Mad Men 4th Season Premiere in Hollywood

Tues Jul 20th:
The eagerly awaited 4th season of AMC's original TV series,Mad Men premieres on July 25th so they are having a red carpet sneak preview of the first episode at 6:00 pm today at Graumann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. The event was originally to be held at the Harmony Gold Theater on Sunset Blvd. but was moved to Mann's to accommodate the large request for tickets to the event. I'm trying to see if I can wrangle a ticket inside but my chances look slim. I may swing by the red carpet event though, to see if I see any of the cast and any interesting fan reactions. They are having a season 4 preview screening in New York on Sunday also and attendees are known to come in costumes. People in L.A. all seem to be in costumes anyhow so it might be interesting.

I confess that I haven't watched much Mad Men episodes and what I did see I didn't enjoy. There's too much macho sexist attitudes by the men and the women's roles are so wimpy or subservient that it's hard to believe this show is written by mostly women. Worst, there is endless depiction of cigarette smoking. I know the show is set in the 60's before the impact of the Surgeon General's warning about the dangers of smoking but many other shows written for that era did not depict smoking like Mad Men does. Thankfully, the cast smokes herbal cigarettes during the show's taping but still.

When I do watch it's purely so I can see the 60's fashion that January Jones and the rest of the female cast might be wearing or to sneak a peak at Jon Hamm's strong, manly chin and his physique in a suit and tie(lol).

Maybe that's my real problem with Mad Men; it seems more style over substance. Most people who watch it say that the show is so "cool","sexy" or "hip" then they mention the cool, sexy, hip actors who star in it and their clothes and their attitudes and the wonderful 1960's set pieces (I heard the same things about Sex And The City and Gossip Girls, by the way). Even though this show garners Emmy noms, I've never heard any fans mention the dialog or the quality of the writing for this show. Also, the writers need to be responsible for the dangerous and unhealthy habits they pro-mote 'cause, let's we forget, coughing up a lung is not hip, sexy or cool.

Sons of Anarchy Filming

Just got the Notice of Filming forSons of Anarchy FX's original cable TV series, which stars Ron Perlman from Hell Boy and Beauty and the Beast fame and Katey Sagal from Married With Children and the voice of the one eyed mutant Lela on Futurama, will be filming on 5/12 in my area. I will drop by to have a look and see if I can get any plot scoops or a picture with Sagal. Maybe I'll even get some on-camera time(lol).

TV Ratings:
I've watched Sons of Anarchy a couple of times and have found it interesting but way too violent and graphic. If I was to rank it:

IMHO: The show is not as good as Breaking Bad or even Rescue Me but it's more interesting than Mad Men. I still don't get the appeal of Mad Men but I love Jon Hamm and wish that they had picked him to be Captain America instead of Chris Evans(love ya, Chris but got to go with Hamm). I haven't watched Breaking Bad in a bit but the shows that I did see in season 1 and 2 were extraordinary. No surprise that Bryan Cranston(of Malcolm in the Middle fame) won an Emmy for Bad after only 7 episodes.

Update: 5/12 3:30 pmI walked by the area that they were to be filming but didn't see any film trucks, crew or anyone. Maybe they were a no show or maybe I missed it.

Update: 7/17
I just found out from my friend, Mike, that Sons did film at the location but early in the day around 10:30 am. He said they had lots of choppers on set and seem to be filming small exterior shots. He was just passing by so he didn't see any of the stars of the show.