Mad Men

Mad Men, Television and The Rise of Nostalgia.

Fiske and Hartley (1978) argue that we perceive television very similarly to the way we perceive the world around us. It’s an oral and visual medium and is often positioned centrally within a culture. For the past five hundred years print-literacy has been a major cultural influence therefore we can tend to evaluate television according to the rules of literary criticism. Television series are similar to serial narrative literature in some ways but we need to remember that the television serial produces its own unique reality. (p.14-17) In order to examine the reality produced by television this essay will use the codes of semiotics to analyse a scene from the television series Madmen (2007). Secondly it will discuss some of the concepts produced by this analysis.

Madmen, "The Wheel" (Episode 13, Season 1)

"The Wheel" scene available on YouTube

The scene is from Madmen, Season One, episode thirteen titled “The Wheel”. (2007) Don Draper, a partner and creative head of Sterling Cooper, presents an advertising pitch to two Kodak executives for a new slide-projector. At the beginning of his pitch Don tells a story from his past life.Throughout the scene he delivers his lines like poetry. This is a symbolic sign of language which has connotations of oral storytelling. The myth is that Don is assuming a bardic role.(Fiske and Hartley 85) The bard was a wandering minstrel or poet, who told stories before the use of writing. They acted as a mediator of language. Television, like the bard assumes a central position in our culture. (Fiske and Hartley 86)

Don asks a secretary to turn off the lights and we see a shot of Don’s co-workers Sal and Harry in side profile and silhouette. They are black against white Venetian blinds. This iconic sign connotes a movie screen and the myth of the beginnings of cinema; an era of black and white films in the 1920s. The myth is that Don has progressed from the bard to the film director mirroring a progression of cultural mediums. This shot is also ‘mirrored’ at the end of Dons presentation when Harry casts a shadow on the blank screen. The connotation of this sign is that ‘the show (movie) is over.’

We then see a cleverly constructed shot taken from the position of the projection screen. As Don turns on the slide-projector the light from it shines straight into the television camera that is shooting the scene. This produces a strange reflective effect which results in an arc of red-coloured light encircling the entire group of actors in the darkened room. This iconic sign connotes that we are watching a metaphorical reality. It subtly jolts us out of the blurring effect that can occur between television and reality. Fiske and Hartley (1978) argue that the signs in television are often operating in a metaphorical mode. “The metaphoric real world shown on television does not display the actual real world, but displaces it”. (p.48) For example when we see this shot of executives in a meeting we forget that this is an artificially constructed metaphor of an office building. It is also a metonym for white-collar work. Television drama relies on the metonymy of its settings to make its text appear more authentic (p.49).

Don shows slides of his own family snapshots in his presentation. The slides are iconic signs that denote Don, Betty and their children at play and significant moments such as pregnancy, childbirth, marriage and New Years Eve. The connotation of these signs is love, family, happiness and memory. These shots are regularly interrupted with shots of Don’s face as he speaks and the machinery of the projector as it moves the slides. These three iconic signs work together to connote that Don is using new technology to create new cultural ideas.

The music is melancholic, rising in tempo and volume as the scene progresses. The symbolic sign of music helps to create the connotative meaning of these shots. Don describes nostalgia as “a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.” He particularly associates nostalgia with the family and childhood. The connotation is that human beings desire to return to pleasant memories of family and childhood.

The myths in this scene are that of the bardic role, the birth of cinema, the metaphorical reality of television, advancing technology and culture, memory and desire. These myths convey that over the last two centuries the accelerated progression of technology has increased people’s exposure to fictional narrative. How has this affected individual desire and memory?

Paul Grainge argues that the recent resurge of Nostalgia has been caused by the advent of new technologies such as computers, cable television, VCR and digital recording. It has become easier to access all types of media from the past. (2000)

Consequently Grainge proposes that

"The proliferation of nostalgic modes, markets, genres, and styles may instead reflect a new kind of engagement with the past, a relationship based fundamentally on its cultural mediation and textual reconfiguration in the present." (2000)

Most importantly this concept emphasises the agency and control people are able to exercise in their use of media. The invention of video enabled viewers to interact with television in a different way, recording and watching programs on their own schedule rather than station programming. Editing film has become much faster thanks to digital technology. Old slides and photographs can be scanned and uploaded to computers where multiple copies can be made with ease and displayed in a variety of new ways.

This scene contains signs with connotations of storytelling and the progression of related media e.g. writing, photography, cinema and television. I propose that it invites the audience to consider the use of media technology in creating new cultures. Especially to think about the public assuming a more active role in this process, rather than just being passive consumers of mass media. The popularity of the Kodak slide projector is one example of this active role.

In summary television is a complex medium with many elements that contribute to its text. It has its own place in cultural history and continues to develop and change. Television shows have assumed a large role in the current trend towards nostalgia. Audience participation extends beyond consumerism to include more active roles of engagement. Television shows produce a unique reality and therefore deserve a separate cultural category. Television has affected human culture profoundly and will continue to do so in future.

Works Cited

3:51 AM 1/12/2009

Books

Fiske, John and Hartley, John. Reading Television. London: Methuen. 1978.

Journals

Grainge, Paul. “Nostalgia and Style in Retro America: Moods, Modes and Media Recycling.” Journal of American & Comparative Cultures Vol 23 No 1 (Spring 2000): 27-34.

Television Programs

“ The Wheel.” Madmen. Director. Matthew Weiner. Performer. Jon Hamm. AMC Network. 2007.

Illustrations

Stills taken from Madmen (2007). Season One. Episode 13."The Wheel".