15 Annoying Mistakes You Never Noticed In Mad Men

By James Hunt /

14. The Wrong Type of Typewriter

Again from the pilot, this one comes when Peggy Olsen is being shown around the office, set to embark on a new career as secretary at Sterling Cooper (she€™s come a long way since then). The typewriters that appear in the office are the IBM Selectric model, and Peggy is told not to be afraid of the new technology, since it€™s been made so easy to use even a woman can do it. While this may perfectly capture the sexism that was rife back in those days, there is one little detail it gets wrong: the IBM Selectric did not actually come out until 1961 (the pilot is set in 1960). Weiner has actually commented on this, stating that they were aware of it at the time, but the correct typewriters were too hard to obtain, too costly to repair, and would€™ve required one hell of a job in the sound-editing room, so they bit the bullet and went with the mistake.