Mad Men: New Amsterdam Rewatch

June 11, 2014 8:14 AM - Season 1, Episode 4

Pete's professional and personal lives become more complicated as he struggles to assert power in both. While facing pressure from his wife regarding a new apartment, he further alienates Don and endangers his own position at Sterling Cooper.

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posted by Sweetie Darling (36 comments total)

I have to award line of the episode to Hildy.

[silence as Pete storms into his office, kicks everyone out, rips the record off of the record player, and throws it out the door into the hallway along with the cover.]

She stops typing for a moment, looks at the record, goes back to typing.
posted by tilde at 8:33 AM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

I also liked Betty's line when she was talking to the psychiatrist about Helen:

"Honestly, I think she's jealous of me. I've seen it before, I was in a sorority."
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:47 AM on June 11, 2014 [6 favorites]

I think it's interesting that this episode's events don't lead to Pete becoming loyal to Don, but that he eventually does become loyal to him.
posted by drezdn at 9:22 AM on June 11, 2014

I think that the way that Roger handled Pete DID show leadership. He took the blame for Pete, ripped him a new one, and allowed Don to look like a hero.

There's also a lovely juxtaposition with Pete. If he weren't a Dykeman, he wouldn't have Trudy, or the apartment or his job. He wants to branch out and get away from the world of New York society, yet the only thing that makes it possible is his name and his society connections.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 10:33 AM on June 11, 2014 [7 favorites]

Good point, Ruthless Bunny -- It's interesting watching Pete's crisis of self of being "good with people". He is - his name is good with people, not himself personally.

The Roger and Don show has Pete "saved" and he is told to thank Don for his job ... the job Pete's dad told him was crap. Pete really is is on his own, with only "his name" which is "everything". "What have you done with it". THIS is where I got the Peter is illegitimate theory. The way he mentioned his dad was "having health problems" and "nobody knows" [what's wrong with him] made me think HE was going to kill his father. Boating accident, maybe, out on Fisher island.
posted by tilde at 10:35 AM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

My favorite quote about Pete came in this article during S5:

If Roger’s the privileged guy who thinks he’s hit a triple, Pete’s the guy who was born on third base and thinks he’s sitting in the bleachers
posted by Sweetie Darling at 10:37 AM on June 11, 2014 [10 favorites]

Lots of character exploration in this one. Introduction of Bert - how did he find out so quickly that Pete was in trouble? Creepy Glen being creepy (but on rewatch, benignly weird). Trudy and her parents.

The scene with Cooper, Roger and Don is strange because it seems to present Don as someone who is fairly new to management - "you're going to need a strong stomach to see how the sausage is made" - yet he's been at the agency for six years at that point?

Bert keeping the picture of him with Little Roger on the table is SYMBOLISM, although I guess we probably didn't realize it at the time.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 11:49 AM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Also, I love Hildy's barely restrained contempt for Pete. She is lovely.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 11:49 AM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

This is one of my least favorite episodes of this series ever made. As Sara C is fond of pointing out, Pete's "I AM CREATIVE" impulses sort of make no sense. Frankly he bores me. I'm glad some people get something out of him. But I was rooting for him to achieve the Window ever since this first season's Pete as Don's Antagonist stumble. Also does that dude really look like someone Helen Bishop would marry? Come on y'all. Perfect opportunity to cast an evil Don type but they went with Old Bald Guy for the abusive ex. Rude.

These are my feelings I'm sorry for them.

There are some bright spots but they're mostly introductions:

Introduction to Cooper.
Rachel's back! Maybe something will happen.
Don starts to argue with a client, comes up with something better instead. Maybe he'll do that again sometime?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:21 PM on June 11, 2014

Roger's "This man saved your job!" bit is maybe one of the funniest moments in the entire series. All the more amazing for the looks on Don's face, making it clear that he had no idea Roger was going to pull that line.
posted by Aznable at 12:27 PM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

The only really good part is the intro to Glen. Really amazing payoff with her giving him her hair. Given the new information (to me) about that being Weiner's kid, I now think this is a comment by Weiner on the relationship between an artist and a muse, specifically a director/showrunner and his leading lady. The nature of the relationship is violently invasive. He wants her most intimate moments. He is obsessed with her beauty. It's paralyzing.

