I really hope we don’t look back at this and say, “Then. It was then we knew the show had jumped.” I mean… it doesn’t mean anything, right? It’s nothing. Shake it off.

The dolls are part of a premium-price collectors’ series for adults that Mattel calls the Barbie Fashion Model Collection. Although there have been Barbies and Kens based on other TV series, among them “I Love Lucy” and “The X-Files,” the dolls will be the first licensed line for that collection, Mattel says, with a suggested retail price of $74.95 each.

Can’t really complain with Bill Mann’s 10 best TV shows of the decade, but I wouldn’t have The Sopranos #1, I would have bumped The Shield for 30 Rock and had Friday Night Lights as an Honorable Mention. What do you supposed 6 Feet Under bumps out? Stewart/Colbert probably ought to be counted as one show. What do you think of the list? What were your favorite shows of the decade?

1. The Sopranos (HBO)
2. Deadwood (HBO)
3. The Wire (HBO)
4. The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
5. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
6. Mad Men (AMC)
7. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
8. Extras (HBO)
9. The Shield (FX)
10. The West Wing (NBC)
Honorable Mention: Countdown With Keith Olbermann (MSNBC); Weeds (Showtime); Fareed Zakaria GPS (CNN); The Office (BBC version).

This article is poorly written, but it is interesting to note that Don Draper’s $45K per year salary in 1963 is equivalent to around $315K in today’s dollars. According to the article, that’s way more than creative directors make now. I’d been waiting for someone to write the article giving equivalents for all of the dollar amounts in Mad Men. Someone still should, this one could be a lot better.

The Tampa Bay Rays Executive VP Andrew Friedman doesn’t have a contract for some reason. Thanks, Dave!

Here’s Season 3 of Everything Don Draper Said (and Season 1 and Season 2 (PLUS Everything Tracy Jordan Said Seasons 1, 2, and 3)). There were a few episodes this season where Don’s story wasn’t necessarily the focal point, or he didn’t have too many knockout scenes, and yet, as you scroll through, you’ll still find some magic. He had about 500 more words than last season, but much less than the 10K words in Season 1. As always, what follows is a transcription of everything Don Draper said this season on Mad Men. There’s no context, but if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll lose your morning looking at this. Enjoy!

