“It’s a business of sadists and masochists, and you know which one you are.” — Miss Blankenship to Peggy.
In a world gone mad — the turmoil of the ’60s, with its revolutions in manners, music, fashion, and war — there were few constants as dependable as Don’s temporary secretary, Ida Blankenship. Assigned to Don by Joan as punishment for his bad behavior with Allison, Blankenship proved to be as steady as a rock — and she left the office that way this week.
“She died like she lived: Surrounded by the people she answered phones for,” said Roger with his tangy mixture of morose sarcasm.
Matthew Weiner and company gave Blankenship a proper send-off before her departure, handing her some of her most Blankenshippiest lines this night:
• To Don: “Are you going to the toi-let?”
• Re Dr. Faye Miller: “She’s pushy, that one. I guess that’s what it takes… “
• After seeing little Sally in the flesh, to Don: “She looked so chubby in the pictures.”
• Doing a crossword puzzle with Bert Cooper, who thinks a three-letter-word solution begins with an “L”: “Like hell it does.”
A Mad fan-favorite, Miss Blankenship was also the target of grumbling among some Men devotees, who felt her broad comedy stylings belonged on another sort of TV show — Blankenship as a nosy neighbor in a ’60s sitcom, perhaps; some variation on Bewitched or The Donna Reed Show.
“She was born in 1898 in a barn, she died on the 37th floor of a skyscraper–she’s an astronaut,” said the Mad man closest to her, Bert Cooper, his phrase-making proving why he was probably a great copy writer in his time, and a lousy poet. At any rate, “Queen of Perversions” probably didn’t make the final draft of the obit he and Joan cobbled together.
Survived by a niece, Miss Blankenship will be missed in many quarters.
How about you? Are you in mourning?
Follow: @kentucker
Bert’s “she’s an astronaut” line was one of the sweetest things I’ve ever heard. Totally choked me up…
Me, too. Loved it.
Or maybe I want to hunt you down and remove your commenting priveleges for sticking a spam ad in here.
Best line of the night. Bert looked heartbroken. Not feeling Don with Dr. Faye. Sally is hurting so bad and no one wants to deal with it. This was a perfect opportunity for Don to have a heart to heart with her. Instead, he pawns her off on Megan then Faye. When Sally tried to open up to him at bedtime, he shut her down. And how p*ssed was Betty. She was seething. Loved her phony “I was worried about you”. Even Sally didn’t buy it.
Sally is more wise than all the adults. That is why Faye’s BS did not get to her; she sees right through it. Too bad she is so powerless right now. I expect she may seize some power soon.
i agree, sally is more wise than the adults and knew betty didn’t give a crap that she ran off. something about her good bye to don felt so final to me though. i don’t know why, and maybe i’m reading way too much into it, but the way she said it just made me feel that way. who knows, maybe she was just super ticked off.
yep, David K, she’s gonna be a holy terror as a teen.
I too teared up for Bert. I realized that Mrs. Blankenship (aka Ida I believe) was his Joan. And furthermore that his relationship with Roger is like Roger’s with Don which is why Roger’s betrayal with her stung so much and for so long.
@ Julie: I agree that Sally’s goodbye seemed very final didn’t it. Like you I’m not sure if she is just very angry or disappointed with Don.
Good lord! What is wrong with you?
Don: I’d have my secretary do it but she’s dead.
hahaha…classic.
That was an amazing line, and made me wish they had explored her character a little more.
RIP Miss Blankenship
Line Of The Night – “I’d have my secretary do it, but she’s dead.”
love that one too!!
Definitely one of the best in a night full of ‘em!
I will miss her wit. Loved her and Bert doing the crossword together. The background scene with Pete and the girls trying to wheel her body out was priceless.
I agree.
“Hey, my mother gave me that!”
Harry, I heard, “Hey, my mother gave me that!” just a little worse.
sorry, no edit, I hate that
Harry, I heard, “Hey, my mother made me that!” just a little worse.
Oh my God–I was laughing so hard that I was in tears at that background scene of the body being wheeled out. Funniest Mad Men scene ever.
Me too. It was just so surprisingly madcap! And poor Harry with the afghan!
right up there with the john deer mower incident
I was squealing so loud I was scared the neighbors would storm my door. And Harry’s line!
I’m going to miss Blankenship! She was hilarious.
I can’t wait until Faye leaves. She is so annoying!
I think I heard the death knoll tolling on Faye when she could not deal with Sally and Megan could. Then to make it toll louder, she freaked out and pitched a hissy a al Betty.
Lispy Fay and her always stating the painfully obvious insights into consumer behavior should have been wheeled out on that gurney (sp?)instead of Miss Blankenship.
Hee! Fiona, what a visual!
I agree!
She was the mom in the Karate Kid movies. Zoinks!
Yes… we’ve been told this a billion times between Ken’s column and the recap. Congrats!
Really? I’d actually missed that factoid…interesting.
IS THIS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS EPISODE, KEN?
VERY DISAPPOINTING
Ken is not the recapper.
but he has done a recap the last couple of weeks
nope, kim. Ken writes up a short insight/his thoughts, then theres a recap, then jeff jensen writes up an analysis like he did for lost. the recaps – and i cannot right now think of who does them – are really great.
