Getting you ready for the MAD MEN premiere

MAD MEN finally returns this Sunday night on AMC after a 17 month hiatus. Meanwhile, my show – BIG WAVE DAVE’S – is still on hiatus (19 years and counting. Stay tuned.). To get you up to speed, here is where they were when MAD MEN wrapped up its heralded fourth season.

The year was 1965. KHJ Boss Radio premiered, Goldie, a London Zoo golden eagle, was recaptured 12 days after her escape, "Chim Chim Cher-ee" won the Best Song Oscar, and I got a B in Health class, but none of those major events were covered.

The new agency that Don Draper started with his cohorts Roger, Pete, Peggy, Joan, and a few character actors was struggling to survive. Peggy got a pantyhose account, which gave them an infusion of cash and Roger something to wear at home. But they lost the Lucky Strike account.  Bad idea of Roger's to move Lucky Strike sponsorship from THE JACK BENNY SHOW to TOP CAT.

It was discovered that Don Draper was just a pseudonym and that his real name was Ron Paul. At the end of the season he shocked his co-workers (and would have shocked his friends if he had any) by announcing he was engaged to his secretary, Megan. She’s quite a contrast to Betty and as he explains, “What I lose in quality of gums I make up for in personality.” However, we don’t know yet whether he actually married her or balked at the last minute when he learned he was responsible for all future periodontal bills.

When we last left Betty Draper, she was torturing defenseless animals, spying for the Soviet Union, systematically poisoning her new husband, embezzling from the Red Cross, plagiarizing John Cheever, founding the Minutemen, secretly plotting to sabotage the U.S. space program, and cheating on her spouse with weird neighbor kid Glenn. Producers insist however, that we should not judge. She’s misunderstood.

Daughter Sally had a complete meltdown. The solution was to take her to a Beatles concert where that behavior was encouraged. Today she’s still a sweet kid. One joint and she’ll become Courtney Love.

The big question about son, Bobby going into this season is which actor will play him? There were fewer kids who played Annie on Broadway than this part.

Pete was last seen stealing silverware from his own house. His wife Trudy decided to enroll in a community college where her IQ mysteriously went from 135 to 40.

Roger knocked up Joan. Her doctor husband was overseas in Viet Nam at the time of conception. She’s trying to convince him the baby is his. We’ll see just how good a doctor he really is.

Roger’s wife, meanwhile, graduates from high school this year.

Peggy was into experimentation, flirting with the counter-culture – going to clubs, opium dens, political rallies, and ABA games.

Every season MAD MEN has an overriding theme, and usually by the end of the season you can figure out what it is. Last year’s was: people have different wants and desires yet all age at the same rate. I hear this year’s theme is hygiene.

The season will begin with a special two-hour episode. Knowing creator Matt Weiner, it will be compelling, complex, surprising, brilliant, and well worth the long wait. How the hell am I gonna top it when BIG WAVE DAVE’S finally returns? So far all I have is that the shave ice machine is broken.