But Don is doing the same thing to her, using her as a prop in his Perfect Family theater, and at least Glen simply can't help it. She gives him her hair, giving in to the role of muse for this tiny art creep, but also taking control of it. "Here take it, take my flesh, I'm strong enough to grow more."
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:31 PM on June 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

This AV Club recap makes a good point about how pointless this episode is actually, and why that makes MM better than other shows:

Yet “New Amsterdam” doesn’t really have much bearing on future events in the series, outside of the fact that the short story show is always more about the slow accumulation of character detail than it is any sort of overwhelming plot momentum. Story seems to just happen to Mad Men sometimes. A calamity arises from outside the characters, and then they respond to it. That’s a very typical method of storytelling in a short-story show, where mood, atmosphere, and slowly coming to understand a character better and better are more important than having the characters endlessly push the plot forward... to me, Mad Men succeeds precisely because of the approach of “New Amsterdam” and its short-story style. It can bring forward supporting characters and make them the protagonists of their own stories on a more or less consistent basis, and it ends up building such an all-encompassing world that we can just see the very edges of taking form in “New Amsterdam” that it fits almost perfectly into my TV drama sweet spot, even if it means we eventually get stuff like Bobby Draper subplots. I can always appreciate the great stuff other shows offer me, but Mad Men is speaking my language.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:32 PM on June 11, 2014

I liked Sal's line to Pete after Don Told Pete to get a cardboard box and put his things in it.

Sal: "You picked the wrong time to buy an apartment." ZING

The look on Pete's face. I cackled.
posted by cwest at 1:15 PM on June 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

It's Pete trying to find himself, short of a useless episode (well, lack of Joan is important to me). He's trying to prove himself, that he's more than what his father "doesn't understand" with his wining and dining and whoring with clients. If he can be "more creative" he can be a more dynamic visible contribution to the company and the outside world - "that's my creativity". Pete's trying to prove himself to his dad and his semi second dad, Don, that he can be creative too. Not useless, too.

So Don and Pete butt heads over the Steel guy twice - in the meeting shortly after the Pete and Trudy show and then again when Pete tries again to be "creative" and gets his ass FIRED.

Trudy (the picture on his desk has corrected for the earlier misinformation) is trying to talk him into a mortgage ($75 a week, $3500 a year Pete Campbell. $32000 for the apartment, maybe $30000, 10% down is a year's salary) and wants The Armory torn down. When his parents turn him down for a loan of the down payment (and stomps all over him and his profession) he doesn't tell her that (but I guess she suspects) she gets it from her parents.

Finally Don fires Pete and we get a lesson in name games that fills in the broad strokes from Pete's dad and the Dykeman/2-2 apartment storyline ... Bert Cooper gives that lesson, pointing out he's a Dykeman Campbell -- entree to a lot of clubs and Dartmouth; it's a "marquee issue". We see a small fleshing out of the Cooper we met previously - everyone doffs their shoes in his office. I've never even seen him in shoes for the first few years unless a client is coming in.

Then again, at one job I was a Pete (hired for my name) and another I was an "account exec" many years after this takes place but which meant I did the grunt work of ad paste work and placing the ads after getting individual placement client sign offs (inking in broadstrokes made by my Don/Roger).
posted by tilde at 1:24 PM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

He's flailing. It's what he does. Not having money, after having it for so long, is freaking him the hell out.

He can't afford the apartment down payment. His parents won't give it to him. Trudy saves the day over his objections.

He'd like to be more than "his name" to himself and to others (Dad, Don). He'd like to use what he sees as his creative streak. He smacks Don down at the first client meeting, undermines him before and at the second meeting and tries to show it off to Don to underscore his self importance - and gets fired.

Reality is hitting him in the face. Sink or swim.

He is the third name on the list in this series, and we've had full intros to Don and Peggy already.
posted by tilde at 1:34 PM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Sweetie Darling I'm sure that Roger called Bert Cooper about the Peter situation and Cooper wanted to explain the facts of life to him.

