cd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_c9c317cd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_c9c317cd | |
Mad Men / int_cc28f3bf | type |
Not That Kind of Doctor | |
Mad Men / int_cc28f3bf | comment |
Not That Kind of Doctor: In "At the Codfish Ball," Bobby asks Emil Calvet if he gives a lot of shots. Dr. Calvet replies that he isn't a medical doctor, but a professor, and Don explains this trope to Bobby: | |
Mad Men / int_cc28f3bf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_cc28f3bf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_cc28f3bf | |
Mad Men / int_cc4b45f6 | type |
Word of God | |
Mad Men / int_cc4b45f6 | comment |
Word of God indicated that Dr. Faye is supposed to be an assimilated Jew. | |
Mad Men / int_cc4b45f6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_cc4b45f6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_cc4b45f6 | |
Mad Men / int_cc8564b3 | type |
Playboy Bunny | |
Mad Men / int_cc8564b3 | comment |
Playboy Bunny: Lane Pryce dates one. | |
Mad Men / int_cc8564b3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_cc8564b3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_cc8564b3 | |
Mad Men / int_cdd835ce | type |
Dude, Not Funny! | |
Mad Men / int_cdd835ce | comment |
invokedDude, Not Funny!: Joey's rape comment to Joan. Really, really not funny, to the point it makes a brief, rare visible impression on her. | |
Mad Men / int_cdd835ce | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_cdd835ce | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_cdd835ce | |
Mad Men / int_ce165390 | type |
Casting Couch | |
Mad Men / int_ce165390 | comment |
Casting Couch: When the agency is casting the commercial for a double-sided aluminum ad, Roger takes it upon himself to pick out the set of twins he likes best for himself and Don. It's also implied that Harry, head of the television department, uses his connections to broker dates with actresses (or tries to). Betty outrights accuses Megan of being out doing this when the children are left alone and a burglary occurs. Megan worries that it will mean career trouble when she and Don decline to swing with her show's head writer and his wife. | |
Mad Men / int_ce165390 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ce165390 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ce165390 | |
Mad Men / int_cf92fea8 | type |
Cassandra Truth | |
Mad Men / int_cf92fea8 | comment |
Cassandra Truth / The Cuckoolander Was Right: When Peter's mother (who is shown to be suffering from advanced dementia) comes in to wake Peter to tell him about Robert Kennedy's assassination, she says "they shot that Kennedy boy"; he naturally assumes she's confused and referring to John Kennedy, and tells her to go back to sleep | |
Mad Men / int_cf92fea8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_cf92fea8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_cf92fea8 | |
Mad Men / int_cffafc80 | type |
You, Get Me Coffee | |
Mad Men / int_cffafc80 | comment |
You, Get Me Coffee: Almost all of the secretaries play it straight, but in the season 3 finale, Peggy subverts it with a "No". | |
Mad Men / int_cffafc80 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_cffafc80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_cffafc80 | |
Mad Men / int_d001deb0 | type |
Naked in Mink | |
Mad Men / int_d001deb0 | comment |
Naked in Mink: In "Dark Shadows", Pete dreams of seeing his one-night-stand Beth (played by Alexis Bledel) like this. Used several times in "Severance", both with a model in the opening scene and later in Don's dream sequence of Rachel Menken. | |
Mad Men / int_d001deb0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d001deb0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d001deb0 | |
Mad Men / int_d137b509 | type |
Competence Porn | |
Mad Men / int_d137b509 | comment |
Competence Porn: Don, and to a lesser extent the other creatives at Sterling Cooper, is an appealing character, despite his many major flaws (that include a propensity for adultery, alcoholism, and narcissism), because he's so damn good at his job. | |
Mad Men / int_d137b509 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d137b509 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d137b509 | |
Mad Men / int_d1726c18 | type |
What, Exactly, Is His Job? | |
Mad Men / int_d1726c18 | comment |
What, Exactly, Is His Job?: "What do I do here?" says a demoralized Lane to Joan in "Signal 30". | |
Mad Men / int_d1726c18 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d1726c18 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d1726c18 | |
Mad Men / int_d1cedb73 | type |
Slap-Slap-Kiss | |
Mad Men / int_d1cedb73 | comment |
Slap-Slap-Kiss: Don and Megan's fights tend to turn into very angry foreplay. | |
Mad Men / int_d1cedb73 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d1cedb73 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d1cedb73 | |
Mad Men / int_d2355c26 | type |
Where Were You Last Night? | |
Mad Men / int_d2355c26 | comment |
Where Were You Last Night?: Lots of this when Betty gets suspicious of Don. | |
Mad Men / int_d2355c26 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d2355c26 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d2355c26 | |
Mad Men / int_d29a6629 | type |
Death by Childbirth | |
Mad Men / int_d29a6629 | comment |
Death by Childbirth: Don's real mother. Certainly not unheard of in rural America in 1925. | |
Mad Men / int_d29a6629 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d29a6629 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d29a6629 | |
Mad Men / int_d397657d | type |
Hoist by His Own Petard | |
Mad Men / int_d397657d | comment |
Hoist by His Own Petard / Batman Gambit: Roger sneaks a peek at Pete's calendar so he can go to meetings between Pete and his clients and steal Pete's thunder. When Pete figures it out, he makes a fake appointment on his calendar for very early in the morning in a remote part of New York City. | |
Mad Men / int_d397657d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d397657d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d397657d | |
Mad Men / int_d39e327f | type |
What the Hell, Hero? | |
Mad Men / int_d39e327f | comment |
What the Hell, Hero?: Allison finally snaps at Don - "I don't say this easily, but you are not a good person!" Faye, after she finds out that Don is engaged to Megan: "I hope she knows that you only like beginnings." All of the other partners at SCDP at Don after he wrote a letter in the New York Times announcing that SCDP will no longer be working with any tobacco accounts, to the point where Bert quits the company. The letter further comes back to haunt Don in Season 5's "At the Codfish Ball" when he receives an award for it, but simultaneously learns that none of the corporate world's big fish want anything to do with SCDP because of that letter, as it showed Don is willing to publicly backstab even a longtime loyal client if they drop them. Bert gives one to Don at the end of "Far Away Places" for constantly ditching work with Megan. The rest of the SCDP partners give one to Pete when they learn that he tried to get Joan to engage in prostitution on behalf of the agency. Joan is the target of this from Peggy, Pete, and Chaough in "A Tale of Two Cities" when they learn that she ignored Chaough's instructions to invite Pete to the meeting with Avon. Freddie Rumsen chews Don out for drinking so hard that he passed out and expecting that he'd get back all of his responsibilities without having to prove to the other partners that he has turned over a new leaf. Roger's daughter chews her father out for neglecting her as a child. | |
Mad Men / int_d39e327f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d39e327f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d39e327f | |
Mad Men / int_d3beb0de | type |
Precocious Crush | |
Mad Men / int_d3beb0de | comment |
Precocious Crush: Glen for Betty. Later Mitchell, the son of Don's season 6 mistress. | |
Mad Men / int_d3beb0de | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d3beb0de | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d3beb0de | |
Mad Men / int_d45c0b86 | type |
Refuge in Audacity | |
Mad Men / int_d45c0b86 | comment |