Karen Valby does the recaps.
yep, the recap is a separate article, I’m about to read it now
potatoe – pa-tatoe — sorry, didn’t mean the FULL recap -
Isn’t it enough “Mad Men” is TV’s best drama? Now it wants to win for comedy too!
ah, but usually the best dramas have moments of comedy in them, that’s what makes them so good
I think Brian’s point is that Mad Men, TV’s best drama, also manages to be one of the funniest shows on TV when it flies its farce flag. The “through the window” viewed stuff was priceless this week.
Johnification, you are being generous and positive. Thank you, that’s so rare a quality in these commentaries.
sorry, didn’t see the ! – read it to be a ? – totally different comment then!!
Her scenes did threaten to take the show right off the tracks… except they were so damn good! I shall miss her.
I’m not picking on this specific comment, but it boggles my mind how so many people (which Ken alluded to in his comments) felt that her ‘broad comic stylings’ were a detriment to the show. She was a woman from a bygone era, and I never thought in any way that she made MM too ‘slapsticky’. Can humorous lines only be delivered in Roger Sterling’s tone of voice? There are 3-to-4 generations represented on a show set in a time when America was going through plenty of societal changes. Personally, I thought Miss Blankenship was a breath of fresh air and her particular candor will be missed.
I agree.
Nice interpretation, I think I’ll join this line.
And I knew a lot of crusty old broads like her. The characterization was pretty spot on. They said whatever was on their minds with absolutely no prescreening.
It is sad to see her go. She was a saving grace after the Allison Debacle of the first half of the season. I felt like this week’s episode was the Season 4 equivalent of “A Man Walks Into An Advertising Agency.” Shocking event at the office and a big story for Joan. Thoroughly enjoyed it, though I will greatly miss the wit of Ms. Blankenship!
We all will. RH should at least be nominated for Best Guest Actress in a Drama — and let’s all pray SVU has mediocre guest stars this season.
I was thinking of the “Guy Walks…” comparison too! Morose farce…Mad Men is really good at it.
Loved her quips. They were much needed on a moody show like this. Will definitely miss her.
But her death was a little too Weekend at Bernie’s for me. The girls looked like they were trying to stifle laughter when they were standing over her at the desk. This ep was off in many ways.
Miss Blankenship will be missed…but I have to agree her departure was bordering on slapstick, it could have been handled better. Can’t wait for the Dr. Faye storyline to be OVER – this is just not working
Disagree…I’ll always carry a torch for Rachel Menken, but I’m giving Faye a chance. I think she’ll be good for Don.
Faye blew it last night. Don thought she was a calm, cool professional. Her losing it after her small failure with Sally will, I think, prove to be her undoing.
Dr. Faye -and the actress who plays her- are a bore. Please go to one of those other agencies you work for and stay.
Dr. Faye is a bore, also she gave into Don very quickly and became an emotional mess because of it.
Dr. Faye didn’t become an emotional mess because she gave into Don. She actually seemed to be handling that very well. Remember the “Chinese wall” comment? What threw her for a loop was when Don asked her to look after Sally. She had no skills or confidence to take on a maternal task.
I found that Faye took herself out of the running. She decided that Don wanted a maternal woman, and (to me), that’s not what he wants at all. He just needed a woman – any woman – to deal with Sally, cuz he wasn’t about to do it. Faye just happened to be there. It wasn’t a test, she just thought it was.
According to Don: women take care of children and men take care of death (remember how Don said “get a man” when Miss B died?)
I really loved the mixture of the drama with the comedy that Miss Blankenship brought to this show. Including comedy into this show just lends it more realism in my opinion. If my days at work were all serious all the time, I would never get up in the morning. To balance this story line with the heartbreaking story of Sally was just perfect.
I was devastated at the passing Miss Blankenship, though she want out the way she lived… be providing us with laughs at her every word. You can only imagine how hard it was to film that entire sequence without everyone involved cracking up laughing.
this episode had its version of “lawnmower” moments – blankenships death, roger and joan get held up. What i thought was interesting was that joan told roger that she didnt regret it but that she was now married – but she didnt care when he was married and they previously carried on an affair.
She doesn’t care that he’s married now, either.
I think that is how Joan maintains control in the relationship. She knows Roger well enough to know that he only wants what he can’t have. It will keep him pining for her and he has to be good for more than a few massages.
I’m confused. I thought Joan said, “I’m married. And so are you.” So I took it that she DID care that he was married. (Plus, I can’t imagine Joan’s totally forgotten/forgiven that when Roger divorced Mona, he then married Don’s idiot secretary instead of pursuing Joan.)
If she really cared, she would not have had sex with him.
Re: David K – but that was what the mugging incident was for. Joan’s already been depicted as barely keeping it together (for Joan … which is a few notches above most mere mortals’ best) with her husband’s impending deployment and all the issues it raises about her bad choice in her marriage — and then the Queen of Perversions kicked the bucket on her way to space — she lunged for Roger against that stoop in that emotional context. Of course she’s always really loved him, just as he’s always really loved her, but the mugging incident was the catalyst. And, if I may venture a criticism, a bit on the nose. But oh well.
this episode had its version of “lawnmower” moments – blankenships death, roger and joan get held up. What i thought was interesting was that joan told roger that she didnt regret it but that she was now married – but she didnt care when he was married when they previously carried on an affair.
Re: the lawnmower moments, my thoughts exactly, and they did it without overdoing it. Weiner & Co. really excel at black comedy. As for Joan, my impression is that she is the kind of character who does what she does then moves on without regrets or shame, which has its positives and negatives. (The whole bit with Peggy and the “boys will be boys” last week being another example.)