It's a Mad Mad World

This is a post about five women and their obsession with one TV show. One Saturday in May, five women donned in pearls, full-skirted dresses, one crazy headband and candy cigarette in hand crowded the kitchen preparing a meal worthy of a Draper dinner party.

The TV show is called "Mad Men" and depicts the life of Don Draper, a big shot advertising executive in the 1960s (right before America's involvement in the Vietnam war). During that time, if you worked in advertising, you worked on Madison Avenue. The ad men, called themselves "Mad Men." Draper is a complex man. He is a family man (with a wife named Betty and three kids), and he is one of the most professionally ethical workers at his company, Sterling Cooper (next to Peggy of course). Outside of the workplace, Draper is a different man. He engages in several extra-marital affairs with absolutely no remorse and no sign of stopping. Yet, we still like him for some reason. We want to be with him, work for him even be his friend. 

That is why I love this show so much. It is character driven and each character is interesting in his or her own way and they are subtly unpredictable. Also, my life is about communication (my work and my studies) and advertising is all about words and communication. I find it fascinating how they come up with slogans and ads on the show for products that are household items today. With so much reality TV on the air, a show that is brilliantly written and a talented cast dressed in striking wardrobe, Mad Men is one hour of TV paradise -- if paradise consisted of debauchery, cigarettes, corporate climbing and a crazy housewife or two.

Me and four other fabulous women who love Mad Men as much as I do decided to throw ourselves a little dinner party, Mad Men style.


THE CHARACTERS

During this dinner party, we called our wonderful host, Sarah, "Joan" because they both are red heads. Joan is the sexy Office Manager at Sterling Cooper.

JOAN

We called Bethany "Betty" but she is nothing like Betty on the show. Betty, Don Draper's wife is a bit crazy. She once started shooting her neighbor's canaries with her shot gun while wearing her nighties.

BETTY

Naturally, we called Molly "Peggy" because Molly's real name is Margaret (and Peggy is the nickname for Margaret). Molly, however, is not quite like the Peggy on the TV show. Peggy on the show seems like a very shy, very conservative straight laced girl. Molly, seems like the opposite. Peggy, however, turns out to be super slutty on the show, and Molly is not. Later that night Molly switched to being "Twin #2," the model who gave Roger Sterling a heart attack while they were umm.. having relations. Way to go, Twin #2.

PEGGY/TWIN #2

Jaime called herself "Josie." Josie isn't an actual character on the show, but I like to think of Jaime as the secretary who was driving around a John Deere tractor in the Sterling Cooper office and runs over their new boss' foot. Blood everywhere! That episode was awesome.

JOSIE

I was called "Trudy", after Pete Campbell's wife. Pete Campbell is like a little annoying rat at Sterling Cooper. His wife is a bit whiny. Come to think of it, her character is not likable, so later that night, I switched to being "Rachel Menken." She was one of Don's mistresses. I liked her. She was smart, successful and went toe to toe with men in the board room.

TRUDY/JOAN MENKEN

THE MENU


Salad with jello (or California Health Salad). This was not exactly on Mad Men, but all the recipes from the 60s had jello in them.


Ingredients: Fresh fruit, crisp lettuce, cottage cheese and jello. Made by Peggy (Molly).
Surprisingly not bad, except for the lettuce part.

Spam and Bacon-wrapped sausage. Both were really good -- yes even the Spam. Made by Joan (Sarah D.)

 

Waldorf Salad. In reference to the episode where Don Draper has a meeting with Conrad Hilton, owner of the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Back then, Hilton was known for being a hotel magnate, today, Hilton is synonymous with sex tapes (like One Night in Paris). Anywho... Conrad Hilton offered Don a salad and said it was named after the hotel.

I brought this and I got it from Safeway. There was no chicken in it, just apples.

Old Cookies, Meatballs and Heineken. The cookies Josie (Jaime) bought from World Market and the literally look like they were made in the 60s and had been sitting in some old lady's basement. They did not taste good. The Heineken, I brought and is in reference to when Betty served Heineken at a dinner party for Don's boss, Roger. Earlier that day, Don and Roger had been contemplating an ad campaign for Heineken and suggested that it be marketed to housewives. Coincidentally, Betty serves the Heineken, Don and Roger get a chuckle and Betty gets super pissed at Don after. She told him that she was embarrassed. I told you Betty was crazy. She's beautiful, but crazy. The meatballs, brought by Betty (Bethany) are in reference to when Betty asks Don if he'd like meatballs for dinner, warm or cold.

 

Bloody Mary. I personally don't like Bloody Mary's because I don't like tomato juice. The Bloody Mary is an ode to Sally (Don and Betty's 8 year old daughter) who apparently on the show knows how to make a mean Bloody Mary -- a skill she uses during dinner parties.

Cocktails that were from the 60s. Betty (Bethany) got this page from Bon-a-Petit magazine which tells you how to throw a Mad Men party! I can't remember what I had. I didn't make them, I just consumed them.

We also had other food like chips, dip and a custard dessert made by Betty (Bethany) using old chocolate from Peggy's (Molly's) fridge. We capped off the night watching Breakfast at Tiffany's. We didn't actually have any Mad Men dvds with us but you can't go wrong with Audrey Hepburn.

P.S. We also had a great 60s soundtrack to dance ourselves silly to. I don't have that playlist. I know for sure that Jimi Hendrix was on it and that's all I remember.

You should check out Mad Men:

Mad Men website