# Mad Men season 3

The third season of the American television drama series Mad Men premiered on August 16, 2009, and concluded on November 8, 2009. It consisted of thirteen episodes, each running approximately 48 minutes in length. AMC broadcast the third season on Sundays at 10:00 pm in the United States.
Season three takes place six months after the conclusion of the second season (roughly April/May 1963) and ends on December 16, 1963. It covers the end of Kennedy's "Camelot era" in the country, and chronicles the characters going through immense change in their professional and personal lives.
The third season was exalted by television critics and was a major winner in many television awards. Mad Men won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Series, and acknowledgement by the American Film Institute for the third year in a row. According to year end lists collected by Metacritic, Mad Men was the most acclaimed show of 2009.

## Cast
### Main cast

* Jon Hamm as Don Draper
* Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson
* Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell
* January Jones as Betty Draper
* Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris
* Bryan Batt as Salvatore Romano
* Michael Gladis as Paul Kinsey
* Aaron Staton as Ken Cosgrove
* Rich Sommer as Harry Crane
* Robert Morse as Bert Cooper
* John Slattery as Roger Sterling

### Recurring cast

* Jared S. Gilmore as Bobby Draper
* Kiernan Shipka as Sally Draper
* Alexa Alemanni as Allison
* Jared Harris as Lane Pryce
* Patrick Cavanaugh as "Smitty" Smith
* Christopher Stanley as Henry Francis
* Alison Brie as Trudy Campbell
* Deborah Lacey as Carla
* Chelcie Ross as Conrad "Connie" Hilton
* Abigail Spencer as Suzanne Farrell
* Ryan Cartwright as John Hooker
* Edin Gali as Kurt Smith
* Julie McNiven as Hildy
* Ryan Cutrona as Gene Hofstadt
* Anne Dudek as Francine Hanson
* Crista Flanagan as Lois Sadler
* Eric Ladin as William Hofstadt
* Peyton List as Jane Sterling
* Mark Moses as Herman "Duck" Phillips
* Samuel Page as Greg Harris
* Laura Regan as Jennifer Crane
* Charles Shaughnessy as St. John Powell
* Talia Balsam as Mona Sterling
* Embeth Davidtz as Rebecca Pryce
* Elizabeth Rice as Margaret Sterling
* Audrey Wasilewski as Anita Olson Respola

### Guest stars

* Sarah Drew as Kitty Romano
* Darren Pettie as Lee Garner, Jr.
* Myra Turley as Katherine Olson

