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I love Don’s line “you’re a very beautiful girl. It’s up to you be more than that.” That’s the closest he ever got to good parenting

Kiernan Shipka was one of the most talented, mature child actresses I've ever seen. I'm THRILLED to see her grow and thrive in the acting industry.

I loved that we got to see Sally Draper grow up in real time without actor changes. I lost track of how many Bobbys there were.

Man, I‘m so in awe with the people who made that series. These characters are just so incredibly well written.

I'm surprised you skipped over her relationship with Gene, I think that he's one of the most important factors in Sally becoming who she is later on. As a little girl that's expected to shut up and be adorable, Gene actually talks to her, and most importantly *listens* to her. He talks to her about her mother candidly, that Betty is a flawed person and to not listen to everything she says. He tells uncomfortable truths, he makes time for her, lets her eat ice cream and letting her drive the car, as crazy as it is, he's giving Sally the feeling of freedom and confidence, and treats her like a human being with thoughts and feelings.

Sally, to me, is an example of child characters done right. Although her brothers don't have the same level of development compared to her, it's clear the writers wanted to give her equal importance to an almost adult cast and respected her along them. Whenever I hear people being annoyed by kids on shows, I remind myself that it's the writers fault for not caring enough. Plus, like this video said, Sally is the closest to being a surrogate for 50 year olds that watched Mad Men.

Spoilers: Sally becomes a witch...

She isn't like Don. She isn't like Betty. She represents the best and worst of both of them.

She's always on the "most annoying child characters" lists. But I don't get it. I think Sally is awesome and EASILY one of the best characters in the series.

Sally: I didn't do anything. Betty: Ok Boomer.

After watching her in Mad Men, Feud and Sabrina I couldn't say anything less than she is a really good actress.

I'm generally not in favour of spinoffs, but this video essay made me more curious about Sally navigating the 70's as a young woman in NY. Great video essay as usual.

Kiernan Shipka was a great child actress and she’s grown to be an even better adult actress with Blackcoat’s Daughter and the new Sabrina series. Can’t wait to see what she does next

My favorite thing about Sally Draper is in Kiernan Shepka's performance. She's SO good at picking up the subtleties and nuances of Don & Betty that I was convinced she was actually their child. It makes sense cause she was cast SO young, and the actors with which she had the most scenes with her Jon Ham and January Jones so it's no surprise she picked up their eccentricities and put that in her performance.

Damn, she's an incredible actor. At such a young age too. This channel is a gem.

I always thought that a perfect representation of Sally's character shined through in the scene with the crazy lady robbing the apartment. She is very uncertain at first and we can tell and after a while you can't tell anymore if the woman is fooling her or if she's playing along. Sally always had to be high alert and rely on instinct because no one was teaching her what she needed to know and that scene represented it in the perfect way.

I almost cried at the part where Betty wrote “I know your life will be an adventure” Just awesome thinking Betty was not gonna make it and despite everything she did to Sally, she liked Sally’s spark and admired her

By the end of the series, Sally had my favorite character arc, even over Peggy.

I identified with Sally more than with any other character on Mad Men. My parents divorced early in my life, my family has always been fractured, my parents hated one another and I was always caught in the crossfire. I became a very isolated person, preferred to be alone, I felt like no one wanted or loved me. I was terrified of people leaving me like so many had in my life. So much of Sally's behavior mirrored how I felt and behaved at her age. I was happy to see Sally develop her own identity and be so different from Don and Betty, which is something I was never able to do. To this day, I still have no idea who I am or where I'm headed, and I'm often just as angry as my parents were. Probably worth noting that I have BPD.

She went to live with her aunties in greendale and developed a steady hand at witchcraft

The show is about advertising-- chasing happiness through consumerism. Sally has it all, materially, and she is a study in the failures of consumerism to ensure happiness. Her financially secure childhood is a stark contrast to Don's depression-era childhood, but the show couldn't make it clearer, through Sally, that family, emotions and security are what matter so much more. While Don's character is defined by running away from problems and toward shallow "happiness," everything he runs from finds permanency in Sally; she's a slate that can't be erased or traded. I think one of the bravest aspects of his cowardly character is that he never turns on Sally because of this, but seems to admire her for not running. The show needed an anti-consumerism foil to the advertising world, and in a lesser show it would have been an idealistic woman or mushy cloying plot-line about the importance of family. What they did with Sally was great.

