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What the Mad Men Season 4 Promo Photo tells us

2010 July 7
tags: , , ,
by TopIdol

The countdown to the fourth season of Mad Men continues (at least in my life) and every day, we seem to receive frustrating “hints” of what’s to come. Today, we have a photo! That’s right — the first promotional photo for Season 4

This really tells us nothing we did not know except that…KEN COSGROVE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? (Pete Campbell is gonna be pissed. Speaking of, Peggy Olson is looking kind of foxy and standing real close to that smug-yet-sympathetic bastard, no?)

But this year’s title credits feature something we can all be thrilled about — the addition of Kiernan Shipka to series regular.

Kiernan Shipka is the brilliant child actress who portrays the angsty & precocious  Sally Draper. (Oh, Kiernan/Sally, please don’t go all Lohan on me. Go the Jodie Foster route. You’re better than huffing from spray-on tan cans and SCRAM bracelets.) This makes sense because the kid is phenomenally talented and frankly, she’s likely coaching January Jones on the side because you can’t get more than the facial-expression-as-seen-above out of that one.

Jon Hamm is also in the photo. He’s pretty much in the center but it wouldn’t matter where he was standing because he is the center of any place he might be and your field of vision will always follow this fact of nature.

18 more days…only 18 more days…only 18 more days…

from → Randomness

  • auntieaimee

    Remember to follow your favorite characters on Twitter! I recommend TheJoanHolloway, RogerSterlingJr, and BadPeggyOlson.

  • deez

    ONE MORE WEEK!!!!!!!!

    The countdown begins!

  • Verbally Dyslexic
    • deez

      Sounds great!!! This interests me:

      “Betty has married Henry Francis, whose mother disapproves of Betty’s mothering skills. Sally is turning into quite the little witch.”

      I’m guessing no more Carla??

      • jukejoint

        I want Betty to have a mother-in-law from hell. Serves your right when Mr. Perfect who was going to rescue her from Don is not so perfect after all.

        • jukejoint

          Jeez louise. Serves your right? Sure. Should be serves HER right.

          • Verbally Dyslexic

            In the TWOP spoilers thread, someone who went stalking saw the crew and Jon Hamm filming a scene outside the Draper residence, so perhaps Henry Francis did move in with Betty and the kids. It sounds awkward to me, but I can’t imagine any other reason to film there.

            If Carla is still there to help take care of the kids and the house, I wonder how she’d feel about Henry and Betty, since she almost caught them red-handed at the doorway once.

          • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

            I imagine Betty would have kept the house and he would have moved in. Seems like things worked like that…back then?

          • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol
        • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

          Carla would have to be there. Who the hell is gonna take care of the kids?

          • deez

            I hope so! But for Betty to have her mothering skills criticized, she’d first have to show us exactly what they are. ( Have we seen her be a mother?) I’m wondering if she thinks she doesn’t need Carla now that everything is ” perfect” and we (and mother in law) get to witness the deficiencies! (Of course I’m just guessing) Then she would whine and pout and (hopefully) Carla will reappear to get Sally back on track!

            Seriously, I don’t remember a really touching moment (or even a playful one) between her and her children. Just a lot of “Go to your room.” (Which makes the whole think with her and Glen even stranger.)

          • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

            Mad Men is way too good a show to employ the ol’ “magical negro” bullshit. Remember, Carla isn’t a nanny. She’s a housekeeper. She just does above and beyond her job. I wish we could see her conversations about the Drapers after the returns to her own home at night.

          • deez

            “thing” with Glen

          • deez

            The kids respect Carla way more than they do Betty, though. I’m wondering if that will be acknowledged even if the character doesn’t return? (not by Betty of course, I don’t think too much of anything dawns on Betty)
            They respect Don as well, even though he wasn’t really around much …at least he wasn’t distant.

            Listening to what Carla really thought of the Drapers would’ve been interesting! I don’t see how she could’ve considered Betty anything other than a dumbass. Perhaps a dumbass to be pitied, but a dumbass nonetheless.

