July 19, 2007

What to Watch: Coming Up on Cable

Seth Arenstein raises his glass to tonight's premiere of Mad Men, AMC's highly anticipated first original series.

Tube Stake: Programming Reviews by Seth Arenstein

MAD MEN: And the women who work for them — premieres tonight on AMC.

• THURS. JULY 19

Mad Men, series premiere, 10pm ET, AMC.

This is a gamble for AMC head Charlie Collier and his team, eschewing reality and game series for a relatively expensive scripted original, and on Thursday night, no less.

Based on tonight's premiere, it’s a very good wager that this series—from Sopranos' alum Matthew Weiner—about Madison Avenue advertising executives in New York circa 1960 will pay off handsomely.

To stack the deck, AMC is repeating the strategy that propelled its 2-part original film Broken Trail to record ratings and awards last year—by leading into the original with some film classics from its library.

The movie lead-ins for Mad Men include Goodfellas, which immediately precedes tonight's premiere (at 7pm ET).

But back to the series, the best attributes of this cinematic television piece are evident in two scenes that set the stage for the rest of the series.

One scene in tonight's episode involves a Jewish-owned business looking to hire the Sterling Cooper ad agency, which is nearly devoid of Jews. The other juicy scene is set in a gynecologist’s office.

That the doctor is puffing on a cigarette during the examination is only part of the fun.

• For more from Seth on how Mad Men fits into AMC's strategy, click here.

• Or click here for more TV reviews by Seth >>