Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Mad Men)
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is the series premiere of the American period drama television series Mad Men. It first aired on July 19, 2007 in the United States on AMC and was written by creator Matthew Weiner and directed by Alan Taylor. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was budgeted at US$3 million. Production for the episode took place in New York City and Los Angeles.
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
Weiner conceived of the script in 2000 while working as a writer for the television sitcom Becker. Before writing the pilot episode, he studied American literature and cinema of the 1950s and 1960s to get a perspective on American culture during that period. Weiner sent the script to The Sopranos creator David Chase, who recruited Weiner to work with him on The Sopranos. Weiner shelved the project for seven years to focus on Chase's program; interest for Mad Men did not surface until the conclusion of The Sopranos' final season.
According to the Nielsen Media Research, the episode attained a rating of 1.4 (1.2 million households) upon initial airing.
Plot[edit]
In 1960, in a bar lounge in Manhattan, Don Draper (Jon Hamm), creative director for the advertising agency Sterling Cooper, is facing professional adversity, how to advertise cigarettes in light of the growing public awareness to the dangers of smoking and new government regulations prohibiting the use of false health claims. He seeks input from customers and his girlfriend Midge Daniels (Rosemarie DeWitt) but is unable to find a solution, while rejecting the academic research results provided by the company's consulting psychologist that suggests some customers are drawn to smoking not only despite the health risks but because of them, in a collective "death wish" scenario.
Concurrently, it is Peggy Olson's (Elisabeth Moss), first day at Sterling Cooper as Don's secretary, where she experiences the common sexual harassment that occurred in the 60s. A wide-eyed Brooklyn girl, she is a little overwhelmed but excited to be working in Manhattan. Office manager and subversive Venus Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) advises Peggy on how to appeal to men for success in her career here until she finds the ultimate success, marriage. Junior account executive Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) makes juvenile, boorish comments about Peggy's appearance and clothing, for which Don rebukes him. On her break, Peggy attends a doctor's appointment arranged by Joan, during which she undergoes a vaginal examination and is given a prescription for the recently introduced oral contraceptive, Enovid, which at the time was only to be prescribed to married women with their husband's consent.
Don and Roger Sterling (John Slattery) meet with Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff) for a consultation on her father's Jewish department store. To make Rachel more positively-inclined towards the agency, Roger enlists the only Jew in the company, a young man from the mailroom, to attend the meeting disguised as a member of the art department. Don mistakes the man for the owner due to his assumption that it will always be a man. Rachel, looking to attract refined and wealthy customers, is disappointed by the agency's suggestions of coupons to attract housewives as well as their questioning of why she did not select a Jewish agency, to which she replies that she was under the impression that Sterling Cooper was innovative, and that when she consulted with the Jewish agencies their research favored coupons too. Don, having never being spoken to by a woman like that, reacts negatively and leaves.
A later meeting with executives from Lucky Strike tobacco company also goes downhill, as reliably creative Don has yet to find a pitch. Pete inserts himself with the "death wish" idea put forth by the company's research, which he found snooping through Don's garbage. The executives reject this and prepare to leave displeased but Don tells them to wait. Pulling a new tagline from the process of making cigarettes and thin air—"It's toasted!"—associating their product with sunshine and making it sound benign, exemplifying what Don believes about advertising, that it is based on one thing, Happiness. The client is pleased, and after the meeting, Don expresses his anger with Pete. Remembering Joan's advice, Peggy attempts to thank Don in flirtatious way, for standing up for her with Pete earlier, and tears up from shame when he rejects it. He tells her that he understands she only did it because she thought she had to.
Begrudgingly, Don meets Rachel for drinks to make amends for the meeting. During their drinks, Don rebukes her naïve take on love and attempts to play the part of the Byronic bachelor, but Rachel recognizes in Don the element of an outsider, and says that she too knows what it feels like to be disconnected and out of place. The two of them begin to bond, and she agrees to give Sterling Cooper another shot. Pete and some of his co-workers go to a gentlemen's club to celebrate Pete's impending wedding. There, a woman rejects Pete's advances, and feeling dejected from this and Don's recent criticisms, Pete arrives drunk at Peggy's apartment, and she lets him in. Don takes a train to a large house in the suburbs, where he is greeted by his wife, blonde beauty Betty Draper (January Jones), who has not been mentioned before in the episode. He checks on their two sleeping children as she watches from the doorframe.