I can see Don being there fiveish years and not having to deal with sausage making so much just yet. He starts to learn he can't just do something because he wants to. Firing this Pete and getting another - DENIED.

Rachel shows up again and keeps turning Don down/away, after having Trudy and Pete's wonderfullness rubbed in his face with all their newlywed glow.

Betty sees the stark bleakness of Helen's (so old! 32!) life when her ex husband Dan tries to visit the kids and she decides to not let him in at first. Betty tries to pretend it didn't happen when Helen comes around later, "I don't know what you mean", but Helen calls her on it and uses it as a reason to lay out the whole story of why she left him. Talk about feeding Betty's anxiety!

Trudy is trying to get Harry's wife pregnant ...
posted by tilde at 1:47 PM on June 11, 2014

Spaghetti sighting. Betty cooking dinner when Helen calls to ask if Betty can babysit.
posted by cwest at 2:24 PM on June 11, 2014 [7 favorites]

The scene between Betty and Glen is interesting. She's intrigued by him, not repulsed.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:12 PM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Apparently (according to the imdb) the Glen walking in on her in the bathroom thing is based on something Matthew Weiner did when he was a kid.
posted by drezdn at 8:27 PM on June 11, 2014

So where are Pete and Trudy living before they buy this place? A rental? A hotel? That's always sort of bothered me. Pete's 26 when he gets married so was he living at home until then?

Also, Sal, that art was WPA-ish. Beautiful, but dated. You can't hate on the client for calling it out. Also, I thought the "Brought to you by Bethlehem Steel" tag was better than "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem", which just makes me think of Christmas, not steel.

Betty sees the stark bleakness of Helen's (so old! 32!) life when her ex husband Dan tries to visit the kids and she decides to not let him in at first. Betty tries to pretend it didn't happen when Helen comes around later, "I don't know what you mean", but Helen calls her on it and uses it as a reason to lay out the whole story of why she left him. Talk about feeding Betty's anxiety!

And right after Helen tells Betty that her husband was cheating under the guise of working, Don comes home late (Betty is already in her pajamas) and goes straight upstairs.
posted by donajo at 9:36 PM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Betty is fascinating in this ep. The self-satisfied expression when Glen says his mother is 32 and she says, "I'm 28." I wondered if she was lying a little to give herself a little boost and make her feel more impressive in Glen's eyes.

Her relationships with children, including her own, are just so uncomfortable. When Glen is playing the piano and she compliments him on his playing, it is so awkward and stilted, like, that's what one says when a child is doing something well, must say X.

Also the way she manoeuvres herself in the bathroom, the fussy way she lifts her dress. I know there's a ton of petticoats and who knows what else under there, but I couldn't tell if it was partly that way because it's a TV show, or if women at the time really had to do that whole shuffle and hike thing. You wouldn't want to wait until the last second, would you?

Also her sympathy at poor Helen and her messy apartment was hilarious. Poor Helen must be suffering because her house is untidy? She would probably have me put in a mental ward.
posted by tracicle at 12:05 AM on June 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

So where are Pete and Trudy living before they buy this place? A rental? A hotel? That's always sort of bothered me. Pete's 26 when he gets married so was he living at home until then?

Probably a 1/1 bachelor apartment. Trudy would have given it a woman's touch but in her mind it was always temporary.

Typically, post-grad NYC guys either live in a studio by themselves, or they become roommates and rent a place together. As they start to pair off into couples, they may get places of their own, with the idea that they'll be the little nest they start their marriages in (and have a private place to take the fiance to after dates.)

So Pete probably had a one bedroom apartment that he rented, nothing fancy, and Trudy was going to fix that, right quick. And so she did.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:55 AM on June 12, 2014

Oooh, I didn't know I could change the look and feel of my closed captioning on the bananaphone! Easier to read what they say now!!!!

Who hasn't walked into a bathroom as a kid? Not that late in age, but I had bathroom issues when I was younger and would have nightmares about it happening instead.

On first watch, when I heard what Pete makes, I was a little surprised it was so little, but it was still double what Peggy was making. Still, though, an apartment at 10 x his annual salary? Dang. DANG.

