Two of my all-time favorite shows are going off the air next week: “Mad Men” and David Letterman. I haven’t watched Letterman in years, but I probably watched at least a thousand episodes when I was in college.
What do people think is going to happen on the last episode of “Mad Men”? Is Pete really moving to Kansas? Will Don come back to New York (I think yes)? Will Peggy finally get together with that bearded 70s guy? What will be the final song they play? I was kind of hoping for “Alone Again (Naturally)” as Don sits by himself in his office or his car or a bar.
I could never get into “Mad Men” in the Slate “what does it all mean, what does it say about our society” way, but I loved the clothes, and the booze, and Roger’s one-liners. Not every show’s going to be “The Wire” (and even “The Wire” packed Season 5 with too much faux sociological import).
Punchy
Is it bad that I’ve never seen a single episode of Mad Men, The Wire, or for that matter, Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad? Does that make me a tool, a Luddite, or a clueless moran?
Betty Cracker
I’m several episodes behind on Mad Men because I prefer to binge-watch whole seasons, but maybe I’ll sit down and catch the last half of the last season plus the finale on Sunday; I understand AMC has a marathon running.
I’ve seen several theories about how Mad Men will end and even what the final theme will be. Someone says Don will be DB Cooper and jump out of a plane with a parachute and bag of cash. Someone else speculated that the last song will be “Bye, Bye Miss American Pie” and had an elaborate theory about why.
My favorite theory was that Pete will be eaten by a bear. I hope that’s true. I hate that motherfucker.
DougJ
@Punchy:
Mad Men’s just a fun show. No special reason to watch it.
Betty Cracker
@Punchy: None of the above, unless you believe eschewing that programming makes you superior to people who do watch those shows, in which case, all of the above.
DougJ
@Betty Cracker:
I’m so sick of American Pie, but better that than Vincent.
Betty Cracker
@DougJ: Oh Christ, no, not “Vincent!” But “Alone Again,” while contextually more appropriate, is just as schmalzy and horrible.
Napoleon
I haven’t watched Letterman basically since he was on in the morning when I was in college (that was simply a great show). The only reason I watch any late night TV now (The Daily Show) is because of recording, which I never had for years and years.
ducktape
I think Don ends up in California as Dick Whitman, working as a bartender and listening to everyone else’s problems while basically walking away from all of Don Draper’s.
Monday morning, we’ll see if I can say “told ya!”
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Pete’s one character everybody can agree on–he’s a vile turd and Weiner’s having a laugh on us with his “happy ending.” Ah well.
“American Pie” fits into the show’s calendar point perfectly, but seems a little obvious (other than 2/3 of the viewers don’t have any connection to it). They won’t top “Baby Blue” as the Breaking Bad final song, so I kind of hope they don’t try.
Had to leave the teevee after this week’s show–it ripped my guts out (or smacked me upside the head with a phonebook, your choice). So I waited until the next night to catch up on Veep and Silicon Valley. The new safe word is “Kiko the monkey.”
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
Vincent? How would the song about Van Gogh fit an episode of Mad Men?
trollhattan
@ducktape:
Like it. Who will play “Norm!”? Will Sally change her last name to Whitman?
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Don may have had two ears at the end of the last episode, but they’ve time-jumped before….
DougJ
@Amir Khalid:
The world did not love Don, and yet his love was true. So when no hope was left in sight, on that starry starry night….
Amir Khalid
@DougJ:
Oh, I see. Gotcha.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: My point was that “Alone Again” would be contextually a better fit than “Vincent.” But both are horrible, awful, no-good songs — “Having My Baby”-level schmaltz!
chopper
if only every show could be orphan black.
Napoleon
What year is Mad Men in now? 1969?
DougJ
@Betty Cracker:
Whoa, “Alone Again” is nowhere near as bad as “Having My Baby”. Ain’t no ballpark neither.
piratedan
well they could always do a fast forward to 1975 to incorporate Eric Carmen’s All By Myself…. to show Draper alone and melancholy
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: @DougJ: Darn you both to heck. I now have “Having my Baby” as an earworm.
trollhattan
@Napoleon:
’73? They had a Nixon speech about Vietnam a couple episodes ago that established the year and date, but I can’t quite remember which speech. He’s been reelected, I’m pretty sure, which would put us in the fall of the following year.
Napoleon
@piratedan:
Eric Carmen actually lives near me (a mile or two – his brother was my mayor at one point)
Chris
@Punchy:
Never watched Mad Men.
Never watched Game of Thrones.
Never watched House of Cards.
Never watched Breaking Bad.
