The Mad Men “Spoiler” Hidden in a Museum Exhibit

Like any sane person, I am absolutely obsessed with Mad Men. So when I heard that the Museum of the Moving Image was hosting an exhibit featuring props and costumes from the greatest television show of our generation, I knew that I would be making a trip to Queens.

What I didn’t know was that I’d find a hidden spoiler in the exhibit. It was a shocking discovery, given Matthew Weiner’s obsession with preserving his show’s secrecy. (A prescient one, as we’re reminded by today’s Game of Throne leaks.)

It wasn’t terribly difficult to find, either. One of the first photographs visitors encounter shows Weiner and his staff assembled in the writer’s room, picture-perfect smiles flashing around the table. (Forgive the quality of these images. I had to sneak these pictures when the museum’s staff wasn’t looking.) A normal photo, perhaps, except for one detail: the exposed whiteboard to the left of the group. For anyone who’s ever filmed or photographed inside an office (I’ve done more of that than I care to admit) this is a bright red flag. Whiteboards are where all the great ideas (and the shitty ones, to be honest) are laid out. Nobody wants that work revealed prematurely, especially not the writers of a suspenseful drama.

And these were some revealing notes. “PLANE HIJACKINGS” reads one, which could lend credence to theories that Don will become famed criminal D.B. Cooper. Then a bland note about Thanksgiving: “CHESTNUT STUFFING.” But then, a return to the sensational: “SAL RETURNS,” and incredibly, “HARRY’S FUNERAL.” I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Was it possible that Weiner had let such important secrets slip? Had he finally screwed up?