          • jukejoint

            I think Carla will be around when Don has the kids. I know the cliche is that mothers had full custody and the dads never saw them when it came to divorce in the 60s, but I’m remembering this book my sister loved, by the same guy who wrote “Auntie Mame” — it was called “The Joyous Season” and it was about kids who had to go stay with their swinging bachelor dad after their parents got divorced and how he tries to cook on a grill in the living room and everything gets spilled on the thick white shag carpet and the kid (the narrator) thinks he got a lump of charcoal instead of a potato. It was hilarious. And about kids staying with their dad over the holidays and summer. Sally as a major player means she has to be in Don’s sphere some of the time.

            So maybe he hires Carla instead of Betty? Where do we think Betty and Henry live? DC? Somewhere else in Connecticut?

            I wonder if Henry moves in with Betty and the kids in the Draper house, or if she and the kids move in with Henry wherever he lived before. Or some other choice. Because it doesn’t seem likely that Don would have Carla and the kids in his Greenwich Village apartment.

            I seriously CANNOT wait till this season gets started. Oh, Mad Men. I have missed you so.

          • deez

            If they move into the Draper’s house, Carla will probably stay with Betty. If not, she will probably be written out. If the MiL is questioning Betty’s parenting and being overly involved, I am thinking they probably moved in with Henry??? (Gah who knows?) SIX MORE DAYS!!

          • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

            They’re also in NY (Ossining) not CT, and since Henry works for Nelson Rockefeller, the then Governor of NY, they won’t be in DC yet.

  • CK Dexter Haven

    Don’t know if everybody’s seen this:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/arts/television/18mad.html?_r=1

    Now, at the beginning of Season 4, which begins next Sunday, it’s a year later, and the executives of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce go on cattle calls to woo clients. Contracts melt away. The business is precarious and copywriters stoop to publicity stunts to gin up business.

    His personal life is just as altered. Betty is freshly embarked on a new marriage with Henry Francis (Christopher Stanley), an older man and an aide to Nelson Rockefeller. Henry, who has grown children from a previous marriage, promises Betty a better life — though this one comes with a scornful mother-in-law.

    And Don, who had women falling over themselves trying to get him into bed when he was married, finds himself alone in a dark Greenwich Village apartment, shining his own shoes and going out on blind dates. Being a bachelor back in those days before the pill and “The Sensuous Woman” did not automatically include swinging. Don tries to kiss a young woman in the back of a cab but can’t get any further. She won’t let him accompany her to the door to the Barbizon, then a women-only hotel, because, as she puts it coyly, “I know that trick.”

    So, a year has passed? (Darn it! I wanted aftermath!!!)

    Betty vs bitchy mother-in-law? (could be fun)

    Don can’t get into a blind date’s zipper-in-the-back pants? (I don’t buy it)

    • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

      I would take care of Don and have fun with him in the back of a cab.

      I thought they promised that it WOULD NOT be a year later. Hmmm…a year. Oh my. I hope Sal isn’t still roaming around Central Park looking for a trick.

      Wonder what happened with Suzanne the Teacher. And Carla better be around! She’s the only mother Sally and Bobby know!

    • jukejoint

      Being a bachelor back in those days before the pill and “The Sensuous Woman” did not automatically include swinging.

      “Promises, Promises” begs to diffah. All the girls were sleeping with the guys from work. It’s such an odd premise, that one. (From “The Apartment.”) That all the execs at the company live in suburbia but hang out in the city during the week and are desperate to find a place to have sex with the secretaries (or whoever else they have on a string) so they have to pretty much blackmail poor Schmoe CC Baxter (Bud in “The Apartment,” and Chuck in “PP”) into letting them use his apartment for their liaisons. They have a whole song in “Promises Promises” about how they can’t do it their Volkswagen and they can’t do it on a park bench and ladeda. And they’re ALL doing it. In the movie “The Apartment,” the horny execs were Larry Tate from “Bewitched” and the original Edward Quartermaine from “General Hospital” and the My Favorite Martian guy. Not exactly Don Draper! He has his own apartment, even if it’s in the village. He should be holden.

