I Am A TV Junkie

Mad Men -- Weiner Signed, Show is a Go! Three More Seasons & Done

Matthew Weiner gets a new contract AND he gets to look at Jon Hamm more than you do. A lot more.

Jealous? You should be.

More info on this from Weiner from my friends at Basket of Kisses at this link who got the first call when the deal was finalized. Because they're obsessed with the show and they work like mad to make their blog the best Mad Men blog you'll find.

Here are some large swaths of detail ...

Returning in March 2012

Three more seasons and it's done.

No changes to the product integration scheme as it stands.

No characters cut unless it serves the story.

And imagine this ... all sides came to this decision without the dubious assistance of Sons of Anarchy showrunner Kurt Sutter (click here for details).

Now I have more time to catch up on season four.

AMC's Mad Men, Our Blog Friends at Basket of Kisses, a Matt Weiner Exclusive

This is quite the big deal. Deborah and Roberta Lipp, the oft-mentioned (by me) proprietors of the Mad Men blog Basket of Kisses have scooped the world with their interview with beleaguered showrunner Matthew Weiner.

Sharp focus has been trained on the negotiations between Weiner and AMC for his return to the fold for season five of the show. In the post at their blog (LINK), Weiner lets the fans of the show know, sans mass media filter, that his negotiations are not for personal aggrandizement but for the sake of show quality, he told them:

“There’s been a lot of speculation and misinformation in the press about what is going on. I want the fans to know directly from me that I had nothing to do with this delay and it is not about money. I am fighting for the cast and for the show. And I appreciate the kindness and concern of the fans.”

The rest of it is at Basket of Kisses for your review, please click over there and check out Weiner's explanation and some facts that you might not have gotten from your usual big media sources.

Deb and Roberta, this is a big frickin' deal for you two, I'm very happy.

As far as how I feel, I'll post here my comment at their blog:

Give the guy what he wants for the show and get him back to work. I know what is happening here. AMC doesn’t want to set a precedent with Weiner for fear of having to cave to Vince Gilligan or Frank Darabont, who are very much like Matt in that they want things for the show, not for themselves.

AMC wouldn’t have this “problem” if Mad Men had not been exactly the show that Weiner wants it to be, so they should shut up and relent on this.

And now back to Prince Harry diving into the frozen waters of the Arctic Circle. I hear his hair changes color when he does that. Royals, huh?

And finally, from Tim Goodman at THR (the Reporter ALSO picked up Deb and Roberta's post, at this link), he knows what needs to happen, and that's to give Matty Weiner what he wants:

...Whatever the price tag Weiner's asking for, whatever the changes he's being asked to make -- more commercial time or reduction of characters allegedly among them -- it's all beside the point now. AMC and Lionsgate balked two years ago at Weiner's salary demands and here we are again. Apparently there's been too much distance -- and too much success --- at AMC to remember where they were before making Mad Men.

They were nowhere.

AMC was a second rate movie channel (and that's being generous) until Mad Men put it on the map. No Mad Men, then probably no Breaking Bad (which itself was partly a free gift from FX). So any discussion of Mad Men's worth goes far, far beyond the value of the actual show as it relates to the money it brings in.

So there. Suck it, AMC! Then suck it up and get 'er done.

Oh shit, did I just quote Larry the Cable Guy? Shoot me!

Video -- Jon Hamm Details Photo Shoot, Behind the Scenes

It's video of Jon Hamm being shot for a photo spread in Details, do you need more details than that? No.

Watch it by clicking this link. Take every opportunity you can to look at Jon Hamm under preferred lighting conditions. Hell, I don't care if it's the mini-flashlight on your key chain, he's still worth looking at.

Hat tip to Courtney Hazlett at MSNBC.com.

Preview of this week's ep of Mad Men (I'm still 5 episodes behind) at this link.

One Mad Man ... Three Mad Women ... Rolling Stone Cover

While I was loitering at Rolling Stone waiting for one of Chris Colfer's bar patrons in leather and denim to fall off the page and into my bed, I saw this.

I promise you all that I will get up to date on my Mad Men viewing (I'm behind four episodes) by the end of the weekend.

I promise. I'm current with Rubicon but I just haven't gotten to the SCDP gang what with the late Summer weather, out of town guests, weekend trips ...

Also way behind on True Blood, also mentioned on the cover (kind of).

Elisabeth Moss is looking very, uh ... busty (as they would have said at the time). Does any other woman actually look busty when sitting nearby Christina Hendricks, though?

Read an excerpt from the cover story at this link.

Weird Kid From Mad Men Season One Returns, Adds Creepy, Stalker-y Break-In to Repertoire

You remember Glen, the little guy from down the street who wanted to marry Betty Draper?

(This clip might refresh your memory, click here, no embed code but the YouTube window will open in a new page or tab, depending on your browser.)

He's b-a-a-a-a-c-k! And thanks to his dad (yeah, his real-life dad, a guy named Matthew Weiner ... you might know him from his work on ... oh, that's right, it's THIS SHOW!!!) he's creepier than ever and seemingly after li'l Sally with her moroseness and generalized anxiety disorder precipitated by her mom kicking her masochist whoremongering secretary-sexing dad out of the house and getting with that staid, silver-haired boredom machine Henry Francis.

(Then again, everyone's boring when you place them alongside Don Draper.)

I would just love to hear the conversations between Weiner and his son about this kid, Glen. Glen started a bit creepy but now he's a full-on juvenile sociopath, having broken into the Draper/Francis home and trashed every room in the house but Sally's, because she's his secret girlfriend.

"Some things are private."

And this year he stands in much creepier lighting than he did in the first season of the show.

(Read a 2008 interview with Marten Weiner from the AMC Mad Men site at this link.

Leave it to Mad Men to begin the examination of social trends that will ultimately result in Dr. Martha Stout's contention in The Sociopath Next Door that ...

"... as many as 4% of the population are conscienceless sociopaths who have no empathy or affectionate feelings for humans or animals. As Stout (The Myth of Sanity) explains, a sociopath is defined as someone who displays at least three of seven distinguishing characteristics, such as deceitfulness, impulsivity and a lack of remorse. Such people often have a superficial charm, which they exercise ruthlessly in order to get what they want. Stout argues that the development of sociopathy is due half to genetics and half to nongenetic influences that have not been clearly identified."

Like this creepy Glen kid.

Watch him with Sally in the Christmas tree lot in a clip at this link (courtesy The Daily Beast).

My favorite comment on Glen came from co-creator of The Daily Show Lizz Winstead, who at Twitter compared him to another Glenn, albeit one with an extra N in his name (the extra N is for Notorious ... or Nasty ... or Nincompoop ... or Not caring about facts ... or maybe it just means noise, as in Fox Noise Channel).

Video -- AMC's Rubicon Continues (Past that Kinda Laborious Opening Hour) Sunday

Back in the day (I mean really back, like 49 BC) the Rubicon, a 29-kilometer river in Northern Italy, was considered a line of demarcation that if crossed by general and legion (like, say, Julius Caesar) constituted an act of war according to the Roman senate.

(More at Wikipedia, which despite it's rep is pretty correct on this one.)

From this sprung the idea of crossing the rubicon -- going "a bridge too far" so to speak, another famous quote from another war, this one World War II and the quoted (allegedly) being Daphne du Maurier's husband the British Lieutenant Frederick Browning. And yes, that eventually became the name of a book and then a film based on the book.

Also Wikipedia, this link.

So, crossing the rubicon, going a bridge too far, putting one's self in harm's way, these are all the things that should be happening in the new spy series from AMC starring James Badge Dale, Arliss Howard, Miranda Richardson among others.

It continues the Sunday at 11 from the "sneak peek" that has been posted here at this blog (here it is again, click this then click at the bottom of the player for the full screen mode) and which ran last week after the season premiere of Mad Men on the cable channel and will run again this Sunday at 8 before a new episode at 9 (times eastern, west coasters might be able to catch this all earlier if they have the AMC HD east feed coming in through their cable co.).

Many have seen the first hour already and it's ... slow. However I've been promised by reviews (including Tim Goodman at the SF Chronicle (LINK) & David Bianculli on Terry Gross' NPR series Fresh Air, click here to hear his comments) that it picks up and holds you starting in the second hour.

