Mad Men Season 6 TV Poster

AMC’s Mad Men makes its highly anticipated season premiere NEXT Sunday! While I don’t love this Mad Men one sheet television poster as much as much as last year’s advertising campaign, it definitely brings up some interesting questions as to the show’s direction this year. Who is the Don Draper (Jon Hamm) we meet at the beginning of this season and where is life taking him?

Mad Men Season 6 premieres on AMC Sunday, April 7th, at 9/8 with a very special 2 hour episode and airs Sunday nights thereafter.

Mad Men Season 5 Poster

We’re still a month away until the return of Mad Men to AMC and The Blot can’t wait! Surprisingly, I really haven’t heard much internet chatter on the show’s imminent return and AMC hasn’t put out near the media barrage I expected for one of Television’s most critically acclaimed shows. Could it be that the show’s one and a half year hiatus has finally caught up to it? I for one am still intrigued to see where life has taken Don, Betty, Joan, Peggy and the rest of the crazy cast of characters at the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce ad agency. In the meantime, check out this interesting new one sheet television poster for Mad Men Season 5. I guess we can assume this means Don’s mind is still in the gutter.

Mad Men Season 5 premieres on Sunday, March 25th, at 9/8c on AMC.

Mad Men Season 5 Teaser Poster

It’s crazy to think that Aly and I bought Mad Men Seasons 1-4 on Black Friday two Thanksgivings ago for $10 a season. We had never watched Mad Men before, but had heard so many good reviews we wanted to try it out. Our goal was to watch all four seasons before Season 5 started…little did we know that one and a half years later Mad Man Season 5 would still be missing from AMC’s schedule. What was everyone thinking? How do you keep one of the best shows on television off the air for 16 months? It’s insane right?

Well, the long Mad Men drought is finally over! Season 5 is scheduled to begin airing on Sunday, March 25th, on AMC at 9/8c. In the meantime, check out this incredibly minimalistic Mad Men Season 5 teaser television poster based on the show’s opening credits.

Mad Men Screen Print by Jim MacLeod

If you follow The Blot on Twitter then you know I’ve recently become a diehard Mad Men fan. Aly and I bought the first three seasons on Bluray last Thanksgiving, and in just a few short weeks we’ve watched the entire series (including Season 4 which we purchased last week). As it turns out, artist Jim MacLeod is a huge Mad Men fan too, and he designed this amazing screen print entitled “They Can’t Do What We Do…” just for fun!

Jim’s Mad Men print “They Can’t Do What We Do…” is an intricate design featuring all of the show’s primary cast members from Seasons 1-3. As MacLeod explains, “I was originally drawn to Mad Men because I work in a marketing/advertising agency. While my agency has next to no resemblance of Sterling Cooper (Draper and Pryce) I was drawn to the line ‘They can’t do what we do, and they hate us for it.’ It was a line that Don said to Peggy while he was trying to sum up advertising and motivate her to create better, more meaningful, more effective work.”

“They Can’t Do What We Do…” by Jim MacLeod is an 18"x24" three color Mad Men screen print on 100lb. cream paper. The print comes hand signed and numbered, and has a limited edition run of 30 pieces. You currently purchase this awesome poster directly from Jim at his online store for $25.

2008 Emmy Nominations Announced

The 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations were announced this morning and the 60th edition of the premiere television awards show is shaping up to be a great one. The Blot is extremely happy to see many of The Blot Says…' favorite shows nominated for multiple awards this year including Lost making its long awaited return to the Best Drama Series category. I was also really pleased to see Best Supporting Actor/Actress nominations go to How I Met Your Mothers’ Neil Patrick Harris and Pushing Daisies’ Kristin Chenoweth in the comedy categories and Damages’ Ted Danson and Lost’s Michael Emerson in the drama category. And how can you not be excited to hear that 30 Rock led all comedies with 17 nominations. Plus, can someone tell me when was the last time someone from Saturday Night Live was nominated for an Acting award?


