Mad Men

Back from a Busy Summer! Museum Trek at the Museum of the Moving Image

/ Therese / 10 Comments

Hey Everyone!  How you all doing? Did you have a nice summer? Did you get outside?  Did you see the Super Blood moon on Sunday night? Any adventures? Romances? New recipes?

The bulk of my summer was spent on two main things; getting myself into better shape and helping our son get his driver’s license.  Happy to report we succeeded on both accounts; my son got his license and I’m feeling great!

I had a few adventures — I had gone to the Museum of The Moving Image in NYC to see the Mad Men exhibit (now closed)  What a joy to see many of the iconic costumes and recreations of the sets in person!  But to my delight,     there was also an exhibit of classic TV and Movie memorabilia, and what should I see there but some awfully familiar Star Trek stuff from my youth!

One big surprise was seeing the red spaceman costume Robin Williams wore as Mork in Mork and Mindy, not just because it was worn by the wonderful Williams, but also because of its relation to Star Trek!  Did you know that Mork’s red uniform was originally worn by Colonel Green in the Trek episode The Savage Curtain?  (But to be fair, I’d take Mork over Green anyday!)  Hmm, better add this costume recycle to that article I wrote a while back…)

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Col. Green in his original red uniform in “The Savage Curtain” and Mork in his modified version of the same costume in Mork and Mindy. Mork’s costume removed the small accouterments from the shoulders and added the silver triangle, but kept the collar and cuff detail’ later adding the black epaulets.

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The Mork/Green Costume as is appears today at the MOTMI

And as if seeing an actual Trek costume wasn’t enough, I found a whole mess of Trek stuff in the section “Behind the Screen” which featured lots of Trek and other baby boomer series merchandising (Jetsons, Man from UNCLE, you name it!)   There were also many dolls from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and even several fanzines, as well as models, puzzles and toys. I admit, seeing some of the Trek items there from the 1970’s, including a mug and a Mego Spock doll that I still actually have at home made me feel a little old!   But nice to know that some of my old stuff is considered museum worthy!

I gotta tell you, merchandising for Star Trek went crazy in the 1970s — and not all of it great quality — so often the uniform colors were wrong (Spock as a redshirt!) or promo photos were printed backward.  But as long as it had those Trek characters on it (especially Mr. Spock) it was a slam dunk for merchandising!  The only thing I didn’t see were Star Trek Colorforms (Remember Colorforms?)    Enjoy the pics!

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Trek Merchandising exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image

A squeezable soft Spock Doll from ST:TMP

A squeezable soft Spock Doll from ST:TMP

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A grouping of big and small ST:TMP dolls

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Mego Trek dolls, including the rare Klingon, Gorn, and Cheron doll, and a plastic mug and bowl set (I have that very mug and the Mego Spock!)

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Animated Trek puzzle in a can and a really nice Romulan Bird of Prey model.

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Trek party plates & napkins (Spock a Red Shirt!) and simple puzzle.

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Stickers, and a Trek ‘movie viewer’. Would have loved to tear this open! (note backward photo of K, S, & M)

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IMG_5821 Necklaces, pins, and a Trek watch (basically anything that could be utilized into Trek merchandise was gold in the 70’s)   Some Early Fanzines (beginnings of Spirk?)

So did you have a good summer too?  Miss me?  😉   Next time- Seeing the Space Shuttle Enterprise!

My Two Mad Men Videos: “Excuse Me?” and “Look at You!”

/ Therese / 2 Comments

Hey Kids,

As a lot of you know, I’m also a big fan of Mad Men, and this coming Sunday is the FINAL episode EVER! (Waaaah!).  But in honor of this occasion, I finally finished two little Mad Men videos that I’ve been tinkering with for about two years now!   I got the idea for these when, after multiple viewings, I had noticed there were two expressions that were often repeated on Mad Men.  They are:

  1. “Excuse Me?”  Mostly used when one is offended or confused by a comment made to them.  Less used to be noticed or when needing something repeated.
  2. “Look at You!” (and variants) Used to express pleasure, surprise, or frustration with one’s looks or situation.

I’ve loaded these videos to YouTube and am very happy to share with you here! It’s also a thank you to Matt and all the incredibly talented staff, writers, crew, and actors of Mad Men.  What a ride it’s been! I’ll miss it!

Pete Campbells’s Tumble

/ Therese / Leave a comment

I’m a fan of Mad Men too. so for all you other Maddicts out there, here’s a gif of Pete Campbell’s soon-to-be-iconic tumble down the steps of SCDP –  That extra  slip down the fifth stair cracks me up every time. This episode For Immediate Release, was a blockbuster of an ep last night, and it restored my faith in what seemed to be becoming season of ennui.  Now  I can’t wait to see what comes next!