Refuge in Audacity: the woman who breaks into Don and Megan's apartment in "The Crash" claims to be Sally's grandmother. Sally disbelieves her, partially because she's never heard of her before, and partially because she's black (although the woman claims she wasn't literally Don's mother, but that she raised him all the same). | |
Mad Men / int_d45c0b86 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d45c0b86 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d45c0b86 | |
Mad Men / int_d46bae01 | type |
Tarot Troubles | |
Mad Men / int_d46bae01 | comment |
Tarot Troubles: Anna gives Don a reading in "The Mountain King". | |
Mad Men / int_d46bae01 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d46bae01 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d46bae01 | |
Mad Men / int_d52d28b6 | type |
Hypocrite | |
Mad Men / int_d52d28b6 | comment |
Hypocrite: Don Draper, chronic philanderer, berates his wife for merely flirting or wearing a bikini. Pete's father-in-law is furious when he learns that Pete is cheating on Trudy, which doesn't stop him from sleeping with prostitutes. Don scoffs at Cassius Clay for changing his name to Muhammad Ali. | |
Mad Men / int_d52d28b6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d52d28b6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d52d28b6 | |
Mad Men / int_d5d265ec | type |
Housewife | |
Mad Men / int_d5d265ec | comment |
Housewife: Betty Draper. The show spends three seasons deconstructing this trope, as we see seemingly stereotypical 50s housewife Betty dealing with sexual frustration, her husband's infidelity, and boredom. | |
Mad Men / int_d5d265ec | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d5d265ec | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d5d265ec | |
Mad Men / int_d5dfb30a | type |
Professional Butt-Kisser | |
Mad Men / int_d5dfb30a | comment |
Professional Butt-Kisser: Bob Benson in Season 6. In a broader sense, as Roger puts it, the job description of an account executive consists of roping in a client, being overly obsequious, and sucking it up to him no matter how outrageous the client may be. | |
Mad Men / int_d5dfb30a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d5dfb30a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d5dfb30a | |
Mad Men / int_d6653787 | type |
Sudden Musical Ending | |
Mad Men / int_d6653787 | comment |
Sudden Musical Ending: Easily one of the weirdest ever, as "Waterloo", and Season 7A of the show, end with Bert Cooper singing "The Best Things in Life Are Free", complete with secretarial backup dancers, completely out of nowhere. To make things even weirder, Bert passed away earlier in the episode. | |
Mad Men / int_d6653787 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d6653787 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d6653787 | |
Mad Men / int_d678747d | type |
Sex with the Ex | |
Mad Men / int_d678747d | comment |
Sex with the Ex: When Betty and Don go to drop Bobby off at camp (Season 6 Episode 9, "The Better Half"), they have a "camping trip" of their own in Betty's motel room. | |
Mad Men / int_d678747d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d678747d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d678747d | |
Mad Men / int_d6901d5a | type |
Dress Hits Floor | |
Mad Men / int_d6901d5a | comment |
Dress Hits Floor: Happens to Betty a few times in seasons 1 and 2, and in "Waldorf Stories", Joan's mink hits the floor. | |
Mad Men / int_d6901d5a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d6901d5a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d6901d5a | |
Mad Men / int_d72edeb0 | type |
Fake Guest Star | |
Mad Men / int_d72edeb0 | comment |
Fake Guest Star: John Slattery in the first season, in spite of Roger Sterling's major role in the first season and seasons that would follow. He appears in 10 of the 13 episodes of season 1. Notably, Maggie Siff (Rachel Menken) is a main cast member in season 1 but only appears in 7 episodes. | |
Mad Men / int_d72edeb0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d72edeb0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d72edeb0 | |
Mad Men / int_d7fc9fd0 | type |
Vitriolic Best Buds | |
Mad Men / int_d7fc9fd0 | comment |
Vitriolic Best Buds: Peggy and Joan have this dynamic, sniping at each other on occasion but holding a deep respect for each other. At the very end, they're genuinely happy for each other's success in their careers. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d7fc9fd0 | |
Mad Men / int_d8573ef9 | type |
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections! | |
Mad Men / int_d8573ef9 | comment |
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Don tries to help Dr. Rosen's son get a deferment from the draft but quickly realizes that he does not have the connections to accomplish this. It turns out that Ted Chaough does have the right connections and he arranges for the kid to join the Air National Guard instead. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d8573ef9 | |
Mad Men / int_d85c505 | type |
Racist Grandma | |
Mad Men / int_d85c505 | comment |
Racist Grandma: Pete's mother. He tells Bob Benson when he recommends Manolo as a caretaker when her dementia takes its toll that she'll only accept if he's "Spanish from Spain." Joan's mother, now a grandma since Joan has a baby, pipes up in "The Strategy" that "the Jews close everything on Saturday". Surprisingly, Bert Cooper when he sees Dawn has been moved to the reception desk. Ida Blankmanship isn't a grandma or mom, but she quipped that, if she wanted to watch "two Negroes fight", she'll drop a dollar on the street. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d85c505 | |
Mad Men / int_d8979db6 | type |
Dr. Feelgood | |
Mad Men / int_d8979db6 | comment |
Dr. Feelgood: Jim Cutler brings in a dubious doctor who gives everyone speed injections, leaving the agency tripping balls all weekend, in "The Crash". | |
Mad Men / int_d8979db6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d8979db6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d8979db6 | |
Mad Men / int_d93c5989 | type |
Stepford Suburbia | |
Mad Men / int_d93c5989 | comment |
Stepford Suburbia: Played to the hilt, whether it's narrow-minded suburbanites like Betty's friend Francine, Betty and Don's horrible marriage inside their seemingly perfect Ossining home, or the rapid deterioration in Pete and Trudy's marriage after they leave the city for the burbs. The Ossining location is in many ways symbolic — people who know New York State also know it as the location of Sing Sing Prison. | |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d93c5989 | |
Mad Men / int_d9fe8277 | type |
I'm Standing Right Here | |
Mad Men / int_d9fe8277 | comment |
I'm Standing Right Here: Harry Crane outlines in lurid detail what he'd do to Megan, oblivious to the fact that she's right behind him. | |
Mad Men / int_d9fe8277 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_d9fe8277 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_d9fe8277 | |
Mad Men / int_dae7053d | type |
Sexy Stewardess | |
Mad Men / int_dae7053d | comment |
Sexy Stewardess: One is almost a conquest of Don's in "Out of Town", until a fire alarm interrupts. Roger is sleeping with one in season 6. She tips him off that there is a GM executive waiting in the airport lounge due to a flight delay and helps Roger get a meeting with Chevy about a new ad campaign. TWA's Trisha flirts with Don in "Field Trip" and by "Severance" she is bedding him during a layover in New York. | |
Mad Men / int_dae7053d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_dae7053d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_dae7053d | |
Mad Men / int_dc3b74bc | type |
Pointy-Haired Boss | |
Mad Men / int_dc3b74bc | comment |
Pointy-Haired Boss: Lou Avery, Don's replacement at SC&P, is an incompetent asshole who blames others for his own mistakes. | |
Mad Men / int_dc3b74bc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_dc3b74bc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_dc3b74bc | |
Mad Men / int_dca6a9d | type |
Start My Own | |
Mad Men / int_dca6a9d | comment |
Start My Own: Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. | |
Mad Men / int_dca6a9d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_dca6a9d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_dca6a9d | |
