When the first season of Mad Men won six Emmy Awards–including Best Drama and Best Writing For A Drama Series–in 2008, the temptation was to think of the show as an overnight success. After all, it seemingly came out of nowhere to become the first basic cable series to garner the Best Drama Emmy, and has since had repeat wins of that honor in ’09 and ’10. Yet while the series has blazed a trail, it’s been a long and winding path as touched upon by its creator/producer Matthew Weiner during a session on Mad Men at The Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Film & TV Music Conference last week in Los Angeles.
Weiner noted that he wrote the pilot 10 years ago while he was maintaining a full-time writing job on a sitcom. The Mad Men pilot became a creative means of expression and part of his dream to one day be in charge of a show as its creator. Weiner put much of his spare time into the project, noting that it had been an obsession, “my drug habit, my mistress.” This obsession pre-dated his putting pen to paper for Mad Men. Weiner shared that he bought a wristwatch three years before writing the pilot. He had the watch in mind for a character in the show (presumably that worn by the star ad man Don Draper character).
Weiner laughingly described himself back then as “delusional…buying a watch for a fictitious character.”
Among the first 20 or so people to read the pilot script was Weiner’s fellow panelist at the Film & TV Music Conference, composer David Carbonara. “He was my audience,” said Weiner of Carbonara who went on to score the pilot seven years after receiving that initial script.
Weiner values Carbonara’s contributions to the pilot and the ongoing series (which just wrapped season four), citing a scene in the Mad Men pilot: “Don [Draper] looks at his Purple Heart–and David, you have this thing with the Chinese flute and bombs blowing up in the background,” said Weiner. “It’s a really complicated cue that’s telling the audience, ‘You are going to be in this man’s head.’ He’s having a private moment and the music is going to let you experience that.”
Weiner also recalled a musical cue in the second episode for the Betty Draper character. He remembered thinking, ‘Oh, my God, Betty has music, and it’s melancholy and it’s got these little bells and all the shit that I love.”
Prior to Mad Men, Weiner enjoyed a tenure (’04-’07) on The Sopranos which saw him serve as a writer and eventually an exec producer as well on the show. He concluded his Sopranos duty on a Friday and embarked on Mad Men the next Monday once AMC committed to the project. He said this was the first pilot AMC had ever made (production house on the pilot was @radical.media) and it was after seeing the pilot that Lionsgate bought the show.
Thus far Weiner has turned out 52 episodes of Mad Men over four seasons. He sees a parallel between ad-makers and television series creators/writers/producers. “The advertising business is very similar to the TV show business,” he said, citing the shared bond of “a creative person who is on some level making compromises.” Weiner credited the ad industry with being “one of the few places where a creative person can make money,” adding that the inherent clash of accounts vs. creative and art vs. commerce bring another interesting dimension to the 1960s’ workplace in Mad Men.
Gene Hackman Died Of Heart Disease; Hantavirus Claimed His Wife’s Life About One Week Prior
Actor Gene Hackman died of heart disease a full week after his wife died from hantavirus in their New Mexico hillside home, likely unaware that she was dead because he was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, authorities revealed Friday. Both deaths were ruled to be from natural causes, chief medical examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell said alongside state fire and health officials at a news conference. "Mr. Hackman showed evidence of advanced Alzheimer's disease," Jarrell said. "He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that's what resulted in his death." Authorities didn't suspect foul play after the bodies of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb 26. Immediate tests for carbon monoxide poisoning were negative. Investigators found that the last known communication and activity from Arakawa was Feb. 11 when she visited a pharmacy, pet store and grocery before returning to their gated neighborhood that afternoon, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday. Hackman's pacemaker last showed signs of activity a week later and that he had an abnormal heart rhythm Feb. 18, the day he likely died, Jarrell said. Although there was no reliable way to determine the date and time when both died, all signs point to their deaths coming a week apart, Jarrell said. "It's quite possible he was not aware she was deceased," Jarrell said. Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said he believes Hackman was severely impaired due to Alzheimer's disease and unable to deal with his wife's death in the last week of his life. "You are talking about very severe Alzheimer's disease that normal people would be in a nursing home or have a nurse, but she was taking care... Read More