The real tragedy about Trudy and her relationship with Pete is not that she had to put up with a petulant and moody man like him. Her greatest tragedy is that her life potential was wasted on living up to the image of a perfect housewife and mother. It was also sad to watch how she struggled on her own to make her “perfect” marriage seem flawless from the outside.

What made it even more heartbreaking is the fact that, unlike Betty Draper, who felt imprisoned in her marriage, Trudy actually desired this kind of relationship. She performed her role of a perfect mistress and wife so well, giving Pete the image of a successful man he craved. She ensured he had a beautiful house in the Cos Cob, a beautiful daughter, and she was always there to keep his image spotless. However, it was also heartbreaking to see how her attempts at satisfying her husband backfired when she realized that nothing could fill the emptiness in him.

Trudy knew very well that Pete was unfaithful to her. It is even evident that she struggled a lot mentally in making excuses for his behavior. Her primary tragedy was that her attempts at placating him by pretending that everything was okay were hurting her more than they should have. For instance, when she decided to allow him to rent an apartment in the city, she was simply giving him space to do the thing that he loved most, cheating on her. By doing that, she was allowing him to be the husband that he enjoyed being. In fact, it was through this that she slowly killed her own self respect and became unhappy in her own skin. All of this was brought upon by her attempts at making sure his reputation was not destroyed since he was a heavy drinker.

It’s the moment when Don begins to become an honest man.

It’s the last moment of Sally’s childhood. She’s sees her father as a human being for the first time.

I mean when we first meet Burt Peterson on the show, he is getting fired and his wife has cancer at the time. Roger just doesn't seem to care. The 2nd time he fires him, he actually enjoys the experience and cracks jokes about it?

And Burt seems like a pretty normal guy. He is a little gruff and looks like someone who seems constantly irritated, but he is competent enough that we see him working steadily across different agencies throughout the run of the show.

So why does Roger hate him? Because Roger is a chill guy and he never seems to hate on people unless he feels there is a very strong reason to hate them (like his hate of Japanese people and Greg).

How in the heck did Pete ever sleep again without the city noises when they ended up in Wichita?

In New York…. SCHENECTADY , New York, that is.

Early in his advertising career, my father worked in General Electric’s in-house Advertising & Sales Promotion Department.

For reasons that still aren’t clear to me , they also took on outside, non-GE clients, functioning as a full-service ad agency.

Needless to say I was tickled the first time I heard Mohawk mentioned in Mad Men. Curiously, i could never get my Dad interested in watching the show. One of the reasons I always loved it was those mid 60’s style aesthetics are part of my earliest memories, and I always loved when my Dad would bring me along on a Saturday trip to the office when he had work he needed to finish. He would set me up at an artist’s table with a giant sketch pad , surrounded by a universe of colored markers.

He walks in on Betty in the bathroom, she repeatedly tells him to leave. He ignores this, stares at her until she forces the door closed. She asks for an apology, he guilts her and seems to get probably his first sexual arousal in asking her for her hair and particularly in watching her cut her hair. Later on he volunteers to go to Vietnam, in his mind because it’s not right that only kids from poor neighborhoods have to go. In reality it’s because he wants to know what it feels like to kill.

No one can tell me that in the late 70s to the late 90s there weren’t bleach blonde women turning up dead, murdered, all over the country with seemingly no connection.

It was Mad Glen.

A post was made like this on the 56th anniversary (I stole its image) and I think it's wildly serendipitous that I watched this on its 63rd anniversary.

😂 I just caught this for the first time.

I first watched Mad Men back during the 2020 lockdown, and man, it was depressing. It was around the same time I started smoking, so that might have had something to do with the mood swings I was going through. Nobody on this show was strictly good or bad—every character had their own agenda and things they were striving for. Some got what they wanted, and others met terrible fates (looking at you, Lane Pryce).

​Last month, I decided to give it another go. It’s been six years, so I figured I had matured enough since I was 21 to understand the show better. And boy, did I enjoy it.

​Like many of you who have rewatched it over the years, I was finally able to pick up on the subtle imagery and understand everything left unsaid—conveyed purely through character expressions, staging, and shot composition. It was brilliant.

​At the same time, that sense of immense dread and depression is still there. There are no heroes or villains; people just do what they think is right or what makes them feel good about themselves. That’s pretty much how people operate in real life.

​To wrap it up, I’m loving this rewatch (almost finished now) and really appreciating how masterfully the showrunners tell a story without explicitly spelling things out. It’s still a heavy watch that somehow bleeds into my psyche and affects my day-to-day mood, but honestly, isn't that what great media is supposed to do?

Pete's trying to convince Joan to sleep with Herb. Joan, "... how would feel if someone asked Trudi ..."

Brilliant writing!

Here's a new gem from Youtube via Periscope Film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgE4SzJYwLs

"Invitation to Capri" 60's Poly Travel promo film

Just because Don didn't feel like going - it doesn't mean we can't.

Meredith and Don should have started seeing each other after this. Don’s marriage with Megan was over.

And before people come in with the “Meredith was not his type”… What you’re implying was that Meredith wasn’t attractive enough, but we all know Meredith was beautiful.

Who cares if she’s a bit of a ditz. Maybe that’s what Don needed to keep him grounded.

Think about what transpires across the second half of Season 7. You don’t think Don would have been better off with Meredith by his side?