Mad Men Watch: The New Frontier

I think one of the man motivations behind taking Draper's identity was that he was at the end of hid tour while Whitman was at the beginning. After pissing himself through the morter attack, I think Dock decided he wanted out now.

I guess I was assuming that he would have realized his injuries would be his ticket home--but as you can probably tell, I have never been in the military.

I am in deep denial that next week is the last episode for awhile. I love this show. It has only one bad scene (the beatnik village scene) all season. I agree that the one-off sets can be weaker but it doesn't bump me out of the story.

How did HBO pass on this??????? Great television. I feel like I am eating and drinking a great meal when I watch.

I used to be an educator at the Museum of TV and radio, and I this show makes me want to create entire social studies curriculum(s) around segments of the show!

I think HBO must be kicking itself for passing on this one. This is definitely my favorite show on TV right now and Jon Hamm is an amazing acting discovery.

"I guess I was assuming that he would have realized his injuries would be his ticket home--but as you can probably tell, I have never been in the military."

My dad had injuries similar to Dick's when he was in Vietnam. He just got stitched up and sent right back out to the jungle since he still had a while to go.

I did think that the dog tag switch was a little too quick thinking on Dick's part. It must have been an idea in his head for awhile.

I hope this isn't the complete end of Don and Rachel (though I was glad she did what she did) because the actors have great chemistry and Rachel Menken is a fascinating character.

I can't speak to the wider socio-economic class realities of the 1950's, but within the context of the show, it seems Dick/Don was trying as much to escape his family and his past as he was trying to gain entree into a new world.

If the real (dead) Don Draper had any kind of built-in high society connections, then he also would have likely had a family that would have had the inclination and wherewithal to find out why Donnie never came back from Korea.

Why did Dick Whitman bother? It'd be easy enough for him to go off to the service, get a new start in life and tell his family to go the hell. It happens.

Families are complicated. It was easier for Don to pretend he was dead. It was an attempt to tie up any loose ends. Even when he was supposedly dead, his brother still came looking for him. As someone whose brother pretends his half-sibling doesn't exist, I can understand Don's motivation.

I am in my late 60's and this is a time that is very familiar to me. The pre-PC world of 1960 is spot on in this show.Did you know that 48% of the people in the USA today were not even born when man landed on the moon, that seems like only yesterday to me.The office scenes and home life seem so foreign to lots I am sure, but that was how it was.Yes,class was so very important to anyone trying to get ahead anywhere...why? There were so many fewer people, I know that may be hard to absorb, but no Internet,Fax, 3 TV stations,the only info was from radio(mostly crap), and weeks old pictures in mags like Time, Look and Life.The poor life Draper had was one that,given the chance lots of people during that time would have loved to shed.

I am grateful for this not being on HBO. Being in Canada if it was on HBO those shows usually go to Movie Central after their HBO run and then filter down to either Bravo or Showcase. AMC is in my Tier 3 cable package in Canada so I catching this exceptional program during it's initial run is a blessing and not having to wait about two years later.

Wish there was more than 13 episodes and can't wait until next summer!

Thursdays won't be the same without Mad Men. I hope more people will discover this show on DVD during the long hiatus. Looking forward to next week's finale.

That is the beauty of the show why he did that, why did he do the other thing.Why he wants to run away with his mistress one minute and then stands up to the fear of being exposed the next.He is a complicated figure and half the fun is figuring out the different motivations and each of us coming away with the same or different conclusions.It is great television.Maybe if they want to do more scenes from Korea they can use the M*A*S*H set.

I thought he assumed Draper's identity because Draper was (a) so close to ending his tour and (b) in the military to gain a college education. Could it be that the bastard-whore child knew this was his only way to college acceptance and a chance at the life he dreamed of? Anyway you slice it, a great episode!

More changes of identity: Chicago mayor "Daily" and "Highway Patrol" star Barbara (né Broderick) Crawford. Or at least that's the captioner's understanding, along with the famous "Sack of Rum."

Hey, James--On a totally unrelated note, what's with the limited duration of access to your posts? I caught up on A LOT of shows over the weekend and wanted to go back to read your related posts (even though it requires plowing through lots of irrelevant entries, as the TIME braintrust still hasn't added links to entries on specific shows). Lo and behold, I couldn't get to any posts before 10/2! Less than two weeks!

What's the dealio?

@bemused: There are no irrelevant entries on Tuned In!

Not sure I follow, but do you mean that using the Previous button will only take you as far back as 10/2? I can't explain that--maybe there's a limited number of posts on that function -- but look down the right-hand column of the blog. Clicking Previous Months will get you a list of monthly links from Tuned In going back to the beginning of time, which is to say, September 2005.

Yes, I know we should have category headings, etc. -- you're preaching to the choir on that one.

I get the distinct impression that the writers on "Mad Men" relied heavily on "Making of a President 1960." It's nothing obvious, but having recently done a ton of research on Nixon's first run for the president, I see a lot of familiar notes being hit -- and really, there's no more thorough resource on that election.

An earlier episode correctly noted Nixon's August lead in the polls, and included Eisenhower's damaging remark about Nixon's lack of influence on decisions in the White House.

In this episode, the 22 to 1 odds were in fact predicted in the early evening of election day by an IBM computer programmed to predict the outcome. (I believe it was a joint venture between IBM and CBS, but I couldn't say for sure w/o checking my copy of MoaP, which is in the other room.)

FYI, today's New York Post has a three-page tribute to Grace Kelly featuring January Jones. Ms. Jones is wearing Kelly-inspired clothing, jewelry, and make-up and looks absolutely stunning. The resemblance is amazing.

Yep--I meant that clicking Previous only took me back as far as 10/2. Thanks for pointing me to the archives links.

And, by "irrelevant," I only meant irrelevant to my immediate interest (i.e., the shows I'd watched over the weekend). Clearly, no posting related to television could ever be deemed irrelevant in the larger sense!

Ooof, I am always slow responding to these cause it takes me a while to get the free time to watch them, hope this comment even gets read.

Another great episode. Pete's secretary is ridiculously hot. I cannot believe they got away with showing that much breast either. I liked the touch with her wearing bloomers while the one getting chased around the desks was wearing garters and panties.

Don seemed like he was trying to bluff Pete out of it, but I think he knew that even if the bluff didn't work he'd rather Pete spilled the beans cause the alternative was being under Pete's thumb and that was not going to fly.

The only real thing I can think of is that Dick switched with Don because Don's tour was almost up (few months away as he mentioned when they first met). I think he realized he was in hell after that attack/explosion and wanted to get out. I am curious as to whether the real Don's family wondered why their Don disappeared after the war. However, the 1960's were not the information age, unless they lived in New York they were not going to notice another Don Draper walking around. There's nothing they really could've done when he failed to come home.

Throw me in the group that was wondering about the real Don Draper's friends and family. When "Don" was mustered out of the military, wouldn't there have been a paper trail? All a relative would have had to do was call the Army and ask them about it. Two things would have then happened: it would have become a missing person's case which the Army might have wanted to help pursue. After all, this was a guy who was wounded and decorated. It's not at all clear that both Draper's family and the Army might not have eventually concluded there was an imposter running around. It was a risky play on Dick's part, especially as he rose in the ranks of business and became more widely known.

On the other hand, the writers could have avoided all of it by having the real Don be an orphan with no siblings or something, nobody who would ask questions afterward. Then it's more believable.