E-Verse Radio

Top Five similarities between Bewitched and Mad Men

by Ernie on 05/08/09 at 9:58 am

E-Verse Staff Writer Bethany is now in Hollywood, in B-School, and she sent in this top five list she dreamed up in a spare moment.

Later this month the third season of the critically acclaimed one-hour drama series, Mad Men, premieres on AMC. I recommend y’all watch the show. It’s really well written, smart and complex, and has won numerous accolades. One of the writers for the Sopranos runs the show, so it often has a Sopranos feel to it, though violence is all bloodless. However, I can’t help but notice that the show bears a lot of superficial similarities to one of the sillier shows ever to be produced, Bewitched.

5. Both take place in the 1960s.

4. Principal male character works for an advertising firm.

3. Central plot problems are typically worked out via the creation of new advertising campaigns. Example: in Bewitched, magic causes some problem, such as the accidental transportation of George Washington to modern times. Darrin gets angry because Samantha is supposed to have a dinner party for their biggest client. How can they explain the presence of George Washington in the house? The party will be ruined! Inevitably, Darrin’s boss, Larry Tate, threatens to fire him. Then, the presence of George Washington is met with approval by the client, and Darrin thinks of a brilliant new advertising campaign to explain it all away, for which his boss takes the credit. Meanwhile, on Mad Men, an example is: the main character has a problem with women, seeing them only as madonnas or whores. So he isn’t having sex with his wife, but is messing around with lots and lots of other women. Happily, he then gets the opportunity to pitch an ad campaign to Playtex, and comes up with a great way to exploit the whole madonna/whore dichotomy (in this case referred to as Jackie/Marilyn) to sell lots of lingerie! Then the rest of the episode explores the dichotomy and how it plays out with all of the characters. And, since the show is filmed in the present day but takes place in the early 60s, they get to revisit the issue in a later episode when Marilyn Monroe dies.

2. Main male character is seemingly two completely different people.

1. Female empowerment is problematized in interesting ways.