‘Mad Men’ Remembers Martin Luther King’s Assasination

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05MADMEN-articleLargeMad Men commonly provides good episodes, but tonight’s segment, called “The Flood” was one of those that reached pure television excellence. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was shot – the 46th anniversary was on April 4th of this year. ‘Mad Men’ creator Matthew Winer and his writing team skillfully designed the show’s characters around that event of the day.

In doing so, ‘Mad Men’ showed that you can give contemporary viewers a valuable American history lesson in fashion that was more than just entertaining, it was riveting.

The most gripping part of the episode was punctuated by the late Water Cronkite’s news of the passing of the immortal Nobel Peace Prize Winner. If you watched Mad Men tonight, then you heard this:

The disaster framed how Don Draper interacted with his son. It caused Pete Campbell to find his ethical center, and realize there was something more important than what a client wanted. And it seemed like every white person at Sterling Cooper was bending over backward to let their few black employees know they supported them, even to the point of closing the office for the day. And the few black employees came to work, if only to show they weren’t against the people they worked with and for.

That was cool. It was real too.

Stay tuned.

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