On the surface it appears there is some sick competition in both the Actor in a Comedy Series and Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series races, but the real story is the huge number of nominations in the Drama categories going to original programming from basic cable channels (i.e. not "pay cable channels" like HBO or Showtime). AMC’s Mad Men led all dramas with 16 nominations, while other cable dramas Damages, Breaking Bad, Saving Grace, Rescue Me, Nip/Tuck and The Closer all pulled in nominations in major acting categories.

You can watch the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards live on ABC Sunday, September 21st at 8/7c.

60th Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations
COMEDY SERIES
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
The Office
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men

ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Rainn Wilson, The Office

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live
Jean Smart, Samantha Who?
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Will Arnett, 30 Rock
Shelley Berman, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Steve Buscemi, 30 Rock
Tim Conway, 30 Rock
Rip Torn, 30 Rock

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Polly Bergen, Desperate Housewives
Edie Falco, 30 Rock
Carrie Fisher, 30 Rock
Kathryn Joosten, Desperate Housewives
Sarah Silverman, Monk
Elaine Stritch, 30 Rock

DRAMA SERIES
Boston Legal
Damages
Dexter
House
Lost
Mad Men

ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House
James Spader, Boston Legal

ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Glenn Close, Damages
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Ted Danson, Damages
Michael Emerson, Lost
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages
William Shatner, Boston Legal
John Slattery, Mad Men

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Candice Bergen, Boston Legal
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy
Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy

GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Charles Durning, Rescue Me
Robert Morse, Mad Men
Oliver Platt, Nip/Tuck
Stanley Tucci, ER
Glynn Turman, In Treatment
Robin Williams, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Ellen Burstyn, Big Love
Diahann Carroll, Grey's Anatomy
Sharon Gless, Nip/Tuck
Anjelica Huston, Medium
Cynthia Nixon, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Burn Notice Returns Thursday July 10th

I’ve been waiting all summer for tomorrow because it marks the start of Burn Notice's second season. I know I seem to be talking about this new show a little too much, but if you’ve caught up on Burn Notice Season 1 then you can definitely understand why! What surprises me is that USA’s breakout hit is not garnering more attention. Part of the problem is all of the craze surrounding AMC’s Mad Men, a show that aired in the same time slot as Burn Notice last summer.


From all of the media coverage, magazine covers and general hype surrounding Mad Men, you’d think it would have easily won its time slot against Burn Notice and have been the highest rated new show of last summer. I bet it would surprise most television fans to learn how far from the truth that is.

In fact, last summer’s battle between two great freshman cable dramas was overwhelmingly won by Burn Notice. While “Burn Notice never received the media blandishments of its time-period competitor, it beat the Madison Avenue drama every week in the ratings, averaging 2.9 million viewers a week to Mad Men's 900,000.” (link) And yet even with considerably higher ratings, all I ever read about is how great Mad Men is and how it's the show of the summer. Let me tell all the critics out there something, if there's one show of the summer debuting this month it's the spy fueled drama based in sunny, sand filled Miami. Besides, if you can't make it to the beach this summer then you can at least watch people living by the beach with Burn Notice. Plus, Burn Notice now stars Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer, try to beat that Mad Men!

On a side note, it appears AMC has already admitted defeat because there won't be a second head to head showdown between these two hour long dramas this summer. AMC has called uncle and decided to air Mad Men’s sophomore season on Sunday nights. I think it's safe to say round two goes to the cast and crew of Burn Notice. Anyway, if you still haven’t watched Burn Notice Season 1 don’t worry, I’m sure tomorrow night’s season premiere will do a fine job catching you up to speed on all of the adventures of Michael Weston and Co. from the previous season. So now you really have no excuse not to tune in to the USA Network on Thursday, July 10th at 10/9C for Burn Notice’s Season 2 premiere and enjoy a little sun, surf and espionage.