More after the jump.

Video -- Christina Hendricks from Mad Men on KTLA Morning Show

Who's got your "Joan Holloway Harris in the Morning" video? You betcha, I do.

Just click this. Love her.

I don't need to say more, so I won't.

Don Draper, Carnival Ride (I'm Next, I'm Next, I'm Taller than "This Tall")

If you're like me, when you saw that Don Draper was inviting people into his new apartment on 6th and Waverly (one of my favorite NYC neighborhoods not far from Washington Square where unspeakable things were done to me on a park bench late one night ... a different story for a different time) to accept cash, straddle his manhood and slap him repeatedly in the face, my first thought was, "And the line forms where?"

I mean, isn't that everything you've ever wanted out of this guy? Do him, smack him around, take the cash, leave before he even knows your name or whether you have family with which to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Done. Diary entry written, calls made ... if it wasn't 1965 I'd hope to get a quick cameraphone pic of the proceedings, just a little something for Facebook.

So we all agree Don can stand some slapping around, some abuse, some 1965 bouffant wearing, high-arched eyebrow, self-unzipping (she was very bendy, as Phoebe Buffay would say) professsional roughing up with a side of shameful orgasm.

But the one thing that Don can't bear? Prudes from Portland, the Jantzen two-piece (not bikini) guys, father and son who've come all the way to the big city to bask in the creative glow of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce for the vaunted Draper creative mind (the Glo-Coat ad guy, the firm's first success) but also want to remain a family company that would never sell a two-piece bathing suit because it shows more skin because that would be wrong.

More on the Jantzen angle from The Oregonian at this link.

Wasting Don's time like that? First putting him out there when there was no deal to make and then bringing him back, boards in hand, Draper concepts at the ready ... and saying no?

Well, you can imagine how Don must have felt ... he must have felt used, thrown aside, like ... a whore.

Ah, ridden and smacked around again, and he didn't even have the control that comes with paying the hooker to leave. He had to order the Jantzen guys out of his office.

(Then again, I think I would have as well. C'mon, 2-piece v. bikini? In 1965? That was the year Dwayne Hickman; you know, Doby Gillis, was learning How to Stuff a Wild Bikini in theatres.)

And so begins season four of Mad Men. Sure, there was more ... Betty's still having issues with, well, everything; from her new prospective in-laws to daughter Sally who's just not having any of this -- new dad, new relatives, unfamiliar food that just won't go down, Peggy has a new partner in crime (literally, Matt Long, late of Jack & Bobby and most recently The Deep End on ABC) and and a hot new 'do, but like SCDP it's really all about Don.  Don, Don, Don.

More, including a couple behind the scenes clips and a preview of next week after the jump.

The Mad Men Season Four Hype Begins, Watch Third Season Finale Here Right Now

Watch the cast and creator talk about the new season by clicking this link.

Check out the wardrobe discussion for this coming season by clicking this.

Watch the season three finale by clicking this link.

Yeah, you can watch it right here, on my blog.

Score!

Barbie & AMC Team Up to Bring You Don Draper, Total Doll (and Betty, Joan and Roger, too)

For those of you who have wanted to have you way with Don Draper, this will take you halfway there.

I say halfway because like all the dolls from Mattel's Barbie Fashion Collection there's that ... ahem ... smooth area down there. Of course, the standard height of the dolls is 11.5 inches, so you could say that you're getting about 12 inches on Don. And I think we'll leave it at that, at least until someone figures out how to make them vibrate.

They'll be for sale at speciality stores, BarbieCollector.com and the AMC Mad Men site.

I must get in touch with The Fine Bros. and let them know, they're the guys who do the Lost parody clips that have gotten so much attention recently.

Mad Men's Salvatore Romano Goes Into The Central Park Brambles, Never To Be Seen Again

Now I just don't get this. The last we see of Sal he's calling his beard of a wife from a pay phone while a 60s-era leatherman (I think, it's been a while since the episode) and others saunter off into Central Park, headed to The Brambles (also known as The Ramble), for some quick outdoor relief of a man-on-man sexual nature.

Richard Quest from CNN got caught with drugs and a sex toy (dildo?)  in The Brambles and he's still working on CNN (albeit CNN International, which has limited US viewership) and Bryan Batt's character goes to the same place in a suit and gets canned?

(It's a joke, folks, I DO understand the difference between real life and TV.)

So we never get to see him again? What? Is this true? Because the news today from actor Bryan Batt, per New York Magazine, is that he was supposed to get a call before Dec. 31 about the status of his job on the show ... and no call.

Apparently, Matthew Weiner did at one point discuss this with him on the phone, and you can read all about that exchange from Batt's point of view by clicking here.

First Ianto gets killed on Torchwood and now Sal gets sent to the cornfield , so to speak. What's next? Is Oprah planning something horrible involving wallpaper paste and an area rug to happen to Nate Berkus? Will Ugly Betty's Marc see his job outsourced to Bangalore? 

I'll miss Sal, and even his beard of a wife. She was nice, understanding, and just a little clueless.

Watch Sal fend off the advances of that bastard from Lucky Strike at this link.

Watch Don Draper fire Sal by clicking here.

Mad Men and the Kennedy Assassination as Analogue For 9/11

UPDATE: If you really wanna freak out, consider that I wrote this this morning and then watched the first few minutes of V online at Hulu (you can do the same at this link) and the first 10 seconds of V references both the Kennedy Assassination and 9/11.

(Hi, remember me? I used to blog here multiple times daily, then I went away for a while. I'm not back for good, unfortunately. I just happen to have a short break in the "action" of packing and moving and thought it would be nice to stop by and flex this muscle again. I have some of today and tomorrow for fun and then back to the grind of transferring the contents of one's life to a new address ... details to follow.)

Certainly for me the assasination of John F. Kennedy is something I can only slightly touch with memory ... I was just a month older than three years and it's all very fuzzy, and those memories actually might be made from my imagining what it might have looked like on our TV on Mineola Ave. in Valley Stream.

(Ah, my first TV. It was a black and white Zenith with a plastic champagne-colored exterior, not unlike Harry Crane's office TV. I don't even think there was a color called "champagne" back then, not a popular color with Long Island's middle class, but our TV was the color of the stuff that Andre sold besides Cold Duck -- the first alcoholic beverage I ever consumed. Later in life my parents bought a champagne-colored car and I still remember wondering why there wasn't a Cold Duck-colored vehicle in the driveway ... like the blush of the beverage was our team color.)

Of course JFK was followed by MLK and then RFK and then Munich. It was King's assassination that really burns in the memory for me. It happened right before I lost the ability to walk for a short period of time due to childhood rheumatic fever and still I was completely mesmerized by the wall-to-wall network coverage of the event. First time I saw all the TV channels basically playing "the same show."

I was seven years old. I had about five minutes of upset over not being able to watch The Flying Nun, Bewitched and Batgirl on ABC -- yup, gay even then -- before I realized this was a really big deal and that the preacher guy who was gonna make sure the black people were treated right wouldn't be making any more speeches on TV, which I knew about because they were on TV and TV was my pal.

Even then.

The picture up at the top of this post really sums up my experience with major world events. Like most of us I'm usually not there on the spot but experience it through the ever-expanding window that is my TV.

Ever-expanding indeed, and in so many ways.

We now see these things as they happen or at least moments later, as everyone has the power to record live events, most of us with our phones which are omnipresent. Not only that, there are more than enough ways to see those events ... network, cable, internet ... and each outlet not only has a different physical angle on the action but their own ideological slant as well.

More after the jump.

My Mad Men Marathon, Just In Time to Find Out That Don Draper is a Homophobe

Spent all of yesterday watching Mad Men, every episode I hadn't seen yet from this current season. As you'll remember I watched the premiere but then the broadcast networks started their seasons early and all those bright, shiny shows full of promise presented themselves.

(And some of them misrepresented themselves on the first date. Hey, TV shows are just like people!)

So yesterday (and a bit of the night before) I watched all the Mad Men episodes on my DVR, just in time to see Don look at Salvatore with contempt and use the phrase "you people " after Sal's run-in with the Lucky Strike guy, Lee Garner, Jr., in the edit bay.

