explain the background on Mad Men...

CarrotsMakeMeFat · March 2012

I just saw the new episodes and need background on what happened in previous seasons

GatorMrs_Esq · March 2012

Not trying to be snarky, but this provides a good summary of the previous seasons.

CarrotsMakeMeFat · March 2012

ok, I didn't see the character explainations....so thanks.

Can someone briefly tell me what is up with Joan's H who is away? Does he not know he isn't the baby daddy?

LateToTheParty · March 2012

CarrotsMakeMeFat:

ok, I didn't see the character explainations....so thanks.

Can someone briefly tell me what is up with Joan's H who is away? Does he not know he isn't the baby daddy?

Joan's husband is a doctor that had dreams of being a surgeon but he wasn't cutting it so he enlisted in the army and was being sent to Viet Nam. I don't think he knows that he isn't the father, or if he even knows about the baby for that matter. When last season ended Joan had just found out she was pregnant.

I'm assuming that he knows about the baby but that Joan probably had to fudge the numbers since the baby was conceived after he had deployed. That's just my speculation though.

ETA: Also, he forced Joan to have sex one night which is why you might see in some posts he is referred to as "Dr Rapist."

LateToTheParty · March 2012

majorwife:
he knows. he asked her when she was planning on telling everyone at the office and if her tits were bigger. lol

LOL I forgot about that part.

alohamora · March 2012

majorwife:
Pete meanwhile is married and happy with his wife.

Not entirely true - he had a one night stand with that nanny down the hall. He also didn't really want to have a baby, but his wife did, so they did. Now he's wishing that she'd just get over the baby thing and be back to her normal self.

Karma1969 · March 2012

It's a great show. Last night was kind of boring imho. You can rent the first few seasons.

CarrotsMakeMeFat · March 2012

it was a little boring, but I enjoyed the Joan character & the wife dancing at that party...their relationship seems woooooooahhh, ha ha

CarrotsMakeMeFat · March 2012

oh, why didn't Megan want to see Joan and the baby? she was so "sick" and went home....very dramatic

mavjen · March 2012

Carrots, you should really watch all of the previous episodes. There is a lot of nuance and back stories and the writers don't spoon feed the audience at times because I think they want the audience to think about it or wonder. There are a lot of gaps and the show may throw the audience a bone about someone's history (like Don). Or something noteworthy happens on the show, but it gets dropped and it's not brought up again. It drives me nuts sometimes but that's why I love it so much.

EastCoastBride · March 2012

I would rent the first 4 seasons!! DH and I just did that over the past couple months and we've REALLY enjoyed them.

mavjen · March 2012

CarrotsMakeMeFat:
oh, why didn't Megan want to see Joan and the baby? she was so "sick" and went home....very dramatic

Duh, I meant to answer your question and I forgot. I think most of the secretaries were afraid of Joan or to get on Joan's bad side. At least before her maternity leave. So maybe Megan wasn't really interested in seeing Joan again or meeting her baby and making a big fuss over her kid, like the other secretaries did. Especially now that she's no longer a secretary and doesnt need to kowtow to Joan.

Joan is the queen bee and she exerts her power. But she's not really liked be the women of the office, save Peggy. That's why no one from work came to visit her during her maternity leave.

MrsWindyCity · March 2012

http://www.slate.com/articles/video/slate_v/2012/03/mad_men_retold_in_7_minutes_video_.html

thatgirlang · March 2012

EastCoastBride:
I would rent the first 4 seasons!! DH and I just did that over the past couple months and we've REALLY enjoyed them.

I agree. It's worth it. We watched them all in 3 weeks.

carcrashheart · March 2012

mavjen:

CarrotsMakeMeFat:
oh, why didn't Megan want to see Joan and the baby? she was so "sick" and went home....very dramatic

Duh, I meant to answer your question and I forgot. I think most of the secretaries were afraid of Joan or to get on Joan's bad side. At least before her maternity leave. So maybe Megan wasn't really interested in seeing Joan again or meeting her baby and making a big fuss over her kid, like the other secretaries did. Especially now that she's no longer a secretary and doesnt need to kowtow to Joan.

Joan is the queen bee and she exerts her power. But she's not really liked be the women of the office, save Peggy. That's why no one from work came to visit her during her maternity leave.

i actually didn't take it that way. i don't think megan has been there very long overall. she was upset about whatever the crap was with don and seemed dramatically caught up in it and miffed if she had to stop moping for a moment. that's just how i took it though.

i also thought the premier was fairly boring. and i was surprised not to see X drapper. i know she was KU for filming, or just had the baby, or whatever, but i didn't expect them to completely not discuss their storyline at all in the premier. not that i mind..she drives me crazy. i have grown increasingly bored with the show though and i'm hoping that changes because it started out so great. it seems like it used to be a show full of the dramatics of what their personal lives were like and they just so happened to have jobs to attend during the day. now it's far more focused on the office, but not actually on the politics of the clients as much. maybe i just liked the drama of all of these guys cheating, girls getting KU and secretly giving up their babies, etc.

dexteroni · March 2012

http://thehubnow.com/mad-men-seasons-1-4-recap

EastCoastBride · March 2012

carcrashheart:

i actually didn't take it that way. i don't think megan has been there very long overall. she was upset about whatever the crap was with don and seemed dramatically caught up in it and miffed if she had to stop moping for a moment. that's just how i took it though.

