I couldn't agree more. It's the way he talks.

You both make very good points.

But what happened with Sopranos was, they tried to advance the Meadow character, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler got herself all bikini-thin and paraded in lingerie in front of her boyfriend (Finn? I can't remember)…but she turned out not to be that compelling (both as a character and as an actor), and was actually kind of…

You know what I think? I think he's just this idiosyncratic character they invented, as a minor part of the texture of the season, with a particular kind of self-promotion he's good at…and, somehow, once he was written and cast and in the show, the whole thing somehow turned out vastly better than they had intended.

He said his Chevy pitch was better than Don's. Who knows what he actually thought.

The only thing that matters is who's better at advertising.

His presentation didn't "bomb." They were immediately told "full speed ahead" by the client.

Well, there's a big difference between liking a person (fictitious or otherwise) and liking a character. From Dr. Smith to J. R. Ewing to Oscar the Grouch to Boss Hogg to David Brent, television has been full of "beloved" characters whom we enjoy precisely because of their awfulness.

@avclub-adb4c903674d579c1a43dbf3ae93f077:disqus I can't like this comment enough. You're 100% correct, and I'm glad someone out there understands the era.

@avclub-d7b683529752a4d24d84c4941861a363:disqus You're obviously very angry, which I respect; if I felt that a member of my immediate family (especially my mother or father) was being insulted, I'd be angry too; anyone would. But you're so angry that it's preventing you from reading and understanding my posts or from…

They teach you how to do it in English class. (At least that's what it was for me, both in high school and college.) That gets you into the habit.

@disqus_okgItcD0yy:disqus Well, thanks; but I just don't understand your (and others') continued resistance.

I remember a summer job I had as a student, the year the Naked Eyes version was a hit. I loved it whenever it came on the radio, and there was this aging grouch in the office who muttered, "that's an old song." (Now I'm the aging grouch.)

Of course Megan's smarter than Betty.

@avclub-61938d93498e7f0ed5e6527b1cee656a:disqus Respectfully, that's nonsense. It takes a modern sensibility — the wisdom of the intervening 40 years, leading up to the era of a black President — for anyone to even think that way. There's no way, in 1968, that saying "they came on slave ships" is "worse" than "they're…

@avclub-84ca205fe6bc691c41c3bfe5a2820a15:disqus Apologies for being unclear.

@avclub-eb058ced22520c3a8f4e4a6e2fb16403:disqus I'm not necessarily making that assumption. No matter what framework Don's life (or the portion we're seeing) fits into, the elements of tragedy are there, and an elegiac or otherwise meaningful conclusion seems both warranted and something that could have significant…

And George W. Bush went to Yale and Harvard.

@avclub-d7b683529752a4d24d84c4941861a363:disqus I am obviously saying no such thing. Respectfully, I am not interested in your statistically-insignificant anecdotal evidence. My father was at the "White House Conference on Youth" in 1971, the mere existence of which should indicate a great deal of what Americans were…

That's precisely when you shouldn't dial it down.