With Mad Men entering the first half of its final season tonight on US television, we'd thought we'd look back over an incredible seven seasons of the hit show and find the best scenes from them. The show, which debuted back in 2007, has won numerous Emmys, shaped fashion trends and launched the careers of Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks and many more. Here's our five favourite scenes...
5. Lane Pryce and Peter Campbell beat the crap out of each other in the boardroom / Season 5, Episode 5
You can't talk about Mad Men without discussing the fact that it's completely behind-the-times. Sexism, misogyny, racism are all pretty much par for the course, but settling disputes with fisticuffs? Truly medieval. Watch how Roger just lights up a smoke when the fight kicks off.
4. Roger Sterling takes LSD / Season 5, Episode 6
What's truly fascinating about Mad Men is how it addresses culture in the 60's and people's attitudes during the time period. Whether it's sex, racial intolerance or even drug culture and experimentation, Mad Men takes in all aspects of the time period without focusing it through our own understanding of the time. It's a funny scene, but it's interesting to see how it wasn't hippies that were taking LSD and acid at the time. Intellectuals and psychiatrists regularly experimented with it.
3. Peggy Olson gives her child up for adoption / Season 2, Episode 5
Peggy Olson's character has been, in a way, been a reflection for women's struggles and issues throughout the series. Beginning her journey as a secretary before becoming a cynical but well-respected copywriter, Peggy's character arc has been one of the most satisfying to watch over the series. Here, in the second season, Peggy has a child out of wedlock after a fling with Peter Campbell. Laid up in hospital, she's hidden the pregnancy not only from Campbell, but Draper who has promoted her to copywriter. The scene shows how, on some level, Draper and Peggy are quite similar.
2. Don Draper makes an Old Fashioned for Conrad Hilton / Season 3, Episode 3
It's a somewhat slight scene, but it shows just how well Mad Men was able to nail dialogue. Draper's at a wedding and finds himself chit-chatting with some random person. It begins with making an Old Fashioned, which is a type of drink we're guessing, but ends up being a fascinating insight to Draper's character and the deep class issues that permeated society. Not only that, it shows how no matter how rich or successful Draper becomes, he feels like an outsider.
1. The Kodak Carousel pitch / Season 1, Episode 13
Often cited as one of the best examples of television writing, Don Draper pitching the carousel to a room of Kodak executives. What begins as an innocuous enough presentation turns into an emotional meditation on the past and our own relationship towards it. If nothing else, this scene shows the level of quality that Mad Men was operating on. Very few shows would have the balls to pull the brakes and just focus in on a scene like this. Watch it and see.