      But it’s amusing they’re using the Barbizon. I remember that name. I think that’s where they lived in “The Best of Everything,” that soapy Madison Avenue movie with Hope Lange and Suzy Kendall instead of Peggy and Joan.

      • jukejoint

        And that should be golden instead of holden. Le sigh.

      • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

        YES! The Best of Everything! And Joan Crawford was their boss.

      • CK Dexter Haven

        The Apartment is on HBO next Tues! (DVR is set!)

        • jukejoint

          I netflixed it before I saw Promises, Promises, just so I could compare. I heart that movie. Jack Lemmon is untouchable.

          Oh, and before I rewatched it, I didn’t realize that Mr. Meldrake the Heel has a secretary (important to the plot — she’s the one who outs him as being a heel) named… Drum roll please… PEGGY OLSON. She’s played by Edie Adams in cat glasses and cute little hats. I heart her, too.

          PEGGY OLSON!

  • deez

    OK, My DVR tells me that S4 Ep 1 involves Don making a mistake that may jeopardize the new agency! (How I wish it would be the hiring of Art Director, Salvatore Romano)

    • jukejoint

      Ten days, ten days, ten days.

      I’m not too excited or anything.

    • jukejoint

      Oh, and I heard a spoiler about what that mistake might be. And it’s not Sal Romano. :-(

      • deez

        Booo. Yeah, I’m sure THAT would’ve leaked by now. *Sigh* I guess I’ll give up on that.

    • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

      Sal Romano. I love you.

      I really hope both Bryan Batt & Matt Weiner are screwing with us when they say Sal is never coming back. Not only is he a huge fan favorite, his story was just too damn good to abandon…especially when it was getting so good. My heart still breaks when I think of Kitty as she watches him doing Bye Bye Birdie in their bedroom. Such an exquisitely acted scene. Blew me away.

  • Destry

    I just want more pirate hooks

    • Destry

      Attached to Hamm of course :)

  • On The Edge

    Bumped because this is the closest to “on-topic” I can find; Jon Hamm in the trailer for the Allen Ginsberg biopic “Howl”:

    http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/07/15/howl-trailer-james-franco-jon-hamm-and-jazz/

    Seriously, it’s as if he stepped straight out of the offices of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and into the courtroom.

  • deez

    YAY! Just finished rewatching S3! These next 2 weeks are gonna be slllooooooooowwwwww.

    • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

      And what did you think of the finale?

      • deez

        It was awesome!!! I had seen it before, but you do catch a lot when you watch it the second time. SCDP has NO art dept, video equip, etc…. They’re going to need resources quickly, or they will be farming out a lot of work, which will be expensive (not to mention tricky). I wonder if they buy someone out? What about Duck’s firm? Didn’t he mention to Peggy that Grey (was it?) was a smaller operation?

        I wonder if they skip over the nuts and bolts of forming SCDP, and start S4 in a new setting, or pick up in the hotel right where we left them?? I’m not sure which I’d prefer. On one hand, it would be fun watching them poach talent, and set up shop; but, that could detract from the time they need for personal storylines. hmmmmmmmmm……2 more weeks…….

  • Dickory Dock

    I can’t wait for season 4 to start.

    Honestly, I’m glad to see Ken Cosgrove will be back. He’s the perfect foil for Pete.

    I want Peggy’s dress.

    Don Draper, you are the man.

    They NEED to bring Sal back somehow. Who do they have for the art department anyway? And the writers can’t possibly pass up all of the potential goodness of having a closeted gay married man to mess around with. I live in hope.

    Harry Crane, you are a goofy bastard but I love you anyway.

    Can’t wait to see where they take Sally’s character.

    SEVENTEEN days, people.

    • Verbally Dyslexic

      I notice that they dress up Elizabeth Moss in really feminine outfits for the promo shoots, which contrasts with with her onscreen attire most of the time. It throws me off a bit.

      They should at least have Sal make an appearance every once in a while. I get that he can’t be part of SCDP because they brought along the Lucky Strike account, but he was pretty fun to have around.