## Plot

The season opens six months after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Don and Sal then leave for a business trip to Baltimore, where Don cavorts with a flight attendant. Sal, meanwhile, has an intimate moment with their hotel's bellboy. After the fire alarm is set off, Don sees Sal with the young man. Don keeps it to himself, then pitches Sal a new advertising tagline, ostensibly for London Fog raincoats — "Limit your exposure".
Pete is offered the role of Head of Accounts by Lane Pryce, a PPL executive brought in from the London office. Pete is ecstatic until he learns that he will be sharing the title and the responsibility with Ken Cosgrove. At a country club party that Roger and Jane throw, Don and Betty both connect with strangers. Don strikes up a conversation with a man who turns out to be Conrad Hilton, founder of Hilton Hotels. Betty has a friendly conversation with an affable man named Henry Francis, who works for Governor Rockefeller. Roger, meanwhile, takes issue with his daughter, Margaret, who does not want her 20-year-old stepmother, Jane, at her wedding, scheduled for November 23, 1963.
Betty's father Gene, suffering from his strokes, comes to live with the Drapers and strikes up a warm relationship with Sally, even teaching the young girl to drive. He is frustrated, though, by Betty not wanting to face up to the practical details of his death. Gene soon dies, and Sally scolds her parents and Betty's relatives for their apparent lack of grief at his demise. Betty gives birth to a boy, named Gene over Don's strenuous objections.
Days before Joan's last day at the company, her husband Greg returns home drunk, telling her that he was passed over for an important promotion and that he has been unofficially blacklisted by his teachers from being a professional surgeon in New York City due to his subpar surgical skills, and demands she get another job.
Executives from Putnam, Powell, and Lowe travel from London to tour the Sterling Cooper offices and to present a new organization plan that places the agency under a new up and comer, Guy MacKendrick, effectively sidelines Sterling and Cooper, and transfers Pryce to Bombay. After the announcement, Lois loses control of a John Deere tractor and runs over MacKendrick's foot. MacKendrick is presumed unable to perform his duties and Pryce is informed that he will keep his job in the States in the interim.
Conrad Hilton starts harassing Don with late night phone calls, seeking off the books help with regard to advertising for his companies. Don finds it both flattering and overwhelming, as he struggles to create quality material. When Connie learns Don has no contract tying him to the agency, Cooper uses his knowledge of Don's assumed identity to pressure him into signing a contract so as to retain Hilton's interest.
Betty enlists Henry's help with a neighborhood petition, and becomes smitten with him. She begins sending him letters and meeting with him in secret. Elsewhere, Don begins having an affair with Suzanne Farrell, Sally's teacher. During this period, Duck Phillips tempts both Pete and Peggy with business overtures to entice them to come to work with him at Grey; while neither accepts the business proposition, Peggy does accept Duck's initiation of a sexual relationship with her.
While on a shoot for a Lucky Strike commercial, Lee Garner, Jr., makes a sexual advance toward Sal. Sal refuses, causing Lee to call Sterling Cooper and demand his firing. Roger instantly fires Sal due to Lucky Strike's importance with the company. When Sal goes to Don for help, Don expresses little sympathy.
Betty breaks into the drawer to the desk in Don's den. She finds his box of Dick Whitman's family photos as well as evidence of Anna Draper's existence and Don's divorce from her. She confronts him. Don is forced to divulge the secret of his former identity and his desertion in Korea.
Pete becomes despondent when alerted by Lane Pryce that Ken is to become Senior Vice President in charge of Account Services. The news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy hits the day before Roger's daughter gets married. Pete is adamant about leaving the agency and mourns Kennedy on the couch with his wife. Greg informs Joan that he is enlisting to become an Army surgeon. When Betty is confronted with the lies her husband has told her regarding his identity and infidelities as well as her own growing attraction towards Henry, things come to a head with the Drapers following the assassination of the president. Don's inability to connect to Betty's emotional grief over the death of the President leads Betty to tell Don that she doesn't love him anymore and that she wants a divorce.
Connie meets with Don to inform him that Sterling Cooper and PPL both are being bought out by McCann Ericson, the firm handling Hilton's other accounts. Infuriated, Don returns to the office and begins hatching plans with Cooper and Sterling to buy the company. When their offer is rebuffed, Don realizes that Lane's authority to fire the other conspirators would sever their contracts, giving them the ability to walk away and start a new advertising agency. Lane agrees with the scheme and becomes a partner. Don and Roger start reaching out to other employees to join their new agency, including Pete and Peggy.
While drinking with Sterling, Don learns about Betty's relationship with Henry Francis and confronts her physically. However, Don later calls Betty and tells her that he will not fight the divorce. Betty leaves with the baby and Henry to get a divorce in Reno. Don, Peggy, Roger, Bert, Lane and Pete subsequently break into the Sterling Cooper office to take necessary supplies and files. Joan and Harry are soon called in to join the company and help them. The group meets in a small hotel room, where Joan answers calls with the name of the new firm: Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

