The finale of Mad Men is the talk of the town. It’s hardly surprising—Entertainment Weekly has called the show, “the TV-taste status symbol of the moment.”
So what is everyone saying? In a tribute to Mad Men’s impact on its industry, Ad Week quotes Stuart Elliott, the recently retired New York Times advertising columnist: “Half of the people I talk to from that era are very hard-core fans of the show and say that it is exactly what it was like then. And half say the show was completely phony and drummed up for dramatic purposes.”
I’ve thought a lot about the specifics of the Mad Men era—it is the setting for the novel I am currently writing—and I find myself with a foot in both camps. While there are times when details or situations seem exaggerated for dramatic effect, overall, the show is wonderfully evocative of my early days in New York.
“The boys in the bullpen”
In 1964, just out of Rhode Island School of Design, I was determinately in search of a job as an assistant art director in New York.Continue Reading →
