Mad Men

Call it the "Baltimore Problem." And let's deal with it once and for all, so we can get down to the happier business of enjoying the fourth season opener tonight of "Mad Men," AMC's celebrated and style-setting series about life on Madison Avenue in the 1960s. Last year, "Mad Men" opened with leading character Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and one of his ad agency associates taking a business trip to Baltimore. Like many critics, I had praised the series for its rich period detail through the first two seasons.

A dvertising campaigns are always looking for a new canvas, and that could soon be your cell phone screen. With the rise of the iPhone and other smart phones, more people are using their mobile phones to search the Web, watch video and get news. According to a recently released survey from the Pew Research Center, one-fourth of Americans say they get some form of news on their cell phones. And where there are consumers of media, ads typically aren't too far behind. The advertising industry has talked for years about the moneymaking possibilities in mobile advertising - from text-message campaigns to tagging popular applications with marketing messages - and now analysts see it beginning to fulfill expectations.

In an uncanny repeat of last year, the same shows and many of the same performers again took top honors at "The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards" Sunday night. "Mad Men" and "30 Rock" won as best drama and comedy, respectively, while Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad" and Glenn Close of "Damages" won as best actor and actress in a drama series. Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin of "30 Rock" again took home the Emmy for best comedic actor. What are the odds? But there was one new and big winner on CBS Sunday: the telecast.

I can think of a dozen reasons to dislike the Emmy awards. Five of them served as co-hosts of last year's telecast. But for all the excess of the TV show itself, and some of the winners that seem totally off the wall, it is still the one night and morning after that millions of us watch, talk and argue about. We focus on quality - whatever each of us means by that - rather than ratings. And last year, with "Mad Men" and "30 Rock" winning as best drama and comedy, it seemed like the voters finally and mysteriously got it right.

Let's get one thing clear from the start: I love "Mad Men," and this stylish series about life on Madison Avenue in the 1960s is by far the best drama on television. It's steeped in authentic period detail while still speaking more eloquently than any other TV drama to America today. But there is historical detail, and then there is historical detail. And when it comes to keepers of the historical flame in Baltimore, this is a city that loves its past and can be downright picky about it. "Mad Men" opens Season 3 tonight at 10 on AMC with a business trip to Baltimore.

Finally, Baltimore gets a chance to look good on prime time TV - and it's on the most stylish and honored drama on television no less. It's the Baltimore of the 1960s, unfortunately, not Baltimore today. But nevertheless, Baltimore is featured prominently in the Aug. 16 premiere episode of Season 3 of AMC's Mad Men, last year's winner of the Emmy as the best drama on television. And what viewers will see of the city - from Haussner's restaurant to the Belvedere Hotel - makes Baltimore look like a first-rate East Coast urban center with good hotels, restaurants, night life and thriving businesses.

Tina Fey's acclaimed NBC sitcom 30 Rock led all shows and made history with a record 22 nominations. But outside of that network triumph, cable TV once again dominated the prime-time Emmy award nominations in most major categories. Premium cable channel HBO led the field with a total of 99 nominations, while NBC finished a distant second with 67. HBO ran away from the pack with its superiority in movies and miniseries. Grey Gardens, a film starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange as two eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, earned 17 nominations alone.

Think of 2008 as the new New Frontier. The calendar might indicate that we're in the 21st century. But in merchandise display windows, on stage and on the large and small screen - and yes, even in politics - America seemingly is returning to the early, buttoned-down 1960s. Not long ago, society was enamored of the Greatest Generation. As the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor passed, we were bombarded with television specials, movies and fashion trends all inspired by the so-called "Last Good War."

Before he was Bond, Daniel Craig was known as Kelso - Fluke Kelso, to be exact, in the BBC miniseries Archangel that has its U.S. TV premiere tonight on the Ion cable channel. And you don't have to be a Craig lover to like this stylish production. The film, which takes place across four days, is set in Moscow and the Siberian town of Archangel during the Communist era. It focuses on a former Oxford University historian (Craig) who stumbles onto one of the deepest and darkest secrets of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

History was made on several fronts at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards last night. The HBO miniseries John Adams surpassed the 2003 HBO production Angels in America to become the most honored long form program in TV history. Meanwhile, AMC's Mad Men, a stylish series about life on Madison Avenue in the 1960s, became the first basic cable program to win as best drama. And then came writer-actress Tina Fey and the series she created, NBC's 30 Rock, dominating the comedy category like no other sitcom in years as it took home awards for best writing, best actress, best actor and best comedy.