Is Don a bigot, a product of his time and the prevailing wisdom, or does he have some history that has created this contempt in him?

Quick story ... I was the editor of a martial arts magazine in the mid-80s (I know! Me!) and our cover subject the second month I was there was a young, very goodlooking actor who was starring in a movie of said genre and we put him on the cover.

Cover shoot done, we (me, art director, photographer, ad sales guy) took him to lunch, where I had to spend an hour listening to this guy tell me how these "fags in Hollywood" were following him around the gym, into the locker room, into the steam room ... how he hated that, and them, and "fag this fag that fag the other."

I was too young and too scared of losing the job to even know how to deal with such things. I let it go. I probably wouldn't, today, but I was just a kid.

Has the dapper Draper had the same issue? Not that I would for a second excuse Don's derisiveness, especially since Salvatore did everything right. It's like I should have said to the guy on the cover of my second issue of that magazine, "Not all of us want to have sex with you, some of us just want you on the cover of the magazine we work for."

More after the jump.

Video -- Tonight on Letterman, Jon Hamm Talks About His Cinemax "Spanktravision" Past

Spanktravision is a word I stole from David Spade (I think), who knows a bit too much about spanking it.

Oh c'mon, you were thinking the same thing. At least he comes by it honestly.

(Hehehe, I said "comes.")

LINK

"Don Draper" is AskMen.com's Most Influential Man of the Year

I don't know, however, that that's a good thing.

"Don" is not so nice and not meant to be a role model, certainly. The self-involved usually are like that.

Sorry about the dearth of Mad Men coverage lately. I haven't kept up, and because of that I haven't been to Basket of Kisses, the Deb and Roberta Lipp blog on the show (and in fact I've been not even reading their Facebook pages because the episodes are all stacking up on my DVR hard drive).

Hey, nothing personal, D & R Lipp. Sometimes I'm not getting even the most cursory Maddow watching in, and you know how I love my Rachel Maddow.

Click to Basket of Kisses at this link but don't tell me what's going on there or on the show.

Click this link for the AskMen.com feature.

Gazing at the result of the freaky nature of genetics that makes Jon Hamm  just so, um ... yowie zowie ... can happen right here without a click involved.

Video -- Mad Men Creator Matthew Weiner Tonight on Tavis Smiley

I haven't written about the show this season because, frankly, I've only seen the pilot. Too much mental crowding for me to really digest Mad Men right now. They're sitting on my DVR waiting for me to hit play.

In the meantime, though, I just might check out this interview on Tavis Smiley's PBS show tonight (check your local listings) and hopefully not too much will be spoiled.

And, here's a clip.

LINK

Today I Am Rula Lenska: Welcome Deb and Roberta from Basket of Kisses

Not really Rula, per se. She was showing friends around Europe while her hair stayed perfect thanks to Alberto VO5 hairspray.

I'm showing friends around downtown Los Angeles while my hair stays perfect thanks to Axe Hair Spiked-Up Look putty.

The world has changed.

But I loved Rula's fab shoulderpads, didn't you? She was probably storing her friends' souvenirs in there. That's why I'm bringing my codpiece, in fact.

Today the lovely Deb and Roberta Lipp from the Basket of Kisses Mad Men blog are arriving at LAX, I pick them up at 1 pm and then we're off for a day of ... maybe the Grammy Museum, maybe Little Tokyo, maybe a little Cuidad by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger for dinner, and then the season premiere of their favorite show with a few select guests at a downtown hotel.

Then the next day they visit the set of the show. I'll make sure to let you in on all the set visit dish as they reveal it at their site.

I'm very excited. I was supposed to meet them a year ago when I went east but I ended up laying in bed with a horrible cold for days and missed them.

So, make nice among yourselves, readers and get ready for a big night of TV.

2 Clips -- Mad Men: One Day to Go Till Season Three

I just wanted to post this image of Joan Holloway.

What? She's irresistible!

Ninety percent of the men in America want to be with her, but ten percent of us just wanna take her to Barney's and dress her up.

And then make a grand entrance with her at some fabulous event. Like the Emmys, and by the way Christina Hendricks I'm free that night.

After the jump watch the jr. execs of Sterling Cooper answer fan questions and then watch them yuck it up with Joel McHale last night on The Soup.

And Levar Burton. Gotta love Levar Burton.

Video -- Ladies & Gentlemen, Mr. Jon Hamm (on Conan), Who Claims to Be 75 Years Old

Nah, not a day over 50. 40?

He's 38. But here's a story you may not have heard, can't remember where it comes from, but Jon couldn't get role playing people his age in his 20s because he already looked too much like an adult. Well, he does sport the 5 O'Clock shadow pretty quickly.

There's a great Tracy Morgan story toward the end of the interview. Did you know that Leslie Uggams and Burt Bacharach are Tracy's biological parents? No?

Mine are Ted Turner and Stella Adler, but don't tell anyone. It was a secret affair, but it speaks volumes about my interests.

Clip after the jump. Mad Men returns Sunday night at 10 on AMC. Conan's on every night, but you know my late night heart belongs to only one man, and the Give Us This Day Our Daily Craig post is coming up in a little bit.

Esquire: Christina Hendricks from Mad Men in a Smoking Hot Photo Spread

Image: Sheryl Nields/Esquire

"Hey, I'm promoting the issue, voice in my head, so I should get at least one image, right?"

"Of course, Joe."

Dear Esquire photo editors:

I promise if you see this and get pissed off I will remove the image, but I'd betcha a bunch of people buy it based on seeing this so are we cool?

Thanks,
Joe, Your TV Junkie

And on Sunday, Deb and Roberta from Basket of Kisses come to LA. I can't wait. Looking forward to meeting them again for the first time.

They'll be on set Monday August 17 (night after the premiere) and I'm sure they'll have much to report.

Video from the season three premiere party in a clip after the jump.

Mad Men Video -- Watch Season Two Finale Here, Read the Jon Hamm Quote of the Day

You gotta watch the season two finale before the season three premiere on August 16 at 10, so why not watch it here, now. It's Friday, Summertime, your boss isn't paying attention to anything you're doing and there's an entire half day left.

What better than to take a trip back to the sixties to see what was going on at Sterling Cooper when we last saw them?

But first ... the Jon Hamm quote of the day actually happened a couple days ago while he was talking to ESPN, but I just saw it today. On the question of his chances at a second Emmy, Jon says via New York Magazine's Vulture blog, "If I win two Emmys, which I'm not going to, it will be just another thing I have in common with Kathy Griffin."

Well there's that and the adoration of gays everywhere also. And the spiffy dressing and the great ass. So that's actually four things that Kathy and Jon have in common. You can add more in the comment section if you like.

Oh, and they've both had sex with Steve Wozniak.

Kidding.

After the jump, the season two finale, and there's an option for watching full screen, so use that.

Oh c'mon, if you were working at Sterling Cooper you'd be drunk by now. Watch the episode.

Mad Men Star Christina Hendricks: "Being Bad is Sexy" (but rape isn't)

Logan Hill at New York Magazine had the pleasure of interviewing your favorite curvy redhead in all of TV and I think this is the hottest line from the piece. Imagine Joan Holloway saying this is a low husky tone:

“Drinking and smoking and having sex with other people’s wives and all those things—they are bad, bad behaviors. But it’s all done with fabulous clothes and lighting and excellent music, and that makes for a really sexy show. Being bad is sexy."

Gets you going, huh. Yeah, I know.

I would tell you that Hendricks gives you the scoop on season three of Mad Men, but you know she doesn't. This is an uncharacteristically quiet set on Matthew Weiner's edict. You can't get a damn thing out of these people.