      • jukejoint

        But if Lucky Strike Jr has a heart attack and keels over dead, then Sal can come back. I am more than willing to kill off LS Jr if it means we get Sal back.

        Not to mention they could use Sal freelance and not tell Lucky Strike.

        I also wonder if Ken Cosgrove coming back will be as a rival. He doesn’t have to be working for the Firm of Awesome Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

  • Lucky

    Oh God, I’m so fucking excited for Mad Men! The poster looks amazing. Glad to see Ken back but I’m really, really missing Sal, he is such an interesting character. Any chance they might bring him back at some point?

    • deez

      Just finished up S2, gonna start S3 tomorrow! Lucky, I found this:

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katy-hall/bryan-batt-talks-sals-mad_b_501000.html

      It’s a possibility he could be brought back, but nothing yet:

      Meanwhile Batt is “lighting a candle” for Sal to be resurrected on ‘Mad Men,’ but you don’t have to hold your breath for his next television appearance. He just finished shooting his guest role on the final two episodes of ‘Ugly Betty’–small consolation for fans awaiting the conclusion of one of ‘Mad Men”s most compelling storylines. More than 1,500 of them have joined a Facebook group calling for Sal’s return to Madison Avenue, anachronistic as it may be. Batt insists his request for such a campaign during an interview with New York magazine last fall was completely flip, and he knows better than to hope Weiner would compromise his vision at the whim of his audience, anyway.

      “I was joking! I was totally completely joking,” Batt said. “I would love to think that it matters, but Matt knows what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he wants.”

      Might Don’s new company need a talented art director? Its biggest client is Lucky Strike, but maybe Sal and Lee will meet again. Don, after all, knows how to keep a secret and has shown solidarity with fellow outsiders in promoting Peggy and turning a blind eye to Sal’s romp with the bellhop in Baltimore in the season’s opening episode.

      “Limit your exposure,” Don says on the plane back, and that’s the closest he comes to addressing what he saw. It’s a tagline for London Fog, and it’s a not so subtle warning to Sal.

      “Every word, every line in that show means something–there’s no extraneous dialogue,” Batt said. “Don says to me when I’m fired, ‘You’ll be fine.’ So who knows what that means.”

      And if it means, as legions of fans are hoping, a phone call from Weiner, asking Batt to return to the set?

      “I’d be on a plane in a second!” he said. “Are you kidding me? In a nanosecond, with the slicked hair and ready to go.”

      Think I’ll join that Facebook group!!

  • Verbally Dyslexic

    Have you guys seen this before? The cast and crew singing Bye Bye Birdie. Jon Hamm is at his dorkiest! :D

  • magnacarta

    I have just finished watching season 3. Literally. It is now 2 in the morning, but I know understand what you’ve all been flailing about.

    • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

      Ooooh…you mean the Season 3 finale, right?

      I don’t ever flail. Nor do I use the word flail. But yeah, I would definitely use it about the season finale. The words Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce make me flail.

      • magnacarta

        Right? I knew it was happening, but WOW. Vivement season 4! :D

        • deez

          What is wrong with me? It’s 2 AM and I just finished disk 3 S2. I’m kinda disappointed that I’m really sleepy and need to go to bed. I wanna watch disk4. There is so much that you catch the second time that slipped your notice on first viewing.

          • magnacarta

            That’s how I felt when I was viewing the last episode of season 3. I was literally trying to keep myself awake by pinching myself repeatedly. I just wanted the syspence to be over hahaha

          • magnacarta

            suspence… Can’t see what I’m typing with the right column blocking my view.

      • Dickory Dock

        I will not lie. I flailed. So hard. Especially when Joan walked in during The Night Of Theft. I do believe I cheered out loud more than once during that episode. So damned good.

        • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

          That episode was insane. I think I cheered a few times, too. It’s one of the best season finales I’ve ever watched.

        • JaneRochester

          Yes yes yes. When Joan walked in amidst the boxes and subterfuge, I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck. That ep ranks up there with the last scene of “Newhart” in my book. Just chills all around.

