When Are We?

As you and the rest of the pop-culture-aware universe know, the fourth season of Mad Men started last Sunday. We found ourselves at Thanksgiving dinner, 1964, as Betty and the children ate with Henry's family and Don...got slapped in the face by a hooker. Because he asked her to. November 1964 means that we've missed the Beatles on Ed Sullivan (which we would have thought would be a big deal, since SCDP deals heavily in TV ads at this point), the release of the Rolling Stones' first album, and the opening of the New York World's Fair.

So, what are going to be the big pop culture/historical moments this season? Here are my guesses:

• Some mention of Lenny Bruce's obscenity trial
• Malcolm X's assassination
• Some mention of the TV broadcast of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella
•  Bloody Sunday/the march on Selma
•  Dylan goes electric/releases Highway 61 Revisited (definitely something about the changing music scene)
• Cigarette advertising banned on British TV
• Maybe a mention of the creation of the Pillsbury Doughboy, like the parsing of the iconic VW ad a couple of seasons ago
• The Northeast blackout of 1965 could have very interesting plot implications

And, of course, Joan's husband gets drafted and either (a) killed in Vietnam, or (b) flees to Canada. Either way, we get our swinging single Joanie back! (And I'm rooting for the former. He's not a good person.)

Of course, some of these aren't the most important things that happened in 1965 (some of them are), but I think they're the events that are most likely to have some bearing on the world of SCDP. I'll be happily watching to find out if I'm right.