Though I do appreciate great TV programs like The Twlight Zone, Northern Exposure, Sienfeld, and LOST I’ve never been a big TV watcher. And since I don’t get HBO, CNN, or AMC unless I’m at a hotel, I’m sure I miss some good stuff. But there are only so many hours in a day.
But just like in the fifties when writers like Paddy Chayefsky, Horton Foote, and Rod Serling helped made for a TV a golden era, but many believe this is a new golden era for television as its attracting some of the best dramatic writers with David E. Kelley, Alan Ball and Aaron Sorkin leading the way. (Certainly if you are looking for a large audience TV is the way to go.)
I had been hearing so many good things about the show Mad Men that I rented the first season DVD last week and watched the pilot. I guess the fact that it’s won three Golden Globes and six Emmys, including an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series finally got my attention. But I’m kind of jaded on TV from watching too many hours of characters sit around and spill out exposition. Most of the time I’d rather watch a classic movie one more time.
All that to say I was blown away by Mad Men. At least that first script by Matthew Weiner is brilliant. The lighting and sets were beautiful and the talented crew of actors were believable–which is not easy since the first program takes place at a New York City ad agency in 1960. There are layers of depth and subtext in the writing that is hard to find anywhere today.
“Advertising is based on one thing…happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing…it’s okay. You are okay.”
Mad Men
Season 1/ Program 1
Don Draper ( Jon Hamm) pitching a cigarette company
So I wanted to find out a little about Weiner and discovered that he worked on The Spranos. He wrote the script for Mad Men seven years before it was finally produced and even with his cnnection to HBO could not get them to commit. Weiner has said to many reporters that part of his inspiration for the series was based on the movies The Apartment and and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. And there is also where key piece to Weiner’s mindset.
“There’s no one working in television or theater today who’s not influenced by… the fountainhead of this whole thing, which is Death of a Salesman. That’s it. And you never have to see it, just read the play and you’re like ‘This is it. This is everything. This is the truth about human behavior.’ And it’s earlier than the show but it’s everything that I am interested in. And anybody who I know that I admire, and all the people I admire were influenced by it. Paddy Cheyefsky and Rod Serling – they’re all part of that.”
Matt Weiner
Mad Men Q&A Kathy Lyford
Variety
The show is a look back to how we got where we are as a culture, while at the same time probing who we are as human beings today. That’s hard to capture on the page in the first place , much less find a studio that will produce it and convince an audience to watch. Weiner is a great example of someone with vision, talent and persistence who shows you how an 18 year journey can lead to overnight success.