Advertising, the 1960's, and How We Pay For Shows: The Back To The Future Edition

Today we're going to have a linkapalooza a bit. I've got to dash off to a big pitch meeting. Wish a girl luck.

This article about a potential new series for AMC caught my eye. (From the NYTimes)

THE AMC cable television network is considering a series that would explore how Madison Avenue remakes itself to meet the changing needs of clients as consumers and the media undergo transformation.

So the show would be a reality series, right? Not exactly. It is fictional, a drama about the advertising industry circa 1960.

In another example of how the more things change the more they remain the same, if AMC decides to pick up the series, each episode may be sponsored by a single advertiser — just as was done in 1960.

The filming of an hourlong pilot episode of the series, called "Mad Men," has been completed after a month of shooting at locations in Manhattan, as well as the Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Queens. Soon, the producer, @radical Media, plans to turn over the episode to AMC for a decision.

Now, this is interesting to me because it's a period show set in the 1960's -- something very close to my heart right now. Like all good period shows, there's a reason to set it there: 1960 is where the ad culture starts to change and the media world we live in and take for granted starts to be formed. I've always thought it was a fascinating world -- even thought it might make a good movie...but never considered a TV series. But when you think of what AMC's niche is, it makes sense.

Also -- please note the single sponsor idea. Maybe none of us know how the future of TV is going to unfold. But that doesn't mean people aren't trying. And looking back to the past for the single sponsor is one way to go. Would anyone really care if it was "The Ford Motor Company Presents 24?" As long as it was still free to you, I mean?

The more the creator, Matthew Weiner ( The Sopranos) describes the show, the more I love it:

Advertising was "the sexiest job of the period," Mr. Weiner said during an interview on Stage 9 at Silvercup Studios as a scene from the "Mad Men" pilot was being filmed.

"Some people think money is our national religion," Mr. Weiner said. "I think it's selling, and it's beautiful, and we do it better than anyone."

Mr. Weiner described himself as a big fan of the popular culture of the period, particularly films about what he termed "the war at the office." Among them he listed "The Apartment," "The Best of Everything" and "Patterns."

Rod Serling, who wrote "Patterns," also made ad executives the protagonists in several episodes of his TV series, "The Twilight Zone."

Still, Mr. Weiner said, if "Mad Men" becomes a series, he does not want viewers to wallow in nostalgia.

"We look back on that period now as innocent," Mr. Weiner said, but the early 1960's was a time of great ferment, prefiguring much of what happened to America in subsequent decades.

Bring on the overflowing ashtrays, IBM selectrics, and drinks in The Office, I say. Huzzah!

You're still bumping on the sponsorship thing, aren't you? Worried that your artistic vision as writers will be compromised by having to bow to grubby commercial interests?

Well, for heaven's sake, then...don't read this article.