Never watched The Wire.
Heck, I never even finished Battlestar Galactica.
I think one of the big things dissuading me is the way everything’s freaking serialized nowadays. Not really interested in starting a TV series and then sitting through 13 or 24 hours (or worse, several seasons) to find out how a plot point wraps up. Or rather, I am, but there’s only so many shows I can put that kind of time into at once. Part of the reason I love catching old eighties TV shows on Netflix is that when I’ve got an hour or two of free time, I can just put in an episode and be done with the story after 45 minutes.
The other thing being, I’m completely over spending hours on end just watching assholes being assholes. Which is what a lot of today’s TV shows amount to in my philistine eyes.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
Salon says this might help.
Brachiator
I will miss Letterman who, probably despite himself, became an institution. And like Carson, sometimes he tried to hide how smart and tuned in he really was. I remember watching him deftly skewer some political blowhard all while insisting that “Hey, I’m just a clueless rube.”
I also have to say that the weird sex semi-scandal he got himself involved in was off putting, and helped lead me to stop watching the show. And it’s odd to look back and think about how important the late night talk show wars used to be, and that entire Letterman vs Leno grudge match.
I’ve never seen Mad Men. I might try to do a binge watch later on. Oddly enough, though, I find one of the Andy Greenwald Grantland podcasts that discuss the show to be insanely interesting and insightful about the show and TV in general.
A current episode is here.
http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/hollywood-prospectus-podcast-mad-men-game-of-thrones-and-tv-upfronts/
piratedan
@Napoleon: his 75 solo album was pretty good but I lost my musical cherry thanks to him and his fellow Raspberries, been a Power Pop junkie ever since.
john b
@trollhattan: the date of the last episode was October 3, 1970
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
If you have a gazillion-terrabyte HD in the old DVR they’re running the entire series in sequence at the moment as a finale buildup.
trollhattan
@john b:
Oh, well then I’m way off.
Betty Cracker
@DougJ: We disagree. I’m hard-pressed to come up with any song as maudlin as “Alone Again” — except the awful HMB, which I sometimes believe was a hoax perpetrated on 70s listening audiences to see just how much treacle could flood the studio without inspiring torch-and-pitchfork-wielding mobs to take to the streets.
shell
In AMC’s marathon, I just saw one of the early episodes where Pete tries to blackmail Don over a job by telling him he knows of his real name. When Don won’t capitulate, they both go to Cooper. Pete lays out the truth about Don’s secret life. Love the deflated expression on his face when Cooper’s reaction is a bored ‘So what?” After he flees the office…
Cooper: (to Don) ‘You can fire him if you like.’
shell
@DougJ: Howz about ‘Billy Don;t Be A Hero’
Ugh.
Betty Cracker
@Chris:
We ALL are, but at least with TV, you can watch different assholes being assholes instead of the assholes you’re forced to encounter in everyday life. And at least you have the comfort of knowing the fictional assholes aren’t real…
Omnes Omnibus
@shell: Let us not go down that road. No good could come of it.
Miko Hazelteen
My prediction for Pete Campbell is that that he meets a similar fate as his old man.
shell
My vote is for ‘ NA NA HEY HEY KISS HIM GOODBYE–Steam ‘
Brachiator
@Chris:
One of the local digital broadcast stations here has been showing back to back episodes of TV shows from the 50s and 60s. Stuff like Naked City, The Millionaire, Love American Style, Sgt Bilko, Route 66. A couple of other stations have been showing old shows in a daily format.
Jumping into these shows, I pretty much conclude that the crap-to-quality ratio is a universal constant.
kc
@Punchy:
None of the above, but you are missing out on some really exceptional TV. I’ve never seen The Wire or Game of Thrones myself … will probably binge-watch the latter one of these days.
DougJ
@Chris:
Does that mean you no longer interact with human beings?
kc
@Betty Cracker:
Pete has kind of grown on me, bless his heart.
Tom Q
Pete Campbell is the Eddie Haskell of Mad Men world (anyone who, like I, grew up in the Mad Men years knows that reference instantly; probably many others as well). But let me say that no one on any show in history has spoken ridiculous lines as well as Vincent Karteiser does as Pete. His rejoinder in the Greenwich Country Day School office a few weeks back — “The king ordered it!” — was divine in its goofiness.
My particular take on the music ratings is, Having My Baby WAY below Alone Again, but also Alone Again WAY below Vincent, which I kind of like so screw you all.
piratedan
@Brachiator: to be fair, there was some quality programming back then, Perry Mason, Twilight Zone, Combat and the Dick Van Dyke show come to mind, but I will concede that it is a matter of personal taste.
