When I first heard about the AMC show Mad Men, I was sort of excited. My friend told me about it after it had been on for a few episodes, and she said "It has your name written all over it." She couldn't wait for me to see it.
I couldn't wait either, since there is rarely anything of interest on TV. Well, I watched it--and I hated it. Absolutely hated it. It is full of cliches and sterotypes and I found it extremely hard to get through. I realized two things: 1) It's difficult, if not impossible, regardless of how much research you've done or how many "experts" you consult, to portray a time and place with accuracy, authenticity--and believability--unless you've lived it and 2) there is a big difference between someone born in 1962 and someone born in 1968.
Dana was born in 1968; I was born in 1962. Technically, she is a "Gen-Xer" and I am a "young Boomer" (I like the sound of that!) Even though neither of us really is in any position to speak about what it was like "growing up" in the sixties, I have lots of memories that she doesn't have, and vice versa. For instance, I vaguely remember my parents talking about "Bobby being killed" and names like "Jackie" and "Teddy" and words like "Vietnam" and "casualties" were always swirling around--on TV, in the house, everywhere. And I remember hearing about "President Johnson"--I knew that our president was President Johnson as I entered kindergarten. I remember when "Hey Jude" came out and I remember when The Beatles broke up--my brother announced it as if it were the end of the world, and I cried because I thought we'd never see or hear them again--I had no concept of The Beatles as individuals.
Dana's vague early-childhood recollections are of President Nixon resigning and of hearing about a new show called Saturday Night Live. She has no memory of The Smothers Brothers or The Ed Sullivan Show or Red Skelton. When I was six, I watched these shows and my favorite sitcoms were That Girl and Bewitched. When she was the same age, her shows were Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. Just six years--but a world of difference.
But back to Mad Men. Though, admittedly, I was not yet born or was an infant during the time the show is set, I do remember things like smoking being de rigueur and people calling stereos "Hi-Fi sets"--that lasted throughout the decade. But I am pretty damn sure that not every single person who ever walked into a room chain-smoked and drank martinis constantly. And I am sure that not every office in Manhattan looked exactly like Darren Stevens' office in Bewitched.
(One of my neighbors in South Philly, trying out
the suburban lifestyle in the late 50s-early 60s)
Though the clothing obviously was well-researched, and I know runway models wore some of these fashions, I never met a woman in a shirt-waist dress with crinolines and pumps and a perfect hairdo. I never saw a pillbox hat in person. And I never heard my Mother say to my Father "Spanking is good for a child." I'm not saying these things did not exist, that they didn't happen somewhere, just not in my experience. I know pillbox hats were popular, I just don't think that every woman wore one to every function. And I wonder how many women were making home-cooked breakfasts for their families dressed and made-up to the nines.
I know the show just won a fist full of Emmys, so I obviously am in the huge minority, but, in my opinion, nothing about the show rings true and it just grinds on my nerves. All the characters look like they're uncomfortable in their customes--which look like costumes. Every time there is a scene that shows a TV screen in passing, it is something iconic--like The Ed Sullivan Show or Jackie Kennedy doing a TV interview with John John and Caroline on her lap. There was one episode in which the office got a photocopy machine, and all the secretaries huddled around it like it was something from Mars. It's really fake. I just wanna say "Okay--we get it! It's the early sixties--you made your point!"
The phoniest part of the show, for me, is the language--both verbal and nonverbal. Dialogue is really difficult to get right, and the pace, the flow, the speech patterns, the jargon--everything--is all wrong. People did not speak then the way they do now; expressions that are part of the vernacular now did not exist then. Things like facial expressions and body posturing--subtle but important aspects of any time or place--are totally off the mark. I keep waiting for one of the secretaries to roll her eyes and say "what-ev."
Dana said to me "How could you not like that show? It's the sixties." That statement said a lot about the difference in our ages. I love Dana, so I was gentle when I told her "1960 is not 'the 60s,' Hon!" And 1960 in Mad Men is not 1960 anywhere else.
I couldn't wait either, since there is rarely anything of interest on TV. Well, I watched it--and I hated it. Absolutely hated it. It is full of cliches and sterotypes and I found it extremely hard to get through. I realized two things: 1) It's difficult, if not impossible, regardless of how much research you've done or how many "experts" you consult, to portray a time and place with accuracy, authenticity--and believability--unless you've lived it and 2) there is a big difference between someone born in 1962 and someone born in 1968.