Same here- I thought she was just really pissed off at him for his reaction to the party. And she probably knew that once she held the baby, the "Oh- just you wait..." comments would start, and they did. And she just didnt' want to get caught up in that w/ Don standing right there when she was pissed at him.

thatgirlang · March 2012

EastCoastBride:
carcrashheart:

i actually didn't take it that way. i don't think megan has been there very long overall. she was upset about whatever the crap was with don and seemed dramatically caught up in it and miffed if she had to stop moping for a moment. that's just how i took it though.
Same here- I thought she was just really pissed off at him for his reaction to the party. And she probably knew that once she held the baby, the "Oh- just you wait..." comments would start, and they did. And she just didnt' want to get caught up in that w/ Don standing right there when she was pissed at him.

Absolutely.

livinitup · March 2012

majorwife:

oh boy

the highlights:

don was raised as *** whitman, who was dirt poor in the depression in il. his mother was a whore that died in childbirth and don was given to his father and his wife to raise. his father was kicked by a horse and killed when don was 10ish. when don was 18/20ish, he joined the army, got sent to Korea and while there was in an explosion with his commanding officer. when he woke up the CO was dead and Don switched their dogtags, becoming Don Draper. He then got work as a used car salesman and then a fur salesman before eventually joining Sterling Cooper around 1945/46. He married Betty and they have 3 kids.

Peggy was hired as Don's secretary. The first day, she hit on him and he rejected her. She then has a one night stand with Pete that night and becomes pregnant. During a product testing she says something ("here is your basket full of kisses") to Freddy Rumsend a copywriter at SC. He is impressed with her work and asks her to help on the lipstick campaign. She then becomes the first woman copywriter at SC since the war. During the season one finale, it is revealed that Peggy is pregnant and then gives the baby up for adoption. It is Pete's baby and she tells him so at the end of season 2. Pete meanwhile is married and happy with his wife.

Later when Freddy pees his pants during a drunk stupor, Peggy fills in for him and gets his old office when he is let go. Pete and Peggy end their "relationship".

Joan and Roger had a ten year affair that began at SC. When Rodger has a heart attack at the office twice, he ends the affair with Joan. Later, when Jane becomes Don's new secretary, Rodger leaves his wife for 20 years for her. Meanwhile Joan gets married to a doctor that rapes her while visiting her at the office. He is rejected from the hospital he wants and joins the army instead to be a doctor for them. Joan quits SC.

While Don is on a trip to California to visit the wife of the real Don Draper, Sterling Cooper is sold to a different, british company. The company begins the process of firing a lot of SC staff and replacing them. When Lane (the brit in the glasses) learns that SC is being sold again, Rodger (whos dad founded the company with Bert Cooper), Bert, Don and Lane make a plan to get fried from SC, and form their own agency. The bring along Harry, Peggy, Pete and hired Joan again.

At the beginning of the last season, the new agency - Sterling Cooper Draper Price - is formed and is trying to grow. Their biggest client at the time is Lucky Strike, the only client Rodger has. However, the son now running Lucky ends their contract and the company is left in a tailspin. The season ends with Don writing a "Why I broke up with tobacco" ad that hopes to get the company back on track.

Joan and Rodger have a one night stand after her husband is sent to vietnam and Joan gets pregnant. She decides to keep the baby and pass it off as her husbands.

Meanwhile, in his personal life Don and Betty end up divorcing after Betty meets Henry Francis when she is 6 months pregnant with an oops baby with Don. Betty also learns that Don Draper is really *** Whitman and despite his MANY past affairs, cannot get over the fact that Don lied about who he is and that he was "married" to another woman. She divorces Don and marries Henry at the end of season three. Season 4 see Sally, Don's daughter, acting out while trying to deal with a new brother and divorced parents. Betty fires her long time maid and nanny and Don is forced to take the kids with him on a business trip to California. He takes Megan his sectary with him to watch the kids. The wife of the real Don Draper, who is had become good friends with and supported financially since her real husbands death, has since died and he proposes to Megan with her ring.

Last night we see Don and Megan happily married. We also see him sharing custody with his kids. SCDP seems to be gaining new business and are no longer financially really unstable.

Don has also seemed to curb his drinking and self destructive behavior that got him into trouble last year. Megan knows Don is really *** and is totally cool with it.

Peggy and Don's relationship is starting to get strained since she is taking a backseat to Megan. Don and Peggy were never sexually or romantically involved but they really care for each other and Don is the only person, other than Pete that knows about Peggys baby since he saved her job for her.

Wow. That's some good recap sh*t. On a really compicated show.

Impressive.

explain the background on Mad Men...

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