THE E-T-T-S MOMENT AT AMC. James Lileks sees it in Mad Men.

It’s a thoughtful disquisition on the days before the counterculture began its transformation of the post-war order, and also a soap with exquisite production values.Consider the disquisition.Drink, smoke, look good in a Brooks Brother suit with a skinny tie or a chic dress, trade repartee, listen to Brubeck on the stereophonic record player. Be one of those people the hippies killed off. Be swank. Be sharp.

This was the appeal of Mad Men when it premiered — unapologetic daytime substance abuse, old-line patriarchal values with a splash of va-va-voom sexiness, Joanie’s hips ringing back and forth like the toll of the Liberty Bell. The rough beast of Betty Friedan was still slouching towards New Rochelle to be born. Kennedy was alive.

But Pennsylvania Station came down and first President Kennedy, then Senator Kennedy, were murdered, and The America that Worked^(TM) had to be deconstructed for its sins, rather than have its redeeming features extended, which was the original civil rights vision.