love sunburnt
29 Responses to “ Sunburnt Harry ”
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Jen said...
It IS beautiful. I can't explain the way my heart feels about it. How my eyes ache trying to drink in the beauty sometimes. It's not your "usual" beauty. Half the time it's dry and brown, but still I think it exquisite. Perhaps it's the ruggedness of it that I love... that it still trives in seemingly overwhelming adversity. The "Down South" rainforests and their lush bush are also beautiful... but I love the Territory with something I truly can't explain.
I've another date day with Adam on Saturday, so we may be able to get some of the city for you. THough you may call it a quaint country town, in the light of the big cities over there ;)
July 27th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Thanks for giving Harry a post! Nowhere did I notice his hair mentioned, although someone did mention Don’s lack of brill cream. It seems that some think Harry has grown more confident, because of his outburst in the truth-circle office scene. I though his outburst was very much in character and would have seemed so to the old gang of four (Harry, Pete, Paul, and Ken). The difference was he had his outburst in front of the top bananas. Also, Bert gave his tongue lashing to Don in the group, and previously this would have happened in a private setting. I simply took both outbursts as very much in character — the difference is, in the new setting, there has been a flattening of the organization, at least with the handful that started the new agency.
Also very much in character was Harry being the last to hear the news and using ignorance as his defense. Thanks to a Basketcase for pointing out that Joan is in charge of traffic (yay). I took the juice comment to showcase that 1) Harry (and he wouldn’t be the only one) still treat Joan as a secretary, and 2) Harry is still understaffed if he needs Joan to get him a beverage.
July 27th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Plus he was wearing a straight tie! I’m sure that was mentioned somewhere, though.
How do we know Joan is in charge of traffic? I didn’t hear any reference to her new job.
July 27th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Thank you Deborah! I listened to him twice and STILL couldn’t understand what he said!
July 27th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Love Harry, but his name dropping is a little off. Lucy and Desi divorced in 1960. Lucy had remarried Gary Morton by 1961. It’s pretty unlikely that Lucy and Desi were serving “Tzuris” or even “suris” to anybody in 1964. Maybe Harry was just making it all up, but that’s a pretty poor lie. Everybody knew about that break up.
July 27th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
LuLu -
This is kind of complicated. Although they divorced in 1960, they stayed business partners for several years, and remained close friends for the rest of Desi’s life. It is totally plausible that they would have been at the same meeting. But, on the other hand, in 1964 they weren’t the power couple they were during the 50s. So yes, Harry is Name dropping here.
July 27th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Oh, and I like to imagine that “have a lot of Tzuris with” translates in real life to “attempting have a business meeting while containing his fanboy-ish glee at being in the same room as Lucille Ball”. Harry seems like he’d be a fan.
July 27th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
I had to look it up, but the tsuris I found means trouble or aggravation. So, that would fit in with a post divorce Lucy and Desi.
Also, I thought I heard Harry ask Joan to ask someone to get him the beverages he needed. Grapefruit juice I think…perhaps something he picked up in LA.
I too loved the sunburn and wondered why noone was calling him on it. Or at least giving him a double take…
July 27th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Gentile here. Like dance, I was wondering what the HELL that word was.
So, thanks.
Write me down as liking the circle-of-chairs business, and the very candid nature of discussion that seemed to accompany it. It reminded me of those AA groups or group-therapy sessions I’ve seen in TV, where people rant and cry and storm out.
“Hi, my name is Don. (pause)
“No. It’s not. (longer pause)
“And I was lying when I told you my last rock-bottom story …”
July 27th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
I’ve never heard it pronounced the way you say it should be, even by my Jewish, Brooklyn-born father-in-law. Not meant as criticism, just surprise.
