Mad Men - Season Two (2009 Matthew Weiner)

1962/3. Episode five, writer Robin Veith. Involving crude Jerry Lewis-like comedian Patrick Fischler and his wife / manager Melinda McGraw, with whom Don goes for a drunk drive, and ends up crashing. Peggy puts her up while the swelling goes down and in flashback shows how after she'd had her baby, and was feeling pathetic, Don turns up and tells her to pull herself together - an unknown and unexpected connection between them. Then the comedian spills all to Betty, causing her to suddenly vomit in Don's brand new Coupe de Ville, funnier because you're not expecting it at all (and because he's been at great pains to make sure the kids don't dirty it)... then she kicks him out.

Pete and his giraffes

There's also a priest Peggy likes... it's only Colin Hanks!

Meanwhile, back in the office, Don's new secretary Jane (Peyton List) is having an affair with Roger, and both Peggy and Joan are excluded from work opportunities by their male colleagues.

A trip out to California has Don dropping out, then reconnecting with the widow of the real Don Draper, who he's been supporting since they met, and is a real sweetie (Melinda Page Hamilton). There, Don, fixes a chair - he's good with his hands (this will come back later). He misses the action back home, when Duck (Mark Moses) simultaneously starts drinking again whilst suggesting to a powerful British agency they should buy a controlling interest in Sterling Cooper... not that Don objects much when he finds out... he's just cleared $500,000. (On returning he finds Peggy coming out of the office next to his. "Do I work for you now?" he quips.)

Frank O'Hara's 'Meditations in an Emergency' gets another name check, and indeed is the title of the last episode. Meanwhile Jane's reading Faulkner ('The Sound and the Fury').

Some lovely incidental music from Dan Carbonara.

Many writers throughout. Chris Manley photography (he shot most of the series).

Strikes me that Hitch would have loved January Jones (the icy blonde).

Strikes me there's a few of these... seem to remember one in a tuxedo, somewhere