From the beginning, when nobody knew what “Mad Men” was, Robert Morse was the clearest connection to the grey flannel me of Madison Avenue. As the song and dance man who rose to fame in the original Broadway production of “How to Succeed in business without Really Trying” in 1961, reprising the role for the 1967 film, his star turn as an ad man served the breadth of the time period “Mad Men” so painstakingly recreates.
His role on “Mad Men,” however, was largely a man past his prime, awaiting retirement or worse. Though he remained an inspiration to Roger Sterling, with whom he created this firm Sterling Cooper, he was largely dismissed by others. Even Roger wouldn’t abide by his rule to take off his shoes before entering his office Sunday.
But after remaining underused for most of “Mad Men,” he went out a champion in Sunday’s midseason finale — the last episode of the year before the show returns for its final seven episodes in 2015. Not only was he key in the partners’ vote to keep Don on the staff, but his sweet offscreen death — while watching the moon landing in July, 1969 — capped by a hallucinatory song and dance seen only by Don, underscored the fact he was a large part of this show for the length of it.
That Bert Cooper died alongside his black maid while watching TV (after seeming kind of a bigot in the office, moving Dawn from front receptionist because he was uncomfortable with her being the face of the agency) showed his true side. We will leave open the possibility a little hanky panky may have led to cardiac arrest at a blissful moment.
It was about as eventful an episode of “Mad Men” as you’d expect from a season finale (even a mid-season one). In addition to the death, there was the whole move to remove Don by Harry Hamlin’s fussy character Jim Cutler. Though he delivered a letter with the partners signing it, none were aware of the move and, once assembled by Don, voted against it (except for Joan, who was sick of the drama Don dredges up).
Still, it meant it had to be Peggy who delivered the pitch to Burger Chef instead of Don, just in case he wasn’t going to be around. She was unsure of herself, but did a good job and it seemed a satisfying moment as the longtime pupil of the ad man suddenly excelled on her own in the all important pitch.
If Roger hadn’t done much this season (or in several of them), he rose to the occasion here, putting together a deal to sell most of Sterling Cooper to a rival firm to ensure they’d keep the team they’d want — and earn partners a whole lot of money. The buyers wanted Don aboard, but they also wanted Ted, who was so burned out on advertising he shook up a client while flying them on his plane. In the end, Don talked him into staying and returning to New York.
Not that Don would go to L.A. anytime soon. His inevitable split with Megan came coldly and without many words on a transcontinental call. She really didn’t want him back there; what they had was kind of dead, they realized without specifically saying it.
Does this open the way to a Don-Betty reunion? Not quite yet. Betty likens him to “an old bad boyfriend” when friends come visiting, also during the moon landing. Of the teenage sons of the friend, a hunky guy makes eyes at Sally, but she ends up kissing the nerd at the telescope before she lights up a cigarette, just like her mom.
Peggy softens a bit in the episode as well, not only winning the account of course, but taking the phone number of a handyman, and helping calm the 10-year-old neighbor boy who she is sad to learn is moving (he had helped inspire her pitch).
The lingering image of the episode, though, is Morse’s softshoe and song, as if saying goodbye not only to his character but all that it — and his previous ad man character — represented, as the ad biz is about to change, like everything else, as the 60s end.
(For one thing, every pitch will contain the words, “We can put a man on the moon, but….”).
At any rate, this will be one show we’ll miss very much until it returns next year. And I don’t even want to think about it ending altogether.