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Mad Men - Season 7 Part 1 - The Beginning - [S7 Part 2 begins April 5th]

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I

Ignatz Mouse

Banned
My "Best Of Mad Men" rewatch continued last night with The Beautiful Girls.

I remember really liking this, but it was even better than I remembered.

Some highlights:

Mrs Blankenship dies, and yes, it's hilarious.

Abe woos Peggy with Revolutionary, anti-Madison Avenue rhetoric! It doesn't go well. Really shows how doomed this was from the start.

Kevin is conceived.

Megan gets her foot in the door, so to speak, to be the next Mrs. Draper.

Incredible performance by Keiran Shipka, too.

Next up, we jump to The Other Woman.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
HBO wouldn't take a meeting with Weiner which isn't a huge surprise given their track record. They're not usually interested in going into business on any project that doesn't have a big name (writer, director, actor) attached. I understand lionizing them for their good reputation and multiple great projects over the years, but their complete lack of interest in anything without star talent means that projects like this sometimes fall through the cracks.

EDIT: From the THR article:
In 2001, Matthew Weiner writes his first Mad Men script, which goes nowhere until 2005, when AMC decides to shop for its first original scripted series.

Matthew Weiner (creator) I finished the script and sent it to my agents. They didn't read it for three or four months. (They're not my agents anymore.) I was advised not to send it anywhere because that was at a time when there were big overall deals for comedy writers. People would pay for the anticipation of what your project would be, and actually having one was going to hurt you. I kept trying to get into HBO, but I never got a meeting. And I met with FX, which Kevin Reilly was running at that time. He talked to me about making it into a half‑hour. Then people started talking to me about a feature. It was my manager's assistant who gave AMC the script. That's who they were pawned off on.
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S

Steelyuhas

Member
Cornballer said:
HBO wouldn't take a meeting with Weiner which isn't a huge surprise given their track record. They're not usually interested in going into business on any project that doesn't have a big name (writer, director, actor) attached. I understand lionizing them for their good reputation and multiple great projects over the years, but their complete lack of interest in anything without star talent means that projects like this sometimes fall through the cracks.

EDIT: From the THR article:
Click to expand...
I stand corrected, I was under the impression that they met and passed on it.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Steelyuhas said:
I stand corrected, I was under the impression that they met and passed on it.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure 100% clear on the timing and mechanics on all of this, but here's a 2008 article from the NYT:
After graduating from film school, Weiner wrote scripts for three years, and the only money he earned was from appearing on “Jeopardy!” His wife encouraged him to make an independent film, which he shot in 12 days and edited while working in production at A&E Biography. The movie ultimately disappeared, but right before he screened it, a friend called to ask him for some jokes, which got him hired on the sitcom “Party Girl.” The series was picked up and quickly canceled, and he wrote for two more short-lived sitcoms before landing on “Becker.” “I worked there for three years,” Weiner recalled, “but about a year into it I said, ‘You know what, this is not what I want to do when I grow up.’ ” Which is when he wrote the “Mad Men” pilot.

In true Hollywood fashion, it took seven more years for him to become an overnight sensation. But he feels like the outsider he’s always been. “The beauty of my story,” he said, “is that I never sold a pitch. I’m not clear enough in my ideas, even though I’m a good talker. I think at this point people trust me because I have a track record, but all of my stuff was like: ‘You don’t think I can make a movie? Here, I made a movie.’ ‘You don’t think I can write this pilot?’ I pitched the story of ‘Mad Men’ to a couple of people, and they said, ‘There is too much smoking,’ or ‘Don is too unlikable.’ And I’m like, ‘I write on “The Sopranos,” and I’m watching the most on-paper unlikable person in the world.’ Well, guess what? Jim Gandolfini played that person, and it made a huge difference. So I wrote it.”

Which made the cut even deeper when HBO said no. (Or more to the point, Weiner says, never even got back to him.) Weiner has remained politely reticent about his treatment there. “All I can tell you is that it was very disappointing to me, as I pushed the rock up the hill, that they did not notice me,” he said. “Because I was part of the family.”

No one at HBO was willing to speak on the record about why the network passed on “Mad Men.” Off the record, I heard plenty about the insularity of the previous regime, flush as it was with the success of “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City” and “Six Feet Under.” One employee summed up Weiner’s situation this way: “David Chase says the guy’s incredible, he’s writing shows for your iconic hit and you don’t shoot the pilot? Line up 10 people in show business and ask if that makes sense.”

Richard Plepler, co-president of HBO, who took over programming along with Michael Lombardo in June 2007, told me, “ ‘Mad Men’ is a magnificent show, and the only problem with it is it’s not on HBO.”
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F

Fjordson

Member
Vince Kartheiser with the regular hair and beard is throwing me for a loop. So different from Pete. Pretty good looking guy. Elisabeth Moss is another one that just feels way different from her character when I see her outside of the show.

On the other end, Jon Hamm is Draper 24/7 to me. Even when I see him with a beard at an awards show or whatever.
 
K

Kotetsu534

Member
I knew Mad Men's relationship with AMC had been fraught at times, but I never knew it got that bad, and after four seasons! What the heck, AMC.
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
AMC went through this weird phase a few years ago where they were treating everyone like shit. I've read the same with other shows. I think they're ok now...I hope.
 
L

lamaroo

Unconfirmed Member
-Pyromaniac- said:
AMC went through this weird phase a few years ago where they were treating everyone like shit. I've read the same with other shows. I think they're ok now...I hope.
Click to expand...

