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Category: Mad Men (1-10 of 52)

Jan 27 2010 12:45 PM ET

Should cured meat spokesperson Jon Hamm be allowed to host 'SNL' without a beard?

Categories: 30 Rock, Grooming, Is This a Rhetorical Question?, Jon Hamm, Mad Men, Saturday Night Live, Sexytimes, Television, Things That Are Awesome!

We were just starting to get used to the lustrous chin-thicket Jon Hamm was using to keep warm this winter. Zut alors! Below are some short promos for this weekend’s Jon Hamm-hosted Saturday Night Live, in which the cardigan-ed actor acknowledges his own devastating hotness and defends against the incorrect pronunciation of Michael Bublé’s name.

Funny, the tone of voice he uses when raging against Fred Armisen that it’s not pronounced “Bubble” is the same one Hamm employed when Lemon kicked the crap out of Dr. Baird in tennis in 30 Rock’s “The Bubble.” I can only assume that the video cut out just as Hamm was about to call Fred Armisen a “Cheating bitch!”

Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett

Jan 22 2010 02:10 PM ET

SAG Awards: Who should win Best TV Ensemble?

by Annie Barrett

Categories: Mad Men, Modern Family, Television

Tomorrow night’s Screen Actors Guild awards show (8 p.m. ET on TNT and TBS) has those “ensemble” categories so that EVERYONE can get a statue. I feel like Mad Men can’t lose in the TV drama category — it’s up against Dexter, The Closer, The Good Wife, and True Blood — unless people write-in their votes for Lost. For the comedy category, I’d like to see Modern Family win best ensemble over 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Glee, and The Office. A best ensemble win for MF would also be a good nod to the writers who facilitate rapid-fire chemistry among actors we knew we loved (Ed O’Neill, Julie Bowen) and those whose capacity to portray familial dysfunction we couldn’t even fathom (Sofia Vergara, Jesse Tyler Ferguson). That sentence seems so unfair. I want to keep naming them so I’ll be in the Ensemble Award Spirit, but I’ll stop. No I won’t. Eric Stonestreet. Ty Burrell. Oh, and you know Baby Lily was emoting hardcore when she got locked in the car. Give these people who left their baby in the car an award!

Which ensembles are you rooting for tomorrow night? (TV nominess here; film nominees here.) Check back this weekend for EW’s full coverage of the SAG Awards.

Jan 20 2010 01:21 PM ET

Inside the Numbers: AskMen.com's Top 99 women

by Jeff Labrecque

Categories: Awards, Festivals & Events, Entourage, Lists-o-rama!, Mad Men, Sexytimes

It’s not exactly the American Film Institute’s Top 100 film list or an old-school EW Power List, but that doesn’t mean we can’t parse AskMen.com’s annual list of lust for clues to men’s hearts. The first lesson to be drawn is that men have a short attention span. Of the 99 beauties listed, 44 did not make last year’s countdown. Mouse-clicking affection can be fleeting; just ask Evangeline Lilly, who went from No. 22 in 2009 to completely off the radar this year. Somehow I think she’ll recover. One way to do so, it seems, is to appear in Entourage. Lilly could seek a supporting role, like No. 1 Emmanuelle Chriqui (pictured), or go slumming with Turtle, like No. 99 Jamie-Lynn Sigler. She could flirt with Vince (No. 75 Leighton Meester) or skip the foreplay altogether (No. 71 Sophie Monk). An even faster way to get AskMen.com’s attention is to appear nude on the internet, like No. 42 Kim Kardashian or victimized ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, who was the highest-ranked newcomer on the list, at No. 14.

Lesson #2: Men like children, but not too many. Mothers like No. 33 Salma Hayek and No. 28 Heidi Klum are well represented, but how else to explain Angelina Jolie’s modest ranking at No. 88?

Lesson #3: Men are not watching Friday Night Lights. WTF, guys! I could and will someday write a treatise on the amazingly talented and beautiful actresses (Connie Britton, Minka Kelly, Aimee Teegarden, Adrianne Palicki) that make their hidden gem of a show sizzle. But I shouldn’t have to: The show is about football and beautiful women!