Steeplejack
@piratedan:
Palate-cleansing anti-earworm: Raspberries, “Go All the Way.”
DougJ
@Tom Q:
Vincent Karteiser is simply amazing on that show. Maybe the single best performance in a show of great performances.
trollhattan
@kc: “Wire” is must see for anybody who loves cinema and good storytelling. GOT is an acquired taste, at least for those like myself who have not read (nor any interest in) the books. I watched it strictly for the spectacle, and maybe three seasons in began to figure out who the hell these characters were–those they hadn’t already bumped off anyway. It definitely has its moments.
kc
@Chris:
The hell are you doing in the Balloon Juice comments section?
Kajey
They are in 1970, so, depending on what happens, Joni Mitchell’s Circle Game is a contender for final song. It calls back to the season one finale with the Kodak Carousel pitch. Maybe too obvious? But if Don really does return to take care of his kids, it might make sense.
kc
@trollhattan:
I really should watch “The Wire.” I feel kind of culturally illiterate for not having seen it.
Napoleon
@trollhattan:
The intertubes tells me they are in 1970.
Alone Again was released in 72 and Miss American Pie 71.
1970 gave us Bridge over Troubled Water, American Woman, Let It Be, The Long and Winding Road, Lola, No Time, The Letter among otheres
Napoleon
@piratedan:
I love power pop.
shell
@kc: I think his rapidly receding hairline has made him more sympathetic.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
I’ve got a Roku box and and Amazon Fire TV stick (and Amazon prime), but no DVR. I hadn’t been watching much tv at all for a while, but am now playing catch-up on some shows.
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
tammy wynette wins with D-I-V-O-R-C-E. tho that came out in what, 68? generally thematic with the show.
ugh, now it’s in my head. fuck you, tammy. the circle jerks do a version of the song, i’ll go listen to that.
ellie
I read a great prediction: Don returns to NY (which he better because his kids need him, the selfish fuck) and weasels his way back into McCann Erickson and pitches Coke on “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” ad (which came out in 1971), hence the preoccupation with Coke all season. So, we’ll see.
Tree With Water
The problem with late night talk shows is a person can only listen to so many years (or minutes) worth of actors talking shop and hawking movies before they just don’t care anymore, forever.
Omnes Omnibus
@ellie: Eh, my guess is that the White Walkers get everybody.
Betty Cracker
@chopper: Interesting, because I always thought “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” had an ironic subtext that prevented it from winning the treacle sweepstakes — ditto “Stand by Your Man.”
Turgidson
Next in Slate: “How Donald Draper’s womanizing proves that we need to raise the Social Security eligibility age.”
PG
@Napoleon: In the last episode it was October 1970.
Brachiator
@piratedan:
Oh, I agree that there were some gems. But this is true of any era of TV. But lots of crap.
My mother was a big fan of the Perry Mason tv show and the mystery novels, but I would put this firmly on the crap list. Twilight Zone, definitely quality. I watched an episode of Route 66 that was about 15 minutes of actual drama spread out into an hour episode. On the other hand, I found some episodes of The Millionaire to be oddly compelling. One show was particularly tough minded, featuring a young Angie Dickinson (yum yum) as a woman whose husband had been murdered and who used her million to seek justice. Another good episode featured a pre Wyatt Earp Hugh O’Brien as a Texas rodeo cowboy who blew his wad (in more ways than one) on a New York gold digger, surprisingly, but subtly mature (no obvious references to sex and seduction) before returning home and to his true love.
The crazy thing is that apparently some years into its run, they decided that the Millionaire was too serious, so they suddenly had some episodes done as comedy with a laugh track. Totally ridiculous.
But Hopalong Cassidy TV Western. Yikes! Naked City? Some great stuff, but even a young Robert Duvall was ridiculously hammy in one dramatically overripe episode.
PG
@ducktape: I imagine the same, only one better.
I predict that Don “kills” Don Draper….i.e. fakes his own death. After he cashes out his millions, natch. And he hits the road, still a stylish hobo, as Dick Whitman.
zmulls
My usual comment is that there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who think THE WIRE is one of the three best television programs ever (if not the best), and those who haven’t seen it. (There is a small group of folks who have watched some of it but the show didn’t happen for them). THE WIRE takes patience — and everyone has the same experience, you have to get through 4-5 episodes before you really start to ‘hear’ it. Many (including me) go back to the beginning and rewatch from the start. All the pieces matter. I sometimes think it should be required viewing for everyone in America, especially when we start talking about what happened in Baltimore or Ferguson.