From Christina however we did get these comments about audience reaction to Joan being raped by scumbo Greg the doctor:

The rape was a shocker—but the audience reactions were perhaps more disturbing. “What’s astounding is when people say things like, ‘Well, you know that episode where Joan sort of got raped?’ Or they say rape and use quotation marks with their fingers,” says Hendricks. “I’m like, ‘What is that you are doing? Joan got raped!’ It illustrates how similar people are today, because we’re still questioning whether it’s a rape. It’s almost like, ‘Why didn’t you just say bad date?’ ”

The scene was polarizing, sparking heated online debates in which some questioned Joan’s reaction (she and her fiancé head off for dinner afterward) while others wondered whether Joan would understand that it was rape, a taboo subject in 1962. Labels aside, Hendricks says Joan knew what was going on. “She’s smart. She’d think it was awful and ‘Holy shit!’ But she also thinks, ‘Pick yourself up, comb your hair. You’ve got a dinner reservation; don’t be a baby. You know many girls this has happened to.’ ”

Though we don't know what year it will be when we return on Aug 16 (10 pm, AMC), I'm hoping the show addresses the Kennedy assasination and aftermath, it's the logical next step, but I can't be sure (damned closed mouthed signed a contract clause to the effect acting types).

Additionally on the Mad Men front, HuffPo ran some lovely yet completely gratuitous yet compelling images of Jon Hamm with a lot of stubble from the TCA awards where the show took home a trophy for outstanding series (more winners at this link).

After the jump, behind the scenes video from Hamm, Weiner, Hendricks and the cast with season three discussion in very general terms. No spoilers from this crew.

Of course, you can't call yourself a fan of this show unless you're reading Deb and Roberta's Basket of Kisses blog, also a favorite of the cast and crew of the show. In fact, many of them show up as interview subjects and even comment posters.

Click this link for all the goods.

Yes, I Work at Sterling Cooper, I'm the Guy With the Coffee

I'm not even much for martoonies after dinner, let along before. And that thing in my right hand isn't a bag of weed, it's a newspaper.

Want something like this? Click here.

G'night.

Video -- John Noble From Fringe: Crime Victim

It's stunning. Stunning to me that John Noble was not recognized for his work on Fringe.

Genre show bias rears its ugly head again. Damn.

(The same could be said about the ommision of EVERY Battlestar Galactica performer. Sackhoff not nominated? Olmos? McDonnell? There's a crime spree going on, folks!)

I know that I'm usually railing about giving out awards for the arts, but show business runs on PR and awards and nominations are great PR for show. Fringe is heading into a tough season of competition against The Office and Grey's Anatomy, CSI and Supernatural (notable only because of the genre, certainly they're not putting up the big numbers).

At least Aaron Paul got a nod for Breaking Bad, very deserving. You gotta wonder if working on both BB and Big Love was a help to his chances. Certainly the academy members had more opportunity to see him.

And while I watch neither Lost not Damages season two, I still think Noble's work in a very tough role, straddling the comedic and the dramatic the way he does, was stellar.

And that's why I posting the final episode of the first season of Fringe, all of it, after the jump for you to watch in case you're not clued in.

For newbies, it's also the first appearance on the show by the ellusive William Bell, played by Leonard Nimoy. Click over the fold, eat it up gang.

Video -- Mad Men Season Two Boxset in Stores Now, Win One at the Mad Men Wiki

And, I also have a great post from the Roberta's and Deb's  Basket of Kisses site, but first ...

Patrick at MadMenShow.com is giving away a copy of the season 2 DVD set, click this link and be transported there and ready to enter.

And if you don't win, just pop back here, click either icon below (DVD or Blu-Ray) and buy yours from Amazon.

         

As you know, when you click on the Amazon icon, Jeff Bezos comes to my house and acts out the Kodak Carousel scene from the first season. He sucks at it, but I appreciate your clicking anyway because he usually brings along a nice deli plate.

Now, back to Basket of Kisses, Deb wrote a post I love yesterday, where she asks you (yes, you!) to cast the 1955 film version of Mad Men, starring (maybe, it's up to you) Gregory Peck and Grace Kelly.

I don't wanna dis my readers, but I just commented there and I'm the 53rd comment on the post. C'mon, people, get more involved!

Has anyone seen Christina Hendricks lately? I thought she'd be cleaning up during the hiatus with a lot of guest spots and movie roles, but so far nothing.

What the hell is wrong with you, casting director, she's amazing!

Another Mad Men actor getting a lot of play recently is season two's recurring Patrick Fischler (Jimmy Barrett), who has since been seen on both Southland and Lost. He's a guy in demand.

LA Times:

"After 'Mad Men' I got a lot of 'How dare you speak to Don Draper like that?' " said Fischler over breakfast one gloomy June morning at his namesake restaurant, Patrick's Roadhouse, the famed eatery on PCH purchased nearly 35 years ago by his late father Bill, who named it after his then-5-year-old son. Gone are the gray sideburns and snarky demeanor that transformed Fischler into the perfect foil for the dapper Don.

"People -- mainly women -- were mad at me that I told Don off," said Fischler, who has more than 60 film and TV credits including "Burn Notice," "The Black Dahlia" and "Old School." "I took it as a compliment."

Finally, at the top of the page is an image from last season (episode 11) of Peggy and Kurt. I absolutely require more Kurt this season. I want him to drag Salvatore kicking and screaming out of the closet.

Hey, Weiner, get on that, will ya? Thanks.

Finally, to remind you how powerful this show can be (and so quietly) and how great Elisabeth Moss is as Peggy, here's her Emmy scene from last season's finale, it's after the jump.

With Emmy noms being announced tomorrow, this is rather timely.

AMC's Mad Men in 33 Days: Checking In With Our Authority, a New Player and an Ad Partner

Our Authority = Deb and Roberta Lipp's Basket of Kisses Blog. If you don't read it you're not really a fan of the show.

Just about everyone connected to the show (including creator Matthew Weiner) reads it, what's up with you?

Clicking over to the site with just a little more than a month until the third season premiere, and we have a hotbed of activity, starting with this huge partnership with Banana Republic, which includes clothes inspired by the show's wardrobe and a chance for you to win a walk-on role on the show's fourth season.

Click here for contest details.

And, there's this from the NY Times detailing all the promotional attachments to the show for the season including Clorox, Vanity Fair and Variety. Variety? Per the article:

The Vanity Fair promotion, along with the partnership with Variety, were developed for Lionsgate Home Entertainment by Initiative, a media agency owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies.

The Variety partnership is notable because it involves the Variety.com Web site, where visitors will be able to read a so-called digital flipbook about the ’60s featuring articles from the Variety archives.

One article likely of interest, from the front page of the issue of Nov. 25, 1963, carries the headline “All Showbiz Mourns Kennedy,” reporting on the aftermath of the assassination of the president.

A little strange that an entertainment trade publication would be entering into promotions with a product that they review and report on, dontcha think?

Also from Basket of Kisses is a look at the press materials AMC sent out with their Emmy screeners this year. It's at this link and includes images you might not have seen before from season two.

Finally, if you want to click over to a new (newish?) Mad Men Wiki, click here for the site from Wetpaint. Info about the show in a handy format for research.

The new season starts on Sunday August 16 at 10 pm. A promo for the new season after the jump.

AMC's Mad Men: More Ads, Less Show?

Hell, they're already making us wait until August, now we're waiting for two minutes less show per week.

I realize that you Chuck fans are thinking, "WTF? Our show almost disappeared entirely! Two minutes less? Boo hoo, world's tiniest violin," and all that.

"Bite me," they might reply, citing that there's nothing else on the air, currently or ever, that reaches the heights this show does. And there's nothing on the air that has as much respect for its audience as Mad Men, certainly.

So when the fans hear that AMC is asking for two minutes back this season to sell, people of good will do what they will, they get active.

Like our good friends Deb and Roberta Lipp from the preeminent Mad Men blog, Basket of Kisses:

Congratulations on becoming the first basic cable station to win an Emmy for Best Drama. Congratulations on the accolades, the Emmys, the Golden Globes, and the recognition. Congratulations on becoming, in fact, synonymous with the changing face of cable and the new power of basic cable television.

I wonder if you’ve noticed that you owe all of that to Mad Men? Have you thanked the Mad Men team, led by creative force, Matt Weiner, lately?

Because it seems to me that you’re not doing a very good job of thanking them. It seems to me that nickel-and-diming the source of your good fortune is bad manners, bad karma, and bad for business.

More tempered vitriol at this link. And, similar thoughts from Lane Brown at NY Mag at this link.

And, bonus video content! After the jump, watch January Jones and all the top drama actresses in prime time talk about their shows and the TV landscape in three clips from The Hollywood Reporter.