Mad Men / int_dcb9c541 | type |
Ship Tease | |
Mad Men / int_dcb9c541 | comment |
Her calmness in handling it, including appearing to return the kiss for a moment and responding to his apology as if he is apologizing for beating up Pete, ups the Ship Tease factor, | |
Mad Men / int_dcb9c541 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_dcb9c541 | |
Mad Men / int_dcbe8a6e | type |
Chekhov's Gunman | |
Mad Men / int_dcbe8a6e | comment |
Chekhov's Gunman: Megan seemed to be getting a lot of moments onscreen without any actual story for a secretary through most of Season 4 before she became Don's secretary and fiancee. | |
Mad Men / int_dcbe8a6e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_dcbe8a6e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_dcbe8a6e | |
Mad Men / int_dd891949 | type |
Who Writes This Crap?! | |
Mad Men / int_dd891949 | comment |
Who Writes This Crap?!: In-universe, this is Megan's reaction to the Dark Shadows script one of her acting friends brings her. | |
Mad Men / int_dd891949 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_dd891949 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_dd891949 | |
Mad Men / int_de0d9b2a | type |
Alter Kocker | |
Mad Men / int_de0d9b2a | comment |
Alter Kocker: Michael Ginsberg's father. For bonus points, Michael actually calls him this (actually, he calls two old Jewish men this in one breath — his dad and his dad's chess partner, who collaborate to set their children up). | |
Mad Men / int_de0d9b2a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_de0d9b2a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_de0d9b2a | |
Mad Men / int_de7b7cbf | type |
Drugs Are Bad | |
Mad Men / int_de7b7cbf | comment |
Drugs Are Bad: Played entirely straight with Midge, a heroin addict by the time she reappears in Season 4. In "The Crash", the whole office gets amphetamine injections in preparation for a brainstorming session, producing only unpleasantly bizarre behavior and no substantial progress. In "A Tale of Two Cities", where Don nearly drowns after he walks into a swimming pool during a drug-induced stupor. The drug nicotine is responsible for Betty Francis not living to see age 40, as she's diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. | |
Mad Men / int_de7b7cbf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_de7b7cbf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_de7b7cbf | |
Mad Men / int_de999021 | type |
Rage Quit | |
Mad Men / int_de999021 | comment |
Rage Quit: In "Blowing Smoke", Bert Cooper of all people. He gets over it. Also a Funny Moment - "Get me my shoes!" | |
Mad Men / int_de999021 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_de999021 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_de999021 | |
Mad Men / int_df4b69d6 | type |
Uncomfortable Elevator Moment | |
Mad Men / int_df4b69d6 | comment |
Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Don and Sylvia share a few in Season 6 after she breaks up with him. Peggy and Joan in "Severance" after an ugly meeting with some hideously sexist McCann people. They wind up turning on each other in the elevator. | |
Mad Men / int_df4b69d6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_df4b69d6 | |
Mad Men / int_dfb71617 | type |
Male Gaze | |
Mad Men / int_dfb71617 | comment |
One of the best examples of deconstructing the Male Gaze is the scene in "Babylon" where Joan bends over very slowly and knowingly in front of mirrored glass, displaying her, ah, assets for all the male execs to see. | |
Mad Men / int_dfb71617 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_dfb71617 | |
Mad Men / int_dfe57573 | type |
Historical In-Joke | |
Mad Men / int_dfe57573 | comment |
Historical In-Joke: The doctor Joan goes to for an abortion in Season 4 (before she changes her mind) is in Morristown, New Jersey. A mere five years later, in 1970, New York adopted abortion-on-demand up to the 24th week, while it remained completely banned in New Jersey until the decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973. | |
Mad Men / int_dfe57573 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_dfe57573 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_dfe57573 | |
Mad Men / int_dffd6a64 | type |
Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex | |
Mad Men / int_dffd6a64 | comment |
Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex / Wall Bang Her: Roger and Joan in "The Beautiful Girls", after they're mugged at gunpoint. | |
Mad Men / int_dffd6a64 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_dffd6a64 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_dffd6a64 | |
Mad Men / int_e11e88b6 | type |
Thousand-Yard Stare | |
Mad Men / int_e11e88b6 | comment |
Thousand-Yard Stare: Used many times, particularly with Don. Notable examples: The ensemble at the end of "At the Codfish Ball." Don in "Commissions and Fees." Pete in "Meditations in an Emergency." Don in "The Good News." Lane in "Commissions and Fees." | |
Mad Men / int_e11e88b6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e11e88b6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e11e88b6 | |
Mad Men / int_e13156e1 | type |
Mama Bear | |
Mad Men / int_e13156e1 | comment |
Early in "New Business", Roger tells Don that wives will always take more than their husbands are willing to give them in the divorce. At the end of the episode, Don returns to his apartment after giving Megan a million dollars to find that she took all of his furniture. While that was actually Marie's doing, Don has no way of knowing that. | |
Mad Men / int_e13156e1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e13156e1 | |
Mad Men / int_e13cafe | type |
Office Romance | |
Mad Men / int_e13cafe | comment |
Office Romance: In the first episode, Peggy gets hired as Don's new secretary and tries to impress him and sleep with him, but he has none of it. (He is married and sleeps around the town, but not with office ladies.) Peggy, a single gal, sleeps with Pete who is a newly-wed. They don't last long as a couple but remain friends. Pete later goes Oh, Crap! when he sees Peggy taking to his wife Trudy, but Peggy didn't reveal anything. Don Draper has a seemingly meaningful relationship with Rachel Menken, a Jewish client of Sterling Cooper. Joan Holloway and Roger Sterling have a long and passionate love affair. He is one of the bosses in their ad agency and married with a teen daughter while she is a single secretary (who more or less runs the office as an unofficial office manager). Some people know, Roger's older business partner Mr. Cooper, but most are oblivious to the relationship. They break up when Joan gets engaged. Roger continues to have a soft spot for Joan. Roger starts a romance with Jane, Don's new hot secretary. Roger gets divorced and marrries Jane very soon after. It was a great surprise for everyone in the office. Don gives Roger shit for it and mocks his sickly sweet happiness. Lois keeps looking for a guy to marry at Sterling Cooper, but she is looking at the wrong place. Most men are married and she could be just a mistress, and she soon zooms in on Sal Romano who is gay. Don sleeps with his secretary Allison whe he's wasted and she helped him to get home. She feels exploited by him because he pretended like nothing happened. Don starts sleeping with Faye Miller. She is a marketing researcher hired by SCDP, and probably the healthiest of Don's post-divorce relationships, until he screws it up. They kept it secret from all people in the office. Megan starts at SCDP as Don's new secretary, they sleep together and quickly Don decides to marry her, as he was infatuated with her model looks, magical nanny abilities and desire to work in advertising as a copy writer. Ted Chaough has an affair with Peggy, his head writer. He wants to leave his wife for her, but breaks it off very soon and leaves Mannhatten. He insists he loves her though, but Penny is understandably very hurt by his treatment of her. | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e13cafe | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e13cafe | |
Mad Men / int_e16cd2c8 | type |
Grief-Induced Split | |
Mad Men / int_e16cd2c8 | comment |
