I such re-watched the pilot episode and I was really struck by how differently the characters behaved. 

Usually when you go back and watch the first episode of a series you like, you notice the characters are different because it's their first crack at their roles and they've yet to get a feel for them.  They often look and act very wooden and it makes you a bit uncomfortable.  "I can't believe the characters behaved this way!" I sometimes think. 

With Mad Men though, the first episode takes place a little over three and a half years before where we currently are in the show (March of 1960), and I've got to applaud Matt Weiner for directing the characters however he did, because we see a much cockier, less embittered Don than we've seen in the past while, and although that could have been the show's lead just "Hamming it up" and taking a few liberties with his suave new character, I'm more inclined to think that the attention to detail and foresight was good enough to show that Don's story arc is nowhere close to the steep fall his silhouette in the opening credits is foreshadowing. 

We also see a very green Peggy in this episode.  I liked her better back then.   Also, I forgot that Pete slept with her in pilot.  That was some quick work.  Joan is great in this episode too.  I love that greeting she gives Draper when she's giving Peggy the tour.  She'd be the ideal secretary.  I like how she's sexy and smart at the same time.  The way she speaks is so calculating and precise, and she really had a handle on her character from day one.

Salvatore seemed really out of place, though.  I guess we're supposed to believe that his colleagues are so macho that they don't even pick up on the fact that he's different, but his buddy talk with Draper in his office seemed really forced looking back on it, and someone as perceptive as Don definitely would have picked up on Sal's gayness before he saw him through the hotel room window much later.  I realize it's probably played up for the audience's benefit, but...seeing as how well the show is written, I think they could have gone about that a little more subtly.

Anyway, let me know what you think, and give me your own thoughts on what it's like to look back to the first episode and compare it to where everything is now.  You know, if you want...ahdunno.

I had a funny conversation this morning about MM.  I was checking out of Mother’s Market wearing my Betty Draper t-shirt when the young check out girl asked if that was the character from MM.  I said yes waiting for her to gush about the show.  Instead she said how she and her husband watched the first few episodes and “does anything happen on the show?  We kept watching it waiting for something but all I saw was a bunch of people cheating on their spouses.”

Uuuuuuhhh  “Well it works on different levels, lots of metaphors and symbolism and..” she cut me off to say that she gets all that but she just wanted some action.  I asked semi sarcastically “a little gun play?” 

“Yeah!” she smiled.

So the snob in me is happy that this show is not for everyone and makes me think I’m in a MM Mensa club with other posters on this blog.

AND Booo hooo.   What will I spend my time obsessing about after Sunday?   I guess a new season of Braking Bad is coming soon.

Heh.  I guess jumping in mid-series would be kind of frustrating for a new viewer.  If you've been watching since the very beginning, every line in the show will probably have significance for you, while someone who just catches an episode here and there is going to be lost.  I could definitely see that being frustrating.

I've tried to sell a few people on Mad Men and most say that they watched an episode "here and there" but couldn't get in to it.  Well yeah, you've got to make a commitment to this program, I guess.

MM is a great show.  I have never posted on a show site before, never cared enough.  Truthfully?  I don't have a TV.  I go to a friend's house to watch it.  How dedicated is that, especially at that hour?

I am sorry to hear that you are poor and cannot afford a TV Becky.

I didn't say I was too poor.  I just don't choose to spend money on TV.  Occasionally, I regret my decision, but for the most part, no.

Haha... I know a number of people who don't own TVs. I also know people who own a TV, but rarely turn it on. These people do things like read, craft, play games with their kids, pursue hobbies, go out on the town and all sorts of other things that TV addicts like myself don't ever get around to.

There's a lot of technology I don't own. I didn't even have a cell phone until recently. Not because I couldn't afford one, but because I don't really need one. I pay for my phone with pre-paid cards, not because I'm a criminal, drug dealer or prostitute, but because I only use the phone about 3 minutes per month.

Anyway, it just made me LOL when you assumed she couldn't afford a TV. Different people have different priorities.

Heh heh. Actually, that was kind of a tongue-in-cheek comment.  Typing it made me "LOL" too.

If there's one thing anyone can afford nowadays, it's a television, what with everyone switching to high-def LCD and plasma sets.  Someone I know recently told me that he was making the switch to the new technology himself and was getting rid of his 32" Sony.  It was about a thousand dollars a few years ago and he put it up on a local Craigslist-like site for only thirty bucks or so, more so someone would cart the thing away than anything.  Weeks went by and there were no bites.  He even lowered the price, and still nothing. 

I had a university professor who almost boasted that she didn't own a TV.  I remember someone saying something in class one time and mentioning that there had been a piece on CNN and she quickly interrupted him.  "Uh, what's CNN?" she asked. 

The student was kind of confused, but replied, "Its...a television news network?"

"Oh, well I don't own a television" she said.

I was so close to doing a *Cough-BULLSHIT!-cough-cough-hack!* take right there.  But I held back.

I mean, I don't own a cellphone, but I'm not going to pretend I don't know what someone's talking about when they talk about "aps" for theirs and stuff like that. 

I'm not saying you're a pretentious idiot like that professor was, Becky.  Not at all.  I'm just explaining why it's become a reflex for me to make a joke when I hear that.