Video -- Breaking Bad DVD Contest, Win Season One & Preview Sunday's Episode

UPDATE: Hey, we finally, finally have a winner. Thanks everyone for clicking over. Loiter here for as much as you'd like, though. Click this link to go to the homepage.

Thanks to Sony Pictures TV and Shawn and Michelle at Wiredset.

All you gotta do is name the actor who plays Tuco Salamanca. Hint, he's mentioned on this blog.

First to the comments with the answer wins my slightly used copy (I watched episode seven) of season one of Breaking Bad, with lots of DVD extras and of course that Emmy-award winning performance by Bryan Cranston.

After the jump, a preview of this week's episode.

2 Clips -- Breaking Bad DVD Contest Friday, Only Slightly Used; Also, "Tuco" Asked to Be Killed

Friday, Friday, Friday ...

I figure if I start posting on these contests earlier maybe I'll get more zazz out of them.

This time, it's a just very slightly used copy of the Breaking Bad season one DVD package thanks to Sony and Shawn at Wiredset (thank you, Shawn). And it's used because I never saw episode seven of the first season and I wanted to catch up.

Now that I've current with the show you get a chance to win. And, for this event ... first person to take a photo of themselves naked in a grocery store's frozen food section, as Walt was Sunday night, wins. That's no biggie, huh?

Okay, I'll come up with something else, I have until Friday.

Now, about the show ... was Tuco Salamanca the scariest motherfucker you've seen on TV in a while? Because he scared the bejeebees outta me. Tuco's the kind of guy who shouldn't be doing very pure biker-process methamphetamine cooked by a very underemployed Chem teacher and his former student.

And what about Aaron Paul. I know Cranston gets a lot of great notices (and the Emmy) and it's certainly deserved, but in these first three eps of the season Aaron Paul has matched him at every turn. Great young actor, I hope he gets lots of offers via this role.

That scene two episodes ago when he killed No-Doze ... how effective was that? Freaked me totally out.

The AMC Breaking Bad blog talked to Raymond Cruz who played Tuco and it turns out they wanted the character to go on for another eight episodes but he turned them down:

I asked them to kill me. Honestly, I wasn't looking forward to coming back and doing the part. [Laughs]. It's really difficult to pull off. They were like, "We want you to come back and do eight more episodes." And I said, "No. I'll do one more and that's it. You guys have to kill me." They're like, "We never heard of an actor that wanted to die." And I'm like, "You don't understand. This part's really hard."

Cruz was outstanding. I know I don't think much of the whole awards thing but this is a performance that really should be singled out.

More about the show and the Friday contest (did I mention the contest on Friday?) as the week progresses.

Behind the scenes clips from episode three, with lots of creator Vince Gilligan and the cast, after the jump.

Breaking Bad Clips to Refresh Your Mind Before Tonight's AMC Season Premiere

Because I love you guys I'm posting the recap to last season's final episode and a preview of tonight's premiere.

Of course, last September Bryan Cranston won the best dramatic actor Emmy for this series, despite it's WGA strike-shortened season.

I would pay particular attention to the scene in the episode seven recap (the first clip) where Walt and his DEA agent brother-in-law Hank talk about the Cuban cigars that he pulls out.

If Mr. DEA can compromise his principles as much as that, is looking the other way or even helping Walt out with covert meth ops in the cards?

Tonight's episode is called Seven-Thirty-Seven. The second clip is the preview. After the jump.

Breaking Bad Creator Vince Gilligan: "You Can Laugh At It Or Be Disgusted"

 

Or, I find, a little of both.

Though Vince Gilligan was referring to a particular scene in the first season of Breaking Bad, the same can be said for the whole shebang, though I find myself somewhere in the middle.

Your favorite chemistry teacher turned meth cooker dramedy, with 2008 Emmy winning Bryan Cranston leading, comes back a week from tonight on AMC at 10, and their site is at this link.

Of course, that scene is the one where Aaron Paul, playing Walter White's criminal colleague Jesse Pinkman, is liquifying the body of the guy that Walt killed in the basement by choking him with the bicycle U-lock that attached the guy to a pole by his neck and the solution he uses liquifies the floor as well and it all comes careening into the first floor.

Gross, yes, but a critical plot point in the first season.

For those who don't know, this exchange from the Times interview explains the title:

Q. What exactly does the title of your show mean, anyway?

A. Honestly, when I named our show “Breaking Bad” I thought everyone was aware of this bit of slang, and it turns out nobody is except for the people in my hometown. But to break bad, when I was growing up, was to raise hell. “Jim was down at the bar the other weekend, and he got really drunk and he really broke bad. He totaled his car.” The show might as well have been named “Raising Hell,” but it would have sounded like a Clive Barker thing. A detective who sends people to hell or something.

Click over to the AMC site linked above for webisodes in advance of the season two debut and sometime this week (after I rewatch the season one DVD lovingly supplied by Michelle and Shawn at Wiredset -- THANKS!!!) I'll be giving it away to some lucky SOB.

Free, just viewed once. Kinda like being driven on a Sunday only to church by your great auntie.

Season two behind the scenes feature after the jump.

Video -- 10 Items' ... John Lehr on Anytime With Bob Kushell

And, once again, as a favor to me (but mostly a favor to Bob and Russell Arch, show's producer) go over to Crackle.com and register and rate the episode.

Okay, rate every episode. Since you're there.

Rate them all a five, since you're registering.

And you might want that registration at Crackle.com when the Breaking Bad pre-season webisodes start gettting posted there.

The new season of your favorite chemistry teacher becomes meth cooker comic drama starts on March 8 on AMC with Emmy winner Bryan Cranston.

Oh, wait, that's totally right now that that's happening with the webisodes! Click here!

See, I can multi-task, even inside the same post.

Clip after the jump.

Preview -- All You Need to Know About Mad Men's Bryan Batt

Well, everything you need to know unless you're related or in a relationship with him. Gotta keep something to one's self. For example, you guys don't know that I'm Idol judge Randy Jackson in a neighborhood Journey cover band.

 "D'oh!"

My friend Deborah Lipp, who with her sister Roberta does that remarkably well-read and well connected Mad Men blog Basket of Kisses, is in the middle of transcribing a major interview with Bryan Batt who plays closeted Salvatore the art director on the show.

So, I asked her for a couple of quotes to promo her piece with and they are now up at the blog at this link.

For example, about Salvatore being in the closet and married to Kitty ...

Anybody in any walk of life who is denying their longings—not just sexual, but artistic, work-related—anything that they’re denying, and they’re not acting on it, and they’re not living their lives as they should, it is heartbreaking.

(snip)

He does love her. And the fact that he is gay has nothing to do with his love for her. And I do believe that they do have a good sex life, but I think his heart, his spirit…is gay. But he does love his wife very much. So many gay men and women, who have been married to the opposite sex do love their husbands [and wives].

Batt was involved in a staged reading of the Shaw play Buoyant Billions in New York this week, and they also have a short review of that on their blog, at this link.

When you need to know something about Mad Men, where do we go boys and girls? We go to Basket of Kisses.

Or the DVDs. To co-opt a phrase from the time, "watch if you got 'em." And of course, there's always iTunes.

The all-kinds-of-awards-garnering series returns in July.

After the jump, the heartbreaking scene in season one with Salvatore and Elliot on their date.

Fringe's Anna Torv on Her Way to New York Comic-Con, Details Here!

The Fringe star and just about everyone but Joshua Jackson and Mark Valley  (don't know why) will be there next weekend.

I know, I would have been just a plane trip from meeting John Noble. Well, maybe Noble comes out to San Diego this Summer and meets me, huh? He is my favorite part of the show. I loved a couple weeks about when Walter was dosing something slimy with LSD. He would have been Best Science Teacher Ever!!!

I'm getting my info on the event from my pals at Fringebloggers.com, but you know that there will be stuff all over the web. Personally, I'm hoping that Fox will shoot the panel and throw the video up on Hulu so I can share it will all of you.

But if that doesn't happen, I'll be scouring the YouTube and the Imeem and all the others to find suitable fanvids for you.

NY Daily News:

For actress Anna Torv, star of Fox's paranormal series "Fringe," the convention is a chance to hobnob with the viewers who made the show a cult hit.