I took a long time to warm up to Mad Men. I am usually behind the curve on the “great show of the moment.” But I admire it, I think, more than I like it. I do enjoy it, but it is very much like reading a novel from a different era. It doesn’t rush moments, and they stay away from contemporary camera tricks. The production design is whimsical and obsessive, and the episodes reward rewatching. And I do believe Weiner has had his long game in mind, and has not just been making crap up as he went (like some shows that took place on a magic island that I won’t discuss and won’t ever watch again).
It almost has to end with Don accepting that he’s Dick Whitman, doesn’t it? And I do think Don has to come back for Betty’s funeral. If I had to lay down a bet, we’re in for a one- or two- year jump to put the characters squarely in the 70s and squarely in the Nixon years. It would be just like Weiner to finish up around Watergate.
As for Orphan Black, listed above? No, all shows can’t be Orphan Black and that’s fine with me. The first season was pretty good but lost steam, the second season was yadda yadda yadda stuff happens, and the third season is I Wonder If I Fast Forward Through This Male Clone Scene Will It Matter. I watch it because I’ve never seen anyone pull off the sorcery of acting the way that Tatiana Maslany does — every time she is on screen (and especially when she’s on screen with herself) I’m just gobsmacked, and I’m willing to sit through all sorts of overplotted tripe to watch her as any one of her characters. My favorite parts are when one of her has to pretend to be another of her, and you can still tell who she really is. Amazing.
gogol's wife
I’m planning to watch the last episode of Wolf Hall again tonight, even if it is going to give me nightmares again. It’s so brilliant.
Bobby Thomson
Season 5 of the Wire was just stupid. Can we all pretend it never happened?
Bobby Thomson
@Betty Cracker: in fairness, the writer of Alone Again was clinically depressed.
Now Shannon, there’s some treacle.
rikyrah
Don will be back because his kids need him.
Pete and Trudy will get back together.
I hope Joan gets a happy ending.
I hope that Peggy gets the professional respect she deserves.
This final part wasted the first two episodes. But, taken as a whole, this final season comes as close to the genius of the first 3 seasons than anything in a long time.
I will miss the delusional world of Mad Men, because it was, for a time, excellent television. It lost its way, especially in seasons 5 and 6, but came back in season 7.
rikyrah
@ellie:
if he does that….it would be so Don Draper.
zmulls
@Bobby Thompson
S5 of The Wire was certainly not at the level of the previous four (especially S4). But that’s praising with faint damns. I recently watched it again and found a lot more to like about it than I did previously. I’m with the crowd that felt that Simon was taking too easy targets in the newsroom scenes, and had trouble with the whole McNulty/Freeman caper. But all the stuff that resulted from it was firmly rooted in character and there were tons of great moments. (Omar, Marlo, Prop Joe, etc.) So two cheers for S5 rather than three.
The Ancient Randonneur
I just started watching Firefly on Hulu so it will be a while before I get to Mad Men.
Brachiator
@zmulls:
You know, I can respect this sentiment. I am amused by the number of people who didn’t know or care about this show who come away deeply impressed and sold on it after they have been persuaded to watch it.
The Wire, like Mad Men, is another show on my watch list.
@gogol’s wife:
I’ll be watching the last episode for the first time later this evening. Now, I am really looking forward to it.
Napoleon
@ellie:
I just looked it up and in reality, McCann Erickson did in fact come up with that advertisement. I didn’t realize they were using the name of a real advertising agency in the show.
MaryRC
@ellie: Yes! I am so there with this. Don is flirting with life on the road, but last week’s episode set it up for him to return for his children’s sake. He’s got the Coke account … and the last scene we see will be Don pitching “I’d like to teach the world to sing” … which was early 1971, right?, just a few months away.
Of course, the “New Coke” fiasco is still a few years in the future …
MaryRC
@Tom Q: That scene was so hilarious to me, because I have both MacDonalds and Campbells in my family tree (proving that they could bury the hatchet long enough to marry each other) and I have heard that exact same sentence!
Which of course just makes it sound worse — the Campbells only murdered the MacDonalds at Glencoe because they were under orders? I’ve had Campbells tell me that they’d rather their ancestors killed the MacDonalds for their pocket change — it would have been more heroic.
zmulls
@Napoleon Not only is McCann Erickson a real agency, if you do some Googling, you’ll see how they’ve been good sports about the whole thing, even when the show has made them out to be trolls. (They realize they’d look bad if they were pissy about it). They’ve made some amusing tweets in real time as the episodes have unfolded.
gman
Song will be something from George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, released in November 1970?
