Mad Men Is the Best Show on Television

I love Mad Men. But I think I love it at a dumb person's level, and that's what makes the show so great: there are a lot of levels on which to enjoy it.

I read about the symbolism and the themes, and for the most part I don't know what people are talking about. I just enjoy it as entertainment. But I'm glad that it's working in more than just one way.

What's more impressive is that we are in season 5 and things are as strong as ever. The truth is I hated the whole Dick Whitman thing. I also hate January Jones. So the last two seasons, with more office stuff and less Betty, has been pure candy for me. 

There's an urge to be artsy for artsy sake, and slow for artsy sake. But this show has not worried about that, and has gone for more funny lines and moments lately, and I greatly appreciate it cause that's what I like.

Of course, it's the great Roger Sterling that is delivering a lot of the comedy. I love this man. Interestingly, I first remember seeing him on the show "Ed". And I hated his guts. He was just so...smug. And now he's like my favorite guy on TV. Acting! Genius!

And now a word about The Beatles.

The big news from Sunday's episode was that they used a Beatles song. This basically never happens because it's so expensive to license music like that. Reportedly, they were able to get the Beatles song for $250k. It's kinda sad because great music can add so much to a scene or sequence. But it's just too much cash for most TV shows to pony up. 

This is of great interest to me because licensing music has been a thorn in my ass for many years now. There are so many times when we wanted to use a song on whatever show I was working on and we just couldn't do it. Even dumb, bad songs seem to start at $25k.

People constantly send me things and say "you have to use this on the show!" and it has a Michael Jackson song or whatever on it. There isn't a lot of awareness of the fact that you just can't do that.

So if you're wondering why we never used your "fat guy dancing to Beyonce" clip, that's why.  

P.S. What happened to Mr. Belding's head?