Now they're just trying to squeeze as much money out of their only hit shows because they haven't found a new one since The Walking Dead.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Steelyuhas said:
The idea that they wouldn't meet with one of the writers of The Sopranos seems baffling, especially considering that it seems like HBO bought super-sized green lights for everything related to Terry Winter's Boardwalk Empire.
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My guess would be that at that point, they'd already been burned by Mad Men going to AMC and didn't want to make the same mistake twice. Also, Scorsese was attached to Boardwalk Empire, and presumably that made HBO's eyes light up.
 
S

Steelyuhas

Member
Cornballer said:
My guess would be that at that point, they'd already been burned by Mad Men going to AMC and didn't want to make the same mistake twice. Also, Scorsese was attached to Boardwalk Empire, and presumably that made HBO's eyes light up.
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Yeah I guess they premiered three years apart, I was thinking they were closer for some reason.
 
J

Joni

Member
Cornballer said:
My guess would be that at that point, they'd already been burned by Mad Men going to AMC and didn't want to make the same mistake twice. Also, Scorsese was attached to Boardwalk Empire, and presumably that made HBO's eyes light up.
Click to expand...

And with Scorsese, they got Steve Buscemi. He isn't the most-known actor but he is still quite high-profile compared to what the Mad Men cast was.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
I bet they'd greenlight a Weiner show asap now if he ever offers it

I want david Chase to come back more than anything tho, maybe get Weiner and Winter to guest-write a bit too :phew. The dream team, no one do it better
 
P

Prompto

Banned
Someone made an album of all the final shots in the series.

Faves:
cTM4KnM.png
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UkCKGty.png
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hYOPOoC.png
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AqTuK9G.png
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N

Noray

Unconfirmed Member
Fjordson said:
Wtf @ that AMC stuff.

A shame it didn't end up on HBO though. Almost everything is better on HBO.
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*thinks of sexposition in Game of Thrones*

No. I'm damn glad it didn't end up on HBO in hindsight because they would've had to write naked women into every single episode probably. I've got nothing against nudity but its inclusion to meet some kind of quota is just sad.
 
L

lamaroo

Unconfirmed Member
Noray said:
*thinks of sexposition in Game of Thrones*

No. I'm damn glad it didn't end up on HBO in hindsight because they would've had to write naked women into every single episode probably. I've got nothing against nudity but its inclusion to meet some kind of quota is just sad.
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Isn't the sex from the books?

They wouldn't forced Weiner to include sex scenes for the sake of sex scenes.
 
D

Draper

Member
Hamm: Hopefully by series end, he (Don) will have gotten to a better place.

*Entire cast laughs*

Not sure what to gather from that.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
Noray said:
*thinks of sexposition in Game of Thrones*

No. I'm damn glad it didn't end up on HBO in hindsight because they would've had to write naked women into every single episode probably. I've got nothing against nudity but its inclusion to meet some kind of quota is just sad.
Click to expand...

That's more of a game of thrones problem than anything else, I never noticed it in prior series
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
lamaroo said:
They wouldn't forced Weiner to include sex scenes for the sake of sex scenes.
Click to expand...

Maybe not, but since Mad Men is already a very sexy show, and characters do have sex fairly often, HBO probably would have pushed for them to be more explicit and to include more nudity.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Noray said:
*thinks of sexposition in Game of Thrones*

No. I'm damn glad it didn't end up on HBO in hindsight because they would've had to write naked women into every single episode probably. I've got nothing against nudity but its inclusion to meet some kind of quota is just sad.
Click to expand...
Eh, HBO shows aren't really like that in general. Game of Thrones is just crazy :lol it's not really too far off the books tbh
 
L

lamaroo

Unconfirmed Member
RatskyWatsky said:
Maybe not, but since Mad Men is already a very sexy show, and characters do have sex fairly often, HBO probably would have pushed for them to be more explicit and to include more nudity.
Click to expand...

Considering the women on this show, I wouldn't complain about more nudity.
 
N

Noray

Unconfirmed Member
Fjordson said:
Eh, HBO shows aren't really like that in general. Game of Thrones is just crazy :lol it's not really too far off the books tbh
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I've read the books and this comparison doesn't hold water. It's not like Martin spends time describing how naked everyone is. If people are naked or there is sex, it's functional or it just *is*. It's not lurid in the same way as the show, and it's an apples to oranges comparison anyway.
 
M

mannerbot

Member
Noray said:
I've read the books and this comparison doesn't hold water. It's not like Martin spends time describing how naked everyone is. If people are naked or there is sex, it's functional or it just *is*. It's not lurid in the same way as the show, and it's an apples to oranges comparison anyway.
Click to expand...

I must've just been imaginging the Lord's Kiss and fat pink mast parts then, lol.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Noray said:
I've read the books and this comparison doesn't hold water. It's not like Martin spends time describing how naked everyone is. If people are naked or there is sex, it's functional or it just *is*. It's not lurid in the same way as the show, and it's an apples to oranges comparison anyway.
Click to expand...
Oh the show definitely revels in that shit for sure, but I dunno. Don't remember the books being that different (and it's never bothered me either way). But it's been a while since I've read them.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Leona Lewis said:
Jessica Pare, Elisabeth Moss, and January Jones have already appeared topless on television and in film.
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I'm not certain, but I think the latter two only appeared nude after having been on Mad Men for several years? Many actresses don't like to do nude scenes before they're established for fear of not being taken seriously/typecasted. Anyway, the likeliest target of HBO's boob mandate probably would have been Christina Hendricks, whom I don't believe has appeared nude in anything yet, even films that are more sexually frank than Mad Men.
 
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