Dana was born in 1968; I was born in 1962. Technically, she is a "Gen-Xer" and I am a "young Boomer" (I like the sound of that!) Even though neither of us really is in any position to speak about what it was like "growing up" in the sixties, I have lots of memories that she doesn't have, and vice versa. For instance, I vaguely remember my parents talking about "Bobby being killed" and names like "Jackie" and "Teddy" and words like "Vietnam" and "casualties" were always swirling around--on TV, in the house, everywhere. And I remember hearing about "President Johnson"--I knew that our president was President Johnson as I entered kindergarten. I remember when "Hey Jude" came out and I remember when The Beatles broke up--my brother announced it as if it were the end of the world, and I cried because I thought we'd never see or hear them again--I had no concept of The Beatles as individuals.
Dana's vague early-childhood recollections are of President Nixon resigning and of hearing about a new show called Saturday Night Live. She has no memory of The Smothers Brothers or The Ed Sullivan Show or Red Skelton. When I was six, I watched these shows and my favorite sitcoms were That Girl and Bewitched. When she was the same age, her shows were Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. Just six years--but a world of difference.
But back to Mad Men. Though, admittedly, I was not yet born or was an infant during the time the show is set, I do remember things like smoking being de rigueur and people calling stereos "Hi-Fi sets"--that lasted throughout the decade. But I am pretty damn sure that not every single person who ever walked into a room chain-smoked and drank martinis constantly. And I am sure that not every office in Manhattan looked exactly like Darren Stevens' office in Bewitched.
(One of my neighbors in South Philly, trying out
the suburban lifestyle in the late 50s-early 60s)
Though the clothing obviously was well-researched, and I know runway models wore some of these fashions, I never met a woman in a shirt-waist dress with crinolines and pumps and a perfect hairdo. I never saw a pillbox hat in person. And I never heard my Mother say to my Father "Spanking is good for a child." I'm not saying these things did not exist, that they didn't happen somewhere, just not in my experience. I know pillbox hats were popular, I just don't think that every woman wore one to every function. And I wonder how many women were making home-cooked breakfasts for their families dressed and made-up to the nines.
I know the show just won a fist full of Emmys, so I obviously am in the huge minority, but, in my opinion, nothing about the show rings true and it just grinds on my nerves. All the characters look like they're uncomfortable in their customes--which look like costumes. Every time there is a scene that shows a TV screen in passing, it is something iconic--like The Ed Sullivan Show or Jackie Kennedy doing a TV interview with John John and Caroline on her lap. There was one episode in which the office got a photocopy machine, and all the secretaries huddled around it like it was something from Mars. It's really fake. I just wanna say "Okay--we get it! It's the early sixties--you made your point!"
The phoniest part of the show, for me, is the language--both verbal and nonverbal. Dialogue is really difficult to get right, and the pace, the flow, the speech patterns, the jargon--everything--is all wrong. People did not speak then the way they do now; expressions that are part of the vernacular now did not exist then. Things like facial expressions and body posturing--subtle but important aspects of any time or place--are totally off the mark. I keep waiting for one of the secretaries to roll her eyes and say "what-ev."
Dana said to me "How could you not like that show? It's the sixties." That statement said a lot about the difference in our ages. I love Dana, so I was gentle when I told her "1960 is not 'the 60s,' Hon!" And 1960 in Mad Men is not 1960 anywhere else.
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3 comments:
YOU INFURIATE ME WITH YOUR STATEMENTS! I WAS IN MY EARLY TWENTIES IN THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN AREA DURING THIS TIME PERIOD AND "MAD MEN" IS DEPICTING IT EXACTLY AS IT WAS, BOTH IN OFFICES AND ON THE HOME FRONT. PERHAPS BECAUSE YOU ARE FROM SOUTH PHILLY AND NOT ALIVE AT THE TIME YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT! MR. WEINER AND THE SHOW WELL DESERVE THEIR EMMYS. IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE SHOW, TUNE OUT!
A lot of people feel the way you do. And, if you actually read the post you would have noticed that I wrote "..I'm not saying these things did not exist, that they didn't happen somewhere, just not in my experience. I know pillbox hats were popular, I just don't think that every woman wore one to every function."
Sorry, but you won't convince me that the show is not full of cliches and stereotypes. Just for the record--I also lived in New York and worked in a few Manhattan offices in a similar industry as depicted on the show. But I defer to your first-hand knowledge of the scene; you're much older than I am and actually lived it.
Sorry to have offended you--but life's too short to be infuriated by one person's opinion of a TV show!
Just as with many television shows about the 60's, it's so easy to guess what's going to happen next partly because it's all so cliche'd. But I have to admit I've only watched little snippets here and there.
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