Smoke 'em if you got 'em
posted by dag 2 months 1 week ago • 242 views
I'm about halfway through the 1st season of the excellent show Mad Men. The one thing that really stands out against any other show I've seen is the amount of smoking. Everybody smokes and all the time.

I'm wondering if they hire actors who already smoke or if there is a special "stage cigarette" that produces smoke but doesn't harm the lungs?

It looks like they are smoking Lucky Strikes unfiltered. yech.





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I hear this show is great. We've got season 2 being TiVoed and season 1 is coming soon on NetFlix. Let's see if all the hype endures my baseless scrutiny!


written by blankfist  | 2 months 1 week ago | CH
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yeah, there are a variety of ultralight herbal cigarettes available.
many use clove, for instance.

i smoke these.

i wouldn't be surprised if even the smokers weren't smoking 'real' cigarettes, much of the time onscreen. otherwise multiple takes could be a real problem.


written by my15minutes  | 2 months 1 week ago | CH
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So you don't want a sexy young actress to sound like Carol Channing after the fiftieth take for a scene?

>> ^my15minutes:
yeah, there are a variety of ultralight herbal cigarettes available.
many use clove, for instance.

i smoke these.

i wouldn't be surprised if even the smokers weren't smoking 'real' cigarettes, much of the time onscreen. otherwise multiple takes could be a real problem.






written by thinker247  | 2 months 1 week ago | CH
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They can't be real cigarettes, because nobody coughs up half a lung after each draw.


written by thinker247  | 2 months 1 week ago | CH
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I know they have stage cigarettes. I'm not sure how they work or whats in them but I do know they are much safer then real cigarettes. I'm pretty sure there are health code and fire code issues if real one's were used.


written by gorgonheap  | 2 months 1 week ago | CH
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Ironically the cigarette smoking man or CMS from the original X-Files does not actually smoke. He used herbal cigarettes actually as stand ins. There must be a stage cigarette, because I used to be smoker and nothing I smoked ever produced the luminous, wonderful spirals of smoke those on film do.

I bet its all CG


written by Farhad2000  | 2 months 1 week ago | CH
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Bidi, Bidi, Bidi, YES! YES! YES! Actually, here in Sliver City, er... Silver City, NM, cigarettes containing Clove are NOT legal. Some residents actually resort to hiding their clove Bidis in their Indica/Sativa stash to fool the Herb Police (O.K., just kidding about the "Herb Police").


written by Don_Juan  | 2 months 1 week ago | CH
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This show is awesome. I just started watching. Coincidentally, I just quit smoking last week. It's really hard to watch this show because of all the smoking.

[edit] apparently I write sentences like a 3rd grader.


written by rottenseed  | 2 months 1 week ago | CH
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I don't know if they use real cigarettes on set, but I do know that all of the actors that smoke on screen are current or former smokers. This is according to the creator, Matt Weiner, in an interview on FreshAir.


written by jonny  | 2 months 1 week ago | CH
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Great article here as well:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22madmen-t.html

After reading that, I have to think that HBO must be smacking themselves hard on this one. It seems like an HBO show.


written by dag  | 2 months 1 week ago | CH
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smoking is one of the hardest things to film, especially for the continuity girl.
she is probably now in the psycho ward if there's really multiple smokers in every scene!
i wanna check this one out. i guess it will be on lithuanian tv, with dubbing, in 2014.


written by MINK  | 2 months ago | CH
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