Production[edit]
Conception[edit]
Creator Matthew Weiner conceived the script for "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in 2000, while he was working as a writer for the sitcom Becker. The first draft of the episode was written as a spec script and was titled "The Division".[1][2][3] Two years later, Weiner sent the script to David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, although Weiner's agents insisted that he not proceed with his plans.[4] Chase later recruited him upon first glance.[2][5] "It was what you're always hoping to see," he recalled. "It was lively and it had something new to say. Here was someone who had written a story about advertising in the 1960s, and was looking at recent American history through that prism."[5] Weiner set the pilot script aside for the next seven years to focus on The Sopranos. Neither HBO nor Showtime expressed interest in the project until the commencement of The Sopranos' final season.[2][3] During that time, AMC began looking into the television market for new programming.[5] "The network was looking for distinction in launching its first original series," according to AMC Networks president Ed Carroll, "and we took a bet that quality would win out over formulaic mass appeal."[2]
Prior to writing the pilot episode, Weiner studied American culture during the 1950s and 1960s, analyzing literary works such as The Feminine Mystique (1963) and Sex and the Single Girl (1962) while viewing such films as The Apartment (1960) and A Guide for the Married Man (1967).[5] He continued his endeavors when the series' concept began to materialize, as he received a copy of Richard Yates' novel Revolutionary Road (1962) from the executives of AMC.[6] Weiner discussed the look of Mad Men with production designer Bob Shaw and cinematographer Phil Abraham, who Weiner had previously collaborated with in The Sopranos. Abraham wanted to establish a more genuine approach to portraying society in the 1960s, rather than "simply referencing the period as seen in movies of that time. We wanted to be more genuine than that. Movies were an influence."[7] In evoking historical accuracy of elements such as architecture and graphic design, Abraham sought inspiration from the buildings designed by the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.[7] He said, "We noticed that in all the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designs of contemporary buildings, the ceiling—the overhead grid of lights—was a strong graphic element in all the office spaces. In one design we loved, the whole ceiling was like a lightbox. It was a time of high modernism, and we embraced the notion of presenting the world in that way. These were new work spaces—sleek, not stuffy."[7]
Reception[edit]
Controversy[edit]
In the days leading to the "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" premiere, the watchdog group Commercial Alert filed a complaint against producers to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.[17] Commentators from the group criticized distillery brand Jack Daniel's for its decision to sponsor Mad Men, citing that it violates industry codes that prohibit alcohol marketing, as well as "depictions of irresponsible drinking, overt sexual activity or sexually lewd images".[17] Robert Weissman, the director for Commercial Alert, stated that based on AMC's website, "it appears that the sponsorship arrangement will violate numerous provisions of the industry's self-regulatory marketing code."[17] He continued: "There is no reason why a company should be able to escape normal enforcement and implementation of the Code simply because it chooses to violate the code in such brazen manner that curing the violation would cause non-trivial complications for a major television series."[17] In association with the complaint, Weissman urged in his letter that the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States become more proactive in regulating the distilleries' initiatives in the entertainment industry. "Our complaint in this instance is not with the portrayal of heavy alcohol consumption, or even with the glorification of such heavy consumption; it is specific to industry sponsorship of and entwinement with such portrayals. Quite different issues are raised where artists choose to depict such activities in the absence of industry sponsorship."[17]
Ratings and critical response[edit]
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was originally broadcast on July 19, 2007 in the United States on AMC. Upon airing, the episode achieved a 1.4 rating (1.2 million households) according to the Nielsen Media Research. Total viewership was 75 percent higher than all television programming airing on Thursdays on AMC.[18]