Though both Don and Roger play against usual type. Mrs. Whitman’s niece and Megan are anything but older and frumpy, while Megan’s mother is anything but Susie Sorority for Roger (who has also put the moves on his “same age he is” ex wife at least once).
Since this is the Internet we of course have a complete listing of every woman Don Draper has slept with in handy slideshow format so you can remember what they looked like. (Doesn’t include Sylvia, who also isn’t frumpy.)
The majority are much younger than his character - there’s even a stewardess, and there is only one who might be considered frumpy. Don does like someone he can talk to for a long-term affair, but they aren’t frumps.
Oh, I suppose that could be. Didn’t think of that angle.
That actress was playing James Woods’ teenage daughter just a few years ago on Shark.
Don to Ted - when about to suggest the merger; ‘Hey Lieutenant, want to get into some trouble?’
Wasn’t this the same line used by the young G.I. to Don in ep 1?
Don’s use would imply that meeting that kid in Hawaii and/or Hawaii itself had a lasting effect on him.
A poster on The Guardian Mad Men blog suggested that the structure of this series followed that of Dante’s Inferno - if it were, then this week would be ‘Heresy’ and would link to Don suggesting they get into trouble.
MiM
I liked the hypocrisy: Early in the episode, Don was offended that Bert, Joan, and Pete would consider an IPO without informing him. But later in the episode, he masterminds a merger with CGC (or whatever they are called) without informing them. Payback? Or double standard?
Also, in the first reel, Bert makes a comment about needing 12% or he “can’t sell it to the other partners.” That made me think that they are all free to wheel and deal as much as they like, but they still have to put it to a vote and make it fly with the ownership partners. That makes sense.
He didn’t say 12%, he said $12 per share. The evaluation came up as $11-something, so he and Pete and Joan were quite pleased.
I sit corrected; thanks.
He probably sees his value to the company (or his and Roger’s combined) to be worth more than that of Pete, Joan and Burt. And he’s probably correct, too. Pete could be replaced with someone (Ken, if he’d want the job) and they could find someone new to keep the books and Burt reads the paper. Don’s creative is what made SCDP the company it is both in reputation and in practice.
I won’t argue that Roger is irreplaceable although he does have his place.
That’s not to say the others don’t do good work (well, except for Burt). But if Pete fell down a manhole tomorrow I don’t think the company would fall apart. If Joan was abducted by aliens, it’d be a scramble to get the books in order but it could be done. If Don left the firm to go fight in Vietnam and finish his Dick Whitman draft period, I think SCDP would cease to exist as we know it.
Burt’s contribution to SCDP is actually his name: he’s an established, well-respected ad man. By knowing he is involved, clients can feel more at ease working with a puny new agency like SCDP. I think he’s actually pretty irreplacable; Don may have the talent, but without Burt they wouldn’t be getting the big clients they need to stay alive.
That seemed more true in earlier seasons. I haven’t seen Burt directly involved with a client in ages. He’s sitting in a chair during the big meetings with important clients but that’s about it. No new clients who come into the firm mentions him at all.
Granted, there’s a whole company operating above and beyond the small bits we actually see.
While self serving, Lane’s advice to Joan was up there with Roger Ebert’s advice to Oprah Winfrey.
I also think Pete is more important that said upthread. It seems like he has brought them plenty of business, especially when they were small and struggle. I mean losing Jaguar and Vicks would have been a catastrophe, if they didn’t get the Chevy account and both of those were Pete’s accounts.
Pete’s a good salesperson. But he brought in Vicks via nepotism and Jaguar via Joan’s prostitution. Both were one shot deals unless Pete divorces and marries someone else with connections or talks Joan into sleeping with another client (both not going to happen).
While Pete is, again, a good salesman, I’m not sure if he’d get a better success rate than Ken if you put them in front of a randomly chosen lead. He’s valuable but not irreplaceable. Just my opinion.
Don is not necessarily a good ad-man, IMO. He is one helluva smooth talker, though. He’s a salesman, and a fraud, to his wife, to his partners to himself. he frequently gets the clients to confuse the ad with Don, who is handsome, very likeable face-to-face, confident. Thhey see that in Don and they assume the same qualities are coming from the ads themselves. They are almost blinded by Don’s charisma.
That’s the thing, though. Pete isn’t ever going to be in front of the same people as Ken. He’s going to be at events that are composed of more influential businessmen. He has contacts from that world and he runs in those circles.
What influential high society people has Pete brought in lately? Lane brought in Jaguar (expat buddies) and, again, Vicks was just nepotism and that ship has sailed. Those were Pete’s two crowning accounts.
I don’t think we’re supposed to know about every account he’s brought in. The fact that Burt gave him some very serious props for the job he’s been doing suggests that he’s done a good job. Again, the social circles in which Pete operates is exactly why he ended up married to the daughter or a very influential businessman.
From what I’ve seen, Ken looks far more suave than Pete. Even though Pete comes from old-money New York, he doesn’t seem very smooth at schmoozing people. And actually the contrast between Pete and Don is interesting. Pete has all the advantages of being from an old, distinguished family and having attended all the right schools while Don has none of those, but Don looks like a winner much more than Pete.
At this point, it’s uncertain if Pete even operates within those circles any longer. As I recall, Mr. Campbell Sr took them from “old money” to “no money”. Pete isn’t shown doing a lot of hobnobbing at the country clubs these days.