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I am still a bit confused by Don's look after Bert's song. Looked like he'd been hit by a train. Kind of reminded me of his look after the Carousel pitch at the end of season 1 when he gets home and his family has already left town for Thanksgiving.

Was it realization that he'd lost his freedom and just become part of a corporate machine? Was overwhelmed by the uncertainty he just signed up for or overwhelmed with exhaustion from the insane number of events he had over the weekend?

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Thought they were finishing in the fall, so bummed it will be more like Jan or March.

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I have no real point with that, other than to say I'm really into space, stars, Mad Men, and True Detective.

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Pretty cool behind-the-scenes look at a lot of the sets...

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/behind-the-scenes-photos-reveal-the-secrets-of-mad-men-1581644509

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Anyone think that when Roger's phone rang that it was going to be the cops stating that his daughter had died?

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Anyone think that when Roger's phone rang that it was going to be the cops stating that his daughter had died?

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Yep ... I was thinking overdose

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Anyone think that when Roger's phone rang that it was going to be the cops stating that his daughter had died?

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Yep ... I was thinking overdose

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Me too. Way off on that one.

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Anyone think that when Roger's phone rang that it was going to be the cops stating that his daughter had died?

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Yep ... I was thinking overdose

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Me too. Way off on that one.

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Nope, I immediately thought "oh no, Bert died."

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Speaking of songs, back at the start of season 3, you talked to me about how if you made it to the end of the decade, even with all the counter-culture, “My Way” would still be one of the big radio hits at the time. I take it you’ve been planning to use that song for a long time.

Matthew Weiner: My interest in history, and for the writers on the show, is always there to explore character. But there's a lot of historical things that for whatever reason are not of interest to the audience. At the same time, I want them to be of interest to the characters. The idea is that that song had just come out, in the midst of a golden age of rock n roll. And who knows if it's just kids listening to rock and just adults listening to Sinatra, but it had a very large cultural impact. Even at the time, people thought it was big and schmaltzy, but they did not stop listening to it, and there is something eternal to the message of it. And Frank Sinatra had a lot of hits in the late '60s, which is not the way that the traditional depiction of that period is done. It's really that simple.

Was that ever something you had considered as the final song of the series?

Matthew Weiner: No. For me, it was an explanation of the thesis of the show. There were a lot of people in the audience who were there, and it was their childhood, and they have a very distinct viewpoint on what was going on. And it has been cemented by the representation of the late '60s as this revolutionary moment, of cultural upheaval, whatever the cliche. My basic statement was there were a lot of people who were adults when this happened, and they had their own lives, also. It's just like the idea that as the hippies come along, "Oh, Don's going to be left behind." Well, you can read Playboy Magazine and you can see that a guy Don's age in a suit and a tie is still at the top of the heap in 1969. It's not like they were supplanted by people in bell bottoms and sandals. It really was a kind of acknowledgement of the fact that the way history has been metabolized is very different than the way it was. I'm not positive about the way it was, but I'm always trying to see it from the point of view of the characters.
Read more at http://m.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/mad-men-creator-matthew-weiner-on-singing-dancing-and-writing-the-series-finale#5Kg00lOjjehiorsc.99

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The story for me is that Peggy thought she was the boss the day she fired Joey in season 4 or whatever. That's not being the boss. You cannot give another person confidence; the same way you can't give another person integrity. And Don, working his way up in his own business, and discovering that doing his job was more important than being a wheeler-dealer — it was the only thing that he had control of in his life. And Peggy doing it her way — the thing that Don gave her was "do it your way," it wasn't "this is how you do it." And by the time the finale rolls around, you saw her give her version of a personal sales pitch that was earned. You can't give another person confidence. He's still the mentor in the relationship, but there is hopefully — I describe it as the joy of you're teaching someone how to ride the bike, and eventually you let go of the seat, and they just ride off. That's what I wanted it to feel like.

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You always try to balance wanting happiness for your characters with what’s dramatically interesting. Things ended on a really positive note for almost everyone in “Waterloo.” How fearful should we be about what’s coming in the final seven episodes?

Matthew Weiner: I hope that people listen to the words to the song to some degree, and know that there is some bittersweetness to having all that material success. It is not really life. No one can own it. Do I want people to feel like somethin bad is going to happen? Yes, we're always playing on that. I was laughing at the fact that the story of Don's success in the company, is something where the tension was created because on "Mad Men," you can't believe that something horrible isn't going to happen.

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That said, guess how long Napoleon was exiled at St Helena, after Waterloo, until he died of cancer? Five and a half years (October 1815 to May 1821).

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Weiner still hates hippies

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