Mad Men Season 4

I looked up the Disney movie timeline, and all of their mega hits have been released. Poppins probably is still in the theaters.

But the big push now is for Disneyworld, which I think was secret secret because Walt was pretty much buying up all of Southern Florida at the time.
I see Peggy and Pete running points on this since they only have one shared skeleton in their closets.

Have you noticed now many characters' last name start with a C?

 

And just to clarify, here are the key Disney events from late 1965 (all courtesy of wiki):

Oct. 20 --- Orlando Sentinel breaks story that Walt Disney has been buying up land in south Florida.
Nov. 2 --- Walt Disney diagnosed with cancer.
Nov. 15 --- Plans for Disney World announced at a press conference.
Nov. 30 --- Disney collapses at home and is taken to the hospital.
Dec. 5 --- Disney celebrates his 65th birthday.
Dec. 15 --- Disney dies. Brother Roy Disney takes over as president.

And last night's episode clearly takes place in early fall 1965. The previous episode ended with Don getting ready to take his daughter to The Beatles' concert at Shea Stadium, which took place on Aug. 15, 1965. The psychiatrist refers to Sally being "back in school now" and the creepy neighbor kid is wearing a football uniform both times we see him. (There might have been other, more obvious clues I'm forgetting).

All signs point toward Disney. Maybe naming the episode "Tomorrowland" is a red herring, but it's not something that automatically rings out. If he'd have named it "The Magic Kingdom" it would have been too obvious ...

 

All too obvious.

In the last scene, Roger stands on the windowsill, poised to plunge, with all the partners and the pregnant Joan begging him to come back in and talk.

Roger doffs his fedora, says simply, 'I'm going to Disneyland!' and drops 29 floors to his untimely death.

As Don puts down his bourbon to jot down those last few words....

 

I didn't really mind them firing the little twerp. He bluffed his way in anyway.
Dr. Miller took Don getting her fired rather well. The guy got dinner and laid out of it.

 

And now, he's going to marry her.

 

Roger Sterling was born in a log cabin and died from the 29th floor of a skyscraper thinking he was an astronaut (who could fly)

 

As far as setting timeline, I noticed something odd. In back-to-back episodes this season, they made a point of saying it was 8 o'clock in scenes in Don's office (one was the secretary asking whether she could go; the other was with the doctor visiting Don after hours).

The first time it was fully light outside, the next it was dark. I know it gets darker earlier, but thought it was strange that it was so pronounced despite there being no apparent long gap in time between the episodes. And in screenplays, the rule is that you don't mention time unless there's a good reason -- so is there more to be read into the specific mentions?

 

Really interesting article on Mad Men:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100802662.html?nav=most_emailed

 

Really enjoyed that, Dan. Thanks.

 

As previously noted, women write a high percentage of the MM scripts,
and their sensitivity to the mores of the time shine through. Good pull, Dan.

 

Fun and interesting read.

 

Bang-on article

My eldest sister worked in a law firm as a title searcher right around that time and she's a huge fan of the show. She said they've perfectly captured the spirit of the era as far as the role of women in offices were concerned.