Actors Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Bryan Batt, Michael Gladis, Aaron Staton, and Rich Sommer receive main cast billing.

As the season unfolds, the mysterious backstory of enigmatic ad man Don Draper is revealed as is the growing confidence and success of Peggy Olson.

[1] The first season opens in March 1960, as genius advertising executive Donald "Don" Draper meets Peggy Olson, his new secretary.

Though Don is welcoming towards her, Peggy is subject to passive-aggressive hostility from office manager Joan Holloway and sexual harassment from her male colleagues.

Junior accounts manager Pete Campbell, who is about to get married, takes a liking to Peggy and the two have sex the night of his bachelor party.

Don, meanwhile, has trouble balancing his life as he cheats on his wife, Betty Draper, with a beatnik artist named Midge Daniels.

Meanwhile, Don begins a flirtatious relationship with Rachel Menken, the Jewish owner of a department store who seeks marketing help at Sterling Cooper.

Additionally, the vagrant teaches young Dick the hobo code, which communicates important messages via simple visual symbols.

The most promising candidate proves to be Herman "Duck" Phillips, who "landed American Airlines", but is looking for a job after alcoholism and an extramarital affair ended his career at Y&R's London office.

After the partners leave for the day, the Sterling Cooper ad men throw a raucous party the night of the 1960 presidential election, but see their client and preferred choice, Nixon, defeated by Kennedy.

Further flashbacks revolve around Dick Whitman's origin story in the Korean War, in which he is put under the command of a Lieutenant Donald Draper, who is soon to be sent home.

[20][24] In addition to having created the series, Matthew Weiner is the showrunner, head writer, and an executive producer; he contributes to each episode—writing or co-writing the scripts, casting various roles, and approving costume and set designs.

The site's consensus is: "Oozing evocative early 1960s ambiance, Mad Men is a sly, subversive look at the American workplace that radiates class, wit, and an undercurrent of disaffection.

[28] Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter said each episode "unfolded like a small movie", calling it "one of the best character studies anyone has put on television in some time – an adult drama of introspection and the inconvenience of modernity in a man's world.

"[29] Robert Bianco of USA Today said the show "hopes to come to grips with both what was lost and what has been gained since generation gaps, sexual revolutions, racial divides and Vietnam blasted the '60s apart" and called it a "smart, complex drama".

[32] Andrew Johnson praised the initial episode in Time Out New York stating: "Inspired by cynical Eisenhower-era comedies of manners (Sweet Smell of Success, The Apartment) and the stories of John Cheever, frequent Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner's Mad Men is a scathing chronicle of the ad industry’s boozy midcentury heyday, and one of the freshest series to hit basic cable in years.

"[33] Variety's reaction to the first season was more mixed, commenting that "as a serialized drama, the program's situations aren't especially stirring, even with its solid, perfectly outfitted cast.

"[34] Tom Shales of The Washington Post wrote a negative review, stating that "the stories unfold in a dry, drab way and the pacing is desultory.

Series directors are fond of long pauses that serve no purpose other than to give the impression that an actor forgot his next line.

[41] The first season was also honored by the American Film Institute as one of the ten greatest television achievements of 2007, called it brilliant for depicting "the discomfort that hides in the dark corners of nostalgia", and said "The show's extraordinary writing, characterizations and art direction neatly package a time filtered through the haze of cigarettes and sexism, but the message is for today — that those who sell a way of life are often mad for a world that is not their own.

[44] Alan Taylor won a 2007 Directors Guild of America Award for Drama Series directing "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".

In addition to the thirteen episodes, the discs include 26 audio commentaries by cast and crew, and featurettes regarding the production of the series and mini-documentaries on media culture and the historical time in which the story is set.