Episode 1
“Come on, drink this.”
“You’re so sure it’s a girl?”
“I could have done that.”
“At least you don’t look tired.”
“Close your eyes.”
“You’re on a warm sandy beach.”
“You’re on a warm sandy beach. You can smell the faint scent of coconut oil. And as you slide your hands though that cold patch of sand underneath the shadow of your deck chair.”
“Bert’s on it’s way. Where’s Roger?”
“Well, it’s a sales call, isn’t there more I can do here?”
“Really? I have one.”
“Come on in, Bert.”
“This isn’t easy.”
“Is that the last of it? Because I don’t like how much I’m getting used to these.”
“Can you believe this? What is the world coming to?”
“That’s not a bottle, it’s his date.”
“‘I’m sorry honey, but I’m taken. I just pawned my typewriter so we can be together all weekend.’”
“Excuse me?”
“Uh, Bill. Call me Bill. And, uh, this is my associate, Mr. Fleischman.”
“Well, we have to check in and we have an early meeting.”
“The Belvedere.”
“Hoffstadt. My brother in law. He borrowed a suitcase to go to Puerto Rico, but he never tires of putting his name on other people’s things.”
“Really?”
“Uh, no, it’s OK. I don’t usually tell people I’m an accountant.”
“Of course you do know there are other kinds of accountants.”
“Tell them what we do.”
“Well, I’ll have to swear you all to secrecy.”
“You’re right.”
“You ever heard of James Hoffa.”
“There is a lot of money missing.”
“No, we’re accountants.”
“I don’t know, I keep going to a lot of places and keep ending up somewhere I’ve already been.”
“Sam.”
“Well, this is me.”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ve been married a long time. You get plenty of chances. It’s my birthday.”
“It really is.”
“That’s not gonna help.”
“Stand up.”
“Go on.”
“Not yet.”
“Come on, let’s go. Come on, forget your shoes. Let’s go. Come on!”
“Come on.”
“I’m just here to show you the continuity of our service. With our without Bert Peterson, you are on our mind.”
“Morris, you remember Salvatore Romano.”
“Sal, this is Howard.”
“Well, is it about our work? I mean, we don’t want to take credit for everything, but 2 of every 3 raincoats sold last year had London Fog stitched on the inside pocket.”
“London Fog is a 40 year old brand that sounds like it’s existed forever. You’ve established with our help that it means one thing. Rain coats. New products aside, there will be fat years and there will be lean years, but it is going to rain.”
“What time is it?”
“We should be back in the office by 3.”
“I’m gonna ask you something and I want you to be completely honest with me. London Fog. It’s a subway car, and there’s a commuter looking up. There’s a girl with her back to us. She’s wearing one of those short tan ones, but it’s open. Her legs are bare. We know what he’s seeing. Limit your exposure.”
“Good.”
“Help yourself. So, Cosgrove vs Campbell. Is Cooper playing God or Darwin?”
“Lane read about it in some management book?”
“Come in.”
“What?”
“Our stories are straight.”
“Find how much it is to repair and it will come out of your allowance.”
“Then don’t break things.”
“Come here.”
“I will always come home. You’ll always be my girl.”
“I don’t sleep well when I’m not here.”
“Yes.”
“Well, it was the middle of the night and it was raining very hard and I had just come home from work.”
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Well now. I can’t imagine many people were disappointed with how this one went. While last week was about disaster, this week was about break ups, new beginnings, and trying to change what appears unchangeable. The satisfaction Don feels at starting off anew juxtaposed with the end of his marriage.

-Of course Don finds out about McCann buying PPL from Hilton. And while the new agency would seem like an opportunity to get more of Hilton’s business, that doesn’t appear in the cards. We’ll see next year.

-Speaking of next year, what’s your guess on how long down the road the season starts? I bet Sterling Cooper Draper Price will have moved into an office and is more of a viable business. That would mean that we see nothing for the Draper divorce, though.

-Speaking of the Draper divorce, what will Betty’s role be next year? I’ve voiced displeasure with her character before, but I can’t imagine her being completely jettisoned the way Sal was.

-Speaking of Sal, interesting that they threw a bone to all the people who miss him with the momentary trouble of the art department being locked. How many of you thought that’d be his ticket back until Don kicked that door down? Or maybe he really is done on the show. One way to come back could be working for McCann, now that they don’t have Lucky Strike. Kenny and his Haircut and Kinsey will also need to pop up from time to time.

-With Pete and Peggy ostensibly re-energized is that it for Duck? I’m still curious what Peggy sees in him, but her track record with guys is pretty awful, so I suppose she just has bad taste.
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This episode was all about things falling apart and disasters. Obviously. I had read or heard (but can’t remember where) after last season that the writers had wanted to skip Kennedy’s assassination because it has been touched on so many times on different programs. This may be the seed of the rumors (also after last season) that suggested the show was going to jump a couple years between season 2 and season 3. In any case, all of the foreshadowing of things falling apart, disasters, destruction (grandpa Gene telling Sally all hell was going to break loose anyone?) were leading up to this episode apparently.

-Before we get to the disasters… With carnage all around her Peggy seems to be in a pretty good place. We had never gotten confirmation that she decided to live with Lizzie from Undeclared and we didn’t know she was seeing Duck on a regular basis (her excuse for leaving, “I have to go to the printer” was the same Don used in season 1 when she was his secretary). Both were revealed in the span of about 10 minutes. I was wondering this afternoon if the Duck/Peggy thing was his heavy handed attempt to convince to leave Sterling-Cooper. It still could be, I guess. “Duck’s not married.” “Oh, then why are you with him?”