July 27th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
I’m probably in a minority, but I’ve never really liked Harry’s character. I think he’s best summed up by that moment in “A Guy walks into an Advertising Agency” where he asks what happened at the re-organization meeting and Pete has to explain it to him and he’s still incredulous. He doesn’t seem that…capable. He had ONE good moment (realizing there needed to be a dedicated TV dept at Sterling Cooper) and has been able to cash in on this ever since, in spite of there likely being many more competent people at both Sterling-Cooper and now Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce who could do his job and do it better. Maybe part of the problem for me is that Weiner hasn’t really fleshed out Harry’s character that well…after the first season, I thought there’d be more cuts to him and his wife (who interestingly has a career still), but there haven’t been. And somewhat apropos of this, I think it would be a mistake to re-introduce Ken in (although clearly the poster for season 4 shows that he will be back) without committing to some more character development for him as well. If he’s just going to be back as a foil for Pete so that Pete degenerates again into a jealous co-worker, I’ll be disappointed. It just seems like Weiner spent waaaaay too much time on the Drapers (especially Betty and Sally) last season and he looks in danger of doing that again. It’d actually be nice to NOT see Betty in one or two episodes and learn something more about the rest of the gang.
July 27th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
CongratsitsaCrane, (And I love the name, by the way!)
Gotta disagree just a little. Arnaz resigned as president of Desilu in 1962 and Ball assumed full ownership, becoming the first female head of a major studio. They each went separate ways both personally and professionally. Arnaz left the television business for a few years, not returning until 1966.
July 27th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
I thought he was saying “tsuris” or “tsouris,” which means trouble, and is pronounced the way Harry said it.
July 27th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
#12 Kitty, agree — that’s what I thought I heard, too.
July 27th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
I agree with you Sally2 except for the bit about the Drapers, I lurvvsssss seeing their story. As for “tsuris” I had no idea what he was saying, and thought he said “tourists” which made no sense in context so I was scratchng my head. I also thought it was funny when Joan said she’d love a vacation and he was sort of huffy about it not being one, as if he’d get that burnt in LA if he was in meetings all day, unless they did them outside. Do Hollywood types then or now do lots of meetings outside? I assumed that if he, like Pete, was really working it indoors, he wouldn’t be that red and blotchy. I know some folks burn easily but damn!!!!! If he gets it that bad then he needs to wear a hat or carry an umbrella 24/7:-) Me thinks Harry hit some meetings and then spent some time at the beach or the pool looking at bathing beauties in ‘two-pieces’
And on another note, do people who generally pop to mind when you think of ‘modesty’ especially at that time, wear “two-pieces?” For me personally, except when I go to the Caribbean, esp in the summer when it is super hot, I’ll wear one b/c it is so hot and so many nudists run around that I just do it, but here in the states, especially in the north east, no way Jose (unless I mysteriously lost 20 pounds and even then I’d feel a little funny even if I was super skinny). Not to say that you have to be a hoochy-Mama to wear a two-piece but if you were so square as to not be able to call a bikini a bikini or to think that lots and lots of “modest” chaste wilting flowers were going to go out in droves to buy your two-piece swim-suit if you just marketed it right seems kind of silly.
July 27th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Regarding Harry’s sunburn: Because none of the characters comment on his sunburn and it seems it’s the first time they’d seen him since his return, I assume he’s traveled west several times during this first year of SCDP. Also, I took his not having a secretary available to get his beverage and Rodger not having a TV in his office as continued underappreciation of television as the main ad media it will become.
Also, I would think it would be Paul and Kenny who would be most likely to joke about a sunburn, and those jokey types aren’t there. Perhaps Ken will return as a new account man. But a foil for Pete, it would be more fun for him to stay with the old firm and we can have fun watching them fight for new business and trying to steal each other’s clients.
I notice that Roger still follows Bert’s lead (camera shows Rodger studying Bert’s exit post-tongue lashing and then Roger getting up to leave). Glad to see Robert Morse is still getting these scenes!
July 27th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Lulu, “tzuris” is aggravation, trouble. Even divorced, Lucy and Desi were very capable of serving THAT.
July 27th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
#14 Dark Peggy, Yes, then as now, lots of “Hollywood” meetings are held outside–poolside at home/the country club or at the beach house or on the golf course.
July 27th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
As you might be able to tell by my name, I’ve always kind of liked Harry Crane. He’s a putz, sure, and no he doesn’t seem very capable at his job. But as a human being, he seems like a pretty decent guy. And that’s in short supply around SC and SCDP.