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How I created the ‘Evolvers’ collage

/ Therese / 5 Comments

Hi Kids,

As I’ve mentioned here before, I also write for the great blog Basket of Kisses, which is a site devoted to quality TV and entertainment, with its main emphasis on Mad Men.   Well, every week I submit art found around the web for the ‘Fan Art Thursday’ post.   This week, I submitted my own art! It’s called ‘EVOLVERS’ and I’ve been working two weeks on it.   This was inspired by the Mad Men  episode “Lady Lazarus” where Don Draper first listened to Revolver by The Beatles.  Unfortunately, the first track he hears is the incredible “Tomorrow Never Knows” which wasn’t the Beatle fare he was expecting at all.  He tears the needle off the LP before it ends.

I’ve been a Beatle fan forever, and Revolver is one of my favorite albums of all time.  As a child, the intense cover  collage by Klaus Voorman fascinated and scared me at the same time (those photo eyes!).  But as time went on I grew to appreciate it for its awesomeness (and that’s a word I never use).

Anyway, having my two favorite worlds of Mad Men and The Beatles collide, I was inspired to make this homage to artist Voorman, Mad Men, and Revolver, and went straight to work on this soon after the episode. Here’s how I made it:

First, I had to find suitable images of Peggy, Don, Roger, and Joan for the cover. Here’s the first group, I collaged them with my  old Printmaster 16 program and made them black and white, then printed this up to look like and old Xerox print:

This Don (lower left) is different from the final image, I was delighted to find an image of him where he was in the exact same position as Ringo on the original.   Here’s the second revision: 

Then I made this one the Xerox version :

Then I used tracing paper to get the basic outline, and scanned it into my computer, adding paint details with my Adobe Photoshop,  and using the eraser tool a lot!

Once this was done, I reviewed a bunch of pictures that I thought would work to represent the changes that the cast of Mad Men went through in this season (5).  Don married Megan. Joan had a baby, Roger had an acid trip, etc. After getting the drawing organized, I switched the art back to Printmaster 16, and cut and pasted images in a collage, especially trying to match elements of Mad Men with the elements of the original Revolver album.  (e.g.  I have Peggy crying in the approximate space where Paul is ‘crying’ on the original). Since Don is in Ringo’s position and Roger in John’s, I corresponded Beatle and Mad Men images in like poses.  I was delighted to find a pic of Jon Hamm on the set from “Tomorrowland” when he’s in his swim trunks.  I stretched it with Printmaster, making it reminiscent of the stretched picture of Ringo in an old bathing suit on Revolver.

I continued to tweak and switch around the elements until I was satisfied, also making sure that Peggy’s flip interacted with the collage and, of course adding the famous eyes and lips to make it look like Revolver. I especially love how Joan mimics George.

I then thought ‘How am I going to reference Mad Men and The Beatles with the title of this piece?  The answer was right in front of me. so I dropped the R and added the S, and Revolver became Evolvers!  Don’t you love it when stuff comes together?   Now I’m no Klaus Voorman, but I’m delighted with how this turned out!

Then I copied and transferred this back to Adobe Photoshop, fixing all the final details until I had the final product…Ta-da!  (Whew!)  Enjoy! – Therese

Be sure to click on image to see full size!  And check out Basket of Kisses, it’s fun!

My Mad Men Side (and site)

/ Therese / 1 Comment

The main cast of Mad Men for Season 5. (l-r) Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks),
Roger Sterling (John Slattery), Lane Pryce (Jared Harris), Pete Campbell
(Vincent Kartheiser),Don Draper (Jon Hamm),Bert Cooper
(Robert Morse),Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss)

Hi Kids!

Some of you may know that I am also a blogger for the site Basket Of Kisses, which is an excellent blog for Mad Men and other quality entertainment! I have been posting articles about Mad Men here, for a couple of years now.  I also now post the  Fan Art page every Thursday, which features art from around the web that has Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and other great shows as its focus.  And soon I will be starting a new feature, Retro Reel Review, where I’ll take you back to the glorious old days of Classic Movies.

Now, for the uninitiated, Mad Men is a drama about  the ad executives of Madison Ave in the 1960’s.  The series began in 1960, and Season 5 is beginning in June of 1966; just three months shy of Star Trek‘s premiere on September 8, 1966 (I would not be surprised to see a reference to Trek).  The main character of the piece, Don Draper, is a brilliant Ad man with a secret past, you’ll just have to watch to see how it all evolves.   Mad Men often mentions current events of the Sixties, but doesn’t hit you over the head with them. It’s Subtle, Smart, and Sophisticated, and it is my favorite show ever. (Yes, even more than Star Trek)

Here’s a listing of my Basket of Kisses articles to date, (start at the bottom) and I’ll add more to my Mad Men category here as they appear.  If you haven’t seen Mad Men yet, I highly recommend that you start with Season 1, Episode 1, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, and strap yourself in for the ride.  It is one of the best written shows on TV, and it has won the Emmy for Best Drama 4 years in a row now!