The only thing I didn’t like about the otherwise-excellent season premiere of “Mad Men” was the first scene of the episode. Three young ad men from SCDP’s rival, Young & Rubicam, drop paper bags full of water on to a group of black picketers, protesting on Madison Avenue many stories below. The soggy civilians come up to the office, and see the paper bag bombers laughing at their aerial attack and filling up more sacks, causing one of the protestors to say, “And they call us savages.” It felt too on-the-nose and blatant, odd for a show known for it’s subtly and skilled writing. Turns out, though, the scene actually happened, right down to the “savages” line.
The New York Times dug up a story from their archives, dated May 28, 1966, with the headline, “Poverty Pickets Get Paper-Bag Dousing on Madison Avenue.” On that day, two male demonstrators, ages 9 and 19, were hit with “water-filled pager bags,” and the younger boy’s mother, as well as “several other angry women,” came up to the office and told the secretary what happened. She replied, “That’s ridiculous, they didn’t come from this floor. This is the executive floor. That’s utterly ridiculous.” So, yeah, pretty much just like “Mad Men,” except I doubt anyone named Megan Draper did a sexy dance later that week.
Even after reading this, I’m still not a big fan of the opening, though that’s partially because it was the first scene we saw after being away from “Mad Men” for 18 months. My question to you is: is a scene that you think is dumb more tolerable once you find out it really happened?
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A kid did get hit in the show — if you look his mother is holding his hand.
You’re right. My fault. Corrected.
I thought they showed a young kid covered in water standing with the two women who came up to complain…
Meh, it was just a setup for the rest of the episode. The fact that it actually happened just makes it all the better.
Yes, it’s more tolerable. It’s what happened.
Unless there was also a wet shirt contest that day, a kid did get hit on “Mad Men”. He was standing there with his mom when the women went upstairs.
I thought it was appropriate for setting the viewers up for what the climate at the time was like. I think a lot of the race issues have been handled with kid gloves, especially with regards to the main characters. By having people from another agency who could likely be interchangeable with Ken Cosgrove, Harry Crane, and Pete Cambell at SCDP, they are able to accurately show how even though many of the people at the time might not consider themselves “racist” they still do racist things.
I think it was just a technique to get that across to the audience without having to sully the hands of any of the main characters.
Eh…maybe if they said the title of the show in the scene. “Well they certainly are Mad Men!” I might be a little embarrassed to watch then.
Scene was fine. It needed to be there as a setup to the whole hiring thing. It put us right into the time period.
Doesn’t answer your question though, about if a dumb scene is more tolerable if it really happened. I’d say there’s no yes or no. It depends on the scene and the context.
Yes more tolerable and needed for the hiring subplot
im still confused why anyone had a problem with the scene
I guess I assumed it actually happened. There was a white guy who came up with the group who was obviously a reporter (hat, notepad). I’ve listened to a lot of the commentary tracks and Weiner uses actual events all the time. I think the story line about Pete wanting a TV company to market their product to blacks was a real story.
it fits with the changing times and how it effected the rest of the episode. wouldn’t surprise me if we hear more about it throughout the season
of course that makes it more tolerable, but i loved it even without knowing that it really happened
the scene was important cuz it basically set up the main idea for the rest of the season: times are changing and the ad men won’t be able to get away with the same shit anymore. it was kind of jarring to see new characters in the first scene, but in retrospect i liked it
It was driving me crazy that the one guy in that first scene looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. Then he popped up on Community last night in the background behind Abed in the pillow fort standoff. (When I pointed him out it was remembered that he’s a member of Derrick Comedy with Donald Glover and was in Mystery Team.)