TCA Update - Hanging Out at Sterling Cooper With the "Mad Men" (and women)

Earlier this week we had a chance to visit the set of the swell, and now Emmy-nominated, AMC drama "Mad Men."

Creator Matt Weiner led us around the Sterling Cooper offices and the home of Don and Betty Draper pointing out the tiniest details from cigarette butts bearing traces of different shades of lipstick in the ashtrays to the new rotary phone installed by the Draper's bedside. (I resisted the urge to lean against the Draper's dryer.)

I noticed an evacuation plan on the wall in the break room and Weiner, an amazing stickler for details, said it was indeed the plan for Sterling Cooper not the studio itself. When I asked Weiner why the upwardly mobile couple would choose to sleep in a double bed he said that in 1960 "this is the biggest bed there is." (Apparently, the queen had been introduced in 1958, but Weiner pointed out frequently during the tour that to be as realistic as possible many of the items in the home would be a few years old).

The sets are, in a word, amazing, meticulously dressed and pretty spacious by television standards: the house feels as big as a real house with rooms having four walls and the offices are as open as they seem on-screen with each desk outfitted with a period typewriter, typed letters in the in/out boxes and even trash in the trash cans. (One letter I noticed was addressed to department store heiress and SC client Rachel Menken). And there's not a single whiff of cigarette smoke in the air. (The cast smokes the herbal kind).

Emmy nominated stars Jon Hamm and John Slattery - who grew up in Newton- took a break from filming to check in about the glorious critical reception to the show and January Jones flounced through in a delicious, multi-colored vintage dress. The series returns for a second round of 13 episodes July 27 and the action picks up almost two years later in 1962. Having seen the first two, fans can breathe easy that the quality of the storytelling remains first-rate.

I pulled Bryan Batt, a Broadway musical veteran, aside to talk about one of my favorite characters, closeted art department head Salvatore Romano. I asked if he would get a love interest this season and he replied, "Yes." When I pressed for more, he said, "He thinks that he's in love, but everything comes with a price."

There were no spottings of the "Relaxi-cizer," which Weiner said was an actual product (with a different name) and that none of the actresses was willing to test drive it in real life.