I just re-watched this with a friend... they did such an amazing job introducing all the characters.  The sequential reveals of the facets of Don, classic.  The last scene where he comes home to his wife and kids shocks everyone.  Also, I don't know why I didn't pick up on it before, but I just noticed some of Sal's comments - using his neighbor as a model for the ad, responding to the call girl who said she loved the strip bars "full of men" and saying he knew how she felt.  In contrast his other comments now seemed over the top... because he really was hamming it up to fit in.

It really hits home in the second season when the gang finds out Kurt is a homosexual, and Cosgrove says, "I didn't know we had a pervert working here."
The hurt on Sal's face is almost heartbreaking.

But the scene that ends abruptly after Ken Cosgrove casually says over his shoulder to Pete Campbell, "Kurt's a homo," still cracks me up.
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Ok I do not mean to be dense what on EARTH did Peggy see in Pete?

Hells bells Trudy.... I love you, I am giving up my life to marry you arent I?  I am a red blooded American male!  Or maybe it is his good looks! mmmmmm I think he is so sexy, especially when he was looking at Peggy dancing, with such disapproval in his eyes.  I love the "little boy" in him.

I just did not see anything appealing in him especially in the pilot. I really liked the scene when he talks to Peggy about his dream to hunt down his dinner and have his woman cook it for him. It makes her hungry and who know what else.

"One never knows how loyalty id born."

I like Pete fine and he is very interesting as a character I just never understood whaPeggy saw in him.

....chemistry knows no bounds!

Execs expected a lot more from their secretaries, probably more than they do now. Get my coffee; get my laundry; buy some presents for my kids; cover for me if my wife calls, etc... I'm not saying it was right, but they were trained to be somewhat more servile.

Peggy was young, plain, and naive. Pete was a hotshot (albeit crude) young executive. He was probably the first guy that ever showed an interest in her.

What did Pete see in Peggy?

Wow. Really?
She was available. Simple as that.

My ingenuousness led me to believe otherwise.

I do recall ...... when everyone in the office has left for the day, Pete asks Peggy to come sit down with him. Pete tells Peggy that he thinks she is "perfect," and then confesses that he is in love with her and wishes that he had married her.

What is that....... BS?

No noty BS just a life raft. It might be the "end of the world" as far as they are concerned and it was kind of true confession time. He thinks (as Don does in many of his trysts) that she sees the 'real' him and loves him anyway.

Sorry, I thought we were talking episode 1 here, or at least the first few.
Pete may have later romanticized his tryst with Peggy, but at the time it was pure drunkeness coupled with a little desperation over his impending marriage. What was it Cosgrove said? Something like, "...being shackled to one woman for the rest of your life?"

490.....Your power of recall is impressive!!

So does she. "I see you and I tnink 'I want what he has.' You have everything and so much of it."