The neckties were skinny, the expense accounts fat, and lunchtime liaisons were as plentiful as secretaries’ IBM Selectrics.
In the 1960s world of AMC’s “Mad Men,” the retro drama populated by busy advertising executives, “Those men were the real power players of the era,” said Elisabeth Moss, who plays a naive but ambitious secretary-turned-copywriter. “They were at the forefront of everything. There were changes happening (in the world), and they definitely felt that power.”
Those ad men and their storyboards return for a second season July 27. For those who missed the initial run, AMC is airing a marathon of all of the first season’s 13 episodes today, beginning at 10 a.m. MDT.
With the feel of a theatrical film, the show is complemented by period details, including references to 1960s pop culture and politics. It drew almost instant critical acclaim with its intriguing, interwoven story lines. “Mad Men,” AMC’s first original series, was nominated Friday for 16 Emmy Awards, more than any other drama. It also has garnered a pair of Golden Globes and a Peabody Award.
The program depicts the professional and personal lives of executives and secretaries at the fictional Sterling Cooper ad agency. Triumphs and schemes, secrets and lies play out against the backdrop of the golden age of Madison Avenue — the Manhattan location and nickname for the realm of advertising.
“I picked advertising because that’s where the cool jobs were at that time,” said Matthew Weiner, the show’s creator. “It was the period of highly paid people in creative jobs behaving badly.” Weiner centered the series on the character of Don Draper, a suave, philandering ad executive with a dark side.
Even Moss’ character, Peggy Olson, whose honesty and creative flair led to a job promotion, has something “she can’t be honest about,” Moss said, referring to a plot development at the end of last season.
For her role, Moss often wears demure checked or plaid dresses. She said the series’ vintage wardrobe choices add to its realism: vested and three-button suits for the men, sheath dresses or full, flared skirts for the women, whose heavy “foundation” garments ensure the right silhouette.
The clothes are “what you see if you look in magazines. It’s all going back to that — a very structured, ’60s look of being all covered up and put together,” Moss said. She was struck by another realistic touch on the set: Characters routinely puff away on cigarettes. “The smoke just sort of hangs over everything; it’s disgusting,” Moss said. “But that’s how it was then. And it’s not really so long ago.”