"If it wasn't for the fans, we wouldn't have a show - the fans are everything," says Torv. "And you don't get many opportunities to get to meet the fans, so I am really excited for this."

In addition, Joss (You like-a the Joss, huh?) will be there with some footage from Dollhouse. And hopefully, with Eliza Dushku and Tahmoh Penikett. In fact, if Tahmoh was on my show, I would insist that he travelled with me everywhere.

I mean EVERYWHERE!

But Joss and I have different tastes in these things.

Dollhouse premieres on the 13th at 9 on Fox.

Fringe BTS clip about last week's The No Brainer after the jump. New episode Tuesday at 9.

The Soup Video -- Joel with Mad Men & LeVar Burton as Joan Holloway

It speaks for itself.

LINK

Best Mad Men News Ever, Matthew Weiner Signs Up for Two More Years

Because I love the show, but I don't know how much I'd love the show without the guy who invented it.

And though I do not know Alexander Graham Bell and still enjoy the phone, this is different.

Hollywood Reporter:

The pact -- Lionsgate TV's biggest to date on the drama side -- includes Weiner's services as executive producer/showrunner on "Mad Men" as well as development of new series projects for Lionsgate TV and a potential feature for Lionsgate.

"It's been a long road to try to make this deal, but between the support of AMC and the creative dealmaking of (Lionsgate TV COO) Sandra Stern, we found a way to cobble together a package that was attractive to Matthew and made sense for us," Lionsgate TV president Kevin Beggs said.

In what Beggs referred to "a collective effort," AMC said to be pitching in to foot the bill for Weiner's rich new deal, a common practice, especially on the cable side.

And they'll get every dollar that they spend, trust me, from Weiner. No one can do this show but him.

At the fabulous Basket of Kisses blog, Deb and Roberta are absolutely relieved and happy. Their post is titled, " Who needs change? We like it the same."

And from the AMC Mad Men Blog, just this:

Mad Men creator and executive producer Matt Weiner will be returning for the third season of AMC's award winning show.

Now, go write some more brilliance. And AMC, pay up! No one would like you if you didn't have Matthew Weiner.

Around the Horn -- Off-Season Mad Men Stuff From NYC and Beyond

So, did you click on this link somewhere on the web today and do a double take? That pic of Don Draper and Liz Lemon (Liz Lemon? Yes, Liz Lemon!) is just an illustration, but they do have details in that Vanity Fair story we discussed yesterday on Tina Fey about what Jon Hamm will be doing on 30 Rock in the near future.

(Notice my discipline in not glomming that image from them and posting it here. I'm a responsible blogger, well, I am right now, anyway. Catch me on a day there's a copyright protected clip of Katie Couric mounting an antelope to really test my mettle.)

They say:

When Fey and her clever band of writers conjure up Liz Lemon, her 21st-century Mary Tyler Moore New York career girl, they put in a lot of Rhoda-like neuroses and insecurity about looks and food jokes and epically bad dates—though this season she’s upgraded to Mad Men’s sexy Jon Hamm, who plays a pediatrician who impresses Lemon with his love of pie-making documentaries and ice-cream makers.

Pie making isn't doing really well on TV these days, though. But ice cream is always a crowd favorite.

Next up, we go to the source, Basket of Kisses, the Lipp sisters' blog about the show, where they get actual interviews with people on the show. I would do that, but you actually have to talk to people to interview them, and I'd rather just look at 'em on the teevee.

Roberta has her interview with Elisabeth Moss up (after days of transcription, you should thank her) and she includes this tasty nugget, details on how she ended up on that Mad Men sketch on Saturday Night Live:

So I got a text from her saying Amy just went into labor, can you come tonight, and I called her and I said absolutely. I went over in between my performances, and rehearsed a couple of times. They wrote a new joke for me because now it was like a guest appearing. So Seth Meyers wrote me a great joke. It was crazy. I wasn’t even nervous because I was like in shock. And then the great thing was that, during rehearsal, the SNL cast members kept looking around and being like, This is so cool, it’s like stepping into your favorite tv show. Because they’ve got the set and there are both of the Johns [Hamm and Slattery] and I was there. And I would just look back and be like, Are you kidding me? I’m on SNL! What are you talking about?!

So cool! Go now to Basket of Kisses and read the whole thing. Not just the whole interview, the whole blog, everything Deb and Roberta have written. NOW!!!

Are you back? You read fast! Finally, Adam Sternbergh at New York Magazine is having withdrawal symptoms:

I’m suffering from Quality Show Fatigue.

It’s not Mad Men’s fault. I recognize that it earned a Sopranosesque sixteen Emmy nominations this year. I accept that everyone around me, like brain-hungry zombies, now seems to have only three objectives in life: (1) eat; (2) watch Mad Men; (3) persuade me to watch Mad Men. I’m also aware that, while it feels like about 2 million people have tried to convert me to this show, there are, ironically, only about 2 million people watching the show each week—or roughly 11 million fewer people than watch House, a show that no one has ever tried to force me to embrace.

Yet this relentless Mad Men campaign has done little to sway me. If anything, it’s the reason I’ve held out for so long. Because I can’t help wondering: As viewers, we’re more atomized than ever, with more options, more channels, and less inclination to hunker down en masse. For a lot of us, our TV-watching habits don’t even involve actual TVs. So why do we still feel this manic need to all coalesce around a single show?

Why Adam? I'll tell you why, but I'll have to tell you after the clip which is after the jump. The clip? Just for fun (and because Elisabeth mentioned it) I have the SNL Mad Men sketch posted from Hulu.

Mad Men Negotiations, But All is Okay Per Creator Matthew Weiner

This is from your leading independent Mad Men source, the Lipp Sisters' blog Basket of Kisses. And these are Matthew's words. Don't go all ballistic over the specter of Weiner not shepherding his show through the foreseeable future:

This is a business thing. I’m not renegotiating. My contract expired, I had a two year contract. And it just started. We did the whole season, won the Emmys, all this other stuff, and I just heard from them recently. And so we’re getting into it now. There’s no, this is the way it works all the time.

And there's more, so you should click over.

I've been seeing various people online discuss the possibility of the show going at this point to another network, pay cable names have popped up.

Yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen. Is there really adult content that you are missing from this show? Would it be better on HBO or Showtime? I tend to doubt it. It's style is so restrained that I don't think it would fair any better with more sex or harder language.

I would like to watch the show without having to watch the ED drug ads, though.

Also at their site, a link to this at StyleList.com, a selection of Joan Holloway insprired dresses.

Video -- Around the Horn with Mad Men's Joan, Christina Hendricks, Hottest Career in Showbiz?

Before I start ... yes, that is an image of Christina Hendricks and Sarah Silverman about to kiss. I just loooooove screwin' around with the straight guys. Why do you get off on this so much? I don't get it.

Okay, to the issue at hand. I have not seen anything like this in the two plus years that I've been blogging about TV. You readers out there are rushing to this blog for news and especially images of Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway and as Olivia (see image below left with Adam Arkin) on NBC's Life, which now airs Wednesday at 9.

Her IMDB page doesn't note anything upcoming besides a new season of Mad Men, but it's time I set a Google News Alert for her as I think she's gonna start being a much busier actress.

If there are advantages to doing a series on a cable network that doesn't get seen by more that two million people a week, it's that she hopefully won't get stuck playing Joan Holloway for the rest of her life. Imagine bouncing from one period role to the next where you're always expected to be the bombshell and ... well, that makes you any number of bombshells from the 50s and 60s.

I hope we've gotten past that kind of pigeonholing and will allow this woman, a very good actress, to explore more than from A to B.

Anyhow, all of a sudden, I mean since Tuesday, my posts about Hendricks are the prime motivator for people to show up at this blog.

I hope this translates into us seeing her more. I might even have to watch a few episodes of Life. I'll leave the episode from last night, featuring Christina, after the jump for you to check out.

But first, let's see what everyone else is saying about Christina Hendricks ...