-First up in disasterville, Pete finding out that Ken Cosgrove will be made Head of Accounts. Initially, Trudie wanted him to stay, but that changed by the end of the weekend. In much the same way I don’t understand why Pete (and his terrible personality) is considered such a good client services professional, I don’t understand how Ken can be any good either. He’s a bimbo, a published bimbo, but a bimbo. Maybe if we ever saw them servicing clients, we’d understand.

-Margaret’s wedding. Back in episode 2, we saw the draft invitation for the wedding with a date of 11/23. This made it clear that Mad Men would cover Kennedy’s assassination. What wasn’t clear was what would happen to the wedding. Only half the guests showed up, and no one felt like celebrating. In case you missed the connection to this episode’s theme, Roger even said on the phone later that it was a disaster. We also got to see a high society 60’s wedding, complete with a toast from the father of the bride into a father-daughter dance. The band leader shows that wedding bands haven’t changed that much when he cajoled everyone to join them.

-I was surprised by the reaction to the Kennedy assassination and it’s unlikely there would be a similar response these days. Most of the people in the office didn’t vote for Kennedy, but even Bert Cooper seemed riveted to the coverage. It was definitely a different time, and the sadness among everyone is a stark reminder. That Betty (who didn’t vote for him) and Carla (who did) could both have the same tearful response was a very strong way of illustrating the feelings in the country. (As Trudie said, “You don’t just shoot the president.”) I was curious about Pete’s line, “It felt for a second like everything was going to change,” almost as if he had started to like Kennedy’s policies. I may have misunderstood what specifically, politically or otherwise, he was talking about.

-When Pete and Trudie were talking about going to the wedding, Trudie said, “There’s a system.” Referring to Pete’s understanding of what other people call the game. I’d love to see a book written by Pete called ‘The System – 40 Rules for Business Success’.” Pete not wanting to go to the wedding has more to do with him not getting the promotion than Kennedy, though.

-Don and Betty, Don and Betty, Don and Betty. I wish their relationship hadn’t been made a focal point of the show. At this point, the show is unable to cover fresh ground unless they do break up. If they don’t, it will be an annual theme, Don and Betty, relationship in trouble, Don apologizes, from the heart this time, Betty accepts, but still resents, rinse, repeat. How many times are we going to see Betty wrinkle her brow and have Don try to soothe her before walking away condescendingly? My issue is that I don’t think Don gives a shit about Betty. Everything about his character, his philandering, his desire to run constantly, not wanting to be tied down, leads us to this conclusion, so why all the consternation? He just doesn’t want to lose the picture perfect family life. In the same vein, Betty has always been superficial and child-like, so what’s sticking in her craw now? How about this for next year? Don apologizes, Betty accepts, and then all of the time we WOULD have seen Don and Betty marriage in crisis, we can see Sterling-Cooper action shots of client pitches and meetings instead.

Prediction for next week? Well, no resolution. I’ve seen talk of Don and Co opening their own advertising house. I don’t see how this works on a practical level. (And thanks to commenter Dorf for reminding me of the legal level. Don can’t leave without breaking his contract.) Too many characters would have to be jettisoned. Peggy seemed poised to be a major part of this season at the end of last year and nothing really this year. Pete’s been on the verge of leaving for the entire series, he can’t go with Duck unless there’s a way for them to continue working with Sterling-Cooper somehow. Everyone wants Sal back, obviously, but in what form. Man, I guess anything can happen.

Photo by Flickr user smithsoccasionalIn the first 2 seasons, there were weeks without any surprises or shocks. This year, there are some weeks with 2-3 an episode. There’s certainly a lot more jaws dropping and I think I like it. What do you think? As this season rounds out, how do you think it compares to the first 2?

