MAD MEN Finale Predictions? Let's hear them....

[TeamPooka]

3 MAD MEN endings that I could love:
The last vestiges of Don Draper have been shed on the road across country, only Dick Whitman exists now, smiling and happy, at that bus stop in OK where we last saw him.

1. Dick Whitman, international jet setter.
While passing through Palm Springs on his cross country journey Dick bumps into jet set Joy, Viscount Willie and their nomadic crew. They stay in Edward’s room, go skinny dipping again, and she convinces him to forget his past completely and travel the world with her.
They fly away on a Lear Jet.
Dick doesn’t return to America until Sally’s wedding day.

2. Dick Whitman, President, Hilton Hotel Corporation
After hearing about Don’s exit from McCann Conrad Hilton pays private detectives to track him down. He finds Dick on the beach in Santa Monica where Dick confesses the truth of his past to Connie.
Connie offers Dick the moon, he accepts, moves to Bel-Air and ultimately becomes Paris Hilton’s godfather.

3. Whitman Motors: Dick works with hot rods and race cars in CA
It’s literally one of the only set-up scenes in the entire series that has never been paid off.
During his runaway bender, while visiting Anna Draper in California at the end of S2, Don chats with a group of guys customizing hot rods to race in Long Beach. Don claims to be looking for a job, they don’t have one for him, but he clearly admires these guys doing something he, and they, have a real passion for and love.
It was never talked about again.
I actually expect Dick Whitman to wind up living in CA near the beach working with/on cars in some way. This ending would also include him raising his kids after Betty’s death.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. No predictions but I'll miss the series.

I'm old enough to remember the clothes, the weird hairstyles, the orange interior decor, the non-stop smoking and drinking, and the awful, sexist ways women were frequently treated at work. It's been an interesting adventure in déjà-vu.

[dixiegrrrrl]

25. Betty wore 2 dresses that I swear I remember wearing.

They were "sheaths", the patterns and colors are exactly what I remember.

I had forgotten how orange was used so much.
I remember the "Harvest Gold" and "Avocado" refrigerators. We had harvest gold one.

[hunter]

32. As a teen our house had avocado appliances. Ugh.

As a little kid our household appliances were sensibly white.

Then we moved to a place that didn't have appliances, which is where I acquired my mad living-without-a refrigerator-skills. (It's really not that difficult, especially if you have goats, pigs, or chickens, or you are a vegetarian with some space to make compost. My wife has never considered going without a refrigerator a reasonable option. We have a refrigerator and a freezer, both white.)

Then my parents bought a house with the avocado kitchen. What were people thinking in the 'seventies??? Pink and baby blue colored appliances from the 'fifties were much nicer than that.

The "stainless steel industrial look," which seems to be going away at last, does not appeal to me at all.

[dixiegrrrrl]

33. COLOR was the hallmark of the early 70's.

Up until then, my family always had white bed linens, as did my Grandparents, and I assumed, everyone else.
In 1969 or so, after I was married, we bought a house, and it had that harvest gold fridge.

I made the bold step of buying solid color sheets.
The first night of sleeping on them, I was so aware they were "loud", that I had insomnia.

[hunter]

37. Oh, that made me remember colored toilet paper!

I also remember they quit making it because some people were allergic to the dyes, and worse, some of these dyes turned out to be carcinogens that survived various sewage treatment processes and ended up in the environment.

[TeamPooka]

34. The other day my mom denied having any avocado appliances at our apt in the 70s

so I pulled out her old pics and showed her the under counter rolling washing machine we had in the kitchen....in avocado.
For the win.

[Sheldon Cooper]

2. History has shown me to be horrible with predictions, but I'll flap my gums anyway.

I totally agree with your third scenario!

Don pretty much has to return to New York and take custody of his kids. With Betty gone, I can't imagine he'd just leave them with Henry. Don has many issues but he's not a terrible father. I do see him moving the whole clan out to Cali and doing some sort of manual labor, with car work being the most likely choice. I think he'll keep the Draper name, though. Desertion is still a crime and I don't think he'd risk the consequences of going back to Dick Whitman.

What becomes of Peggy? Surely her sassy strut through the halls of McCann wasn't her swan song. It's hard to say where they'll go with her. I'd hoped she'd end up with Stan.

Roger? Who knows? And I think Joan ends up with her beau from Cali, living in Cali.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Gotta go with Cal. too.