From iTricks.com:

Here is the list of celebrities attending the premiere of Criss Angel’s Believe…

Evangeline Lilly and Dominic Monaghan of “Lost;” Justin Long; Marie Osmond; Neil Patrick Harris; Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt of “Girls Next Door;” Keir O’Donnell of “Wedding Crashers;” Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe; Wilmer Valderrama; Tanya Roberts of “Charlie’s Angels;” Mike Tyson; Michael Strahan, former All-Pro with the New York Giants; Adam Shankman of “So You Think You Can Dance;” A.J. Buckley of “C.S.I.: NY;” Jonathan Togo of “C.S.I.: Miami;” Jeremy Jackson of “Baywatch;” members of the group Hinder; Deborah Gibson; Sully Erna of Godsmack; Michael Johns of “American Idol” fame; reality star Tila Tequila; adult star Tera Patrick; Evan Seinfeld; the cast of Fantasy Girls; and Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried Fischbacher, Carrot Top, Penn & Teller and Louie Anderson.

…But most important to this writer, and our excuse to post the above video, Christina Hendricks of Mad Men will be in attendance. Joan Holloway would be make a killer Halloween costume.

Christina said something similar recently on Jimmy Kimmel Live, saying that if drag queens dress as Joan for Halloween, she'll know Joan's catching on.

I'll be cruising Photobucket and Flickr for any of those images. If you have some as well, send them on to me.

Club Silencio blog:

What is it about Joan Holloway? Played by Christina Hendricks she practically glows as she floats about the office; a seductive sizzle of red so easily capable of masking her torments. This episode featured a lovely and revealing moment when Joan removes her bra strap and caresses the indent beneath. There's so many layers under those so many layers. It sums up her character perfectly in a single image and it's shot like the heavens of Douglas Sirk.

Finally ...

TheImproper.com:

Joan Holloway gets more attention than Hendricks and has developed a cult following on the Internet. Blogs and websites are dedicated to the show and her character. When one types "Joan Holloway" into a Google search, the second result is a website entitled, "What Would Joan Holloway Do?"

The website contains questions posed to Hendricks' alter ego. Asking questions about issues from men to fashion, women around the globe want answers from Joan. The website generates answers convincingly in sassy Joan style.

A link to the above-mentioned What Would Joan Holloway Do? is right here for ya, because, sniff sniff, I love you guys!

And, a bonus clip. Christina's People Magazine photo shoot video for the 100 Most Beautiful of 2008 issue.

Have at it!

A side note: I know I said we'd go around the horn with the world's reaction to the departure of David Tennant from Doctor Who, but I'm still grieving.

While I'm Watching the Second Season Finale of Mad Men ...

... you can click over to Basket of Kisses and see pics of show creator Matthew Weiner showing up at their season finale party.

That's right, people I know (but only online, I was too sick to meet Deb and Roberta when I was in NYC) have such a great blog that the show's creator shows up at their party.

That's huge!

It would be like Russell T. Davies showing up at my house with my series four Doctor Who DVD set.

Or, like Ryan Kwanten from True Blood coming through the TV and ... (insert joke with the word come in it).

Or Tricia Helfer inviting me out for a posh lunch in Newport Beach and then some shopping for sexy dresses and accessories.

Did you forget I'm a gay geek?

Any of these things would thrill me. If you can set up the Ryan Kwanten thing do it fast, as of yesterday I'm closer to 50 than ever, and I might have to get in better shape for the event.

Mad Men: Am I Ready To Talk About Joan Now? Almost.

Okay, maybe not. I've been sitting in front of a blank screen for a while now.

Days later it's still really disturbing.

Yes, I know it's just a TV show.

The thing is that Joan was all about her allure and thoracic surgeon Greg the fiance did what he did, I think, to tarnish that allure. I've never seen rape used like this in a piece of fiction. It was like a surgical removal of Joan's ego.

Even the way it happened with them doing a little boss/secretary roll play in Don's office struck me. What better way to make sure Joan never uses her power again than to connect it to being violated.

Christina Hendricks is amazing, though. I'm so looking forward to seeing what happens for Joan in the season ender.

The whole thing was even more powerful when you placed it next to Peggy's office triumph.

I'm still not sure what to make of it all.

And, remember, Jon Hamm hosts SNL this weekend with Coldplay as musical guest, which means you might get a Gwynnie guest appearance. Not that I know anything, but it could happen.

Mad Men and the Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Because it's different in Europe. That killed me. Notice that in the same breath that Kurt's writing partner Smitty manages to spit out that he doesn't share Kurt's desire for "the love that dare not speak its name."

Whatev. Different in Europe isn't the cast, though. It's just the stranglehold that organized religion had over America at the time, which wasn't the deal in Europe. It's organized religion rearing its ugly head, AGAIN (that's right, Parents Television Council, I said it).

When I saw this post at AfterElton.com by Brian Juergens about Peggy's new pal, I had to catch up and watch the 10th and 11th episodes, ending with The Jet Set, which just blew me away:

We've been talking for a while now that while we love Mad Men for more than just the gorgeous ashtrays and hilarious fashions, we wish that closeted gay Salvatore (played by out actor Bryan Batt) had more to do.

Well, it looks like old Sal has had a disaster dropped in his lap, in the form of a new gay character. While the revelation isn't by any means a game-changer or a huge twist, I'll put a SPOILER warning for folks who haven't seen last night's ep and continue the discussion after the break. But I will say that it was the first time the show has tackled gay themes head-on and has bumped the series way up on our must-see list.

And sure, I love Peggy's hair and her unabashedly proud new friend Kurt, but what I can't stop thinking about in this episode is Don Draper just taking off for Palm Springs with Joy.

How appropriately they named her, huh? Don can either just keep moving forward with "Joy" and take off with these international jetsetters that in another era would have been yachting with Ben Silverman and Elisabeth Murdoch (you know I can't let too much time go by without a Ben Silverman dig) or he can try to fix what's going on at home with Betty.

Fixing his life? Hard. Running off with Joy? Easy.

And, like Joy (and her dad, who is so gay ... he noticed Don's beauty just like I do every week) the pretty people just wander from one rich person's vacation estate to the next.

(One more Ben Silverman dig? He's nowhere near pretty enough to galavant from city to city with the jet set, but all that Reveille cash gives him entre.)

So, why, at the end of the episode is Don on the phone getting in touch with someone from his past and his inner Dick Whitman?

It's apparently secret option #3.

We'll see what happens Sunday at 10 on AMC, and a preview clip of the season's penultimate episode, The Mountain King, is after the jump.

Betty Draper Throws Her Husband to the Curb (okay, to the Roosevelt)

Here's the moment where the balance of power changes. Right there in the picture above. Betty's done. Really done. Because Don no longer has the power over her. She has divested in the relationship.

She just wears that fab polka dot dress for way too long and we realize how done Betty really is, and that was the shocking part for me.

Wine in the morning (?!?) while she goes through his suits looking, smelling, searching for anything that would give away Don's indiscretions? This is not the Betty Draper from even a couple days before that went to the market and fell for the Don-engineered marketing ploy that included Rumaki, cheeses of the world and a Dutch Heineken.

(And a nice little prod placement for Heineken, huh? Asserting it's upper middle class cred and reminding people it's not a German beer.)

That was proud wife Betty, partner Betty, homemaker Betty. That was the Betty that wouldn't consider going to sleep in her party dress with her makeup still on.

This new Betty is Bitter Betty. And she has every reason to be bitter, I think. Don's not just a pig, he's not just an adulterer, he's a manipulative prick. Which of course makes him a great ad man and is only one of many things that comprise his fatal flaws as a human being.

The dress? A reminder in each scene afterward that this marriage is killing her.

See?

Finally, something juicy for January Jones to play. The only thing I had ever seen her in before this was the movie American Wedding, so I didn't really know what to expect from an actress who was outperformed by Alyson Hannigan. She was pretty remarkable in these last two episodes.

I'm once again up to date on my Mad Men viewing, which means I can post the preview clip for this week's show, which is after the jump.

Emmy Winner Bryan Cranston On Location in New Mexico Razzed By Costars

Dan Mayfield in the Albuquerque Journal (with a hat tip to Liz in New Mexico, thanks honey!):

Things have changed on the set of "Breaking Bad" since Bryan Cranston won his Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Drama last week.

"He just sits in his trailer and polishes it. He touches up the Emmy more than his makeup," his co-star Anna Gunn, said. "He wants me to call him Bri-Emmy, but I refuse to."