Grief-Induced Split: Don's waitress squeeze Diana reveals that she abandoned her family following her daughter's death. Her remaining daughter lives with her dad in Racine. | |
Mad Men / int_e16cd2c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e16cd2c8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e16cd2c8 | |
Mad Men / int_e1c796e9 | type |
Diegetic Switch | |
Mad Men / int_e1c796e9 | comment |
Diegetic Switch: At the end of "Lady Lazarus", Don plays "Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles on his record player. The song switches to background music as a montage of Megan taking doing exercises in her acting class and Peggy and Stan sharing a joint at work plays. Then it switches back to diegetic when the show cuts back to Don listening to the record. Then it switches yet again to background music in the closing credits. At the beginning of "The Summer Man", someone in the pool's locker room has "Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones playing on a small tape recorder. As Don exits the facility, the music switches to background music. | |
Mad Men / int_e1c796e9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e1c796e9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e1c796e9 | |
Mad Men / int_e1fa8421 | type |
Dead Person Conversation | |
Mad Men / int_e1fa8421 | comment |
Dead Person Conversation: Don has one with Adam in "The Phantom." Don has another one with PFC Dinkins in "A Tale of Two Cities." And again in the driving scene in "Lost Horizon," this time with Bert Cooper. | |
Mad Men / int_e1fa8421 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e1fa8421 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e1fa8421 | |
Mad Men / int_e21715e8 | type |
Subtext | |
Mad Men / int_e21715e8 | comment |
Subtext: Deserves special mention because the show doesn't just rely on this, but requires it. The setting actively forbids anyone from saying what they mean. More often than not, conversations and fights are about something else entirely. This is why the show is hailed as genius. This and the humor. And the drama. And the pretty people. | |
Mad Men / int_e21715e8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e21715e8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e21715e8 | |
Mad Men / int_e24e15a6 | type |
Has a Type | |
Mad Men / int_e24e15a6 | comment |
Has a Type: Don begins the show married to a blonde Stepford Smiler, but all of his mistresses/lovers have been rather independent-minded and outspoken, and all have been brunette except for redhead Bobbie Barrett (who pursued him, rather than the other way around), and blonde Faye Miller (whom he dated after his divorce), and then (briefly) marries dark-haired Megan. Pete tends to pick women with girlish features like Trudy, Peggy, and Bonnie Whiteside. This is lampshaded when his senile mother mistakes Peggy for Trudy. | |
Mad Men / int_e24e15a6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e24e15a6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e24e15a6 | |
Mad Men / int_e2d457 | type |
The Ditz | |
Mad Men / int_e2d457 | comment |
The Ditz: Meredith the receptionist seems to have the IQ of a fly. The last time we see her, she has taken Roger's joke about translating a speech into Pig Latin seriously and actually done it. Herb Rennet's wife is obsessed with puppies and is completely oblivious to how much of a Jerkass her husband is. Don't forget Lois Sadler trying to drive the lawn mower in "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency." | |
Mad Men / int_e2d457 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e2d457 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e2d457 | |
Mad Men / int_e35ab565 | type |
Indy Ploy | |
Mad Men / int_e35ab565 | comment |
Indy Ploy: Typically, Don is very careful and deliberate, but he's proved several times that he can tap dance on quicksand. In the pilot, he comes up with a new (well, in reality extant and successful) campaign for Lucky Strike. At the end of the second season, he takes advantage of the fact that he doesn't have a contract. At the end of the third, he takes advantage of the fact that he does. And in Season 6, when it becomes clear that neither SCDP or CGC is big enough to land the Chevy account, Don and Ted Chaough merge their agencies. | |
Mad Men / int_e35ab565 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e35ab565 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e35ab565 | |
Mad Men / int_e3847ee8 | type |
Cigarette of Anxiety | |
Mad Men / int_e3847ee8 | comment |
Cigarette of Anxiety: When Betty finally tells Don that she knows about his secret identity, not only do Don's hands shake when he lights the cigarette, he actually drops the cigarette, and Betty has to do it for him. Given how cool, calm, and confident Don had been portrayed for three years, it came off as a very dramatic moment. Betty in the ladies' room stall in "The Summer Man" after she sees Don out on a date with Bethany. | |
Mad Men / int_e3847ee8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e3847ee8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e3847ee8 | |
Mad Men / int_e3b0cd87 | type |
Morality Pet | |
Mad Men / int_e3b0cd87 | comment |
Morality Pet: Anna Draper to Don. | |
Mad Men / int_e3b0cd87 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e3b0cd87 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e3b0cd87 | |
Mad Men / int_e3c36782 | type |
Call-Forward | |
Mad Men / int_e3c36782 | comment |
There is a Call-Forward Running Gag in Season 2 about Martinson Coffee and their concern that young people aren't going to drink coffee in the future. | |
Mad Men / int_e3c36782 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e3c36782 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e3c36782 | |
Mad Men / int_e42e91b4 | type |
Godwin's Law | |
Mad Men / int_e42e91b4 | comment |
Godwin's Law: Don compares giving up to increasingly bad demands from clients to Munich appeasement. The reference falls flat on Campbell, who states that the Germans lost the war anyway. Roger then tops it by attributing a famous Winston Churchill's quote about dishonor and war to his own mother. | |
Mad Men / int_e42e91b4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e42e91b4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e42e91b4 | |
Mad Men / int_e4c0b2b6 | type |
Primal Scene | |
Mad Men / int_e4c0b2b6 | comment |
Primal Scene: In season 5's "At the Codfish Ball," at the hotel where the award banquet is being held, Sally walks into a room and sees Megan's mom Marie giving Roger a blowjob (remember, Roger is probably her favorite — if honorary — uncle). They don't see her and she is still stunned when she returns to their table. When she calls Glen up later and he asks how the city was, she answers, "Dirty." In "Favors", Sally walks in on Don and Sylvia. This ruins what little faith Sally had in her father. | |
Mad Men / int_e4c0b2b6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e4c0b2b6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e4c0b2b6 | |
Mad Men / int_e5421161 | type |
Expy | |
Mad Men / int_e5421161 | comment |
Expy: This show is basically if someone took the characters of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and gave them some real dramatic development rather than sticking them in a musical comedy. Say if the boss's affairs were taken seriously, what if the Sexy Secretary had actual Hidden Depths, etc. This is especially highlighted in the casting of Robert Morse, who is best known for playing the lead in How to Succeed.... | |
Mad Men / int_e5421161 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e5421161 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e5421161 | |
Mad Men / int_e67ff203 | type |
Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder | |
Mad Men / int_e67ff203 | comment |
Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Joan's mother, Gail, warns her of this trope when Greg is coming home from Vietnam in Mystery Date. Soon Joan gets more irritated and tells her that not all men are like Joan's father. | |
Mad Men / int_e67ff203 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e67ff203 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e67ff203 | |
Mad Men / int_e796ce97 | type |
Blackface | |
