MAD MEN AND REALITY TV: I BLAME THEM BOTH

The Cast of AMC's MAD MEN

One of my friends just binge watched all of  MAD MEN and would not stop going on about it.  I mean he REALLY loved it.  For me, Don Draper and the other characters of that successful show represent the 1960’s in all of their glory.  It also marks some of the major changes politically and socially for many folks in our country.  So why am I making Don Draper and his “fictional” world the scapegoat of this piece? Because I think that there might be a direct correlation between much of the behavior that we see impacting our society today and the subconscious energy and message of that show. 

Now television single handedly raised me and probably most folks in my generation by providing a true escape from the insanity of the world. Yet somehow,  I never felt  intellectually stunted by any of it.  I think that it made me more interesting.  We had Saturday Morning Cartoons, Variety Shows, Soul Train, American Bandstand, Sesame Street, Electric Company, Classic Movies, and every memorable sitcom and drama from the late 50’s to the 70’s in syndication, to keep us busy,  all while going to school.  Throw in that yearly visit from the Wizard of Oz, and a child of the 70’s stayed quite happy.    

Some of the Best Cartoons Ever

All of these classic TV moments developed my comic timing, kept me company, gave me wisdom, and taught me to be more aware of stuff like in those After School Specials or in a good Movie of the Week.  It always felt like television brought information and joy to the world. Since the advent of cable and internet streaming, television brings us more than joy and fuzzy Brady Bunch moments.  It also has given us access  to the rest of the world, in a way we never thought of as kids of the 70’s and 80’s. 

Sometimes, I think television does influence a generation or a nation, as well as possibly reflects it.  Now I am neither a sociologist nor a psychologist, but simply a critically thinking human and performing artist whose compulsion to observe is continually challenged with every new day. As we sit and watch the complete and total degradation of this scandal ridden office of the presidency, I am not alone in failing to understand how this country’s cultural, intellectual, and seemingly moral pendulum is swinging so hard and so quickly to the right.  As we watch things like the conservative judiciary movement happening in ALL of our courts, the rampant insanity of Toxic Masculinity, coupled with the flagrant disregard of women and people of color, it seems that America is not getting GREAT again. It’s falling into a pit of rampant despair.  

Every time I read some idiotic, hate-filled tweet from POTUS, or see the very jowly Sen. Mitch McConnell and his congressional cronies plot to alter every step of progress we have made as a nation, while wringing their hands and twirling their mustaches, I just want to puke.  Age, wisdom, and a twisted outlook on life might be the only things that are giving me solace and protection in these times, and thank God as a comedian, I have some sort of outlet to try and deal with what is currently happening. I am sure you are thinking, how is this all Don Draper’s fault?  I’ll go on record and blame the show, MAD MEN, and I’ll toss in most of Reality TV as the root cause for all of the behavior that we see happening within the many pockets of America, especially White America.

The 60's Man

During the 60’s, the American, heterosexual, white male was sitting on top of the world.  MAD MEN  reminded many of the older white men that you see today in political office or running major companies while screaming “MAGA”, reminiscing about the “glory” days they have been missing. It also takes them back to the days when Women, People of Color, Gays, etc., all KNEW their place. It really feels that since that dreaded November day in 2016, some heteronormative white men and women have truly lost their ever loving minds.  Meanwhile, the rest of us are paying for it.  If someone way more scholarly than me with a background in the History of Media and Race or a Comparative Sociology discipline, would do the intense research required, then I think they might agree, and hopefully will give me some credit for possibly giving their research a proposal. 

Jon Hamm is Don Draper on AMC's Mad Men

MAD MEN premiered July of 2007.  At that time,  I was about a year into my national radio career. I started watching it about 3 seasons into its run as it took the world by storm.  The critics all hailed it as the next best thing since sliced bread. As a child of the 70’s, it is very hard to hear about a show on the advertising game and NOT visualize Darrin Stephens or Larry Tate, which is why I waited to even be bothered.  I watched how some of the characters brilliantly portrayed by Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Vincent Kartheiser, and Robert Morse used their status and power to do some really unfair, and sometimes unspeakable things to Elisabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks, and Bryan Batt, all while day drinking, chain smoking, and fornicating.  It struck me as I binge watched the show. I really believe in addition to bringing back a lot of the fashion, the culture, and counterculture, MAD MEN consciously and subconsciously, began empowering the deflated and disenfranchised ego of straight white men, causing them to do and say some of the obtuse things that we are witnessing today. That show also reinforced the power of winning at any cost, which hands down is a tenet of the Republican Party.  They are so pissed off that it is not so simple anymore to win by just telling other people HOW they should live their lives, and you know what? It is evident to me with the behavior consistently being reported from the top of this country to many of the small pockets, that they are not taking it anymore. 