## Episodes

| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | US viewers (millions) |
| 27 | 1 | "Out of Town" | Phil Abraham | Matthew Weiner | August 16, 2009 (2009-08-16) | 2.76 |
| It's early 1963. In the aftermath of Sterling Cooper's sale to a British company, major changes are made to the staff, including the addition of new employee Lane Pryce and Pete and Ken being named to the same position. Don and Sal both engage in extramarital liaisons while on a business trip to Baltimore—Don with a stewardess, and Sal with a bellboy. When the fire alarm goes off, Don catches Sal, but on the flight home subtly hints that he won't tell anyone. |||||||
| 28 | 2 | "Love Among the Ruins" | Lesli Linka Glatter | Cathryn Humphris and Matthew Weiner | August 23, 2009 (2009-08-23) | 1.90 |
| Sterling Cooper argues over the ad campaign for Pepsi's new diet cola, Patio. Representatives of Madison Square Garden engage SC in their campaign to demolish Penn Station and build a new MSG. Following concerns over the treatment of Betty's ill father, Gene, Don has him move in with their family, unnerving Betty's brother, who she believes was maneuvering to take over their parents' sumptuous home. Don gets his first glimpse of Sally's teacher, Suzanne Farrell. Peggy has an uneasy one-night stand. |||||||
| 29 | 3 | "My Old Kentucky Home" | Jennifer Getzinger | Dahvi Waller and Matthew Weiner | August 30, 2009 (2009-08-30) | 1.61 |
| A mandatory overtime session leaves Paul, Smitty, and Peggy trying to stave off late-night boredom with cannabis. Roger's Kentucky Derby party leads to Don striking up a friendship with a folksy guest named Connie from another event, while Betty meets political advisor Henry Francis. Joan and Greg host a dinner party, where Joan learns that Greg might not be as talented of a surgeon as she was led to believe. Sally and Grandpa have a run-in. |||||||
| 30 | 4 | "The Arrangements" | Michael Uppendahl | Andrew Colville and Matthew Weiner | September 6, 2009 (2009-09-06) | 1.51 |
| Don crosses paths with his father-in-law, Peggy searches for a new roommate and a new client with money to throw around is very excited about doing business with the firm, though Don wants to make sure it will avoid a conflict with a friend of Cooper's. Sal lands an opportunity to direct a TV commercial, while his wife Kitty starts sensing something is off about their relationship. Betty's father dies. |||||||
| 31 | 5 | "The Fog" | Phil Abraham | Kater Gordon | September 13, 2009 (2009-09-13) | 1.75 |
| In the wake of the death of Betty's father, Sally begins to misbehave, much to Betty and Don's dismay. Her teacher reports she is troubled by the death of Medgar Evers, which is all over the news. Looks between Don and the teacher reveal stirrings of attraction. Pete tries to work a new angle into his business dealings and an odd dream has a strange effect on Betty, who gives birth to a baby boy she names Eugene in honor of her father. |||||||
| 32 | 6 | "Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency" | Lesli Linka Glatter | Robin Veith and Matthew Weiner | September 20, 2009 (2009-09-20) | 1.57 |
| The agency's British owners visit Sterling Cooper to reassign Pryce to one of their India-based companies over the Independence Day weekend. A replacement for Pryce is introduced to the company. Ken brings a riding lawnmower into the office. During a party to celebrate Joan's departure, a secretary, Lois Sadler, runs over the replacement's foot with the lawnmower and Pryce's transfer is called off. After tendering her resignation, Joan finds out that her husband's application for a medical residency in New York was rejected. Don meets again with Connie, revealed to be famous hotelier Conrad Hilton who tells Don he wants to do business with him. |||||||
| 33 | 7 | "Seven Twenty Three" | Daisy von Scherler Mayer | Andre Jacquemetton & Maria Jacquemetton and Matthew Weiner | September 27, 2009 (2009-09-27) | 1.73 |
| Don's attempt to land the Hilton Hotel account backfires, when Hilton refuses to work with him unless Sterling Cooper signs him to a contract. To land the account, Cooper blackmails Don over his theft of the "Don Draper" identity, forcing him to sign a three-year contract. Miss Farrell helps the students make a camera obscura to view the solar eclipse of July 20, 1963. Betty meets with Henry Francis to discuss a civic project. Peggy tells Duck she is not interested in changing agencies but their meeting has the unintended consequence of bringing them together romantically. An angry, drunk Don picks up a young couple hitchhiking their way to Niagara Falls, who drug and knock him out at a roadside motel, robbing him of everything but his car. |||||||
| 34 | 8 | "Souvenir" | Phil Abraham | Lisa Albert and Matthew Weiner | October 4, 2009 (2009-10-04) | 1.91 |
| It's August 1963. After they win the reservoir case, Betty and Henry cross the line. Pete runs into Joan while out shopping, who now works as a manager of a department store. Don and Betty take a business trip to Rome for Hilton and manage to renew romantic interest in each other but the return home brings things back to normal. With his wife away, Pete coerces his neighbor's vulnerable German au pair into sleeping with him, provoking a confrontation with the neighbor. |||||||
| 35 | 9 | "Wee Small Hours" | Scott Hornbacher | Dahvi Waller and Matthew Weiner | October 11, 2009 (2009-10-11) | 1.53 |
| After a phone call from Hilton, a restless Don drives in to work early and is surprised to see Suzanne jogging along the side of the road so far before sunrise. Lee Garner Jr., an executive for Sterling Cooper's largest client Lucky Strike, forces the agency to fire Sal who, unbeknownst to Roger, Don or anyone else at the firm, refused Lee's sexual advances. Don shows little sympathy for Sal and tells him he will land on his feet somewhere else. Conrad Hilton disapproves of the new advertising campaign for Hilton Hotels, bewildering Don. Betty finds herself drawn to Henry Francis while Don and Suzanne, Sally's former teacher, begin an affair. Sal calls Kitty from a pay phone, telling her he has to work late, but instead goes out with a group of gay men. |||||||
| 36 | 10 | "The Color Blue" | Michael Uppendahl | Kater Gordon and Matthew Weiner | October 18, 2009 (2009-10-18) | 1.61 |
| Betty discovers Don's cache of photographs, revealing his past life. Paul suffers from writer's block and grows resentful of Peggy's success. The arrival of Suzanne's troubled brother complicate her affair with Don, while Pryce is informed that Sterling Cooper is being sold. Suzanne arranges a new job for her brother, but Don relents when the young man asks to be dropped off well before its location. At the end, the firm celebrates its 40th anniversary. |||||||
| 37 | 11 | "The Gypsy and the Hobo" | Jennifer Getzinger | Marti Noxon & Cathryn Humphris and Matthew Weiner | October 25, 2009 (2009-10-25) | 1.72 |
| As Don is about to leave with Suzanne, Betty confronts him about his identity theft, forcing him to reveal to her the truth about himself. Meanwhile, Roger meets a former client/lover who wishes to rekindle their affair, but Roger tells her he is happy with Jane. Joan discovers that her husband, after a failed attempt to switch to psychiatry, has joined the Army to ensure that he will become a surgeon. After Don finishes telling Betty his entire unhappy history, he admits he was surprised Betty ever loved him at all. |||||||
| 38 | 12 | "The Grown-Ups" | Barbet Schroeder | Brett Johnson and Matthew Weiner | November 1, 2009 (2009-11-01) | 1.78 |
| Roger's daughter fears her wedding will be ruined by the news of the Kennedy assassination. The news also affects the others, Peter, already despondent over Ken Cosgrove being promoted over him, resolves to just stay at home and watch the news on TV with his wife. Betty is heartbroken and, while everyone else shows sorrow, grief, and fear for the future, Don remains composed. The wedding exposes further fissures in several relationships including Roger and Jane's as well as Don and Betty's. Following the subsequent live-on-television shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby, Betty tells Don that she no longer loves him. |||||||
| 39 | 13 | "Shut the Door. Have a Seat." | Matthew Weiner | Matthew Weiner & Erin Levy | November 8, 2009 (2009-11-08) | 2.32 |
| Before the sale of Sterling Cooper is to take effect, Roger, Bert, Don and Lane devise a plan to form a new agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, with them as equal partners. Peggy, Joan, Pete and Harry Crane are recruited to move with them. Betty and Don begin divorce proceedings, which begin contentiously, with Don preparing for a major fight and Betty worried about the repercussions. Later, Don informs Betty he wants to avoid animosity, and voluntarily moves out, promising Sally and Robert he'll never stop being their father no matter where he lives. Betty takes a plane to Reno with Henry and the baby to prepare for the divorce. |||||||