Mad Men / int_e796ce97 | comment |
Blackface / Uncle Tomfoolery: Holy Deliberate Values Dissonance Batman, Roger Sterling's singing while in blackface! Pete is shown to disapprove of this as one of his socially conscious, forward-thinking moments, but Don is the only other person who seems bothered by it, and that's almost certainly just because Roger's acting like a moron. | |
Mad Men / int_e796ce97 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e796ce97 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e796ce97 | |
Mad Men / int_e7cb46d3 | type |
Satellite Character | |
Mad Men / int_e7cb46d3 | comment |
Satellite Character/The Generic Guy: Ken Cosgrove seems to exist primarily to act as a foil for other characters. Paul Kinsey and Pete Campbell are jealous of Ken's literary ability, Sal Romano is attracted to Ken, and Ken's refusal to mix SCDP business with his personal life in Season 4 serves to contrast with most of the other account men at SCDP. He gets a couple storylines later in the show's run, like his secret career as a sci-fi writer as revealed in Season 5, or his taking a job at Dow Chemical solely to spite Roger Sterling after he's fired in Season 7B. | |
Mad Men / int_e7cb46d3 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e7cb46d3 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e7cb46d3 | |
Mad Men / int_e83f211c | type |
O.O.C. Is Serious Business | |
Mad Men / int_e83f211c | comment |
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It happens a fair number of times, but the first half of Season 4 — Don's downward spiral — includes more than its fair share, culminating in two events in "Waldorf Stories": (1) he actually gets drunk — apparently blackout drunk — and makes a pitch to Quaker Oats that he had previously derided as stupid (it works, forcing him to take on some idiot who shouldn't be at SCDP)note While Drinking on Duty is nothing new for Don, actually getting really, really drunk was something we'd never seen him do before and (2) he seduces his secretary Allison, something which he would have frowned upon in earlier seasons from more or less anyone, let alone himself. These together convince him to get his act together, which he starts doing in "The Summer Man". | |
Mad Men / int_e83f211c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e83f211c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e83f211c | |
Mad Men / int_e895b19c | type |
Sideboob | |
Mad Men / int_e895b19c | comment |
Sideboob: Megan nestling up to Don in "A Little Kiss" is as close to nudity as Mad Men will get. Until Betty gets out of the tub in "Tea Leaves", the very next episode. Then Pete's lover Beth does this in "The Phantom". Season 5 was heavy on sideboob. Roger's young girlfriend Daisy in "For Immediate Release." | |
Mad Men / int_e895b19c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_e895b19c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e895b19c | |
Mad Men / int_e90aeea2 | type |
Sci-Fi Ghetto | |
Mad Men / int_e90aeea2 | comment |
At first, Ken Cosgrove is basically a fratboy, consistently crude and immature, constantly hitting on women in the most brazen way possible. Oh, and he has tremendous false modesty about his literary achievements when The Atlantic publishes his short story. When he shows up again at SCDP, he is far more mature — probably the most mature of the junior people who aren't Peggy — keeping a strict wall between personal and professional and actually being embarrassed by his fiction (which, admittedly, are science fiction and therefore "supposed" to be embarrassing to an Ivy League "sophisticate" like Ken). | |
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1.0 | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e90aeea2 | |
Mad Men / int_e90f5682 | type |
But Not Too Gay | |
Mad Men / int_e90f5682 | comment |
But Not Too Gay: Sal, the only major gay character, is deeply closeted due to the time and place the show is set, so his gay love life mostly consists of resisting the advances of other gay/bi men or dealing with unrequited crushes on straight men. The one time he finally decides to give in to his desire, they're interrupted by a hotel fire before they can do anything. Bob Benson plays a similar role in Season 6. | |
Mad Men / int_e90f5682 | featureApplicability |
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Mad Men / int_e90f5682 | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e90f5682 | |
Mad Men / int_e9e28bd7 | type |
Sexy Priest | |
Mad Men / int_e9e28bd7 | comment |
Sexy Priest: Father Gill. There's even a subtext of an attraction to Peggy, featuring some noticeably frustrated guitar playing on his part after a conversation. Peggy cuts off contact with Father Gill in the last episode of the second season. | |
Mad Men / int_e9e28bd7 | featureApplicability |
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Mad Men / int_e9e28bd7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e9e28bd7 | |
Mad Men / int_e9e35e8f | type |
Exact Words | |
Mad Men / int_e9e35e8f | comment |
Exact Words: In "Collaborators", Don is charged by a Jaguar dealer that he hates with selling a new, locally-targeted Jaguar campaign to the Jaguar brass. Don gives the pitch — but deliberately makes the campaign sound cheap, so the Jaguar bosses will turn down the deal. During a weekend visit from the kids in "The Flood", Don learns that Bobby is being punished by his mother when Sally objects to him watching TV. Once Don learns that Bobby is forbidden from watching television for a week, Don takes him to the movies. | |
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Mad Men / int_e9e35e8f | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_e9e35e8f | |
Mad Men / int_ea85d6ea | type |
All Just a Dream | |
Mad Men / int_ea85d6ea | comment |
All Just a Dream: In "Mystery Date", Don has one hell of a fever dream in which he strangles an old flame to death and then kicks her body under his bed. It's meant to be symbolic of how he wants to kill the philandering part of himself, but damn, it's chilling. | |
Mad Men / int_ea85d6ea | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ea85d6ea | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ea85d6ea | |
Mad Men / int_ea9e3d29 | type |
Right-Hand Hottie | |
Mad Men / int_ea9e3d29 | comment |
Right-Hand Hottie: Lane Pryce's Season 3 "right hand" (NOT "secretary"), John Hooker. As office manager at Sterling Cooper upon its takeover by Putnam, Powell, and Lowe, he replaces Joan... and is thus in charge of the secretarial pool. The secretaries all swoon over his good looks and sexy British accent. Peggy, on the other hand, calls him "Moneypenny." | |
Mad Men / int_ea9e3d29 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ea9e3d29 | featureConfidence |
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Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ea9e3d29 | |
Mad Men / int_eaf5a1ac | type |
Groin Attack | |
Mad Men / int_eaf5a1ac | comment |
Groin Attack: Apparently, Bert Cooper was on the wrong end of an "unnecessary orchiectomy[note]testicle removal surgery[/note] at the height of his sexual prime." Well, that certainly explains why he isn't married... In "A Tale of Two Cities", Roger makes one too many short jokes at Danny Siegel's expense. Roger quickly learns why you shouldn't insult someone whose arms are already at your groin level. | |
Mad Men / int_eaf5a1ac | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_eaf5a1ac | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_eaf5a1ac | |
Mad Men / int_eb8e4fa8 | type |
Jerkass | |
Mad Men / int_eb8e4fa8 | comment |
Averted again with Sally's nose getting busted after a fight. It's not broken and it's only temporary, but she looks a mess. And then FEELS a mess when Betty starts giving her crap about it, as she does. | |
Mad Men / int_eb8e4fa8 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_eb8e4fa8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_eb8e4fa8 | |
Mad Men / int_eb8ec7c8 | type |
Jerkass | |
Mad Men / int_eb8ec7c8 | comment |
Jerkass: All the men are either this or the Butt-Monkey (or both), but particularly Lee Garner Jr. and Joan's husband. Howard Dawes. Not only is he an adulterer, it is eventually revealed that he has subjected his wife to electroshock therapy on multiple occasions. The most recent issue that prompted this: she became depressed after discovering that her husband was cheating on her. | |
