Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Mad Men)
Weiner shelved the project for seven years to focus on Chase's program; interest for Mad Men did not surface until the conclusion of The Sopranos' final season.
Concurrently, it is Peggy Olson's (Elisabeth Moss), first day at Sterling Cooper as Don's secretary, where she experiences the sexual harassment common during the period.
Junior account executive Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) makes juvenile, boorish comments about Peggy's appearance and clothing, for which Don rebukes him.
On her break, Peggy attends a doctor's appointment arranged by Joan, during which she undergoes a vaginal examination and is given a prescription for the recently introduced oral contraceptive, Enovid, which at the time was only to be prescribed to married women with their husband's consent.
Don and Roger Sterling (John Slattery) meet with Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff) for a consultation on her father's department store.
To make Rachel more positively inclined towards the agency, Roger enlists the only Jew in the company, a young man from the mailroom, to attend the meeting disguised as a member of the art department.
"—associating Lucky Strike's product with sunshine and making it sound benign, exemplifying Don's belief that advertising is based on one thing, Happiness.
Don takes a train to a large house in the suburbs, where he is greeted by his wife, blonde beauty Betty Draper (January Jones), who has not been mentioned before in the episode.
"[2] Prior to writing the pilot episode, Weiner studied American culture during the 1950s and 1960s, analyzing literary works such as The Feminine Mystique (1963) and Sex and the Single Girl (1962) while viewing such films as The Apartment (1960) and A Guide for the Married Man (1967).
[7] He said, "We noticed that in all the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designs of contemporary buildings, the ceiling—the overhead grid of lights—was a strong graphic element in all the office spaces.
'"[13] "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" features guest appearances from several actors and actresses, including Rosemarie DeWitt (as Midge) and Maggie Siff (as Rachel Menken).
Several scenes were also shot at a historic 130 West 57th Street art studio owned by artist Adam Van Doren that was previously occupied by Childe Hassam and Charles Baskerville.
"[7] In creating a practical effect, a grid consisting of fluorescent lights was installed onto the set that housed Sterling Cooper's main office.
"Getting more than 800 2-foot color-corrected T-8 tubes became a major issue, and none of the regular suppliers had enough in stock," recalled Mike Ambrose, the gaffer for the production team in Los Angeles.
[7] Pat O'Mara, the key grip during production, installed several 2x1 and 2x2 blackout panels and frames that were retrofitted with small albeit strong magnets.
Ambrose collaborated with the production team to institute twenty-five inch trusses on chain motors and to devise dollys with Arri Alexa cameras that were eventually installed on aluminum I-beams.
For tungsten close-ups, we often used Barger-Baglite six- and three-light units with Chimeras, soft cloth, diaper baffles and 60- and 90-degree honeycomb grids for control.
We call them 'Whiteys' because the guy who knocked these shells out of tin back in New York was named Whitey; I used them extensively on The Sopranos and felt they suited the homes in Mad Men as well.
"[7] In the days leading to the "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" premiere, the watchdog group Commercial Alert filed a complaint against producers to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
[17] Robert Weissman, the director for Commercial Alert, stated that based on AMC's website, "it appears that the sponsorship arrangement will violate numerous provisions of the industry's self-regulatory marketing code.
"[17] In association with the complaint, Weissman urged in his letter that the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States become more proactive in regulating the distilleries' initiatives in the entertainment industry.
Heather Havrilesky of Salon declared that "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" raised expectations for future competition at the time, and added that it emulated some of the best episodes of The Sopranos.
[20] In his four star review, Adam Buckman of New York Post described it as "stunning" and suggested that Mad Men "just happens to be the finest new TV series of the summer and possibly the entire year".
"In that context, the show illustrates that period's own form of excess without wagging fingers, while reminding us that before sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, there was sexual harassment, free-flowing cocktails and bluesy ballads, invariably sung by white guys.
"[23] USA Today writer Robert Bianco echoed synonymous sentiment: "Mad Men is a joy to watch—the clothes, the clocks, the furniture, it's like a mid-century night's dream.
"[24] Troy Patterson of Slate drew comparisons to the HBO comedy-drama Sex and the City, and affirmed that it introduced a lewd and cynical perspective of the so-called "golden age" of advertisement.
[25] Nancy Franklin of The New Yorker concluded that "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was "smart and tremendously attractive",[26] while Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalist Melanie McFarland felt that it was a rarity compared to other television installments.
Gilbert wrote, "This is a gorgeously fashioned period piece, from its IBM typewriters and rotary phones to the constant fog of cigarette smoke hanging over every scene.
The show has a subtle color palette, to match the ivory metal Venetian blinds at the Sterling Cooper ad agency offices, but it may sit in your memory as if it had been filmed in black and white.
"[30] Similarly, Tim Shale of The Washington Post concluded that despite the evocative nature of the program, "Smokes Gets in Your Eyes" fell flat; "The people in and around them spoil the show, gum up the works and shatter veracity.
