Yesterday I watched an advanced screener of the season three premiere of Mad Men. At this point it’s hard to imagine anyone not being aware that the show will be debuting tonight on AMC. It has officially become a cultural phenomenon. Here’s some thoughts about the premiere episode and how it might fit into the larger picture. Don’t worry hardcore fans, no spoilers here!

“Nostalgia,” said Don Draper to the hushed and darkened room. “It’s delicate, but potent…Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.” Then he convinced a roomful of clients that calling it a Carousel might actually reinvent the wheel. Suckers!

We can’t speed time up and make it Sunday at 10 p.m. any faster than the Lord or Matthew Weiner willeth, but we can pull together a few videos that will slake your mighty thirst, momentarily.

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know that Mad Men is debuting its hotly-anticipated third season on Sunday — and everyone’s excited. All that smoke-filled, sexed-up, whiskey-splashed glamour is enough to make one long for the heady days of the early Sixties — who knew advertising could be so compelling? We know who — the folks at Morning Joe, currently representing the most harmonious blend of advertising and editorial on the airwaves. Don Draper himself couldn’t have topped it (and he might even have switched out his whiskey for a Venti Frappucino). From there, the comparisons suddenly seemed obvious.