Pre-marriage, maybe Pete is at home. We know that Trudy is at home (mentioned in first episode) ... I'm guessing that post-wedding they are renting or living in an apartment his family owns temporarily? They show them in a bedroom scene but it doesn't look like a hotel.
posted by tilde at 6:58 AM on June 12, 2014

Watched this episode on DVD with the comments turned on -- commentary by Vincent Kartheiser, Alison Brie, and episode writer Lisa Albert. Lisa Albert has mostly producer credits these days, but she wrote several early episodes, including Nixon vs. Kennedy (the election one), Souvenir (the Italy one), and The Summer Man (the one where Don keeps a journal).

Writer admits the episode's important for setting up future scenes by focusing on introducing Pete, his family life, and how his work life and family life spill into each other.

Pete's Old Money elevates him, but also damns him: Pete has a sort of cool job, but one that doesn't give him significant money or power or creative slack -- his main job, essentially, is to be a pimp for his clients, including the Bethlehem Steel guy. (This is one of many times that Pete's associated with prostitution in some way: I still hold that Pete was 100% a pimp later on in S5, The Other Woman -- it was part opportunity but pure manipulation and part opportunity.) Interesting how Don grew up among prostitutes and how that shaped him, and how Pete uses them (in several ways) to get his job done.

I'm such a fan of Vincent Kartheiser. Pete has these great moments where his emotions take over in a way his face can't contain (see also a comparison to Don): A sideways glance at Peggy when Trudy is at the office, a brimming smile when the client prefers his creative line over Don's, his eyes welling over after he's been fired, his twist of relief and disbelief when Roger reinstates him.

Other cool things about this episode:

• We begin to fully establish how childlike Betty is and how she's simply playing at being an adult. Instead of feeling unnerved by Glen, Betty ends up feeling flattered. She connects to Glen because they're contemporaries (by Weiner's and the writer's design -- Lisa Albert resisted the storyline, but wrote it because she was obliged to).
• First Trudy episode! And she fully outmaneuvers Pete in getting what she wants -- the apartment. (In later seasons, she'll do a similar outmaneuvering on Don to get the Drapers out to Cos Cob for dinner. This is all fully in line with how strong and capable she seems in S6 and S7a.)
• Really clever move by Roger in lying to Pete that Don had saved his job. I hadn't realized just how horrified and angry Don had been by that -- I hadn't remembered that it was such a contentious relationship, which makes Don's revenge on Roger later this season make more sense. I'm looking to rewatching the rest of the season as all three raise the stakes.
• Roger wears lifts! You can see them when he takes of his shoes. Says a lot about Roger.
• First sighting of Cooper's argyle socks! I actually cheered! I miss him already.
posted by mochapickle at 6:13 PM on June 12, 2014 [4 favorites]

I have never been more upset (hyperbole, but barely) to discover that there were no commentaries on the S6 DVDs.

It's been a while since I watched S1 with commentary but remember one episode with Jon Hamm and January Jones being super awkward. I think it was made worse by them not recording in the same location, but she did not come across as the brightest bulb.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 7:19 PM on June 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yes, it was disappointing.

Do you know why there were no commentaries for the S6 DVDs? When the DVD set was released I searched for an answer, but never found one.
posted by cwest at 7:36 PM on June 12, 2014

I looked too, asked on a few message boards and I think tweeted to the AMC or MM account but never heard back. I wouldn't have bothered buying it if I'd known.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 8:45 PM on June 12, 2014

The fairy tale/nursery rhyme theme to this episode contained two princesses, two princes, and one wise old man.

One princess, Trudy, got what she wanted, the other princess, Betty, got what she needed. The two princes, Pete and Don, did not get what they wanted or needed. And the old man, the king, judged wisely and got the outcome he desired.

Trudy got the apartment she wanted, despite Pete's protests, by asking her father for financial help. Of course Tom Vogel is not going to deny his "jellybean." Daddy's princess. She has Pete, who apparently she is pleased with. He has a promising career and and an impressive family background. Doors will open. She even got her way on the cab ride from the restaurant. Trudy asks the cab driver "Can we turn up Park?", Pete complains he has a client meeting, but Trudy hushes him. They ride up Park. Trudy wins all around, with her parents, with her husband, and with her future place of residence. She is formidable, as future seasons will bear out.

