Mad Men season 7 thread

"Hell's bells, I just joined the Mile High Club!" - Pete Campbell.

Anyone else notice the closeted Chevy executive was Glen Gulia in "The Wedding Singer?"

 

Had the same thought. That couldn't have been an accident.

 

Someone at work explained Roger's conversation in the sauna with the other ad executive -- that he was worried that SC&P was going to get their client Buick (their being aware that Bob was going in-house before anyone at SC&P). And he figured that by buying Don (in the name of peace with Philip Morris), he would hurt SC&P's chance with GM at getting Buick.

I did not get 90% of that when I watched.

 

I took the Peggy/Don dance moment as more of an older brother thing, and obviously friend, than dad/daughter.

Bob's stab at a traditional family was good contrast with the ersatz family of Don, Pete and Peggy at the end. But I also had my guard up for a little overreach, the way M*A*S*H became about all sorts of contemporary issues rather than actual '50s Korea life. The make-your-family-out-of-whomever is a little more modern than 45 years ago.

 

But then what did gay males do in the late '60s to live some semblance of a normal life? That might have been the only way to cope at that time, to bury one's sexuality and live the lie.

 

When Peggy talked about going somewhere with no TV and you could break bread and whoever is there is family, I thought she echoing ideas from the hippie communes of the 1960s.

 

Yeah, if you remember from Season 1, even Sal was married.

But I think it was more about being able to advance within the company for Bob than "burying his sexuality." The GM exec that he picked up from the police station had a similar arrangement with his wife, and that's what gave Bob the idea (or at least reinforced it) to propose to Joan.

As one of the reviewers (Grantland's Molly Lambert, I believe) pointed out, the Stonewall Riots are on the verge of happening within the timeline of the show (Stonewall was June 28, 1969; My Way was released June 14). Cops beating up and arresting gay men in New York is about to be front-page news.

 

It might be mentioned in passing, but I don't see it being a plot point. I still think the moon landing will be the end of the half-season.

There are a couple of big things which could happen work wise -- the Burger Chef final pitch or maybe the Buick pitch.

 

OK, I'm confused on the GM stuff. I thought they were taking Buick in house and hiring Bob Benson away. Is there a pitch to be made for Buick. I thought Roger saw the other agency losing Buick as an opportunity of some kind, but didn't quite get it.

 

GM was taking the new car's work in house and SC&P was therefore losing the business. But GM also decided to hire Bob Benson and assign him to work on Buick.

The concern of the guy in the sauna from other agency, which did the Buick work and must have known about the imminent hiring of Bob (remember the closeted guy say in the cab to Bob that it had been decided already) was that this meant that SC&P was going to steal the Buick work from their agency.

That's why he basically offered to take Don off of SC&P's hands (under the guise of making the agency more palatable to Philip Morris). He thought that without their creative genius, SC&P wouldn't be able to wow GM and get the Buick work. Roger realized the sauna guy's motivation when he was speaking with Joan.

 

Little thing I noticed upon watching the last episode again that I thought was funny: After they take the vote to make Harry a partner, Cooper says, "Everybody back to work."

Which would mean what for Cooper, exactly? Sitting alone in his office with his shoes off eating a catered lunch and reading the Wall Street Journal?

 

I saw that too. As silly as Pete calling his wife "immoral" for having a date.