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A Television Novel

<p><em><a href="mailto:aspeybw@interlochen.org">Brad's Picks</a></em></p> <p>Thursday night, two writers of AMC's series <em>Mad Men</em> will kick off the 2011 National Writers Series at the City Opera House in Traverse City, Janet Leahy and Lisa Albert. </p> <p>You may not think television writers right away when you think if a writers series, but the television show is one in a line of shows that are really considered complex novels for television. Episodes don't stand alone, but are more like chapters in an unfolding plot line.</p> <p> HBO really kicked off the trend of complex novels for TV with <em>The Sopranos</em> in 2000. Since then, we've had other so-called novels for television with <em>The Wire, Deadwood, Breaking Bad </em>and now the top example<em>, Mad Men</em>. </p> <p><em>Mad Men</em> is set in the 60s at a fictional high-powered ad agency on Madison Avenue. The protagonist is successful but conflicted ad man Don Draper - a sentimental but fiercely competitive man. Like him, the show is multi-layered, often dark, often funny... at times intensely emotional. </p> <p>Leahy and Albert appear tonight at the <a href="http://www.nationalwritersseries.org/" target="_blank">National Writers Series</a> in Traverse City.</p>