Mad Men has landed back on Netflix in the UK (Picture: AMC)
TV fans have been given a warning after Mad Men finally returned to Netflix – including one very controversial episode.
The acclaimed series focused on the advertising industry in the 1960s, following charming creative director Don Draper (Jon Hamm) at a New York-based agency as he wows brands.
The show ran on AMC for seven seasons between 2007 and 2015, with John Slattery, Elisabeth Moss, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Kiernan Shipka, and Robert Morse rounding out the cast.
Mad Men landed back on Netflix in the UK recently, giving us all another opportunity to return to Sterling Cooper – however, one particular instalment had a warning message before it started.
The third episode of season three, titled My Old Kentucky Home, first aired in 2009 and showed Roger Sterling (John) throwing a party at a country club where he donned blackface and sang an anti-slavery song.
During the scene, he grinned while telling his guests, including partner Jane Siegel (Peyton List): ‘I did this at home for her with a little shoe polish. She thought it was a scream.’
The highly acclaimed series ran for seven seasons (Picture: AMC)
Don was visibly disgusted and walked away, while Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) winced throughout the performance.
While the episode in question was not included when Mad Men appeared on Netflix in Canada last year – instead, the series skipped from the second episode to the fourth with no explanation – it is available to stream in its entirety in the UK.
However, there is a warning message that appears for viewers before it begins, which reads: ‘This episode contains disturbing images related to race in America.
‘One of the characters is shown in blackface as part of an episode that shows how commonplace racism was in America in 1963.
Roger Sterling left some of his guests shocked with his blackface performance (Picture: AMC)
The episode first aired in 2009 but was removed from some streaming platforms (Picture: AMC)
‘In its reliance on historical authenticity, the series producers are committed to exposing the injustices and inequities within our society that continue to this day so we can examine even the most painful parts of our history in order to reflect on who we are today and who we want to become.
‘We are therefore presenting the original episode in its entirety.’
Over the years, many other programs have been edited or removed from streaming platforms altogether over the use of blackface – including 30 Rock, Scrubs, the Office and Little Britain.
John reflected on his performance in My Old Kentucky Home during an interview with the Hollywood Reporter in 2015, and confessed that he initially didn’t want to be involved in the scene.
John spoke out over the episode after it aired (Picture: AMC)
There is a warning on Netflix and Amazon Prime before it airs (Picture: AMC)
Speaking to the outlet ahead of the finale, he admitted that he reached out to Jon to see if there was a way he could get out of it.
He said: ‘I remember calling Jon Hamm. I said, “Is there a way to say I don’t want to do this?” Because I didn’t really want to do it. But then I thought, you can’t really draw the line. You can’t say, “OK, I’ll ride the girl in in her underwear singing cowboy songs, but I draw the line at blackface.”
‘The day comes, and we were on location in Pasadena at this big mansion doubling for this country club. We jump in the van and shoot over to the set, the van door opens and the first person I see is a very large African-American LA motorcycle cop.
Fans were divided over some platforms culling the episode entirely (Picture: AMC)
Mad Men ended in 2015 (Picture: AMC)
‘He looks at me like “What the?” He doesn’t know what to make of me. And I’m like, “Hey! How you doing?” I walk right past him and then up onto this stage.
‘I wish that they had shot the other side first or simultaneously because there were 200 extras and all our people watching as I belt through the first version of this song.
‘There was a sea of mouths hanging open. I particularly remember Rich Sommer‘s [Harry Crane] face looking like, “What the hell am I watching?”’
Mad Men is available to stream on Netflix now.
This article was originally published on August 5, 2024.
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