Linnaeus
I think so, too. As poor a husband Don was to Betty and Megan, he tried to be a decent father to his children for the most part. I have a hard time seeing him not going to Betty’s funeral (given how he and Betty seemed to be on good terms when we last saw them) and not caring for Sally, Bobby, and Gene.
I like the prediction that he comes back to McCann Erickson and comes up with the Coke ad (btw, I remember watching Charlie Brown specials on CBS into the 1980s and that commercial was still shown). Don’s had a bit of a losing streak lately as an ad man, but he’s still Don F-ing Draper. I don’t think he’s lost it.
On the other hand, he does seem to be shedding the Draper persona and rediscovering being Dick Whitman. He’s also said in the past that if he left Sterling Cooper, it wouldn’t be for more advertising. Recall, also, that in the last episode, Don said to the young hustler that he was in advertising. So maybe he comes back to New York, collects the kids, and moves out to California with them.
Linnaeus
I should add that there’s also the possibility that Peggy comes up with the Coke ad.
Chris
@DougJ:
No. It means that when I switch from news to entertainment, it’s not necessarily because I want to watch the same kind of people doing the same kind of things.
Elizabelle
Liking this Mad Men marathon. Have missed more episodes than I viewed, and no episode is a waste of time.
No guesses on Don’s future, but I do not see him abandoning his children.
Elizabelle
@DougJ:
Great use of a White Stripes title. Well done, sir.
Bum bum bum bum bum BUM bum …
MaryRC
@Betty Cracker: I’ve been arguing with someone about the DB Cooper theory. I really don’t see it. The ransom that Cooper collected was only $200,000. Don was already a millionaire, in fact he casually handed $1 million over to Megan even though he didn’t have to. Why would he risk death or life imprisonment for less money than he already had?
There’s also the fact that no-one to this day knows who Cooper really was. So why would you go to the trouble of faking your death when no-one knows it’s you?
But some people are really in love with this theory, I guess.
ellie
@zmulls: Tatiana Maslany is absolutely amazing in Orphan Black.
Betty Cracker
@gogol’s wife: Finally saw it. Utterly chilling!
@Linnaeus: That would be cool!
@MaryRC: Yeah, I don’t really buy it either, but it’s an interesting theory.
David Koch
the Uncensored version (NSFW)
Medicine Man
@trollhattan: I actually disagree. I don’t completely loathe the entitled man-child that is Pete Campbell.
I hold forth hope that what we last saw of Pete was genuine character growth. He realized that all that shit he thought he wanted (status, money, mistresses) were not going to make him happy, took stock of what he really cares about, and got the fuck out of Dodge. He’s still a prick, but maybe he had actual progress. Hell, he may have actually lapped Don Draper on the racecourse of human maturity.
My wife has a bigger hate on for Harry Crane for some reason.
MaryRC
@Linnaeus: That would be terrific. I was so invested in that shot of Peggy sashaying into McCann-Erickson that I just assumed that that would be the last image that we’d have of her. But yes, I like your ending too. Which would leave Don … still heading west, I guess.
RoonieRoo
Mad Men is a rough watch for me as it IS my childhood. My father was a lawyer as opposed to an ad man but Don Draper is my father to a tee. It’s down right creepy. The entire lifestyle of the ad industry there is exactly what I grew up with just with a bunch of lawyers in the 60’s/70’s. My mother has Betty tendencies too.
I thought I was maybe imagining all these similarities but when my sisters and I spent time together taking care of our father at the end of his life a couple of years ago we talked about it and they felt the exact same thing. My older sister couldn’t watch the show as it too perfectly mirrored our lives.
Irony Abounds
I’m in the process of catching up on Mad Med so I’ve skipped through the comments, but for me Letterman leaving is a big loss. His morning show got me through studying for the bar exam, and I truly enjoy his sense of humor. While Leno typically beat him in the ratings, it is difficult to recall ANY “wow” moment from Leno other than the Hugh Grant interview, while Letterman’s career is chock full of them. More importantly, he wasn’t just the genial interviewer who played nice with the guests. They were actually interesting a good percentage of the time. I also guess it is just another sign I’m getting old. Jeter’s gone, Letterman’s gone, Stewart will be shortly. More and more the things I have known for a large portion of my life are gone and I am finding nothing can really replace them.
Bailey
@trollhattan:
MM is in October 1970.
Cervantes
Only in America is sitting on the couch and watching countless days of TV called a marathon!
A real advertising coup — maybe Don Draper came up with it!