What's In Store for 'Mad Men's' Women in Season Four?

Leading up to the Mad Men series premiere on Sunday night and in preparation for my pop culture column about the fourth season of the drama, I gave some thought as to what I hope the fourth season will bring for Betty Draper, freshly divorced from Don and married to Henry Francis; Joan Holloway Harris, back as the office manager for the newly formed ad agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce; and Peggy Olson, who got her emotionally and praise-withholding boss, Don Draper, to grovel in the series three finale in order to lure her to his new firm.

While working on the column, I also read a dense, academically-oriented, yet fascinating book, Mad Men and Philosophy which examines issues such as whether Don’s a bad person and why the self-confident Joan is the least progressive of the three main female stars, as well as examining the overall ethical/moral framework of the show.

If you were on the Mad Men writing staff, what scenarios and stories would you cook up for the ladies of Mad Men?

Image credits: AMC.

JibJab Guys Jump on 'Mad Men' Bandwagon

Love the JibJab guys, the ones who make those snarky online videos featuring caricatures of real people. (My favorites are their political ones and the year-end wrap-ups.) Now they've leapt into the wonderful world of Mad Men, as we get ever-closer to the fourth season premiere later this month. (Sunday July 25 at 10 for those of you keeping tabs at home.)

You can either watch the Mad Men JibJab video as they've designed it:

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

OR, you can personalize it but uploading your own photos so that you can re-envision what Don Draper, Betty Draper, Joan Holloway Harris and Roger Sterling's faces look like.

It really amazes me to see in how many different ways people take something like a single TV show and then add their own creative twist to it, like with the Mad Men Yourself images and the book I'm reading in advance of the new season, Mad Men and Philosophy: Nothing is as it Seems. (A very scholarly read, though with many cool observations.)