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.
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