Did he sell Anna's house?

[TeamPooka]

4. Yes Anna's house was sold afeter she died. That happened when he brought Sally and Bobby there. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. But Anna's niece is living in it in the last episode to night.

Did Don buy it for her niece?

[TeamPooka]

20. not the same house but Don did send her money. nt

[SleeplessinSoCal]

5. Expect to see Don opening a brothel in Nevada.

I want a new agency. OHS&D. With Sally as all purpose office administrator.

[TeamPooka]

6. I could see The Olsen/Rizzo Agency happening. nt

[SleeplessinSoCal]

7. twists and turns. where will Peggy land? And Don?

My brothel idea is stil in the realm of possibility.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

8. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmm

MY GOD!!!

[TeamPooka]

11. :)

[SleeplessinSoCal]

9. close, but no cigar.

perfection.

Loved it all.

[TeamPooka]

10. Her plan is to be at McCann only for 3 years or so remember? Olsen Rizzo happens around 1974 nt

[SleeplessinSoCal]

12. what about "I want to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony"?

Coke was to be Don's client at McCann . . . .

[napkinz]

14. I didn't get the ending until I read posts by those who lived through that era ...

Lynn West Clark: Don wrote the Coke ad. Did you notice the girl at the desk when he was looking for a way to get home? She had the red ribbons tied throughout her hair just like the Coke ad. Brilliant ending.

.

https://www.facebook.com/MadMen

[Orangepeel]

15. I hope that's not what it was supposed to be.

First, that would annoy me because a real person wrote that real Coke ad and it wasn't Don Draper. Second, I don't think he did, or should have, gone back to advertising.

The yoga guy at the end said something about "a new you" before it cut to Don who had a twinkle in his eye. He reinvented himself again for a third life.

The Coke ad was a sign of the times and a way to show that it was a new Don for a new era. I don't think he was supposed to have gone back to McCann and made that ad.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

19. it was meant to be a little mysterious.

Like with The Sopranos

https://masterofsopranos.wordpress.com/the-sopranos-definitive-explanation-of-the-end/

[SleeplessinSoCal]

21. apparently this was researched well

".....And then there's a coda: In a nod to the series' advertising world, to the real-life agency McCann-Erickson where several of the characters have been hired this season, and to its real-life client, Coca-Cola, "Mad Men" concluded with the classic 1971 peace-and-love Coke commercial where a hillside collection of young people from all over the world , each holding a bottle of Coke, sang the jingle, "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke." The jingle carried the reminder that Coke, of course, is "The Real Thing."

http://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2015/05/17/ad-it-up-a-splendid-drama-mad-men-as-it-comes-to-an-end

[Orangepeel]

24. What was researched well?

I didn't look to see wrote the final episode. Are you saying that it was researched that he or she meant that Don wrote the Coke ad?

The show always used real companies as clients and McCann is a real agency. To my knowledge, however, they never (before) took a real person's actual creative work and claimed a fictional character wrote it. I could be wrong about that, of course, but I'd be disappointed.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

26. McCann is a real agency that represented Coke at that time.

Don's job would have been to pitch the idea. Then Creative would've hired someone to compose the song.

[napkinz]

22. I think that's what is was supposed to be ...

Valerie Rios Brassar: Remember the hippy girl at the front desk while Don was in the retreat? She told him it would take him a few days to leave by car. She had these bright red ribbons in her hair and two braids. Watch the Coke commercial again. 50%; of the girls in that coke commercial have the same bright red ribbons in their hair and two braids. It's something Don clearly remembers to put into his coke add idea. I love when the camera closes up on his face and you know he's come up with something great

.

Erin K Gilmore: At first I thought he became a hippie, then I realized... He made the Coke commercial! That was his "Om" moment, the idea came to him and he went back to do bigger and better things in the advertising world. Don Draper lives on! Perfect ending.

Ellen Mack: Don smiles as he comes up with the song for Coke!

Mubaarik Sulaimaan: Don accepted who he is, returned to McCann and helped make the famous Coca Cola commercial, Classic.

Katy Wiedrich Williams: The coke ad was put out by McCann ( in real life) he heeded Peggy's advice and came home, only with a really great idea.

Victor Ceja: Peggy mentioned "don't you want to work on coke?", Don smiles then the series ends with the coke hilltop commercial. I think he definitely went back to work and made the commercial

.

more at: https://www.facebook.com/MadMen

[CBGLuthier]

23. I don't think Don Draper coined the term carousel for Kodak either

or came up with the real Lucky Strike slogan.