## Production
### Crew

Series creator Matthew Weiner also served as showrunner and executive producer, and is credited as a writer on 12 of the 13 episodes of the season, often co-writing the episodes with another writer. Lisa Albert remained supervising producer and wrote one episode. Writing team Andre Jacquemetton and Maria Jacquemetton became consulting producers and co-wrote one episode together. Robin Veith was promoted to executive story editor and wrote one episode. Kater Gordon was promoted to staff writer and wrote two episodes. Marti Noxon remained consulting producer and wrote one episode. New writers in the third season included Dahvi Waller, who wrote two episodes; writer's assistant Erin Levy, who wrote one episode; executive story editor Cathryn Humphris, who wrote two episodes; script coordinator Brett Johnson, who wrote one episode; and freelance writer Andrew Colville, who wrote one episode. Other producers included Blake McCormick, Dwayne Shattuck, and Scott Hornbacher, who was promoted to executive producer.
For the third season, seven of the nine writers for the show were women, in contrast to Writers Guild of America 2006 statistics that show male writers outnumber female writers by 2 to 1. As Maria Jacquemetton notes:
    We have a predominately [sic] female writing staff—women from their early 20s to their 50s—and plenty of female department heads and directors. [Show creator] Matt Weiner and [executive producer] Scott Hornbacher hire people they believe in, based on their talent and their experience. 'Can you capture this world? Can you bring great storytelling?'
Phil Abraham directed the most episodes of the season with three, while Lesli Linka Glatter, Jennifer Getzinger, and Michael Uppendahl each directed two. The remaining episodes were directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Scott Hornbacher, Barbet Schroeder, and Matthew Weiner, who directs each season finale.

