Mad Men’s new season premieres at the Paley Center

TV Guide staffers Matt Roush and Carol Dittbrenner hosted a cocktail and viewing party last night for Mad Men's Season 5 premiere at The Paley Center for Media in Manhattan. Guests wore their best approximations of mid-1960s attire and piled into the theater to watch the whopping two-hour event.

We're big Mad Men fans, but it was a little disappointing that, after nearly a year and a half of waiting for a new episode, the incredibly long premiere wasn't particularly mind-blowing. In fact, during the first commercial break (after yet another round of Mad Men trivia), Roush built audience expectations up by stating that we wouldn't be able to get the next scene out of our heads. He was referring to Megan's "Zou Bisou Bisou" dance for Don, which was...not exactly the earth-shattering moment he'd implied. (To be fair, though, it's hard to top that infamous Christmas party lawnmower scene.) The episode, however, was not without its good moments: Roger getting a first look at the son he doesn't realize he has with Joan, Joan and Lane having a heart-to-heart, an unexpected and potential "equal opportunity" hiring of a new secretary, and Jane's quip that maybe she'd "Zou Bisou Bisou" if Roger looked more like Don. (Absolute best burn of the series!)

Aside from the semi-spoilers and trivia, vintage commercials ("retro-mercials") from the '60s were shown during the regular commercial breaks--an excellent way to display and take advantage of the Paley Center's incredible wealth of media. Who knew a young Bernadette Peters starred in a Cross My Heart bra commercial?

We're glad Mad Men episodes will be back to their regular length from now on, and, although the premiere wasn't as exciting as we'd hoped, we're still very eager to see how the Megan/Don, Joan/Roger, and new-secretary storylines play out.

Photo credit: Chloe Seldman/ Michael Priest Photography