In a recent episode of The People's Court during which Judge Marilyn Milian resolved a dispute over a Mariano Rivera-signed baseball, she mentioned that she was a big fan of the Yankee closer and had presented him with a robe and gavel so that he could preside over the clubhouse "kangaroo court."
It turns out that this occurred back in June 2009:
Mad Men, which centers on fictional NYC Madison Avenue advertising agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in the 1960s, is not exactly appointment viewing, but it is certainly worth programming it into your DVR and watching it when you can. The critical praise heaped on the somewhat overrated show is disproportionate, though, to the actual Mad Men TV viewership.
It's hard to believe that people drank and smoked that much in the office in the 60s, isn't it?
In any event, a Mad Men episode can be uneven, pretentious, and feel padded (especially with the subplot involving Betty Draper played by January Jones). Last Sunday evening's show was different as it contained an unusual amount of compelling scheming and scamming, however, to the point where it seemed like the Mad Men season 5 finale--which will actually air on June 10.
Perhaps the best part of the show is the opening theme music and animation sequence.
Apart from that, there are two solid characters that seem "real":
Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), the hardworking and sincere copywriter that everyone seems to take for granted (sound familiar?) and obnoxious firm partner Roger Sterling (John Slattery). In the latter case, haven't we all worked in companies where one of the top executives or managers blatantly never does a stitch of work?
The quality of the show aside, what is Hollywood fascination with the advertising industry of all things? Perhaps second only to police dramas, why do so many TV shows and movies have the advertising industry as a backdrop?
Apart from Mad Men, others that come immediately to mind include Melrose Place, ThirtySomething and the Mel Gibson movie What Women Want. There is also a new reality show about advertising agencies competing for new accounts, The Pitch, which airs on AMC immediately after Mad Men.
A quick Internet search reveals others: Bosom Buddies, Bewitched, Who's the Boss?, Full House, Trust Me (one season), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and so on.
Can you think of any reason for the entertainment industry's fascination with advertising?
Unlike the lackluster 2008 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain who inexplicably left so many issues on the table, Mitt Romney's aggressive and rapid response media team shows that the GOP candidate really wants to capture the White House in November.
Using the term "bomb thrower" is gross exaggeration, but otherwise this BuzzFeed piece seems to be generally on the mark, except it that Romney is implementing a strategy for winning the general election:
In the eyes of many on the right, John McCain's 2008 presidential bid
was a disaster not because he lost, but because he refused to fight.
Conservatives believe McCain bought into a liberal media narrative that
personal attacks on Barack Obama were unseemly and even racist. The
conservative caricature of Candidate McCain that emerged in the wake of
the Republicans' defeat wasn't of an unreliable moderate — rather, it
was one of an Establishment figure paralyzed by political correctness,
and unwilling to go blow for blow with Obama.
But if the Vietnam veteran disappointed conservatives with his gun-shy
campaign in 2008, Romney is uniting the right by playing the role of the
bomb-thrower.
The unapologetically aggressive tone of Romney's campaign is manifest at
every turn — from his aides' fierce Twitter wars, to the candidate's
surprise press conference at failed green solar company Solyndra, and
the campaign's continued refusal to apologize for Donald Trump's
outlandish conspiracy theories about Obama's birth certificate. It's all
part of a deliberate — and, so far, successful — strategy aimed less at
convincing undecided voters, and more at rallying the Republican Party
around its candidate.
Similarly, Byron York of the Washington Examiner writes that Team Obama misses John McCain and said so publicly:
Faced with deteriorating economic conditions and an unexpectedly
aggressive Republican opponent, President Obama and his aides are
expressing nostalgia for Sen. John McCain, the Republican opponent Obama
defeated handily in the 2008 election...
The last week, more than any in the campaign so far, has shown Team
Obama that Romney and his aides are prepared to fight as hard as needed
to win in November. The Romney-organized shouting-down [see below] of top Obama
aide David Axelrod in Boston; the Romney sneak event at the old Solyndra
headquarters in California; Romney's refusal to give in to Democratic
demands to repudiate Trump; and Romney's determination to avoid side
controversies while remaining singularly focused on the economy all
revealed a candidate who has resolved to battle Obama on his own, and
not Obama's, terms. It's no wonder Obama has become nostalgic for the
relatively comfortable days of 2008.
Taking a page out of the left's playbook, Romney supporters disrupt Obama campaign honcho David Axelrod's Boston press conference:
