1990s Flashback! Five ‘90s Stars Who Guest Starred on ‘Mad Men’

Mad Men” may be set in the 1960s, but the critically acclaimed AMC drama definitely makes us nostalgic for the ‘90s. The series’ Season 7 premiere, “Time Zones,” featured a face that’s very familiar to Millennials. Yep, that was “Party of Five” alum Neve Campbell playing the widow who snuggled alongside Don Draper (Jon Hamm) on the red eye back to New York.

Campbell -- whose breakout role as Julia Salinger on the 1990s teen drama led to roles in a slew of  the  big screen ‘90s flicks like “The Craft,” “Scream,” and “Wild Things”--  told  Yahoo TV that her guest star stint on “Mad Men” could signal her more permanent return to TV: “This is the first time, I think, really since ‘Party of Five’ that I've been open to returning to television properly,” she said.  And although she wouldn’t dish on the future of her “Mad Men” character Lee Cabot, Campbell’s got plenty of company when it comes to “Mad Men” cameos.

Here are five more 1990s TV stars who’ve gone back in time for a guest role on “Mad Men.”

Bess Armstrong

Actress Bess Armstrong, who played sensible, breadwinning mom Patty Chase on ABC’s 1994 drama “My So Called Life,” turned up in the “Mad Men” Season 5 episode “Far Away Places,” playing Jane Sterling’s (Peyton List) acid-dropping shrink Catherine Orcutt. While Roger Sterling’s (John Slattery) trip is the one viewers go on in the episode (the ad exec hears flute music when he opens a liquor bottle, hallucinates an image of Don, and time travels back to the 1919 World Series), there’s no bigger trip than seeing Angela Chases’ mom as an LSD party hostess.

Dennis Haskins

 It was a brief cameo, but diehard “Saved By the Bell” fans couldn’t miss it: Mr. Belding -- er, actor Dennis Haskins -- played a test kitchen scientist (official title: Head of Desserts for General Foods) for Cool Whip in the Season 5 episode “Lady Lazarus.” His character’s name was credited as Phil Beachum, but he’ll always be Belding to us!

Linda Cardellini

Lindsay Weir is all grown up! “Freaks and Geeks” star Linda Cardellini scored a multi-episode arc as Don Draper’s seductive neighbor Sylvia Rosen on “Mad Men’s sixth season, and the role even earned her an Emmy nod. In  an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cardellini compared the two retro-themed shows: “[‘Mad Men’] is a very different vibe from something like ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ where the scripts are incredible but it’s a lot looser,” she said. “When it comes to something like ‘Mad Men,’ it’s very precise, and you may not even understand the part that you’re playing in the bigger picture.”

Harry Hamlin

Harry Hamlin made a name for himself as new ad agency partner Jim Cutler with a recurring role on “Mad Men.” But the former “L.A Law” star wasn’t exactly sure what he was getting into when he signed on to the show. Hamlin told GQ that he was given virtually no info on is character, but he took a leap of faith: “I didn’t know that I was going to be Jim Cutler, who is actually on the door of Cutler, Gleason, and Chaough.” He said. “Or that I would be wearing glasses the whole time.”

Ted McGinley

Back in the day, Ted McGinley played Jefferson D’Arcy on “Married With Children,” but two decades later he played a married swinger on the “Mad Men” episode “To Have and To Hold.” McGinley’s character, Mel, was the head writer on Megan Draper’s (Jessica Pare) soap opera of the same name. Given Mel’s swinging status, perhaps sex-starved Peggy Bundy would like his number!

The final season of "Mad Men"  is set to air on AMC next spring.

From ‘Buffy’ to ‘Mad Men’: Five Unexpected Musical Performances on TV Shows

Don't you just love it when favorite TV characters burst into song? We're not talking the expected, like the musical bits on Fox's Glee, but instead the non-musical television shows that give us a song (and sometimes a dance!) out of the blue. Check out these unexpected musical moments on non-musical TV shows.

Mad Men - "Waterloo"

The spring finale of Matthew Weiner's AMC drama tied up a slew of loose storylines, but the 7th season episode, titled "Waterloo," also featured an unusual sendoff for a beloved character. When ad agency boss Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) passed away, he came back via Don Draper's hallucination-and he was singing with a troupe of dancing secretaries. The musical number was "The Best Things in Life Are Free," a song written in 1927 and later recorded by Bing Crosby and Sam Cooke. In an interview posted on AMC's website, Morse (who's a Tony award winning Broadway veteran) dished on working with a choreographer and recording the piece with a large orchestra: "It was just a lovely way, a sweet way, for dear Matt to send me off," he said.

Grey's Anatomy - "Song Beneath The Song"

ABC's medical drama is known for its eclectic Indie soundtrack, but the docs don't usually so the singing. Until the 7th season's musical episode "Song Beneath the Song," that is. This Grey's Anatomy music event featured the cast singing songs that were previously featured on the show (example: Meredith, McSteamy, and more belting out The Fray's "How To Save a Life"). Grey's star Patrick Dempsey was noticeably quiet during the musical numbers (maybe McDreamy can't carry a tune?), and he later referred to the quirky episode as "Glee, M.D."

How I Met Your Mother - "Girls vs. Suits"

The long running CBS sitcom marked its 100th episode with a musical extravaganza, culminating with Neil Patrick Harris' Emmy Award winning performance of the song "Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit." The over-the-top musical production featured 65 dancers and a 50-piece orchestra, and the HIMYM star has even gone on record as saying it's one of his favorite scenes from the entire series. "It might sound glib, but I think standing on top of a taxi cab in front of 60 people wearing well-tailored suits, spinning around like a rock star definitely takes the cake," Harris told the New York Post.

American Horror Story - "The Name Game"

Jessica Lange was naming names when she burst into song during the second season of the FX anthology American Horror Story. In an unusually light moment, her character, Sister Jude, hallucinated after electroshock and began singing the campy 1964 song "The Name Game." Showrunner Ryan Murphy told Entertainment Weekly his idea was to "do a musical number that was something very '60s crossed with Jacob's Ladder." "It was very fun to do," he said. "We spent almost a whole day doing it. [Jessica] had a ball. I think after the darkness of the season I think she quite enjoyed looking like Dusty Springfield."

  

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - "Once More, With Feeling"

And who knew vampires could sing? The Season 6 Buffy episode "Once More, With Feeling" was a full-on musical, with all of the characters singing their lines. (A highlight: The group song "Walk Through the Fire.") The episode was so popular that it was later shown in movie theaters as a subtitled sing-a-long. Producer Joss Whedon told the A.V. Club he created the musical episode because, well, he could: "I was raised on a steady diet of Sondheim," he said. "I'm absolutely a musicals boy. A lot of people didn't know that, because I love horror movies …I made a musical because I was six years into a show, and I knew that nobody was going to stop me."

  

10 Iconic Sally Draper Moments on 'Mad Men'

They grow up so fast. Especially when they grow up on TV.  In 2007, the second episode of AMC’s “Mad Men” introduced viewers to Sally Draper, the precocious eldest child of ad exec Don Draper (Jon Hamm). The episode was “Ladies Room,” and the first image of Sally was, well, shocking. The character has been played by actress Kiernan Shipka ever since, the lone exception to a rotating kiddie cast that has featured a whopping four Bobby Drapers and a set of twins in the role of baby brother Gene.

The 14-year-old child star recently told Vanity Fair, “It’s such a blessing to be able to play a character for as long as any of us on the show have. And to play someone from the age of six, while also being six, and then growing into a teenager, is the wildest thing. To grow up with Sally, and be able to evolve as a character like that, is something you don’t get to do very often.”

During her seven-season reign as sassy Sally, Shipka has pulled off her share of shocking scenes, too. Check out some of the most iconic Sally Draper moments from “Mad Men.”

Sally puts a plastic bag over her head

That shocking first look at our gal Sal occurred in Season 1’s “Ladies Room,” when her character played   “spaceman” by putting a plastic dry cleaning bag over her head. Mom Betty Draper’s (January Jones) bad parenting response: “If the clothes from that dry cleaning bag are on the floor of my closet, you’re going to be a very sorry young lady!” But the plastic bag on the head is OK?

