Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (Mad Men)
Mad Men (season 1)
List of Mad Men episodes
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is the first episode of the first season of the American period drama television series Mad Men. It first aired on July 19, 2007 in the United States on AMC, and was written by creator Matthew Weiner and directed by Alan Taylor. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was budgeted at US$3 million, and production for the episode took place in New York City and Los Angeles.
Weiner conceived the script in 2000 while working as a writer for the television sitcom Becker. Prior to writing the pilot episode, Weiner studied American literature and cinema of the 1950s and 1960s, which gave him a perspective of American culture during that time period. The script was eventually sent to The Sopranos creator David Chase, who later recruited Weiner to work with him on The Sopranos. Weiner shelved the project for seven years to focus on Chase's program; interest for Mad Men did not surface until the conclusion of The Sopranos' final season.
According to the Nielsen Media Research, the episode attained 1.4 million viewers upon initial airing. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was well received by most television commentators, who felt that it was historically accurate and praised the character development presented in the episode.
The episode takes places in March 1960 in New York City, where renowned advertising executive Don Draper (Jon Hamm) struggles to maintain his stock with the cigarette company Lucky Strike in the wake of negative news about the health impacts of smoking. In his personal life, Don is having an affair with an artist named Midge (Rosemarie DeWitt); the viewer does not learn about his wife Betty Draper (January Jones) until the end of the episode, when he goes to his home in Ossining, New York. Meanwhile, Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), beginning her first day of work as Don's secretary, is given instruction by office manager Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) before receiving a hostile reception from some of her male coworkers. Junior account executive Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) becomes fond of Olson, ultimately pursuing a relationship with her despite his upcoming wedding.
Read more about Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (Mad Men): Plot
Famous quotes containing the words smoke and/or eyes:
“Close my beloved with me
in the smoke ring of thy power,
that we may be, each to the other,
figures of flame,
figures of smoke,
figures of flesh....”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“Drinking tents were full, glasses began to clink in carriages, hampers to be unpacked, tempting provisions to be set forth, knives and forks to rattle, champagne corks to fly, eyes to brighten that were not dull before, and pickpockets to count their gains during the last heat. The attention so recently strained on one object of interest, was now divided among a hundred; and, look where you would, there was a motley assemblage of feasting, talking, begging, gambling and mummery.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)