-Clever to use the celebration of Halloween for Don’s ultimate unmasking to Betty. The holiday where everyone dresses up as someone else was the day Don had to come clean to Betty and take off his costume. It wasn’t clear right away that Betty understood the Don/Dick stuff in the shoebox, as it seemed she was only upset about the divorce. That was quickly answered when she asked if he was Dick. Don lost it and told her. Wow. Not how I imagined him telling her. And over everything was the tension of Suzanne Farrell sitting out in the car. Would she come in? Would she stay there? Don didn’t know, and we didn’t either!

-John Hamm has won all the acclaim for acting like Don Draper all the time. This was the first we saw any range out of him and I think it worked.

-More on this. It wasn’t clear that Don was going to tell her the truth until he did. Nothing in what we’ve seen of his character would ever lead us to believe that his best option was telling the truth on this subject. It’s amazing to consider he didn’t have a sketch of an explanation prepared. This was handled almost exactly opposite Don handled the Pete Campbell/Burt Cooper reveal.

-The focus group scene had double double meanings. Don arguing that Annabell needed to change the name of the company to protect a product that by all accounts was quality. That the name is just a “label on a can”. Honestly, I don’t even know if Don was thinking of his own name change there. And then Roger chimes in with “Let it go, it’s over.” A signal to Annabel that they weren’t going to have a relationship. Where would Don Draper have eaten horse meat?

-Ahh, Suzanne. Will we see you again? Unclear. Usually when Don ends an affair, that’s it for the character. I guess we won’t get any more blunt dialogue for a while, along the lines of “I see a man who is not happy”. Her asking if Don was OK after he called to tell her it was over was also revealing. Did we ever figure out what she liked about him? With the exception of the greeting card writer from the Village, it’s been more clear what Don’s dalliances have liked about him. This time, not so much.

-Continuing the unwelcome theme of less and less Sterling-Cooper there was a lot of Roger in this episode. I liked how they efficiently tied in his ex-lover and the theme of name changing, but I don’t think we’ll see her again. Fittingly for an episode with a lot of Roger, there was also a lot of Joan. The scene where Dr. Harris was practicing his interview with her was great, showing one of Joan’s unappreciated talents (how to ace an interview). Then, later, when Joan hit Dr. Harris with a vase, he showed a skill for psychiatry calling her insane. Hio! She hit him after he said she didn’t know what it was like to want something all her life. What she wanted was a good, happy husband. I imagine the Army will be a good change for him.

-No Pete, Kinsey, Crane, Peggy…

-Right at the beginning of the episode, Betty asked Don for some money in one of her childish tests, leading me to think it was the divorce she was upset about. I was surprised by her shrewdness when she asked about Dick. Her conversation with the anachronistic Jewish lawyer was fitting as he gave anachronistic relationship advice.

-Mad Men continued this season’s theme of phenomenal closing shots as Carlton asked “What are you two supposed to be?” to a dumbstruck Don and Betty.

This is one of those episodes with which I don’t know what to do. Since I didn’t write about every episode last year, I can’t really remember if this next statement is true: This season seems very inconsistent. Phenomenal episodes followed by good episodes followed by OK episodes. And I saw this thought on another site last week, but have been thinking it myself. This season has been outside the office more and it’s not a good thing. More Sterling-Cooper please!

-Obviously the big moment in this episode is Betty finding Don’s secret box. Luckily for him, she seemed to be too distracted by his fake divorce to question Dick Whitman’s stuff too closely. I loved when Don called the house the morning of the party and didn’t realize Betty was mad at him… She was raring for a fight and then sort of backed down.

-The teacher is crazy and this is not going to end well. She’s saying all the right things now, about how she doesn’t care about his family. You’ll see. So who called and hung up if not the teacher and not Henry Francis (though I guess Betty called him to let us know he’s not done on the show yet)? I bet it was the teacher.

-”Do you feel bad about what you do?” “Nobody feels as good about what they do as you do.” Teach didn’t mean the question to be anything more than about advertising, unfortunately, but Don still dodged it.

