July 19, 2007: "Mad Men" Premieres

July 19, 2007: Mad Men premieres on cable network AMC. It looks at the lives of advertising agents in 1960s New York. ("Mad" was short for Madison Avenue, long considered the center of the American advertising industry.) It makes a star out of Jon Hamm, who played the amoral Don Draper.

It reminds viewers that the Sixties weren't just groovy cars, miniskirts, civil rights advances, and "sex, drugs and rock and roll." In fact, the world up grown-up businessmen was a world of sexual harassment, coercion and shameless adultery; their drugs of choice, alcohol and tobacco, caused more harm than anything the Hippies were taking; and they were still listening to the music they grew up on, such as Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack, and their contemporaries.

The world of Mad Men may have been set in the Sixties, but it was basically an extension of the repressive, naughtiness-under-the-radar 1950s. As comedian Bill Maher reminds us, "The Fifties weren't that great if you were black, or gay, or a woman -- which is why Little Richard was always screaming."

But the show was well-written and well-acted, and became the 1st basic cable series to receive the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series -- an award it won in each of its 1st 4 seasons, 2008 to 2011.

The show ran 7 seasons, until 2015, and as it began in 1960, the last year of the "Ike Age," it ended in 1971, the 1st Tricky Dick term, with Don looking like he'd found enlightenment, only to use it on creating the Coca-Cola "Hillside" commercial.

According to the show, Don was born in 1926, making him 34 when the show began, and 45 when it stopped. Given the amount of smoking and drinking he did, what do you think his chances are of still being alive in 2022, at 96? He might well have expired before the 1970s ran out.

*

July 19, 2007 was a Thursday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium. Chien-Ming Wang ran out of gas in the 7th inning.

* The New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 13-9 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-2 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-4 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. D'Angelo Jiménez singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-1 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 3-0 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Florida Marlins, 7-5 at Dolphin Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 7-5 at Ameriquest Field (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 9-8 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 10-1 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Brandon Inge drove home the winning run with a single in the top of the 10th inning.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* And the Baltimore Orioles, the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, the Oakland Athletics, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Seattle Mariners were not scheduled.