          And my, but Peggy is looking fetching in that photo. Her hair just gets better and better.

  • blacklisted

    The photo tells me that Joan Holloway is still looking fabulous.

    • deez

      She is absolutely gorgeous. She reminds me of Tina Louise.

      Image and video hosting by TinyPic

    • Verbally Dyslexic

      I hope she goes back to being Joan Holloway. Greg Harris can go suture himself into a carpet bag and disappear for all I care.

      • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

        They’ve already set up his departure death. He’s going to Viet Nam for “a few months.” :)

        • Verbally Dyslexic

          Yesssss…..

        • Lucky

          I think you right TI, we really need a single Joan!

  • deez

    smug-yet-sympathetic bastard

    That is the perfect description for Pete. When I think about it, there’s not really a truly lovable character in the whole cast, even though I love them, if that makes sense. (I guess that’s what makes them real) Peggy is supposedly the long-suffering “good girl”, but I just can’t identify with her. She just seems so humorless and straightforward. I kind of miss having a female character to root for.

    • jukejoint

      I love Joan, but I know what you mean about not having a female character to root for. Peggy is too… Icky for me sometimes. She’s just a prig. Plus there’s her Pete weakness. And Joan’s approach, while amusing and right for the period, is kind of appalling to me, too. I do love Mona. She’s not a main character, though. I hate Betty. HATE HATE HATE.

      Love Carla. Love Sally.

      I need one of Mona, Carla or Sally to become a lead for me to be happy with the female side of the Mad equation. Oh, wait. I loved Rachel Menken, too. She can come back after ditching the husband and Don/Dick can shape up and fly right, and then I will be happy.

      • deez

        Yeah Rachel would be the closest thing to what I would consider a role model (not quite the term I want to use). I have the same ambivalent feelings for Joan.

        • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

          And you know exactly how I feel about Rachel Menken. Sigh…

          I just ate the 1.5/2 slices of the most delicious greasy cheese pizza. Oskar and I are sitting in AC. Life might be good, not sure. Just have to blog SYTYCD…which is in my main room, which does not have AC.

      • Verbally Dyslexic

        I sort of like not having one character to root for. It makes it more compelling and less of a disappointment when they do something asshat-ish. It’s as though they’re all likeable only in small doses. Kinda true about people. :)

      • Lucky

        You know, for the early 60′s Peggy is not such a prig. My mom (also names Peggy) is the same age as that character and a Brooklyn Catholic girl from Bay Ridge (which is where my mom is from, but Irish not Norweigian)was not really running around her office having sex with a boss. Or maybe I’m naive and they lied to me!

      • JaneRochester

        This is interesting, because I have no problem rooting for Joan. That scene with the accordian broke my heart, for reasons I won’t go into here and probably should have me seeing a shrink. But I love her…she’s exactly the right combo of vulnerability and strength for me.

        Don’s just hot. Nuff said.

    • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

      Joan! Joan! Joan!

      But even Joan…that’s why I love the show. Everyone is fraked up. There is no hero or heroine. No one is written black or white. Even Pete, who is such a perfect sleaze. You can’t help but feel for him. And Don, the cheating bastard, has the strongest moral compass of any male on the show.

      Ok…17 days now. Only 17 days!

    • pootle

      I wish they’d have another beatnik girl like Midge. I do love Joan but she’s way too cool for me to identify with and Peggy is too… deadpan. I’d like a female character who laughed more (well, not so much as Crazy Lawnmower Footchewing Lady).

    • Dickory Dock

      Oh, man. I love that all the characters are so messed up. They aren’t likeable but I still like them. That’s the mark of some excellent writing, right there.

      I’ll go ahead and admit straight up loving Peggy. She grew up in the burroughs with an extremely religious family. Now she’s breaking away from them and the church, questioning her faith and pushing her moral boundaries and familial influences. She’s not entirely comfortable with it all, although she tries hard to act like she is. She’s awkward at times, can’t shake her earnestness even while (awkwardly) trying for a veneer of sophistication. She’s an observer seemingly always on the outside,yet when she’s on the inside still feels the outsider. And sometimes watching that quiet war she contains within herself is really uncomfortable — brutally so.