-Last week we had a “Betty” episode, which aren’t that awesome, but if they start focusing episodes on the teacher, I’ll be upset. Taking her brother for a ride was weird. I don’t know if they were telling us that not everyone could be like Don and just make a change in his life (”I’m addlicted.”). The second time this season Don has given all his money to someone younger than him he had just met (though the first was involuntary). The little brother had Don described perfectly when he used the phrase “his plans were interrupted.” If people would just stop screwing with Don’s plans.

-”I swore to myself that I would do this right once.” Don was thinking his brother, Adam, when he said that. Otherwise, I don’t think we know yet what he was talking about.

-Another big reveal is that Sterling-Cooper is for sale, much to the delight of Price’s wife, who has not taken to the US. No clue what this means for next year. Bert Cooper’s a funny character, “Who told you I was vain?”

-”I hate when that happens.” Kinsey and Peggy were surprised that Don had opened up to them about losing good ideas. That expression of fallibility was humane and somewhat out of character. These quick moments, when a throw away line and shrug of the shoulders, reveal more about Don than some half episodes. It’s why we watch, amirite?

Apologies for skimping this week, was out on Sunday night and had to rush this to get some normal amount of sleep.

Lots to talk about tonight with several seemingly major plot points. Let’s get right to it:

-While Don has been courting Conrad Hilton, (Eddie Harris in Major League, by the way), Betty has been doing her own thing with Henry Francis. Getting caught by Carla and throwing a fundraiser as a useless cover. Betty sniped at the Governor’s woman sent to the fundraiser, then threw the money from the fundraiser. In the end, she decided she didn’t want to debase herself on a desk, ffice sofa, or random hotel room. Hard to tell if this one is over.

-As far as what we’ve seen on the show, Hilton might be the first thing Don’s gone after and not gotten. Yet. Since we met him, Connie’s been flirting with Don, begging him to tell him what to do. (”How do we know to do it, Don? How do we know to do something.”) And now he’s pulled back. I’m not certain what made him so mad, since… couldn’t they just come up with a slide for the moon?

-I want what I want when I want it. Roger said that earlier in the year, so when Betty said it tonight, I figured it was something. And lo, it’s a movie from 1908.

-The teacher went to Bowdoin (Actually, she didn’t. Women weren’t allowed at Bowdoin until 1970. Must have been a boyfriend’s shirt. Thanks commenter.), Betty is left-handed, Peggy died her hair, and Pete doesn’t smoke. The last, I hadn’t noticed. What are they trying to say there?

-Ahh, Sal. If you had Lee Garner, Jr in the pool to figure out which known character would come on to Sal, well, you win. I didn’t see it coming until he started nit picking the commercial. So he’s gone, then? Sort of surprising the way the show is jettisoning some pretty big characters (Sal and Joan), while giving less and less screen time to those that are still there (Peggy and Roger, and Kinsey to an extent). Is it Betty that’s taking up the time, or extra Don?

So this was the culmination of what Don saw in Baltimore? All the people who thought Don was ‘cool’ were proven wrong by his ‘you people’ remark, but maybe it’ll come back around somehow. If you missed it, Don wasn’t mad that Sal was gay, just that he didn’t do what he needed to keep Lee ‘Lucky Strike’ Garner, Jr happy. Though, it should be said that sex means something different to Don than to… most everyone else on the show. Hard to say why Sal was calling his wife from the cruisy park. Going on a bender? Prepping for Lee? Showing that he did have some experience? Somewhat connected to Sal getting fired, I thought Betty was going to fire Carla to avoid having to deal with getting caught.

-We got another, “What do you want me to say?” when Don went to see the teacher. His dalliances, by the way, keep ratcheting up the danger (this one only 2 miles from home) as if along with the chance at another life, Don is also feeding on the risk. First a stranger in the village, then a client, then his daughter’s former teacher.

-Finally, tonight’s episode had Don about as unlikable as we’ve seen for most of the episode. What’d you think?