 Sally plays bartender and smokes a cigarette

Clearly there was no D.A.R.E. program in the 1960s. In the Season 2 episode “Flight 1,” a pint-sized Sally made a Tom Collins for her dad and their neighbor Carlton Hanson via her daddy’s instructions: "OK, you don't smash the cherry on that. Just plop it in at the end. Try to keep it in the top of the glass." A few years later, Sally tried to impress her classmates at Miss Porter’s School by boasting, “I know how to make a Tom Collins!”

And when a young Sally was caught smoking a cigarette, her mom locked her in a dark closet. But a few years later, in a bizarre mother-daughter bonding moment, the 12-year old shared a smoke with mom on the drive back from Miss Porter’s.

Sally kisses a boy – and likes it

“You don’t kiss boys, boys kiss you!” mom Betty Draper warned. But it was too late. By the time the third season episode “Souvenir” rolled around, Sally Draper had already given her first kiss to neighbor Ernie Hanson. The impromptu peck started with some innocent play in the tub. (Don’t worry, the kids were clothed and pretending the tub was a car!) That’s when Sally kissed the kid, before her bratty bro Bobby teased, "Sally and Ernie sitting in a tree."

Sally learns to drive

Just call her Grandpa’s Girl. Sally was never the same after her grandfather Gene Hofstadt’s death in Season 3, but she can always remember the good times. Like the time he taught her how to drive -- way before she was of legal age. Shocking? Perhaps. But at least Grandpa Gene told her to mind the speed limit.

Sally scores Beatles tickets

The Season 4 episode ‘”Hands and Knees” had the usually sullen Sally squealing in delight when her dad called her with the news that he landed tickets to The Beatles’ iconic Shea Stadium concert. While viewers didn’t get to see Don and Sally at the history-making 1965 event, we did get to see Sally’s response to the ticket news. In 2010, Shipka talked to Vulture about the scene: “Sally was really happy when she heard she was going to the Beatles concert,” she said. “It was sort of like a peace offering from Don, to start fresh again with Sally.”

Sally gets a sex ed lesson (or two or three)

She’d already been busted for “behaving inappropriately” at a sleepover (that incident landed her in a shrink’s office), but by Season 5, Sally had an unexpected sex education lesson thanks to Roger Sterling (John Slattery) and her step grandmother, Marie (Julia Ormond.) The episode was “At the Codfish Ball,” and Sally got an eyeful during a bathroom break at an advertising awards dinner. Unfortunately, less than a year later, Sally saw an even more shocking site: Her father in a compromising position with neighbor Sylvia Rosen (Linda Cardellini). Don Draper told his tween he was just “comforting Mrs. Rosen,” but there was no fooling the already-educated Sally.

Sally gets her period

In Season 5, the episode “Commissions and Fees” showed Sally playing hooky and meeting creepy pal Glen Bishop (Martin Weiner) at the Museum of Natural History. But nature called, and Sally’s trip to the restroom had her coming out a woman: Yep, she got her period. While the buzzy scene paved the way for a rare tender moment for Sally and her mom (Betty curled up with her daughter and gave her a hot water bottle for her stomach), some critics thought the period drama went too far with, er, the period drama.

Sally calls out her dad

“Mad Men’s” seventh and final season showed Sally as a full-fledged teen who wasn’t above ditching a funeral to go shopping in Greenwich Village. After losing her purse in the city, Sally stopped by the ad agency to get cash from her dad, then called him out for his shady behavior after another guy (new boss Lou Avery) in his office. “Did you lose your job?” the perceptive teen asked him in the episode “A Day’s Work” (even Don’s wife Megan was in the dark about his employment status), but not before she hinted to her double-life livin’ dad to “just tell the truth.” Sally later delivered this doozy to Don:  “It’s more embarrassing to catch you in a lie than it is to watch you lie.”

Ah, out of the mouths of babes.