I Just Read Man Men's Pilot Script

Here's how "the beginning of things" differs from the onscreen episode

My writing hot take is that pilots should be a little unsatisfying. In fact, that is part of what makes you tune in next week. A plan for the series needs to be in place but if every single detail is figured out and set in stone with that pilot, the creativity of chaos can’t take place. TV is different from film in that it takes years to discover itself. The Don Draper we see in season 4’s “The Suitcase,” often considered one of the greatest TV show episodes of all time, is not the same man from this pilot. He is especially not the same man from the pilot’s first page. Don Draper had to become Don Draper… that’s kind of the point of the show.

Once you get to Season 4 and “The Suitcase,” you feel as if what you’re watching is not only incredible but that it has been earned. We’ve shared years with him by that point.

Shows often don’t begin producing their best episodes until the 2nd season because the pilot and first season are about getting their feet on the ground. Only after that can they begin running and you eventually get all-timer material like “The Suitcase.”

Today, I read Matthew Weiner’s pilot script for Mad Men Episode 1: “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and there was a beauty in seeing that this wasn’t all figured out from the start:

• Paul Kinsey is named Dick which means that Don’s true name Dick Whitman had not been chosen yet.

  

• Weiner is cautious in describing the female characters so that, while the characters are sexist, he does not appear so. This leads to Joan being introduced as “an incredibly put together office manager.”

  

• Pete is introduced as a “charming all-American” instead of a wormy piece of shit.

  

You see the differences from page one and the greatest among them is that these characters are owned by the actors who portray them. The material is there and each performer is a strike of lightning bringing life to lines that I can read too cutesy on paper but become iconic onscreen.

Let’s jump in. If you’d like to read along, you can view the script here.

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• The Saul Bass-inspired intro is not described in the script, most show pilots do not describe their opening credits. Filling their place are stock footage and images of the 50s/60s that ease the reader into the past.

  

• Don is introduced as “handsome, conservative, and despite his third old fashioned, he is apparently sober.” We’re drawn to him but it takes an actor like Jon Hamm to bring out all of this character’s potential, especially his humor. It’s unclear when he’s joking or being mean in the script whereas Hamm knows how to sell everything. This pilot doesn’t want to waste time clearing up the mystery of Don Draper for us and luckily, Hamm knew how to play him and hold our interest from the start.

• For the most part, the script is very close to the final episode with some more connective tissue added. Peggy’s first scene in the elevator is not Peggy at all in the script, the boys hit on a random unnamed secretary.

  

  
  Some “script direction” is also absent. A paragraph of the script describing Don’s POV as he sweats and hides panic during a meeting is cut in favor of wasting no time. Pilots can’t afford to waste time, that’s something a show earns and often embraces in later seasons when filler stories become more common.

  

• The most obvious difference is one you can see above, Paul Kinsey is named Dick. I’m sure Weiner had the twist of Don’s life figured out but it would be strange if he hadn’t decided on a name for Don’s past life. Lots of possibilities here but all we know is that Dick Kinsey later become Paul Kinsey.

• I think this was an attractive project for the actors because it offered a big playground. The writing is good and the characters have a lot to build on with most everyone having short and sweet descriptions that can be interpreted in many ways. Roger is an “elegant WASP with grey hair” and Peggy is “20 but seems far younger.” The character who is the most locked in stone is Salvatore because almost every line of his in the pilot is some variation of “Hello, I am a closeted homosexual male.”