Keeping Up With the Kardashians

 It became clearer to many of us AFTER President Obama’s election, how some white men REALLY felt about their lives. During 2007,  when former President Obama began his legitimate run for office, much of the country was STILL reeling from many of the disappointments and problems of the George W. Bush Presidency.  The bank bust, the real estate bust, and the automotive industry crisis, are among among a few of the highlights.  Please don’t get me started with the 9/11 cover up, discrepancies, and findings.   KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS debuted on the airwaves in October of the same year. This show gave many underachievers the belief that they could and should become a rich household name for doing nothing more than making a sex tape.  I do not have to even mention the destruction that Mark Burnett’s THE APPRENTICE has caused.  It all became the perfect storm of thought for ridiculously entitled people to feel even more disenfranchised.  I believe this is how the trend of media distraction picked up where Shock and Awe slowed down.  Like many a confident heterosexual, white man in the 60’s would probably say to his woman, “go and watch all the pretty stuff , while I take care of all these ‘man’ things.” 

Meanwhile, the more insidious and methodical people like the Mitch McConnells and that whole pocket-lining lot of politicians, are using our government and courts to drag us back to a time when abortions were illegal, and women still couldn’t have something as simple as a checking account. This nation is still fighting with over half of its population about what “they” can and cannot do with “their” bodies.  I do not even need to describe the states of Black, Brown, and Gay America, much less mention the state of Immigration at that time.  My observations are these Republican white men in power are doing this because for some reason, the thought of a world where we all have a say, is a threat to their way of life and needs to be protected.  How a country that was founded by thieving immigrant white men in the name of God can be so ironically hostile toward people from other countries is astounding. 

Children in the Border Detention Facilities

Have you been watching any of the border reports in the news? This might have something to do with projections that the White Majority will become the White Minority by 2045. There is also an “appearance” of routine state sanctioned murders of ordinary citizens, people of color at the hands of white police when they “stand their ground”.   Many lovers of Mad Men and the nostalgia of the 60’s who may remember some of America’s social history at the time, can see many issues that almost 50 years later are just as prevalent now as they were in those days.  If you were a heterosexual, white man during those years, none of those problems were yours, and how dare those other marginalized people want, much less, ask for more?  You were probably even irritated that they spoke up for their right to be heard.  Sound familiar? 

Meanwhile also in 2007,  the Kardashians showed up with their unique craziness to keep entire generations of vocal shredding and potential voting millennials bothered with their antics. Next in line, the competition shows and real housewives from some major city, gobble up the rest of the herd’s attention.    Many of those  “celebrities” are from a privileged world that most of their viewers will NEVER know, much less understand.   This also keeps people who choose to read books, newspapers, and watch more than Fox News, consistently frustrated with the direction that America seems to be going.  The triumvirate of the reality show mentality, the need to keep ill-informed electorates in the dark, and documented help from the Russians, is how White Privilege will continue to run rampant, unless we ALL become each others’ allies in this fight to stop it.  We all remember that we are all human beings on this planet. This means gays have to work with straights. Men are going to have to work with Women.  American citizens have to help Immigrants. Folks of color are going to have to work with white folks. You see how it can work, right?  This is the beginning of how any REAL change is going to be effective. It has been proven to work historically.

My generation had a different relationship with television.  Even though the images that were represented did not all paint the best pictures of women, people of color, gays, or other minorites. But for some reason shows like THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, ROOTS, THE JEFFERSONS, SOAP, did their best to open the doors of communication. The television industry is designed to make some people extremely wealthy at almost any cost to the audience it serves, regardless of the message.  Some people would even say that there is an art to modern day TV, and just like with any form of art, the artists can do whatever they want while the interpretation of what is presented is left solely up to the viewer.  I think television has taken the concept of interpretation away from the viewer and has overwhelmed them with choices, while also spoon feeding them fake news, alternative facts, glimpses of the good old days, and other propaganda within the quagmire that is modern day television.

From L to R: Valerie Harper, Betty White, Mary Tyler Moore, Cloris Leachman

Many people, like the Mitch McConnells of the world, are counting on us to find a place of comfort and stay distracted, while they plow through with their insidious plans and wreak havoc everywhere else in the world. Perhaps the backlash pertaining to the return, revisioning, and ultimate demise of ROSEANNE and THE CONNORS, may mean that TV is taking a bit of a stand?  Considering that ABC programming was headed up by a powerful woman of color, perhaps THAT is a change that we needed to see in MANY places?  In the interim, I am going to see if LAW AND ORDER SVU will have any bearing on society, because if this is not a time for Sgt. Benson to appear and handle the case, I am not sure when we will need her more.

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