As Nina just
noted
, AMC is reportedly demanding that
Mad Men’
s Mathew Weiner eliminate or reduce the role of two significant characters as a cost-saving measure. It pains me to say this, but if a major
Mad Men
player needs to go, I think it should be Roger Sterling
—
and I say this as one of Roger’s biggest fans. (Not
as big
as my friend Patrick Radden Keefe, but big.) Over the course of four seasons, Roger has rattled off enough choice one-liners to fill
a book
. But he was left behind by the events of last season. His brand of sexism is hardly dead in 1965, but it’s less tenable in an office populated with the likes of a newly empowered Peggy Olson. His brand of racism is hardly dead in 1965, but it’s less tenable at a company courting Honda. His questionable work ethic
—
and questionable work ethics
—
weren’t as much of an issue back at Sterling Cooper. In the old days, Roger’s appetites were an asset: Keeping accounts was about remembering how clients take their martinis. In 1965, it’s about being able to sell the work of an agency that’s run on a shoestring to clients who are more interested in results than in cute call girls.
By last season, Roger was essentially useful only insofar as he was Lee Garner Jr.’s handler. Once he lost that account
—
and lied about it, a spectacularly bad faith effort, even by Sterling standards
—
it was hard to see where Roger fit in at the firm Don, Peggy, Pete, and Lane are building. Again, I would miss as acutely as anyone the acid wit that Sterling brings to every meeting, every extramarital assignation, every boozy dinner at
Keen’s
. But he has become a relic. Plus, it’d be ever so easy to kill him off. We know Roger has a bum ticker, a pickled liver, and an ulcer no amount of milk-drinking will cure. The guy has one foot in the grave. Finally, having Roger out of the way might make Joan’s little secret a bit easier to keep in Season 5, whenever it may
arrive
.
Photograph of John Slattery as Roger Sterling courtesy of AMC.
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