Baby Boomers were the first generation marketed to as a generational demographic. Considering that this show is about marketing I can't help but think that Sally represents the first generation that was marketed to from cradle to grave. Childhood as a psychological stage wasn't popularized until Baby Boomers. The Silent Generation (generation before Boomers) never had what we would call a childhood as we know it today. Boomers were the first generation that had Dr Spock, and the idea that kids shouldn't have to work to help support the family, the first generation that didn't see kids as an economic resource, but as consumers. Parents were supposed to spend money on kids, the kids weren't there to generate money for their parents by working on a farm or a family business. So while we see Sally as being put in grownup situations, not allowed to have a childhood, I do not think that those ideals were fully formed at the time that Sally came along. Her parents surely didn't grow up that way.

I think almost anyone who's grown up in a conventional home, where appearance matters so much to the point where real feelings and affection are ignored, can somehow relate to Sally. So sad but glad she came out alright.

As a boomer, that dry cleaning bag made me laugh out loud. My brother and I did this all the time to play “astronaut”

The thing that struck me the most was Don's and Betty's reaction to Sally's plea for consolation after Gene died. That really showed how uninterested they were in her, her feelings and her development. To cry and to get told to go watch TV? Jesus. Not sure if all parents of that generation were like them, but the officer who brings the news of Gene's death also closed the door to Sally, even though she is shocked.

Sally reading Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire with Grandpa Gene was my favorite Sally scene. So great.

I liked Sally. She was about a year older than I was in those days, and my father was also a high functioning, creative, charming, handsome, alcoholic narcissist. I saw a lot of my childhood in hers, and I actually had some of the clothes she wore in the show.

I was around Sally’s age during the ‘60s and early ‘70s, and the bit about her serving drinks to her parents’ guests at their dinner parties is very accurate for that generation, I did the same thing

I can really relate to Sally. I was born in 1954, lived in an upper middle class NYC suburb and my name is Sally. The 60's really were like that.

The thing is its not that Betty or Don area not being great parents, they are behaving and teaching children things they know and what parents in that time were like. My grandma she is in her 80s she is like Betty how woman should dress, talk, take care of children, cooks and works only if she have the time for boredom but man's job is to pay and finance the rest. Today thats awful but back then it was normal. That is the reason why this show is amazing they did amazing job for presenting the time, people, events all that very realistic.

Sally only turns out okay because she literally steps back and looks at both her parents and is like "fuck I don't want to be like them." The only time she gets along with Betty is when Betty gets cancer and is completely humbled.

Never clicked on a video so fast, love the mad men breakdowns!

I’m so glad you did this on Sally. I identified with Sally. I have tried to break away from my parents dysfunctional ways. I love my family,but it’s ok to search for you’re own path.

betty did a number on her and she still turned out to be a nice person.

I love sally as a character Because she is just so relatable. When I was a kid no one listened to me and know one knew or believed that I would notice what they didn’t think I would. I would just oppress my feelings and talk to myself a lot as well as writing in my diary A LOT with many many details that no one would have thought I would.

I was born in 1953 so I remember much of what I saw in Madman. My folks let me watch serious news my dad made me watch the 1960 Kennedy Nixon debates. Maybe this is why I like the show so much.

The "ooze" line was hands down the BEST and unabashedly iconic. The writers really did an amazing job with a child's character for a TV show

This just shows the reason why they should make a Mad Men spin-off with Sally in the 70s and have cameos with her father once in a while and her brothers/aunt & uncle, as she meets her spouse in college like a lot of baby boomers did in the early 70s. Then we see the rest of her 70s misadventures :D

Sally is a great character and played by a very, very good actress. One of my favorite parts of Mad Men is her conversation with Roger Sterling. Sally: “You’re wrecking the speeches. Roger: “You’re a mean drunk. You know that?” (S5, E7)

I'm a millennial born in 90's but my father was part of the silent generation so this actually gave me insight into myself being raised

I love the care that went into crafting every character in this show. (Of course, it helps when you're lucky enough to discover the fantastic Kiernan Shipka and cast her as Sally.)

what I wouldn't give for a Sally spinoff film

oh mad men is greater than stranger things, that show is just a service to the 80s while mad men uses the 60s as a tool for a wider commentary of today with the parallels between then and now. mad men blows that show out of the waters on everything

When I first watched the show, I could not stand Sally. I figured she was a bratty ungrateful child. But I was 15 and worshipping Don Draper. But when i watched it again and again. I began to realize the toxic relationship with her parents. I'm glad this breakdown was given because I have a more understanding.