## Reception
### Critical reception

The third season of Mad Men has received critical acclaim. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 97% of 29 critics have given the season a positive review with an average score of 9.4/10. The site's consensus is: "Mad Men brilliantly weaves its characters into its historical setting, and the result is thoughtful, shocking, and terrifically entertaining." On Metacritic, the third season scored 87 out of 100 based on 20 reviews, indicating universal acclaim.
Time critic James Poniewozik cited the show's excellence in writing and acting, and said "Mad Men's willingness to let moments play out seems as much a period flourish as its fedoras and highballs." Of the third season, Poniewozik felt that the third season was "a notch behind season 1 and ahead of season 2. It didn’t have the phenomenal run of one staggering episode and scene after another like the first did, but this season built confidently to a climax and did an outstanding job of both capturing the sweep of history and how it related to the characters’ lives." Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle warned viewers from falling for any inevitable backlash after the myriad of award wins for the series, saying that "the humor, the note-perfect clothing and sets, the creeping cultural change - are still there to be savored. But what the series traffics in with astute complexity is the troubling notion of self, of identity, of rootless, undefined purpose and unrealized happiness". Goodman also noted that the series was not made for a mass audience.
Robert Bianco of USA Today said the third season was compelling because "we all know the late-stage Camelot universe the characters occupy is about to shatter" and that the series was filled with "madness and passion". Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times described Mad Men as "essentially one long flashback, an artfully imagined historic re-enactment of an era when America was a soaring superpower feeling its first shivers of mortality." Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times said the series was "a moral drama, a show about deciding who you are and who you want to be, of character as the sum of small choices. There are no heroes or villains here, only people working out or being carried toward their individual destinies. And in who we root for and in what we root for them to choose, we also define ourselves."
In one of the few negative reviews, Hank Stuever of The Washington Post said that Mad Men "has importance sickness, and its idea of levity is to inject moments of utter callousness." Stuever lamented that once "a TV show was just a TV show. It was on when it was on; if you missed it, you missed it. You certainly wouldn't build your life around talking about it or telling other grownups they had to watch old episodes of it in order to catch up. You were supposed to give it two seconds' thought."
Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger said that by the end of the season "we've crossed a generational line in the series. Kennedy is dead. The Beatles fly into New York in a few months. The '50s are definitively over, and what we think of as the actual '60s is just beginning."

### Accolades

The third season continued Mad Men's streak of award wins and nominations at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards. The series won both Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (Matthew Weiner and Erin Levy for "Shut the Door. Have a Seat"), both for the third year in a row.
In the acting categories, Jon Hamm and January Jones were nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, respectively. John Slattery and Robert Morse were nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, respectively. Christina Hendricks and Elisabeth Moss were both nominees in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category. Robin Veith and Matthew Weiner also received an additional nomination in the Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series category for writing "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency". Lesli Linka Glatter was also nominated in Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for her work on "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency".
The American Film Institute honored the "transformative" third season of Mad Men as one of the ten greatest television achievements of 2009, exalting both January Jones and Jon Hamm for leading the strong ensemble. Mad Men won Best Television Drama Series at the 67th Golden Globe Awards for the third year in a row. Jon Hamm was nominated for Best Actor – Television Series Drama for the third year in a row. January Jones was nominated for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for the second year in a row.
At the 2009 Writers Guild of America Awards, the series was honored with the Dramatic Series award. The series also received Episodic Drama nominations for "The Grown Ups" (Brett Johnson and Matthew Weiner) and "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency" (Matthew Weiner and Robin Veith). At the 2009 Directors Guild Awards, Mad Men director Lesli Linka Glatter won for her work on "Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency". Matthew Weiner ("Shut the Door. Have a Seat") and Jennifer Getzinger ("The Gypsy and the Hobo") were also nominated for their directorial work in the same "Dramatic Series" category.
The cast of Mad Men won Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards for the second year in a row. Jon Hamm was also nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series for the third year in a row. The series was nominated for the Outstanding Achievement in Drama award at the 26th TCA Awards.