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1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_eb8ec7c8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_eb8ec7c8 | |
Mad Men / int_eba4e300 | type |
Honorary Uncle | |
Mad Men / int_eba4e300 | comment |
In season 5's "At the Codfish Ball," at the hotel where the award banquet is being held, Sally walks into a room and sees Megan's mom Marie giving Roger a blowjob (remember, Roger is probably her favorite — if honorary — uncle). They don't see her and she is still stunned when she returns to their table. When she calls Glen up later and he asks how the city was, she answers, "Dirty." | |
Mad Men / int_eba4e300 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_eba4e300 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_eba4e300 | |
Mad Men / int_ec255e86 | type |
Slouch of Villainy | |
Mad Men / int_ec255e86 | comment |
Slouch of Villainy: Though Roger Sterling is not much of a villain, his remarkable assholism is often underscored by his postures when he's using a chair or a couch. The credits, art box DVDs, and promotional materials feature images and scenes of Don reclined on a couch in a decidedly antiheroic, jaded way. | |
Mad Men / int_ec255e86 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ec255e86 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ec255e86 | |
Mad Men / int_ec993b17 | type |
Leaning on the Furniture | |
Mad Men / int_ec993b17 | comment |
Leaning on the Furniture: Roger Sterling. Scenes with Roger, Cooper, and Don have a tendency to look like rounds of "Sitting, Standing, Leaning". | |
Mad Men / int_ec993b17 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ec993b17 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ec993b17 | |
Mad Men / int_ed05cfee | type |
Naïve Newcomer | |
Mad Men / int_ed05cfee | comment |
Peggy appears to be the Child: the Naïve Newcomer to the world of advertising, the youngest, ambitious and hopeful. By season 2, she fits the surprising mould of The Seductress much more closely, as she has had a baby with the married Pete out of wedlock. Then, by Season 4, she has become the most stable and professional woman in the cast, and thus fits the role of the Wife much more easily, despite being single and constantly unlucky in love. | |
Mad Men / int_ed05cfee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ed05cfee | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ed05cfee | |
Mad Men / int_ed503b22 | type |
Match Cut | |
Mad Men / int_ed503b22 | comment |
Match Cut: For his directorial bit in "Signal 30", John Slattery seems to like these. This episode features a Match Cut with Ken opening a door, cutting to Pete in the same position opening a different door, and an audio Match Cut from a woman tapping her shoes to Pete Campbell's dripping faucet. Series finale "Person to Person" has one of these. Don is shown in his hotel room hoisting a drink — cut to Ken Cosgrove in a restaurant putting a drink down. | |
Mad Men / int_ed503b22 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ed503b22 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ed503b22 | |
Mad Men / int_ed7dde2c | type |
Popularity Cycle | |
Mad Men / int_ed7dde2c | comment |
Popularity Cycle: Don's romantic relationships are characterized by this, by everyone except Rachel (who turns him down herself). He has relationships with a series of women (Mitch, Bobbi, Suzanne, Faye) then chooses someone else over them. He marries Megan, which appears to be much more successful...for a while. Invariably, the pattern repeats, and he has an affair with his downstairs neighbor. Faye, who is a psychotherapist, calls him out on this. | |
Mad Men / int_ed7dde2c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ed7dde2c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ed7dde2c | |
Mad Men / int_edaedf90 | type |
Vomit Discretion Shot | |
Mad Men / int_edaedf90 | comment |
Vomit Discretion Shot: Don, after a long night of drinking, manages to make it to the SCDP bathroom (with Peggy's help) in "The Suitcase". While the noise is pretty nasty, we don't see anything (thank you stall walls!). There's more offscreen upchucking by Don a couple episodes later in "Hands and Knees", though this time it's the result of a pretty intense panic attack when the FBI starts investigating him. Lane in "Commissions and Fees," behind a parking garage pillar when his wife surprises him with a new Jaguar they can't afford. | |
Mad Men / int_edaedf90 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_edaedf90 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_edaedf90 | |
Mad Men / int_ee7a60e9 | type |
One-Steve Limit | |
Mad Men / int_ee7a60e9 | comment |
One-Steve Limit: Averted, with Burt Peterson and Bertram "Bert" Cooper, despite the spelling difference. Also averted with Don and Dawn. Pete and Betty both have a sister-in-law named Judy. Averted once again with Jim Hobart and Jim Cutler. Bobby Draper and Bobbie Barrett as well. | |
Mad Men / int_ee7a60e9 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ee7a60e9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ee7a60e9 | |
Mad Men / int_ef255df8 | type |
High Turnover Rate | |
Mad Men / int_ef255df8 | comment |
High Turnover Rate: The job of Don's secretary. Lampshaded in Season 4 when folks at the office guess what will happen to Megan. (They all guess wrong.) | |
Mad Men / int_ef255df8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_ef255df8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_ef255df8 | |
Mad Men / int_eff65ef6 | type |
Chained to a Bed | |
Mad Men / int_eff65ef6 | comment |
Chained to a Bed: Don does this to Bobbie when she tells him that he has a reputation. No Guy Wants to Be Chased. | |
Mad Men / int_eff65ef6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_eff65ef6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_eff65ef6 | |
Mad Men / int_f06b07ff | type |
Locked Out of the Loop | |
Mad Men / int_f06b07ff | comment |
Locked Out of the Loop: Nobody tells Anna that she's dying. | |
Mad Men / int_f06b07ff | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f06b07ff | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f06b07ff | |
Mad Men / int_f0f03464 | type |
TheSeventies | |
Mad Men / int_f0f03464 | comment |
The '70s: Season 7B premiere "Severance" is set in April 1970. Joan tries cocaine in one episode. | |
Mad Men / int_f0f03464 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f0f03464 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f0f03464 | |
Mad Men / int_f0f69743 | type |
Drugs Are Good | |
Mad Men / int_f0f69743 | comment |
Drugs Are Good: Zigzagged: Kinsey claims to get Artistic Stimulation from "Mary Jane." He never shows it, however; the one time we see him smoking anything (besides cigarettes or his pipe), it's Peggy who gets the idea. She also has a wonderful time. Peggy smokes up again in "The Rejected", and isn't caught by the police when they raid the party. And it seems from the montage at the end of "Lady Lazarus" that Peggy and Stan seem to do this on a regular basis while working. Hell, pot basically turns Stan from an aggressive bro-ey frat boy type into a cool laid back stoner type. Roger drops acid in "Far Away Places", has an important realization about his life, and is telling Mona in the next episode that LSD is awesome and she has to try it. He remains an LSD enthusiast and drops acid again in "The Phantom". In "The Doorway"; Don and Megan are smoking weed to make sex better while Creative is smoking so much in the office that both Don and Joan joke about it. In Season 7B, Joan tries cocaine with her boyfriend and seems to enjoy it. | |
Mad Men / int_f0f69743 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f0f69743 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f0f69743 | |
Mad Men / int_f1641c35 | type |
Ridiculous Procrastinator | |
Mad Men / int_f1641c35 | comment |
Ridiculous Procrastinator: Roger and Peggy drink, tell stories, roller skate, and play the organ in the old SC&P office in "Lost Horizon" before going to McCann. They do this even as the walls are being removed and the lights are going out. They both have their reasons for staying away. | |