They had SO much luck with Kiernan, she has grown with the series to be such a great actress. I remember the way she was really mad in one episode when she was at the office, she ran away and fell, it was amazing performance and it was before she was so grown. All the characters are so well written. You can just see the way life influence their personalities, you can really see how the death of grandpa Gene affects Sally for so long. It's just amazing!

Just watching this video reminds me so much of my mother, who was born in 1958 and passed away in 2012. My mother's upbringing did differ from Sally's in a few ways. My family's black and my mom's early childhood was spent in very white neighborhoods in New Jersey, so she faced racism from a young age. And my grandparents were a bit younger than Don and Betty when they became parents (18 and 21). While my mother didn't face a lot of the outright emotional neglect of the Drapers and she had a very close relationship with her dad, a lot of the points in this video really resonates with what I learned about her upbringing. My mom and her mother had a very dysfunctional relationship that really only got patched up once I was born in '96. I distinctly remember my mom telling me that she often felt like her mother never wanted her, but was stuck with her because she had no other choice in the late '50s. At age six, I realized that I'd never heard my mother call my grandmother "mom" or "mommy" and she told me that she hadn't been allowed to address her mother that way starting from the age of ten or so. It struck me as so weird. Looking back now, I realize my mom spent so much of her time making sure I knew she loved me and that I was wanted. Because she rarely felt that way growing up. She was also a bit of a helicopter parent, too. And I say all of this even though I really loved my grandmother. She was a huge part of my childhood and I was devastated when passed away last year.

Sally really reminds me of all the things my mom told me about her childhood. The neclecting especially. My mom was given to an aunt when she was very young, because the family didn't have enough money and place for her and her brother. She didn't return home until the age of seven

No wonder kiernan is such a good actress. She's been killing it since she was a kid.

I sympathised so much with Sally. I eventually worked out my parents weren’t going to give me anything worthwhile so I had to be strong for myself.

For me Sally is the most well adjusted character on the show

watching her grow up was cool

Man - another fantastic video. My opinion is - Mad Men is head and shoulders above any other television series. There's Mad Men, and everything else. Sally Draper could have been a secondary character with little to say and have little impact on the series, but she ends up representing an entire generation - entirely on her own shoulders. She is the best written child character to ever be on television, and Kiernan Shipka was a good enough actress to pull it off. And some of her scenes were laugh out loud funny when she starts to mimic her parents - but also a little sad - and that's really hard for any actor to pull of convincingly. I hope there's more Mad Men videos coming. All of them have been so right on.

I love and hate that I can totally identify with Sally Draper's character and story. Not that my parent's are terrible people, being born in '55 and '54 and growing up slightly more sheltered than Sally; the whole thing hits close to home in a number of ways and that's both painful and enlightening for me to know that the writers for Mad Men, and especially the characters and their ways, were some of the best out there. They really captured it well. 12:00 I love that bit about the nuance in how Don said "this is where _I_ grew up" instead of "this is where I grew up." Such a great show! And I LOVE that Kiernan Shipka :D

Mad Men breakdowns are everything. thank you ladies!

Thank you for creating this video--a LOT of subscribers were asking for it. The character of Sally Draper is one of the most challenging ones in Mad Men, and Kiernan Shipka was perfect-a powerhouse.

I fell out of the chair laughing, the episode Sally's driving Grandpa's Lincoln.... clearly a talented young lady.

So I'm a gen z-er and I've never seen this show, but Sally's childhood actually reminds me a lot of my own. I guess things haven't changed too mcuh

it’s so neat to think that Sally saw the moon landing as a teen and yet also would have been able to buy an iphone during or near retirement.

Is it weird that I don't even watch Mad Men and yet I long for these videos from you guys, while playing the existing ones on repeat? :')

Kiernan Shipka is one of the greatest female actress for me

Kiernan Shipka, a precociously fantastic, naturalistically expressive actress. Always plausible.Tatum O'Neil calibre: were her Sally Draper performance in a film, she'd be Oscar worthy.

