Drinking on job now only socially acceptable in ‘Mad Men’

My favorite show on television right now is “Mad Men,” a series in its fourth year on AMC. Although it appears to be a show about advertising executives in New York City during the 1960s, it’s actually more about drinking on the job, something rightfully no longer socially acceptable.


I didn’t start watching the show until the beginning of its third season, at which time I caught up through marathon viewings of the first two seasons on DVD. Rave critic reviews, as well as multiple Emmy nominations and wins, convinced me I needed to see what everyone else seemed to be watching.

I’m glad I did, because “Mad Men” is intoxicating, in more than one sense of the word. Featuring the commanding lead of Jon Hamm as Don Draper, an advertising genius with a mysterious past, the show puts viewers in the time period and dares them to want to leave. Most people will stay, if just to count the number of drinks characters pour for themselves on the show.

I was born a decade after it takes place, and in a rural area far away from the hustle and bustle of New York City, so this show shouldn’t appeal to me. But the fact it’s so distant from my life makes it more appealing, because through it I can experience an era no other book, film or television show has so vividly portrayed before.

The show’s creator, Matthew Weiner, struggled as a writer in Hollywood for many years until landing a job as a writer for “The Sopranos.” When that show ended, he tried to sell his “Mad Men” creation to HBO, but they rejected it. Feeling spurned by his former employer, he shopped the show around, receiving rejections from everyone. When niche cable channel AMC bought it, Weiner’s agent dumped him, figuring if that’s the best he could do, he wasn’t worth the time.

The agent should have stuck with his client, though, because “Mad Men,” through its critical acclaim, water-cooler buzz and the buzz characters are probably feeling from the gallons of alchohol they are drinking, has transformed the station into a small powerhouse that is now producing other high quality television shows, including “Breaking Bad,” “Rubicon” and the upcoming “The Walking Dead.”

It’s also made some of its stars household names: Hamm, Elizabeth Moss, January Jones and Christina Hendricks. All four were featured on the cover of the last issue of Rolling Stone magazine. I think some song talks about the importance of that.

Don Draper is the show’s central character. The son of a prostitute and an abusive farmer, he left for the Korean War and literally returned a different man, abandoning his entire family for the potential riches of the big city, as well as its drinks.

Landing a job with the Sterling Cooper advertising agency, he rises to the top based on his innovative ideas and brilliant advertising campaigns. As a big shot, he believes he’s earned the right to cheat on his wife, ignore his kids, talk down to all the other Sterling Cooper employees around him, especially his secretaries whom he sometimes sleeps with, and drink a copious amount of alcohol.

Draper isn’t the only one in the office who drinks. According to the show, back then it was not only not frowned upon, but was sort of encouraged. Offices are well stocked with bottles of rum, gin, vodka, brandy and any other alcohol available at the liquor store. Parties are held often, and usually get out of control. Lawnmowers combined with Christmas party fun don’t mix well, as one character will attest.

While drinking on the job may sound like fun, it doesn’t seem like it would be healthy. The only time I’ve ever drank on the job has been two Wednesday production nights, as we were about to send the paper to bed, I broke open bottles of Stevens Point Brewery specialty beers Julie from the Brewery brought over for us to taste. Those two beers may have been the greatest ones I have ever had.

In its latest season, “Mad Men” is showing how unhealthy their drinking habits have become for some of the characters, especially Draper who is now divorced from his wife and leading a miserable and lonely life as a bachelor.

It’s misery and loneliness that provides great entertainment. Since we’ve become a society that doesn’t tolerate on-the-job drinking, and rightfully so, a television show like “Mad Men” allows us to live vicariously through it to see what that type of life might be like.