A cultural affinity for Madison Avenue

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: A recent article in this space, inspired by the popularity of the television series Mad Men, reviewed efforts to portray the advertising business in the popular culture. The article offered a list that included movies like The Hucksters and Lover Come Back and TV shows such as Thirtysomething.

The article generated e-mails from dozens of readers, describing their favourite portrayals of Madison Avenue. What follows is a look at some of those choices. They could serve as substitute viewing for fans of Mad Men, now that the second season has ended.

Bosom Buddies (1980-84)

A make-believe agency, Livingston Gentry & Mishkin, provides the backdrop for this situation comedy on ABC about two young admen whose most creative idea comes when they lose their apartment.

Outside the office, they dress in drag to live in a hotel for women. In the parlance of Hollywood, Bosom Buddies is Some Like It Hot meets Bewitched. Later in the series, the cross-dressing reatives—the copywriter Henry (aka Hildegarde) and the illustra-tor Kip (aka Buffy)—go into business for themselves, producing commercials.

Fun fact: Tom Hanks, who played Kip, portrayed an adman again in the 1986 film Nothing in Common.

Crazy People (1990)

What if everyone in advertising told the truth? That is the premise of this screen comedy with Dudley Moore as a copywriter whose foray into honesty (Let’s Level With America) lands him in an asylum. The highlights of the movie are the campaigns created by the copywriter and his fellow patients, which feature real brands such as Volvo (“They’re boxy but they’re good”) and Quaker Oats (“Does this cereal taste great? Who knows. But at least the box is cute”).

Fun fact: The studio that released Crazy People, Paramount Pictures, got into the act with posters that proclaimed, “Caution: You must be in the theatre to see this movie.”

Melrose Place (1992-99)

Advertising provides a career of sorts for many of the oversexed residents of a LA apartment complex, after which this nighttime soap on Fox Broadcasting was named. First came the fictional D&D Advertising, which loses most of its employees to a shop called Sky High; they later leave to join Amanda Woodward (Heather Locklear) at an agency that she characteristically names for herself. As often occurs in TV series about advertising, the division of labour among employees is oversimplified.