Betty got the connection and the type of attention she needed from Glen. She isn't getting it from Don, nor is she emotionally capable of getting the connection she needs on an adult level. The scene with her reading from Nursery Friends From France to her children announces the fairy tale/nursery theme at the beginning of the ep. The book she is reading from looks old and worn. It probably belonged to her as a child. Betty is well versed in being a Princess. She was raised to be one. In future eps. she describes how her mother raised her and how she herself looked at her life. If she was pretty, and maintained those looks, and did what the social code she was raised in demanded of her, kept up appearances, then in Betty's mind she was doing her job. But despite doing and being these things she feels utterly isolated and alone. She hasn't grown up yet and does not have the emotional tools to deal with her life. So when Glen tells her "You're pretty ... Really pretty", and "Your hair is so beautiful. You look like a princess", Betty falls for this hook, line, and sinker. Glen is a child who is smitten with her, he can place no heavy emotional demands on her and he looks at her like she truly wants to be looked at, a beautiful princess. So the locket of hair, which is a very fairy tale kind of thing. Simple admiration. Simple emotions. When she sits down on the couch, after having sent Glen to bed, she looks so much like a child. This is the way the show has written her. Unlike Trudy, Betty is not formidable.

Roger Sterling sums up what the two modern day princes are after.

Roger: You know, you shouldn't compete with Pete Campbell.

Don: I'm not.

Roger: Yeah. You are. Not at a personal level, but for the world.

Don is seeking a real emotional connection with an adult woman. A woman his intellectual equal who can challenge him. Betty can't provide this. However, if Don paid attention to Betty and helped her to grow up and become more of a whole person he just might get what he needs in his personal life. But, we've gotten to know Don very well. As someone said in one of these rewatch threads, Don is good at love but not with opening up and being intimate. Intimacy. He fails that test. He fails with his lovers and most especially with his wives. Don is damaged from his childhood experience of "mother" and is heavily under the influence of the mother archetype. He projects his deepest needs on Betty and Megan and tries to jam them into the roles he feels he needs to make himself whole. Betty and Megan suffocate, they can't possibly live up to Don's ideals because they are people, not archetypes. When Don becomes disillusioned with his wives he blames them, not realizing that all the while that the problem is with him. So his response his heavier drinking and womanizing. Don has succeeded in having a true emotional relationship, a connection, with only two women in his entire life. Anna Draper and Peggy. Both are platonic relationships.

So, in this episode Rachel gives him the brush off and we have a frustrated prince.

Don also fails in his work life. Pete Campbell is not fired. Don sums up his situation with the line he delivers to Roger, "Maybe I'm not as comfortable being powerless as you are."

The second would be prince, Pete, loses all around. To his wife (the apartment), to his parents (no money and no love), to his in-laws (they WILL help the young couple out), and at work. Only his family background saved him there. A prince with the family background, but no wealth, and no power. Pete is completely powerless in this ep.

And finally, the wise old man, the king, Bert Cooper. He explains the hard facts about how important family background can be to the workings of Sterling Cooper. Roger and Don can do nothing but acquiesce. As Roger and Don leave his office Bert sits behind his desk, starts trimming his nails, and whistles the nursery song "This Old Man." The old man still has it and still reigns.

Note: At the dinner, with Pete and Trudy and the Vogels, Tom Vogel says to Pete: "Start your life already. You're going to be a rich bastard on your own someday..." When I first saw this ep. I wondered if Pete would be rich sometime in the future of the show. If the McCann deal goes through Pete really will be a rich bastard.
posted by cwest at 11:55 PM on June 12, 2014 [5 favorites]

cwest, what an excellent reading.

I have the feeling Pete is going to end up with everything that's been promised him (the money, the corner office, the balding, the women who go home with him out of pity) and he's going to deserve every bit of it.

