COLUMN: Smoking Out the Madmen

By Tobin Barnes
I’ve been watching the TV show “Madmen” lately. You can find it on the AMC cable channel. It’s gotten rave reviews.

The “madmen” of the title are actually “admen” working the advertising business on New York’s Madison Avenue in the early 1960’s. I guess it’s the Madison Avenue part that makes them the “madmen.” (Have to admit, I just got that.)

Despite the gray flannel suits, thin ties, and Brylcreemed hair, “Madmen” isn’t another “Leave It to Beaver” or “Father Knows Best.” Far from it. Tad on the dark side, actually. The leading man’s somewhat of a cad, unlike the bright and shiny Jim Anderson played by good old Robert Young.

If anything, this is “Father Knows Best” on giant draughts of nicotine. Also, throw in healthy doses of male chauvinism, adultery, and plenty of angst.

Of course, my early 1960’s, when I was eight or nine, never looked like the sanitized “Ozzie and Harriet” sitcoms of that era. Far as I could tell, my mother wasn’t the only one in my neighborhood not prancing around in day dresses and pearls.

Sure, those sitcoms were good for a few laughs, but they were only tangentially related to everyday life. It took “All in the Family” later on to break that mold.

But then “Madmen” isn’t like my 1960’s, either. The New York City high life was far removed from my small-town South Dakota experiences. Nevertheless, I continually get flashbacks watching that show.

Particularly from all the cigarette smoking going on.

Even if the actors never touch a cigarette off set, they’re still doomed for the oncology ward a few years from now. (They’re obviously sacrificing for their art.)

Almost every scene in “Madmen,” and I’m not exaggerating, is filled with cigarette smoke. Characters, including the women, are constantly flicking ashes. In many ways, lighting up and inhaling smoke is the main action in this series dominated by relatively stagnant office, restaurant, and at-home scenes.

At first, all that smoking is almost distracting. Kinda like, “What’s up with that? Thought Hollywood was supposed to start cutting down on the cigs.” Then you start realizing: “Hey, but that’s the way it used to be.”

The producers of “Madmen” are throwing cold water in their viewers' faces—that is, those of a certain age--with the ubiquitous cigarette smoke and saying, “Remember?”

And, yes, I do.

The World War II generation, despite their countless exemplary qualities, smoked it up big time. Wasn’t their fault, though. Didn’t know the consequences. And they’d been sold the habit as part of the American Dream by the very admen portrayed in the show I’m talking about.

Of course, the government played a part, too. From what I understand, cigarettes were an essential part of soldiers’ and sailors’ rations during WWII. If they weren’t smokers before, they turned into smokers on the battle fronts, and who can blame them?

So we baby boomers grew up in billowing clouds of tobacco smoke.

Second hand? My dad was three packs a day. I was inhaling just like him in the house and especially in the car.

Ash trays were all over the place at home and in public. And I don’t remember too many people saying, “Do you mind if I smoke?” It was a given. Actually, people got a little shirty if someone answered, “Yes.”

Granted, people didn’t know the full impact of the health consequences back then, but the nasty characteristics, including hacker’s cough and yellow teeth, were obviously apparent. The commercials and magazine ads didn’t show any of that. Not part of the adman’s American Dream. And certainly, the same manipulation goes on today but with other products.

Anyway, like I said, I’ve been watching “Madmen,” following the usually grim story line, and appreciating the uncanny reproduction of a time period but also finding myself sitting there watching the inhales and exhales of smoke and thinking, “Wow, I grew up in all that.”