I knew, before I even clicked on the link, that it was going to James Lileks’ “Gallery of Regrettable Food”. 
On the issue of the secretaries, without spoiling anything: Madmen is a well written show and characters are developed.
I think this question reflects a rather unsophisticated reading of the show. Sure, there are times when some of the secretaries behave like this, but they don’t all act the same way, and their personalities and their notions of appropriate behavior were quite varied.
I had assumed that he was still early in the series when the show was still setting the stage.
Maybe, but even in the early stages, “schemeing, unscrupulous bitches” is a rather poor interpretation. Peggy Olsen, for example, started as a secretary, and was not like that, and the behavior of the other women also merits a more nuanced understanding.
The question also reflects a particular notion of appropriate behavior. Why, for example, are we asked whether all the women of the period were “schemeing, unscrupulous bitches,” but not asked whether all the men of the period were scheming, egotistical, misogynist assholes? Because that’s certainly how they come across early in the show.
Anyway, i don’t want to hijack this thread with a digression into gender politics, so i’ll leave it there.
There was recently a thread about smoking inside the house that showed me how much times have changed (and for the better, fortunately). Growing up in the 60s, EVERYONE who smoked did so everywhere, much less in their own homes. I doubt it occurred to many people to smoke outside. Like someone above said, even non-smokers expected people to smoke inside. The fact that some young’un even asked the question was interesting to me. Heck, I remember flying in the smoking section of planes plenty of times.
It was a lot easier for kids to smoke back then too, because there were cigarette vending machines all over the place. I hadn’t thought about them in years - until I recently went into an antique shop and they had one in there.
When I was a teen you could buy cigarettes just about anywhere without much trouble once you got to about 13-14. No one would think twice about seeing kids that age smoking openly. When I was 15 my family took a road trip to the west coast. We stopped in SLC and at McDonalds there were signs in the parking lot saying that smoking by anyone under 16 was against the law. I was astounded by this even though at the time I hadn’t started yet.
Growing up in Australia in the '70s and '80s, i could easily have sustained a smoking habit. My mother was a smoker, and she used to send me down to the local corner store to pick up cigarettes for her from when i was about 7 or 8 years old. No-one ever batted an eye, and if i had been buying the smokes for myself, they never would have known.
Ah, thought you might know my mom. Definitely not the case, though. 
I haven’t had a cigarette in about 8 weeks and the other day I was in the smoking area where I work for the first time since I stopped. I don’t mean to sound like a preachy ex-smoker (because I’m not out of the woods yet), but DAMN the smell was overpowering; the cigarette smoke was noticeable, but what was overpowering was the smell from the ashtrays.
Do you ever wonder if you could go back in time to the grocery stores/doctor’s offices/hospital rooms/movie theaters/teacher’s lounges and probably above all else the houses of our youth (most of the smokers I know today don’t smoke inside their house) if the smell would just knock you out?
I can also remember when if a smoker went to a non-smoker’s house for dinner and lit up it would have been very rude for the host to say “don’t smoke inside please”. Instead they’d have brought them an ashtray they kept just for smoking guests (I knew people who did this). The only person I knew who didn’t allow smoking in her house did so because she had an asthmatic son- illness was about the only socially acceptable excuse not to let your guests smoke at the dining table or in the den or anywhere else.
As for the OP, I knew those guys and, though I haven’t seen the show, the producers would be hard pressed to show just how much the guys smoked and drank.
It may be hard, but they give it their best shot.
MiM
In one episode, they showed an office with a progress chart/board. You remember these things-they had milestones for a projects-with colored magnetic markers that you could move along to illustrate where the project was at.
Now that we have PCs and software like MS Project, I doubt too many people use these anymore-but maybe a few do?
Also, any prdictions on how many divorces Don Draper will have by shows end?
Still wondering why the OP saw the secretaries as “…all schemeing, unscrupulous bitches.”
(Of course everybody smoked–& continued to do so for many years.)
I am 28 years old and even I remember indoor smoking allowed everywhere, I wonder how old the OP is?
My husband worked for a small ad firm in the late 80s. They had beer Friday. Sometimes it was Margarita Friday. Paid for by the firm.
I worked for a big company in the late 80s, smoking had just disappeared from anywhere in the office, a few years prior, if your office had a door, you could still smoke In the office, drinking over lunch was common and some execs still had a bar in their office. Sexual harassment was common, too, and security used to follow around our CEO to remove his room key from the hands of unsuspecting secretaries during happy hour.
We do both at my office. We have an electronic project timeline spreadsheet, but I also have a big whiteboard in my office with my team’s projects and milestones on it.
I missed a lot of it…was Don carrying on an affair?
His ex-wife is a real cold bitch-she seems to lack any positive feelings for Don.
And she’s mean to the kids too-got really whacked out when the daughter cut her own hair.
If you’re interested in the show, it’s worth watching the whole thing. Currently streaming on Netflix.
Who’s “responsible” for Don’s divorce? Strictly speaking, Betty met a nice man–while she was pregnant. A good looking guy, if not in Don’s league. He flirted & she flirted back, although they didn’t take things further. Don heard about it & confronted her. She wanted a divorce & he finally agreed. Because New York State’s laws made divorce difficult even when both parties agreed, she went to Reno.
Of course, Don’s behavior over the years had made Betty unhappy; he was constantly unfaithful. She was bored being a housewife–not that she actually expressed wishes to be or do anything else. She loved Don in the old days & continued to find him hot.
Betty is definitely hard to like. Her new husband seems a decent sort but we don’t know that he can “make her happy”, either…