17 Visually Stunning TV Opening Credits
3. Mad Men
Here’s our third Emmy-winner on the list, and one of the most iconic openings ever. It’s a simple premise: a man enters an office, puts his briefcase down, and falls through a cacophony of 1960s American Life advertisements, before landing in a chair, safe and sound.
The black silhouette of the man, aka Jon Hamm’s Don Draper, is striking against the washed-out advertisements he peddles day by day. The irony is Draper continually tries to sell the American Dream, yet barely understands it himself.
Despite a legal dispute involving one of the billboarded advertisements, Mad Men’s opening credits have lived on in the minds of fans long after its final episode. The titles successfully parallel Don Draper’s life through its themes of sexism, adultery, and the 1960s American way of life.