But I do think that in the universe of Mad Men Don Draper went back to Mccann, which by the way is a real agency and also is the real agency responsible for the coke ad, and created the ad for them.

It is called dramatic license. Forrest Gump did not invent any of the things he was credited with either.

Don did not reinvent himself but he learned to accept himself. This was shown by his hugging the refrigerator guy.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

27. Its oK if someone else really wrote the ad - the series has all along taken place in

an alternate universe - essentially fictitious with some fact woven in - eg all those fictitious ads for real clients. Just finished another excellent series (Treme) that did a similar thing - fictitious characters, characters based on real people, real people playing themselves, real events, fictitious events, fictionalized events based on real events, etc. - all masterfully woven together in a thoroughly satisfying story.

[Orangepeel]

31. Eh, I think it was cheesy.

I like that Mad Men has existed inside the real universe. I've enjoyed seeing the characters interact with others in history without rewriting history.

To me, it was interesting that the firm worked on Nixon's campaign and that the neighbor volunteered for Kennedy. But I wouldn't have wanted Burt to be Nixon's running mate or for the neighbor to stop JFK's assassination (well, that would have been bad writing in addition to bad history).

To each their own, of course. To me, it wold be a more satisfying ending for Don to start another new life rather than going back to do the same thing again. But if he did go back, I would have preferred that the show not appropriate a specific piece of intellectual property.

*shrug* Oh, well. It's only a story. Maybe someday there will be another show where a fictional character creates Mad Men but gives it the ending I like.

[TeamPooka]

35. "A tragedy with a happy ending. My favorite kind of story." - Saint John Powell, CEO, PPL

Mad Men S3 E6 "A Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency" -
Joan greets their British parent company execs. She tells them she has tickets OLIVER! for them.
"Sijinn" Saint John Powell, CEO, Putnam, Powell and Lowe replies "A tragedy with a happy ending. My favorite kind of story."

I call that foreshadowing.
They did a lot of that on the show.
Go back and look at how much talk there was of Betty being dead or in the ground figuratively.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

39. Roger: "Just when he got his foot in the door"

The lawn mower episode is a classic. As is Betty shooting pigeons. Oh lord, I could go on all night...

[TeamPooka]

42. One of the best. nt

[fishwax]

40. Here's an interview about it with the guy who actually wrote the song (Bill Backer)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/05/18/mad_men_finale_and_coke_an_interview_with_the_real_life_ad_man_who_created.html

[SleeplessinSoCal]

30. this should be an interesting read.

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-hilltop-story

[Joe Shlabotnik]

17. That was amazing with Don's 'aha' smile at the end.

Last edited Mon May 18, 2015, 02:05 AM - Edit history (1)

Edit to add: I hope that the new Don picks up some government work promoting the newly formed EPA, and also pitching the idea of 'Earth day'.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

29. Somehow they pulled me into the advertising world's core.

They love advertising. I wanted a phoenix from the ashes ending by the time the finale was upon us. TV critic, David Bianculli's review is spot on, I think.

And to top it off, his "Aha smile" was the inspiration for another great ad which turned out to be one of the most memorable TV commercials of the past 50 years. This was before the Superbowl big deals too.

http://www.npr.org/2015/05/18/407713839/the-mad-men-ending-a-twisted-and-perfect-conclusion

[MADem]

13. None of the above.

But I'm sure he'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony....

[gort]

16. Mad

Mad Men. More like Sad Men.

Signed,

A Sad Man

[SleeplessinSoCal]

28. Fresh Air Review gets what I got from this Mad Men

http://www.npr.org/2015/05/18/407713839/the-mad-men-ending-a-twisted-and-perfect-conclusion

[TeamPooka]

36. The last "pitch" of the series is Peggy pitching herself that she loves Stan.

Peggy is such a good marketer she convinces herself that she loves Stan.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

38. Peggy had been one of my least favorite charcters since day 1

But I'm glad for her and Stan. Stan was always very likeable. I also liked to see Trudy and Pete boarding the Lear jet, but that might also be because I love the Trudy character, and am glad to see her return to high society (even it its in Utah), I love Alison Brie.

[TeamPooka]

41. Trudy Campbell, Queen of Wichita, is a spinoff I'd watch. nt

[napkinz]

43. lol ...