      And I adore Joan. She’s cool and knows what’s up. BUT (especially during season 3 and her work with Harry Crane and disillusionment with her marriage), she understood a bit more about Peggy and why she wanted more than a husband. I can’t wait to see what role she’ll develop into with the new firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

      And is it wrong that I really want this t-shirt?

      • Dickory Dock

        Wow, tl;dr there DD.

      • deez

        Perhaps you’re right about Peggy…”awkward” may be the right term. The only times she appeared to have fun (doing the twist, or being at the strip club with the guys), she succumbed to Pete’s disapproving glare. She’s trying too hard to be on of the boys (as observed by Joan) and it’s making her unlikable. The comparisons from her co-workers: Undercover Nun, Gertrude Stein, etc…aren’t too flattering either, but then again, they classify women into 2 groups. When Peggy first started at SC, they hit on her (same as the rest of the girls). After gaining their respect (well, as much as possible) as a colleague, they seem to have put her into some sort of purgatory (Peggatory?). Not a girl, but not one of the guys…so they just makes jokes about her. She wants to be taken seriously, so she has totally turned off any charm or sense of fun that she may have had. I hope she loosens up this season. I want to like her; I should like her…but I don’t.

      • JaneRochester

        Only if I can’t have one too.

  • wino

    AMC has been rerunning the entire series, so I’ve been able to catch a couple of gems from Season 1. With Don’s marriage behind him, I am ready for him further evolve his character. The constant cheating/hiding was becoming a bit tiresome (for me). I feel this season will allow the writers to move forward. Don as a single dad, Don back out on the market, Don starting from scratch at work. All of these storylines will be very interesting to watch unfold.

  • deez

    I’m rewatching right now as we speak!!! I’m about 1/3 of the way through S2. It appears from the photo that we haven’t jumped ahead in time a great deal (as some were speculating)…no Carnaby Street mod/ Go Go boots/Pucci/Mary Quant yet!!!

    How old is Sally supposed to be now? 10? Approaching a good age for Beatles tarding!!!

  • auntieaimee

    First of all, fabulous photo! Personally, I would be disappointed if they didn’t bring Ken back. Yes, he’s the charmed one and everything comes easily to him. Ken could step into shit and come out smelling like a rose, but I love that he always seems a bit surprised when things work out in his favor and I love that it makes Pete so CRAZY. Alas, there’s a hidden depth to Ken I’m afraid we won’t get to see more of without Sal there to witness it. That scene with the Rothko killed me. I swooned. I admit it.

    • jukejoint

      I want Sal back really bad. I want to know what happened between Sal and Kitty after he got fired and whether they’re still married or he admitted his gayness and got a divorce and then a boyfriend and an apartment in the village and they’re hobnobbing with Truman Capote and Tennesse Williams or something.

      Meanwhile, there’s an earthquake where I’m at. Only a 5.4. But weird.

      • deez

        I KNOW!!!!! Season 2 is really making me miss Sal!!!!!!!

        Are earthquakes common where you are?

        • jukejoint

          I’m in San Diego at the moment and I don’t live here, although we did have an earthquake once in central Illinois, where I live. It felt pretty much the same as this one, although that happened in the middle of the night and we both thought our cat had jumped on the bed. (We have a very large cat.) This one was in the middle of the day, and again, it felt like the cat had jumped on the bed, except we are in a hotel in San Diego and the cat is back in Illinois.

          Just kind of shaky for a few seconds, and then rumbly. And then nothing. Not very scary.

          • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

            I know you remember the big “earthquake prediction” for December 3, 1990, right?

            Why was that taken seriously? We had 3 earthquake drills at my school.

    • http://topidolblog.com TopIdol

      Tapping a maple on a cold Vermont morning…

      • auntieaimee

        Right?! *sigh* I have a little soft spot for Ken, I do.

        • Lucky

          Me too.