Mad Men / int_f1641c35 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f1641c35 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f1641c35 | |
Mad Men / int_f19e8a55 | type |
Bad "Bad Acting" | |
Mad Men / int_f19e8a55 | comment |
Bad "Bad Acting": The SC crew act out Paul Kinsey's play in Season 1's penultimate episode, "Nixon vs. Kennedy". Also, Don and Megan impress the representative for Cool Whip by acting out their pitch for him, so much so that he asks them to do it again for the Head of Dessert. Except that by the time they meet with him, Megan has quit, so Peggy subs in for her. The result is this trope. | |
Mad Men / int_f19e8a55 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f19e8a55 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f19e8a55 | |
Mad Men / int_f237981e | type |
The Alleged Car | |
Mad Men / int_f237981e | comment |
The Alleged Car: SCDP got the account for the GM XP-887 prelaunch campaign; in production form, this car would be called Chevrolet Vega, one of the all-time infamous American alleged cars. The Jaguar is also one, which becomes a factor in Lane's first bungled suicide attempt. | |
Mad Men / int_f237981e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f237981e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f237981e | |
Mad Men / int_f360fc33 | type |
Dumbass Has a Point | |
Mad Men / int_f360fc33 | comment |
Dumbass Has a Point: Freddy and Peggy are working together developing a campaign for Pond's Cold Cream. Freddy seems to be stuck going back and forth between "Use this and you'll find a husband" and "If you don't use this, you won't find a husband"; Peggy is understandably offended and chides him for his regressive outlook. Her idea is greenlit instead, but in focus group testing, it fails to resonate with the young women — who are too busy commiserating with each other about their love life anxieties to respond to the interviewer's cues. | |
Mad Men / int_f360fc33 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f360fc33 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f360fc33 | |
Mad Men / int_f3caa2be | type |
Distanced from Current Events | |
Mad Men / int_f3caa2be | comment |
Distanced from Current Events: Several in-universe examples: The third-season Aqua Net campaign, whose TV spots would've featured two couples in an open convertible, has to be retooled. It had reached the storyboard stage by the JFK assassination. Peggy also notes after Marilyn Monroe's death that it's a good thing their idea of a "Jackie and Marilyn"-themed ad campaign for Playtex bras was turned down, because they'd have had to pull it all immediately. | |
Mad Men / int_f3caa2be | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f3caa2be | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f3caa2be | |
Mad Men / int_f3d5d15f | type |
Creepy Child | |
Mad Men / int_f3d5d15f | comment |
Creepy Child: Glen Bishop, who's escalated from crushing on Betty Draper to crushing on Sally Draper to breaking and entering (while sparing Sally's room alone in the Draper home). He graduates to Creepy Young Adult by 1970, when he enlists in the Army at the height of the Vietnam War in hopes that Betty will have sex with him. | |
Mad Men / int_f3d5d15f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f3d5d15f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f3d5d15f | |
Mad Men / int_f438b11b | type |
Who's Laughing Now? | |
Mad Men / int_f438b11b | comment |
Lane Pryce's bosses at PPL treat him this way in Season 3. He takes his revenge in the season finale. | |
Mad Men / int_f438b11b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f438b11b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f438b11b | |
Mad Men / int_f494af54 | type |
Defcon 5 | |
Mad Men / int_f494af54 | comment |
Defcon 5: Discussed Trope in "The Doorway", when Peggy has to explain to her boss what the DEFCON levels really mean. | |
Mad Men / int_f494af54 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f494af54 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f494af54 | |
Mad Men / int_f4f3252e | type |
Law of Inverse Fertility | |
Mad Men / int_f4f3252e | comment |
Law of Inverse Fertility: Pete gets Peggy pregnant on the first time, but his wife who wants a baby has trouble conceiving. Betty gets pregnant by Don precisely when she doesn't want to. Joan gets pregnant by Roger a few weeks too late to be able to pass it off as her husband's, though she's sure going to try. | |
Mad Men / int_f4f3252e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f4f3252e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f4f3252e | |
Mad Men / int_f538e4b | type |
Asbestos-Free Cereal | |
Mad Men / int_f538e4b | comment |
Asbestos-Free Cereal: When marketing tobacco products on health grounds is banned, everyone is flummoxed about how to advertise. Don realizes: they can advertise any way they want as long as whatever they say is technically true and more or less meaningless. | |
Mad Men / int_f538e4b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f538e4b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f538e4b | |
Mad Men / int_f5e59782 | type |
A Real Man Is a Killer | |
Mad Men / int_f5e59782 | comment |
A Real Man Is a Killer: "I killed seventeen men in Okinawa!", says Duck, the drunken loser. | |
Mad Men / int_f5e59782 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f5e59782 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f5e59782 | |
Mad Men / int_f612d2d | type |
Ignored Vital News Reports | |
Mad Men / int_f612d2d | comment |
Ignored Vital News Reports: Pete and Harry miss JFK assassination bulletins because the sound is down on the TV. Duck turns one off to have sex with Peggy. It kills the afterglow a little. Pete assumes that RFK's assassination was just his senile mother confusing him with JFK. ("That was years ago, mother.") | |
Mad Men / int_f612d2d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f612d2d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f612d2d | |
Mad Men / int_f73f26df | type |
Old, New, Borrowed and Blue | |
Mad Men / int_f73f26df | comment |
Old, New, Borrowed and Blue: Jane's gift to Margaret for her wedding. Very much not appreciated. | |
Mad Men / int_f73f26df | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f73f26df | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f73f26df | |
Mad Men / int_f7d4f121 | type |
Mushroom Samba | |
Mad Men / int_f7d4f121 | comment |
Mushroom Samba: Roger and Jane try LSD in "Far Away Places." Roger likes it more than Jane. "The Crash" in Season 6 is an even more blatant one, where the entire office does speed to allow them to stay up for one weekend straight, and it's made very unclear what is actually happening and what is just a drug/sleep-deprivation-induced hallucination. And in "A Tale of Two Cities" in Season 6, Don's hash-smoking experience, which ends with a near-death experience. | |
Mad Men / int_f7d4f121 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f7d4f121 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f7d4f121 | |
Mad Men / int_f818b637 | type |
Dude, Where's My Respect? | |
Mad Men / int_f818b637 | comment |
Dude, Where's My Respect?: The saga of Lane Pryce, the Hyper Competent Side Kick. Almost every competent worker who is not a senior partner feels underappreciated at some point. Peggy Olson, Pete Campbell, Harry Crane, and Joan are the ones who complain more often about it. | |
Mad Men / int_f818b637 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f818b637 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f818b637 | |
Mad Men / int_f88600be | type |
Higher Understanding Through Drugs | |
Mad Men / int_f88600be | comment |
Higher Understanding Through Drugs: Peggy in "My Old Kentucky Home." Roger and Jane in "Far Away Places". | |
Mad Men / int_f88600be | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f88600be | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f88600be | |
Mad Men / int_f9971b12 | type |
Mile-High Club | |
Mad Men / int_f9971b12 | comment |
Mile-High Club: Pete and his new girlfriend Bonnie do it in an airliner bathroom in Season 7's "The Strategy." | |
