Mad Men - AMC’s Emmy-award winning, brooding period drama set at an advertising agency during the ‘60s – is a fine show … for adults.  Thus, the show should be rated as such.  Unfortunately, the August 16^th season premiere featured vulgar dialogue and racy sexual situations that warranted a TV-MA rating for mature audiences only. Instead, AMC rated it TV-14.  For this erroneous rating, the season premiere of Mad Men has rightfully been named Worst Cable TV Show of the Week.

Season Three opened with vignettes of his sordid conception and birth flashing before Don Draper’s eyes.  The son of a prostitute, Don (whose real name is Dick Whitman) sees his mother yell at one of her johns, “You get me in trouble and I’m gonna cut your dick off and boil it in hog fat.”  She utters the same phrase twice during her painful labor.  Later, the midwife gives the baby to Don’s barren adoptive mother, telling her, “God is giving you a child.  His name is Dick, after a wish his mother should have lived to see.”

After the vignettes, Don (Creative Director at a New York-based ad agency) travels to Baltimore with Salvatore Romano (Art Director and closeted homosexual).  During the flight, a flirtatious stewardess invites Don and Salvatore to dinner and drinks at the hotel where the three are staying.  At the end of the evening, Sal returns to his room to find that his air conditioner is broken.  Meanwhile, Don and the drunken stewardess end up in his room where she slowly undresses.  She removes her bra and covers her breasts with her hands.  “Do you like?” she coos.  As they tumble onto the bed her naked breasts are partially covered by his chest.  Back at Sal’s room, a bellboy has arrived to fix the thermostat.  Sal is about to tip him when he notices the young man is standing awfully close.  The bellboy kisses Sal, unbuttons his shirt, and pushes him onto the bed.  A close-up shot of the bellboy slipping his hand into Sal’s underwear is shown.  Sal moans, when suddenly the fire alarm goes off.  Several floors above, Don drags the stewardess out of bed and they descend the fire escape.  As Don passes Sal’s window, he sees Sal fasten his belt as the shirtless bellboy picks up his uniform from off of the floor. 

Some media bloggers have speculated that the PTC’s decision to criticize this episode was a homophobic response to the gay kissing scene.  Yet, this column will attest that the sexual orientation of the characters never entered into the PTC’s discussion. The point is not the orientation of the characters involved; the point is that the episode contained graphic and explicit sexual content, yet was rated as being acceptable for 14-year-olds.

Some of the same bloggers were quick to point out that teenagers likely aren’t flocking to a moody show about middle-class ennui and the shifting social mores of the turbulent ‘60s -- after all, they say, if teens want to see something inappropriate, there is no dearth of drunken strippers on VH1 or sexually active teenagers on MTV.  But such criticism is ill-considered.  Those bloggers know that Mad Men is a thoughtful, introspective drama because they’ve already watched it.  A parent who has never tuned into the show, and has only heard the buzz and critical praise, might allow their teenager to watch an episode based on the TV-14 rating, only to be blindsided by the sexually explicit content. 

The PTC’s criticism is neither a hair-splitting critique of precisely what sexual actions occurred, nor a veiled swipe at homosexuality.  The PTC merely wants to stress that parents deserve a ratings system that is accurate, consistent, transparent, and accountable when shows are mis-rated.  Moreover, each and every cable subscriber should be empowered to pay for only the networks he/she actually watches and supports.    

Contrary to what might be suggested in the blogosphere, the PTC doesn’t want Mad Men off the air.  We simply want a ratings system that works and a subscription method that is fair. 

For mis-rating vulgar dialogue and explicit sexual content as being appropriate for fourteen-year-olds, Mad Men has been named Worst Cable TV Show of the Week.

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