THE MAD MEN ARE GONE – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:   The most common request I get at Urgent Agenda is to write more about popular culture.  I say I will, and then I don't.  Just call me Hillary.

But there was an important moment in popular culture last night, the final episode of "Mad Men," the series about a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the 1960s.  It became a phenomenon, and showed that cable systems can turn out fine work.  "Mad Men,"put on by the American Movie Classics (AMC) channel, has been the traditional wakeup call to the big-four TV networks – CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox – that there are other games in town.

I don't know how many of you have actually watched "Mad Men," so I won't discuss the show in detail.  It was superbly written and acted, and the setting in the 1960s was beautifully handled, complete with sixties music and news events as background.  Many advertising people will tell you, probably correctly, that it wasn't all that accurate.  It was a drama, and, I'm sure, plenty of license was taken.  But the show used an ad agency as a platform to portray the lives of the agency people in the suburbs, in Manhattan, and in their adventures outside their work.  The writers were able to bring in the social changes of the time, particularly the greater acceptance of minorities and women.  It was a time of upheaval, and assassinations.

It was never hokey.  Matthew Weiner, the creator of "Mad Men," rarely tried to sell a political line.

"Mad Men" symbolized something important in our popular culture, and that is the coming of a second golden age of American television.  The feature-film industry is fading away, a victim of its own greed, arrogance, excess, lack of talent, and contempt for the audience.  Television is now dominant in Hollywood, and is no longer the junior partner to the feature people.  With the expansion of the number of channels available, through cable or satellite, television has had the outlets to experiment, to create new forms, and to rebel.  It is the most creative time in the industry since the 1950s, when fine dramas like "Playhouse 90" could easily be found on the dial.  Today we have "The Americans," "Homeland," and, on the major networks, the occasional gem like "Friday Night Lights."  It is a good era in which to watch.

Goodbye to the mad men.  I welcome the next entry in the quality sweeps.

May 18, 2015