Mad Men / int_f9971b12 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f9971b12 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f9971b12 | |
Mad Men / int_f9f2c33 | type |
Running Gag | |
Mad Men / int_f9f2c33 | comment |
Running Gag: Almost everything about Miss Blankenship, particularly her tendency to buzz "[So-and-so] here to see you" right after that person has entered the room and started talking to Don. Harry constantly spoiling people for plot twists in "Peyton Place" . Roger has resorted to bribery to solve his problems in the office three times so far in season 5. After the first time, he laments that he should carry less money on his person — the two subsequent bribes see incrementally less cash change hands. Jaguars are unreliable and don't start when you need them. That led to Lane Pryce using his second choice of suicide methods. Fictional client Secor Laxative brought up each season for comic relief. The pillar in Pete's/Harry's/Peggy's office regularly gets smashed into. | |
Mad Men / int_f9f2c33 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_f9f2c33 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_f9f2c33 | |
Mad Men / int_fa6bfde9 | type |
Have a Gay Old Time | |
Mad Men / int_fa6bfde9 | comment |
Have a Gay Old Time: "I like the show. Very gay songs." — Betty in "Shoot" | |
Mad Men / int_fa6bfde9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_fa6bfde9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_fa6bfde9 | |
Mad Men / int_faf4a043 | type |
Good Adultery, Bad Adultery | |
Mad Men / int_faf4a043 | comment |
Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Adultery is all over this show, with different characters treated differently. Don's cheating is seen as bad pretty much across the board. His relationships with his mistresses are unsympathetic and Betty is devastated when she finds out. Roger's cheating on Mona is pretty terrible — even though very few people disapprove of his relationship with Joan, his affair with Jane is cringeworthy. After marrying Jane, he impregnates Joan but fails to rekindle their old relationship. Pete only cheats on Trudy three times in the first four seasons, which is such a low tally by the standards of this show that if not for one of them being all-important to the plot, we might never have noticed. He almost doubles that tally in season 5, though. Harry cheating on his wife once, under the influence of alcohol and an office party, results in him getting kicked out of the house. They're back together by early the following season, but considering that a year and a half lapsed between "Nixon v. Kennedy" and "The Benefactor," we don't know how long it took for Jennifer to forgive Harry. He cheats again in season five, and this time seems a lot less hesitant to do so and a lot less guilty about it afterwards. As mentioned above, Joan is married to Greg when she cheats on him with Roger. This is treated somewhat sympathetically because of Greg's previous rape of Joan and while Roger may be a jerk, he's been shown to care for her greatly. Then, in Season Five, she divorces Greg, but is still technically married to him when she sleeps with Herb Rennet, the head of Jaguar, to land SCDP the account. Betty's one night stand in "Meditations in an Emergency" and flirtation with Henry Francis throughout season 3 are treated sympathetically. Of course, Betty has it coming from another direction entirely... Don's affair with Sylvia comes across very negatively. But when Peggy seduces a married man (Ted Chaough), it's treated much more sympathetically, to the point where Peggy is outraged when Chaough goes back to his wife. | |
Mad Men / int_faf4a043 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Mad Men / int_faf4a043 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mad Men | hasFeature |
Mad Men / int_faf4a043 | |
Mad Men / int_fccd06b6 | type |
Beware the Nice Ones | |
Mad Men / int_fccd06b6 | comment |
Beware the Nice Ones: Roger finds out the hard way that making fun of Danny Siegel's height is a bad idea. | |
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Mad Men / int_fcdf597b | type |
Titled After the Song | |
Mad Men / int_fcdf597b | comment |
Titled After the Song: The first episode is titled after one of The Platter's signature songs: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." | |
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Mad Men / int_fcf82917 | type |
Wacky Cravings | |
Mad Men / int_fcf82917 | comment |
Wacky Cravings: The Drapers' neighbor Francine Hanson, pregnant near the beginning of Season 1, says while preparing snacks with Betty for Sally's birthday party in Episode 3, "All this one wants is raw hamburger. What does that say?" | |
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Mad Men / int_fe0330fb | type |
Brick Joke | |
Mad Men / int_fe0330fb | comment |
Brick Joke: In "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", Roger makes an obscure reference to a Dr. Lyle Evans, and Bert promptly tells him to shut up. Two episodes later, we find out that Bert, in the middle of his sexual prime, got his testicles removed in an 'unnecessary' procedure performed by one Dr. Lyle Evans years back. Early in "New Business", Roger tells Don that wives will always take more than their husbands are willing to give them in the divorce. At the end of the episode, Don returns to his apartment after giving Megan a million dollars to find that she took all of his furniture. While that was actually Marie's doing, Don has no way of knowing that. | |
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Mad Men / int_fe5e40e2 | type |
Gondor Calls for Aid | |
Mad Men / int_fe5e40e2 | comment |
Gondor Calls for Aid: The assembling of the new Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce team. | |
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Mad Men / int_fe614133 | type |
Beauty Is Never Tarnished | |
Mad Men / int_fe614133 | comment |
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted in "The Quality of Mercy", when Ken gets shot in the face by the Chevy execs. He survives, but winds up losing his right eye. Averted again with Sally's nose getting busted after a fight. It's not broken and it's only temporary, but she looks a mess. And then FEELS a mess when Betty starts giving her crap about it, as she does. | |
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Mad Men / int_fed93e1b | type |
Dark and Troubled Past | |
Mad Men / int_fed93e1b | comment |
Dark and Troubled Past: Don's seemed like the darkest (son of a prostitute, abusive parents, desertion in Korea) — until we met Ginsberg, who was born in a concentration camp. Don attempts to take the title back when it's revealed that his first sexual experience was with a motherly whore who took care of him when he was sick. The experience wasn't consensual. The show goes to some lengths to juxtapose his backstory and Don's less than examplary behavior in the present. | |
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Mad Men / int_ff7f34c5 | type |
Pet the Dog | |
Mad Men / int_ff7f34c5 | comment |
Pet the Dog: Several. Pete, however, gets a lot in Season 3 (his startlingly progressive — if business-oriented — positions on race and his enthusiastic Charleston with Trudy, for starters) as a result of Character Development. | |
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Mad Men / int_ffad4e9f | type |
Shown Their Work | |
Mad Men / int_ffad4e9f | comment |
Shown Their Work: Along with the general period research, the show employs two former real-life ad men to help them create the business deals and ad campaigns. Everything about the business aspect is actually really well done. Business and business law professors sometimes encourage their students to watch the show in order to get a feel for the dynamics of running a small business and the rules that apply to them. The incident where Y&R ad men pelt civil rights protestors with water balloons is based on a real incident. In a case of Reality Is Unrealistic, several critics lambasted the scene for being ham-handed, even after they learned it actually happened. | |
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Mad Men |
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