Mad Men: "Tea Leaves" OAD 4/1/2012 ***spoilers***

I was going to ignore the character Henry Francis in this week's episode. But apparently the press, or talking heads, won't let me.

When Betty first married Henry, he was what we describe today as a "political operative" working for New York Republican Gov. Nelson Rockefeller.

This included 1964 when Senator Barry Goldwater won the Republican nomination for President. Goldwater was, of course, regarded then as an extreme right wing candidate. Much interpersonal controversy occurred during the primaries. During the June 1964 National Governors' Conference, 13 of 16 Republican governors present were opposed to Goldwater. Their leaders among others included Nelson Rockefeller of New York (whose primary campaign got bogged down in a divorce and remarriage scandal) and George Romney of Michigan.

George Romney was very different from his son Mitt. George was known to be headstrong, impulsive and idealistic. He marched out of the 1964 Republic Convention over his party's refusal to adopt a civil-rights plank. From one article:

The most notorious example of George's impulsiveness came a year after this "Mad Men" episode, his declaration that he had earlier supported the Vietnam War because he had had "the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get" from American generals during a tour of Vietnam. The remark seems fairly harmless in retrospect, but it amplified the notion that Romney was somewhat less than fully grounded, and effectively ended his short-lived campaign for the 1968 presidential nomination. As Kranish and Helman write, "The Detroit News, once a reliable supporter, blasted Romney's 'blurt and retreat habits' and urged him to get out of the race." Gene McCarthy, running for the Democratic nomination, famously followed up the brainwashing remark by joking that in Romney's case, "a little light rinse would have been sufficient."

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For me, it was no surprise nor a big deal that Henry Francis - now in 1966 working for the very liberal Republican New York City Mayor John Lindsay - said on the phone to an unidentified person: "Well tell Jim his honor's not going to Michigan. Romney's a clown, and I don't want him standing next to him."

For Henry Francis in 1966, one of his homes is the Republican Party and the other is with Betty. To say that in this episode at the time of the phone call, from his point of view both of his homes were in danger of dying is not an overstatement.

It is an accurate representation of the stress in the life of this character. Some apparently don't like historical accuracy.

It should simply be interesting that we have another Romney trying to cope with a Party that is far more to the right than his historical politics.

Excellent reviews of course. I'd like to add a little bit, if I may.

The meme this morning is that Betty's gained weight. There's even #fatbetty circulating on twitter. I for one am glad that Mr. Weiner decided to use Ms. Jones' pregnancy for more than a joke. Rather than try to hide it, Ms. Jones real-life weight gain became a way for the show to deal with a very real subject and it was done well.

Moving past that, it was once suggested to me that in the absence of a sure grip on what something means, go to one of the old standbys: "the duality of man" and "how we deal with death." Except, in this episode those old standbys fit perfectly.

Don and his generation are suddenly stuffy. Young Don (in 1960) had no problem smoking a joint. Today's (1966) Don is a different man. I think I speak for all men Don's age when I say I shifted uncomfortably in my seat when Don started to talk to a girl his daughter's age. After all, Megan's only a few years older. I was pleasantly surprised when he started acting like a parent.

At the same time, Pete Campbell completed his transformation from up-and-comer to king of the castle through his ritual slaying of the SCDP tribe's former sales leader, Roger Sterling. Of course what comes around goes around and it wouldn't be difficult to imagine Pete getting the same treatment by a baby boomer in 1975.

It's interesting to see the duality between Mrs. Draper II (Betty) and Mrs. Draper III (Megan). Remember of course, the original Mrs. Draper was Anna, husband to the "real" Don Draper. Betty worries incessantly that she's lost her looks while Megan doesn't seem to even notice that she's eye-catching in a bikini. Certainly the transposition of Betty and Megan, both showing ample skin, was done on purpose.

I didn't necessarily enjoy the subplot with Mr. Feldman as Michael Ginsburg; it seemed very flat and hokey. There was so much that didn't ring true. I wondered about his wardrobe; would he have worn jeans? Would he have even owned jeans? The New York accent seemed very fake as well. I hope they sharpen this character up or discard him.

And this brings me to the single glaring point of contention I have with this episode. Everyone laughs because Don's secretary is named Dawn. Believe me, in New York these two names sound completely different. In fact, when I came to Southern California I was surprised to find a woman named "Don" and it took me some time to realize her name was "Dawn." I was very surprised that this part made it into the script.

As good as Mad Men has been with sets, costumes, and historical accuracy, I've always forgiven the show for its poor portrayal of New York accents. While I wasn't there at the time, I imagine a real ad agency in 1960s New York would sound more like the writers' room at The Sid Caesar Show. If you're too young to know what I mean, imagine Woody Allen, Carl Reiner, Selma Diamond, Larry Gelbart and Sid Caesar in the same room.

I know that authentic New York accents of the day would have drawn too much attention to the dialect and taken too much away from the dialogue, so I forgave it. Now, bringing in an actor who does a poor imitation of a NYC cabbie just makes everyone else seem out of place. I don't agree with the decision.