Lesson #4: Men sometimes prefer petite to voluptuous (at least in the contest between Mad Men’s ladies, No. 18 January Jones and No. 58 Christina Hendricks).

Lesson #5: Men are idiots. But like the previous four “lessons,” you knew that already.

Did AskMen.com’s list teach you anything you didn’t already know about us cretins? How many times did you have to ask yourself, “Umm, who is she?” Do you think if women voted for the Top 99 Men that it would be any less superficial than AskMen.com’s results?

Photo Credit: Claudette Barius

Jan 11 2010 12:44 PM ET

'30 Rock': Soon-to-be Jon Hammier, again!

by Annie Barrett

Categories: 30 Rock, Mad Men, Magic, Sexytimes, Things That Are Awesome!

Jon Hamm will return to 30 Rock to reprise his role as lovably oblivious pretty person Dr. Baird on Feb. 11! This obviously deserves its own post, and not just a tragically unillustrated bullet point in the Mixed-Up TCA Press Tour Files of Mr. Michael E. Ausiello (I doubt his middle name starts with E; I just like thinking about this book).

What does it all mean?! Will Liz Lemon give the guy with a face for Disney animation a second chance? I don’t see this as a revenge plot, considering that when the good doctor last rolled out of frame, it was on a sad motorcycle sure to wobble over at any second, and Liz pretty much had the upper hand/better tennis swing. But who knows — I wouldn’t put it past Lesbian Yellow Sourfruit to turn down a complimentary app sampler should she happen to meet Dr. Baird at a restaurant. How do you think Hamm’s return to 30 Rock will go down? Easier than Salmon Bourguignon with Orange Gatorade?

Jan 11 2010 12:43 AM ET

New 'Big Love' opening credits: Was it time?

by Annie Barrett

Categories: Art, Big Love, Mad Men, Six Feet Under, Television

Whoa! I’d seen and lovingly spazzed out to the gorgeous Free Fall Like You’re in ‘Mad Men’ promo set to Interpol’s “Untitled” for HBO’s Big Love that came out in November, but totally didn’t expect it be the basis for an entirely new opening sequence during last night’s season 4 premiere. At first, I was all “Sensory overload Nicki and a wind machine I can’t process this I have to watch the show just start it stop this let’s go swap meet those birds!”

After a post-episode rewind, though, the opener ended up growing on me. The closeups of outstretched hands next to the titles (as well as the general “suspension” theme) reminded me of another favorite show ever, Six Feet Under, so God only knows what my night’d be without that. The visual experience was beautiful — just not what I’d associate with Big Love. You know, like figure skating.

Did you love the new opening sequence or should Big Love have stuck with “God Only Knows”?

Follow Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett

Jan 6 2010 11:25 AM ET

'Mad Men' theme's RJD2: 'The era of really cool TV themes has passed'

by Jeff Labrecque

Categories: Mad Men, Music, Television

The Mad Men theme song, a short-edit version of hip-hop producer RJD2’s instrumental track “A Beautiful Mine,” has become so evocative of that show, and subsequently the era it depicts, that it’s actually jarring to hear Aceyalone rap 21st century lyrics on the non-instrumental version. RJD2 chatted with the Washington Post about how his song became an iconic TV staple and shared his likes and dislikes when it comes to other notable TV tunes. (Thumbs up: Knight Rider. Thumbs down: The Sopranos). “I feel like the era of really cool TV themes has passed us by,” laments RJD2 (born Ramble John Krohn), who lists Airwolf and Scooby-Doo as two of his childhood faves. He might be right, though I’m a little disappointed the actual lyrics for the Mad Men theme aren’t “Mad Men, Mad Men, sixties, cigarettes, thin ties, short hair…”

Does the Mad Men theme make you want to free-fall into oblivion like an animated Don Draper? Are there any other current TV theme songs that you refuse to fast-forward through?