July 27th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
@Julie Ann that is intersting. I just have a hard time picturing Harry at meetings that are important enough to be outside. I just envision him meeting with jr exec geek indoors whose boss goes to big meetings outside but I guess not. Oh well, so much for my theory that he was just showing off and spending a little fun timeon the outside. Guess he needs to get a big Panama hat to wear in LA
July 27th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
I kind of felt this way about Don at the end of the premiere. The way he seemed to just give in and start buying the bullshit, that has to be taken out of him. And not in any kind of nice, gentle way.
July 27th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
@10 Sally2-I don’t think I’d call what Jennifer had a career; she had a job, Peggy has a career. Jennifer was just working until the baby arrived, and it’s unlikely that she will ever go back to work again. Working after marriage but before having a baby was pretty common in that era, and no one would have thought it was strange.
July 27th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
In 1964 there were only 3 TV networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. All had headquarters in Manhattan. At that time it would have been rare for media executives to travel to Hollywood, since their contact would be with the NYC sales offices.
Of course if Harry Crane represents SCDP during production of commercials for clients he might have flown out to Hollywood. The larger agencies, such as Y&R, Grey, M-E all had Los Angeles branches so when a commercial was shot near Hollywood they used a local production supervisor.
In those days the Up-Front Sales events all were held in Manhattan in May to preview TV series for media buyers, such as Harry Crane. Shortly before Thanksgiving 1964 there would be no reason for Harry to be in Hollywood.
July 27th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
@Dark Peggy I remember men even pitching ideas to each other after church in the parking lot when I was a kid in the 60′s! It truly is a “company town.”
On the other hand, if Harry’s skin is anything like mine, it would only take him about 15-20 minutes in the L.A. sun before he started to bake (when I lived in the mid-Atlantic region, it would take a lot longer before the burn started setting in). I was painfully reminded how quickly a fair-skinned person can burn when I moved back here!
July 27th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Harry is such a goof.
To comment on what Sally2 said, he’s never been one of my favorite characters either. I do think he serves a purpose, though, just like all the other characters — some of whom I like a lot, others whom I find more obnoxious.
I too don’t find Harry all that brilliant or special. But, there are a lot of people like him out there. I think he works hard and he’s a worrier, so that kind of “works” for him. That’s his way of getting ahead, rather than being really exceptional.
Since Sally2 mentioned Ken as well, I have to say that I always loved the camaraderie of the scenes between Pete, Ken, Harry, Paul, and Sal. It’s an old-boys club with an often-times frat mentality – and yet I loved it. I guess because they all made it so real.
July 27th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
@ 22 C Carroll Adams-It would have been rare, but maybe that’s why they mentioned it was Desi and Lucy. They created the three camera format so they could stay in L.A, and not have to move to New York. When “I Love Lucy” started, most of the production elements were done in New York, although this changed very rapidly in only few years. Granted by 1964, the show was long over, but they still would be in L.A
July 27th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Ha! Dark Peggy, I had the same thought about the non-bikini bikini!
July 27th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
I love Harry.
Socially, he’s a turd. No one likes to be near him much. And the writers are always pointing that out, like when Duck asks why he’s there on Sunday for the AA prep. And the thing with Ken’s paycheck.
But if you listen to his analysis when it comes to the burgeoning television audience, he’s usually spot-on. As a result, I don’t think his career is a fluke, and I’m not surprised he sold the jai alai special.
They always just have him sharing information in consistently awkward circumstances, like when he bemoaned the president speaking about the Cuban Missile Crisis because it would disrupt commercial time. Inappropriate, but you can bet that’s exactly what his counterparts at the other agencies were saying. The good ones, anyway.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:52 am
One thing I found interesting about this episode was that Don’s great success, hos great coup, was a *TV commercial* for the floor wax. Back in series 3, TV was still small-time, province of Harry alone. I don’t recall Don ever being directly involved in a TV pitch, though I guess that’s what Peggy’s involvement with that open car scene and head-kerchief scene was for. One year later, and TV is already a bigger focus of their business.
If no one is still here, I might repeat this in a later thread.
July 31st, 2010 at 3:37 am
Is there any place we’re talking about the Dove soap homage? It was shown in repeats, and it was pitch perfect, down to a less-gifted but still fetching Joanesque secretary.