My parents are from this generation, but as I am not from US I have the feeling that they act more as Sally parents. Even with the cultural differences, their traumas are pooring to their kids. It looks that my generation, in my contry, is more as Sally life mixed with TV and millenial culture.

I am Sally Draper; the clothes, the era, the lack of supervision..I grew up in a madmen household. This series was a time machine for me..and wonderfully mesmerizing!

I had a really cool English teacher in high school who taught me to watch movies critically and in depth. I’m so grateful bc it’s not common sense. I understand film and books so much more precisely than I did before his class. But this is so fun to watch bc I don’t have anyone to discuss film with. I ask my husband questions like “what do you think that foreshadowing was a metaphor for?” And he’ll just shrug. Not even think about it. I couldn’t watch movies like that. I need to know everything. Every little detail. So thanks for making these! Also shoutout to Mr. Halboom 💖🙏🏼

Matthew Weiner needs to come up with a Sally Draper spin-off!

These Mad Men analysis videos are top notch. I would not disappointed if you did a video on every major character of the show, even the ones that weren't around for the entire run.

Your voice is so alluring. Everytime I watch a video of yours I get lost till the very end. Makes me feel nostalgic about the shows I've watched and makes me want to view people as a culmination of their experiences and try to know them better . Thank you for this . Sometimes I feel that KZfaq is my safe space when people I meet irl don't understand me . One of the greatest shows ever 💓.

Knowing that Betty starts the series mourning her mother and Sally ends it that way, I don't have a comfort level that the boomers are all right. Look how Sally's friend loses her dream and her violin. That's the more likely path for Sally. Her rejection of her parents values is in a way her guiding purpose. But as they reject her ( by running away and dying) she isn't left with much to fight against.

I swear that scene she has with Don right before she gets on the bus is one of my favorites finally calling out her parents on all their bullshit 😂

YAAAS! In line with the trailer for chilling adventures of Sabrina season 2, what a wonderful video that not only eloquently analyzes Sally’s character but portrays what a wonderful actress Kiernan Shipka is. Another great video, thanks ScreenPrism.

Every time I wake up and go to youtube and see that you guys have uploaded a new Mad Men or Breaking Bad video, it's like waking up on Christmas morning. Love it!!!

The casting is bang on, little Sally could pass of as Don’s daughter , the eyebrows , smug attitude lol

Your whole Mad Men series has been amazing. Really makes me wish I could relive the show again.

I'm not even half-way through this and I'm ready to cry for Sally. I was a bit luckier with the parents I got, but I knew kids with parents like Sally's - they weren't rare in those days.

Sally is one of the two Mad Men-characters I can relate to.

Young Sally is the most underrated actor on this show by far

This is the only show that I can watch again and again. I bet I’ve seen the entire series 10 times. It’s that good.

Finally! Thanks for keep doing the mad men videos. Furthermore she's one of the most interest and complex characters of the series

Absolutely LOVE these!!! Please do more of the smaller Mad Men characters!