Dec 15 2009 10:30 AM ET

'Friday Night Lights,' 'Lost,' 'Glee'...Are the Writers Guild Awards our dream come true?

by Jennifer Armstrong

Categories: 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, FlashForward, Friday Night Lights, Glee, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, Lost, Mad Men, Modern Family

I feel a little like the Writers Guild Award nominees, announced yesterday, were downloaded directly from my own brain. Or at least my DVR list. And knowing what I know about what shows PopWatchers tend to get all message-boardy about, I’m guessing you feel the same. There in the drama category are Breaking Bad, Dexter, Friday Night Lights (pictured), Lost, and Mad Men. In comedy we have 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Glee, Modern Family, and The Office. And as if all that weren’t enough, we have the new series category: Glee, Modern Family, The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, and Hung. First and foremost, I’m thrilled when any awards are smart enough to recognize the brilliance that is Friday Night Lights — a show that, by premise, could’ve been lame at best, but instead manages to wring tearful drama from grounded-in-reality situations every week that it hangs on despite its ratings challenges. I’m also thrilled when any awards are smart enough to get Lost, as well, which basically does the opposite — makes utterly ridiculous, barely comprehensible plotlines hit us in the heart (oh, Sawyer and Juliet!) despite their reliance on string theory. It’s nice to see Glee up for its first big awards, too — it’s just plain not easy to write a musical every freaking week and make it work, and while the dialogue and plotting occasionally gets heavy-handed, it still works — and ditto for Modern Family, the funniest new show this season. (Love 30 Rock and Mad Men, too, but even the Emmys have been onto those for a while.)

I’m a writing-first kind of TV watcher, so it makes sense that I’d like this list. (The awards, by the way, will be given out Feb. 20.) But what’s missing? How I Met Your Mother is the only one I can think of off my own DVR list — what do you think, PopWatchers? Was Grey’s Anatomy good enough? Did Gossip Girl hold up for you? Did FlashForward get dissed?

Dec 10 2009 08:09 PM ET

Move over Julia Child, Christina Hendricks is in the kitchen!

by Wendy Mitchell

Categories: DVD/Video, Mad Men, Movie Trailers

La Cucina is described as “a romantic drama about life, love and the joy of cooking.” But what you really need to know is that it marks the film debut of Mad Men’s beloved Joanie, Christina Hendricks. The cast also featuers Joaquim de Almeida (24), Rachel Hunter, and Leisha Hailey (The L Word). The DVD/Blu-Ray is out Jan. 12, but meanwhile you can see Christina drinking red wine and sexily eating some sort of potato chip in the trailer:

Who’s hungry for La Cucina?

Nov 14 2009 12:00 AM ET

Sound Bites: Best TV clip of the week?

by Annie Barrett

Categories: 30 Rock, Castle, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dancing With the Stars, Fall TV, Glee, Gossip Girl, Mad Men, NCIS, Saturday Night Live, Sound Bites, South Park, Television, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, Top Chef, Twilight

Why watch an entire week’s worth of TV when you can just watch EW.com’s Sound Bites? There are so many reasons. Thousands, really. But watch this anyway. My name is @EWAnnieBarrett and I happen to enjoy showing people clips of Larry David wearing women’s panties.

Nov 12 2009 01:10 PM ET

Bill Clinton loves 'Mad Men' but notices how sad everyone is

by Margaret Lyons

Categories: Mad Men, Politics as Entertainment

mad-men_l Former President Bill Clinton spoke about health care yesterday, but managed to drop in a few thoughts on everyone’s favorite period drama, Mad Men. From the Sun-Times:

“You ever watch that TV series Mad Men?” Clinton asked. “If I keep watching this program, will I ever find a happy person? Great television. Good drama. But a lot of really painful reminders in that show about how black people were supposed to run the elevators…were supposed to ask permission before they get on an elevator. The way women were treated is appalling….”

Okay, let’s go there: Is everyone on Mad Men unhappy? Maybe. But are they markedly more unhappy than characters on contemporary-set dramas? I don’t think so. Is Pete really sadder than, say, Izzie Stevens? Is Don more cynical about the human condition than Gregory House? Does Sally Draper have more to cry about than Jenny Humphrey? I’m not convinced that our ’60s set is more miserable than our modern one. Except for Betty, I guess.

What sad sacks did I miss, PopWatchers? Who’s the biggest downer in prime time?