Of course, Gunn was joking. Cranston, the star of the show and the first to win an acting Emmy for a New Mexico-made production, has a reputation for being the nicest guy in TV, and it shows on the set. He jokes, eats bagels with mounds of cream cheese and sings Bonnie Tyler songs with the crew.

He let all the cast and crew members take pictures with his Emmy earlier this week. He keeps it in his trailer and will pull it out at the drop of a hat, like a kid with a new toy.

You see, it would have been all well and good if Jon Hamm would have gotten the Emmy for Mad Men, but Bryan Cranston has been entertaining us for over 26 years.

And, honestly, I think that's why he got the Emmy. The voters have seen Cranston do a lot of things before, but he's never played anyone like Walter White.

(Frankly, I never saw Jon Hamm in my life until Mad Men debuted.)

Plus, doesn't he deserve something for listening to his TV wife scream at him for years on Malcolm? Just for the hearing loss he should get something, dontcha think?

You can see him in action on the show by clicking over to the Breaking Bad website at AMCTV.com and watching the pilot. I would bet before season two starts they will run the seven eps that they made before the strike last season. And it's also running right now on Sundays at midnight, so get the DVR working for another option.

Or, just lay off the Ambien. That's probably a good idea anyway. Wouldn't wanna wake up laying in front of the fridge with a chocolate cake smeared all over you face.

Or would you?

The Big Surprise? Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad & You Can Watch the Pilot Right Here Now

I was very very surprised. I was sure that Jon Hamm would be sauntering up to the stage in that Don Draper way he has, replete with Don's hair (which he borrowed for the evening, I actually prefer Jon Hamm's hair to Don Draper"s).

But it was Bryan Cranston, from that other show on AMC, Breaking Bad, the lovely heartwarming tale of Walter White, a chemist who could have been someone but who instead is living on a high school teacher's salary, with a cancer diagnosis and a kid with Cerebral Palsy.

(And he had no hair at all yesterday. What's up with that? Maybe shooting some chemo scenes for season two?)

So Walter decides to finance his troubles by cooking up some really potent crystal methamphetamine.

Yeah, I know, it sounds heartwarming, huh.

But it's a very well done show. And granted, it's at times hard to watch but so compelling, which great performances on top of Cranston's and some very creepy things that go on.

Like the guy who was bicycle chained to the post in Walter's cellar. Yeah, that was weird, and it ended badly.

Still, I thought Hamm had it locked up, especially with the episode he entered that had this wonderful sequence where he comes up with the name for the carousel that runs the slides through the Kodak slide machine. I posted that clip a while back and it's at this link.

You can watch the entire first episode of  Breaking Bad online right here, and it's after the jump.

And you can read all my Mad Men posts at this link and all my Breaking Bad posts at this link.

Of course, Basket of Kisses is the best indie Mad Men blog out there, go visit Deb and Roberta there.

They must be enjoying this at AMC. It would be nice if more people would ...

... WATCH THEIR SHOWS!!!

Where's My Pre-Emmy Post? Right Here, But Does It Matter?

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Why? Because the Emmys are shit.

Okay, they're fun to watch, and I will (despite the error of a reality host-hosted show) but the categories are all screwed up and the people who decide who wins (with the exception of you, Jennifer) are old crotchety dustballs that still gasp when they read or hear the word shit.

Which would mean they've already gasped twice at this post.

Creative Arts awards were already given. Click this for more.

I will say this, though, David Bianculli at Broadcasting & Cable hits it on the head with this:

Emmy and Mad Men could be perfect bedfellows. Mad Men is up for the top prize of Best Drama Series, in a fun, competitive field against, among others, ratings-winning stalwarts such as ABC's Lost and Fox's House, and FX's Damages and Showtime's dark and compelling Dexter. And if it wins, few faces would soak in the spotlight quite like Jon Hamm, who's up for a Best Actor in a Drama Series Emmy as the series' centerpiece, Don Draper.

A win by Mad Men or Hamm would help the Emmys do one of the things it does best: help break new shows on the verge of bigger ratings. Granted, with basic cable fare dominating the nominations as never before, there are fewer big-rated series to bring in the larger rooting crowd. But the competition between hot and more established choices will be one of many good storylines that could bring viewers to the night. And the Emmys could use all the help it can get.

Thing is, I don't really see it happening this year, despite how much fun it would be. Well, maybe Jon Hamm, but the show? I love the show, but I certainly look more forward to Dexter than Mad Men. Furthermore, I would vote for Michael C. Hall over Hamm.

Sorry Deb and Roberta, but it's true.

And it would be great to see the surging Showtime win some bling.

BTW, I watched the Dexter third season premiere last night and it is ... well, WOW! Jimmy Smits? Amazing! The set up for this season? Ripe with possibilities. And Rita? Horny and hungry. Think about that, Rita is horny and hungry.

I'll have more tomorrow about Dex. In the meantime, watch the Emmys, have a great time, but don't think that it actually celebrates the best in television.

It tries to, if that makes you feel any better.

It would also be a big surprise, to everyone but me, if Damages took away the Best Drama statue.

Hell, maybe I'll write about the comedy category before the weekend. It is the big event of the week.

Mad Men's Hildy Talks to Basket of Kisses

Julie McNiven (above, and below as her Mad Men character, Betty Draper's neighborhood pal) talked to my friends Deborah and Roberta who run the Mad Men blog Basket of Kisses.

About the impact the show has made, Julie says:

For me, whether I’m watching or preparing to act in them, time periods other than ours I find absolutely fascinating.  I think the audience enjoys that aspect of it too.  The way I see it, the time period has wrapped around, and woven through a lot of what we can relate to now.  It adds many layers and complications that are different, but yet still the same.  So, maybe sexual harassment doesn’t exist as a pat on the butt anymore, but it surely still exists.  It’s just changed its venue.  Maybe you’re not having as many affairs as Don, but you can relate to his loneliness despite his beautiful wife and kids.  More so, it’s a character driven show with emotional struggle knit deeply within each relationship.

She also talks about the movie she just shot with Joyce DeWitt.

That's right, Joyce DeWitt.

And if there was something you didn't quite get in last night's Mad Men, click over there for analysis and all that.

Video -- Our Choice in the Mad Men Contest, Go Vote for Roberta!!!!

I am so supporting Roberta Lipp, who with sister Deborah writes the Mad Men blog Basket of Kisses, that the clip goes before the jump.

That's right, before the jump. But don't just watch it. After you watch, you gotta click over to this link and vote for Roberta.

I said you gotta, as in you must, because, well, I said so and that should be enough. C'mon, I do this for the greater good, get with the program!

LINK

Tonight on Mad Men, Meet Peggy's Family

This should be interesting. And, they gotta give us a little something re: the little Pete-spawn, don't they?

I mean, she did eventually tell her mom, right?

I'm thinking Mom is raising the kid as Peggy's little brother, which was often done in that day.

Still, the family dynamics should be interesting. We really don't know what to expect, do we. After all, Peggy could either be exactly like her family or she could be a 180 away from them.

Tonight at 10, tomorrow in HD for me (thank you Time Warner for the accomodation, the show looks great in highdef.

Preview clip after the jump.

More Mad Men stuff at Basket of Kisses.

Elisabeth Moss in New York Magazine Talks About Mad Men's Peggy

She tells Emily Nussbaum:

“She’s Jack Lemmon, she’s Ernest Borgnine in Marty, the one who is stepped on a little bit and has a really good heart,” Moss tells me. “You want her to succeed, you want her to do well. She’s definitely very ambitious, the way a lot of us are, but the last thing she would do is trample anyone to get to the top.”

It's just really interesting that she exists in the early 1960s, because she's such the fish out of water compared to office colleagues in season one. In fact, it's as if Peggy couldn't possibly remain in a secretarial role because of some thing deep in her history, her core, that we don't even know about, but it's the fact that we're not smacked in the face with, for example, a child sexual abuse flashback, that Peggy has the weight and the depth she does.

I can imagine that it might be tempting to go that route, but one of the hallmarks of this show is restraint, and in this case it makes Peggy so much more compelling.

And she looks great in that dress, huh? And Pete's such a slimeball.

This Sunday at 10, on AMC.