Brilliant synopsis. I've watched the series start to finish, no less than 14x now, always check out different recap publications or podcasts, and while I always pick up new things, on each rewatch, it has never once occurred to me, to consider Sally as a representative, of the boomer generation. Being an early millennial/Xenial (born in 82) to boomer parents (Dad 57, Mom 62), this video, gives me incredible insight, into how my parents' upbringing, would've affected their eventual outcome, flaws and parenting style. My parents were a mix of Don and Betty, and early helicopter parents. My sister and I weren't directly supported well, emotionally: our parents didn't hug us, or express any positive emotions, but we (myself more than my sister) weren't afforded opportunities to fail on our own. They were overbearing, in the sense that they made all decisions for us, and were at the school, micromanaging our assignments and extracurriculars. Yet we were kind of left to our own devices, inside the home: lots of TV watching, Nintendo / computer playing, and reading books, none of which was ever censored for appropriate content (I read a true crime story on local serial killer, Alan Legere, at aged 11, and began reading Stephen King at aged 10). I was also VERY sheltered, with a STRICT curfew of 9pm, regardless of weekend or school night. There was a constant fear for my parents, that I would get hurt, or into some kind of trouble. I wasn't allowed out of their bubble. My sister once gave me some some good insight, into our upbringing, by recommending some readings on, the narcissistic parent. Our parents were emotionally distant in the house, but by all appearances on the outside, very hands on. My sister, being second born, had far fewer expectations, placed on her, than were placed on me. I was NEVER permitted, to be anything less, than perfect, and needed to have straight A's across the board. As an adult, and learning to understand that to our parents, we were mearly seen as extensions of them, myself more than my sister, greatly helped to reconcile feelings of inadequacy. The criticism I had faced growing up, had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with my parents not being able to disassociate themselves, from me. I was their first born, and they had something to prove to the world with me. If I didn't meet their perfect expectation, then to them, they were perceived as a failure. We've all long since healed, and moved on from the emotional scars caused, in my childhood. My parents stopped helicoptering, in my mid 20's. I had a few hours or more of therapy, to learn how to be a self sufficient adult on my own, how to understand and reconcile my parents' shortcomings, and more importantly, I learned how to make decisions on my own and trust my judgement. This clip providing insight into what growing up was like for boomers, adds a next level of understanding, of my parents' upbringing, and why they parented the way they did. A good mix of old, like Don and Betty, where they kind of ignored us, and new, where they tried to protect me, as best as they could. I can clearly see where they tried to rebell and be better, than how they were raised (both sets of grandparents were totally Don and Betty), but still fell back and relied on what they knew. I suppose each generation, is more of the same. We're all damaged in some way, and we all try to do the best we can, with the cards we were dealt.

I want a series about Sally as an attorney in the 80s.

8:05 "I'm not going, I'm not leaving, I hate it there" Perfect line delivery.

Sally is not upper middle class, she’s straight up rich.

Kiernan Shipka was a talented little actress in this show. Glad to see her in more projects now as a young woman.

This is brilliant, and SO true...never realized Sally’s significance in understanding my parents. Thank you!

I was Sally's age from those days. I totally identified with her and the memory of my young self would have crushed really hard for her. She even attended the elementary my cousins went to. Good for Matthew Weiner's amazing attention to detail.

Finally! I'd been waiting for a video on Sally for so long! God, I just LOVE your Mad Men videos. They just reinforce what a great show Mad Men was.

Ahh, I've been waiting for a Sally video ever since you started doing Mad Men video essay, she's such an important character, so well written and probably the character people of my generation could see themselves in, more than let's say Don or Pete or Betty. So thanks for this video.

Excellent video..my parents WERE Don & Betty Draper and I am the same age as Sally Draper. This video is way better than any therapy I ever had.

Keep these Mad Men videos comin'! They are to live for!

What I've wondered is if the people who ran Mad Men knew what they had in Kiernan Shipka right away, or if it was more than when they realized what an amazing young actress they had stumbled upon, they grew the role to take advantage of her talent? I suspect it was more the latter, although someone had to spot her presence and intelligence early on.

Thank You for this wonderful portrait of Sally Draper. I learned so much about marriage and divorce from watching this series. I understand that everyone and every parent is not perfect. Children cannot expect to have a perfect childhood. Nobody's Perfect. Everyone has a story. Thank you. I love Madmen and all of the Characters. Great Job!!!

She was so cute in the first few seasons. My heart melted everytime.

This is a really good analysis of Sally's character, and of the Boomer generation. In the media today, the Boomers get such a bad reputation, even though - as Sally shows - they were just doing the best they knew how based on their own upbringings. As you note, this is a cycle that will always repeat. Right now it's the millennials and gen z people blaming the boomers for the problems of the world, but in twenty years or so, it'll be the next generation blaming us. Finding the humanity in other generations, and trying to understand and partner with them is really the only way to move forward as a society. Otherwise we'll just be languishing in blame forever.

I’m loving these character breakdowns from one of my favorite shows of all time. Great take on a very interesting character.

i LOVE that youre still doing analysis on mad men.. please dont ever stop!

Thank you!!! I was waiting for this one, Sally is one of my favorite characters in mad men. Please make one on Stan Rizzo next!

When your child is also your bartender, you know something is going wrong. There is something weird about treating children at the same time like objects/pets that obey commands but also like little adults that should be able to deal with tragedy and disappointment on their own. That’s very lonely.

this is so wonderfully thoughtful and interesting; it makes me want to rewatch the entire show. As well as thinking about the way i grew up and how my immediate family has effected the way i am, and cope.