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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