Interestingly, Vincent Kartheiser (in the commentary) had his doubts about Bert's ruling, commenting that there's always that person who seems wise but is giving exactly the wrong advice. And perhaps that's true here: Bert doesn't know how cold Pete's family is to him, and how unlikely it would be that his mother would badmouth Sterling-Cooper, because really, she holds Pete in such low regard. Things would have turned out completely differently for everyone (and happier perhaps for Roger, and Joan, and maybe even Lane) had Pete's dismissal stuck.
posted by mochapickle at 12:25 PM on June 13, 2014 [4 favorites]

how unlikely it would be that his mother would badmouth Sterling-Cooper, because really, she holds Pete in such low regard

I actually get the sense that Pete's father is the one who is most disdainful towards Pete. His mother seems to have some element of that as well, and I guess maybe it shows through more in later episodes, but at least in this episode, his father seemed to be the major culprit.

I do agree that Pete's mother probably wouldn't badmouth Sterling Cooper. I imagine Pete getting fired from the ad agency would be the kind of embarrassment that the family would want to sweep under the rug rather than draw attention to it in any way. His mother also seems very conflict avoidant (in this episode, she leaves the room as soon as things between Pete and his father get tense), so that would be another reason why she probably wouldn't walk around dissing Sterling Cooper.
posted by litera scripta manet at 1:53 PM on June 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

If Pete would have been fired, no one would have warned Don about Duck's attempt to sell the company. When McCann buys PPL, Lucky Strikes would have been the only account they had if Pete hadn't been gathering up all of his accounts because he planned on jumping ship.
posted by drezdn at 1:59 PM on June 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

Bert Cooper has The Dream Of The Fisherman's Wife on the wall.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:48 PM on June 13, 2014 [2 favorites]

cwest, what an excellent reading.

Thank you, mochapickle.

Yes, if Pete's mother and father did complain to others about their son being fired from Sterling Cooper it wouldn't be motivated by their love for Pete (there isn't much). They would probably feel it as an insult to their family name. Maybe that would motivate them to complain. I don't know. Maybe they wouldn't care.

drezdn, yes. Pete has been invaluable to Don several times. As Bert says: "One never knows how loyalty is born."
posted by cwest at 3:11 PM on June 13, 2014 [2 favorites]

For the record, we'd seen Cooper (and his argyle socks) previously in S1E2, "Ladies' Room."

Roger: "Maybe every generation thinks the next one is the end of it all. I bet there are people in the Bible walking around complaining about kids today."
Don: "Kids today, they have no one to look up to, because they're looking up to us."
Compare with the reference earlier to the new musical, Bye Bye Birdie, which has as one of its songs "Kids": "Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way? What's the matter with kids today?"

I wasn't paying close attention when Pete and Trudy were in the cab toward the end--is the Armory in question the one at Lexington and 25th? (How many armories are there in Manhattan?) Historicity aside, it is a bit of a tough building for me to love--my memories are from a sweltering event during the summer.

I hate myself for even thinking about it because I know it's way too easy, but I can't help but interpret Glen's idiosyncrasies as setting him up for some major kinks as an adult. (Watching princess-pretty ladies pee! Keeping their hair as a keepsake!)

I admit, I finally remembered on rewatch that there was a time I felt bad for Pete. His tearing up in his office after getting fired by Don affected me strongly.
posted by ChrisTN at 8:08 PM on June 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Masterful use of Ella Fitzgerald's "Manhattan" at the end when we finally get to see the view from the apartment. It is stunning but has gone un-mentioned by everybody until this point. LOTS of steel out there too!
posted by rongorongo at 10:52 PM on July 24, 2019

Interesting use of Bob Newhart's Driving Instructor sketch in this episode too. It still stands up as a well written piece of comedy - but Newhart's knowing framing of "Mrs Webb" as a "Lady Driver" - to try to extend those laughs - is grating (note that Newhart was an advertising copywriter from the late 50s; would plausibly have been personally known to some of the shows characters). Driving Instructor is the sort of sketch which would have been endlessly re-narrated by much less capable Newhart fanboys (probably still is). Poor Hildy.
posted by rongorongo at 1:32 AM on July 25, 2019