Fred Rumsen - Character Profile

Who is Fred Rumsen? What do we know about this Mad Men character played by Joel Murray whom I remember from Dharma & Greg? Here are a few things I know about this character.

Babylon

• Fred Rumsen opened the door of opportunity for Peggy Olson after being impressed by her basket of kisses catchphrase.
• Fred convinces Don Draper to let Peggy write copy for the Belle Jolie Lipsticks account.

Indian Summer

• Sterling Cooper gets a new account wherein they are to create an ad for a weight loss device called Passive Exercise Regime. Fred Rumsen once again recommends Peggy for the job not because she gained some weight, but because of the outstanding job she did for Belle Jolie.
• Fred picks a fight with Ken Cosgrove after the young man remarked that Fred’s wife loved the product they know to provide women pleasure of a man without a man.

Six Month Leave

• Here we learn that Fred Rumsen is an alcoholic. He was so intoxicated that he unknowingly pisses his pants, and passes out.
• Pete Campbell tells on him causing Roger Sterling to ask Don Draper to fire him.
• Fred Rumsen gets fired after years of service at Sterling Cooper. His termination is masked as a six-month leave of absence. He is promised a full salary, and an opportunity to come back.
• In this episode, we learn a little bit of Fred Rumsen’s past. Freddie spent the last six months of his duty with the Signal Corps, but before that he was actually in-charge of a troop in the frontline.
• Fred Rumsen’s father sold greeting cards.
• He and his wife Violet live in 152 Riverside Drive, Apartment 604.
• Although he was fired, Don Draper and Roger Sterling still give him a send-off.
• He, Don and Roger go to an underground casino, and was assigned the nickname Mike Moneybags.
• Fred Rumsen does not know what he is going to do after being fired saying “If I don’t go into that office everyday, who am I?”.

Ken Cosgrove - Character Profile

Who is Ken Cosgrove? What do we know about this Mad Men character played by Aaron Staton? I know so much of his character has developed over the course of three seasons so pardon me as I slowly build his character profile. I had just started watching season 1 of Mad Men again.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

• Kenneth Cosgrove appeared on the very first episode of Mad Men.
• He is a young, successful, and cocky ad executive who wastes no time to hit on Peggy Olson.

5G

• Got his short story Tapping A Maple On A Cold Vermont Morning published in The Atlantic Monthly
• The magazine included a small note about the author’s background, and it reads “A graduate of Columbia University Kenneth Cosgrove has lived in the New York area for most of his life. Working for the advertising firm of Sterling Cooper puts Mr. Cosgrove in a unique position to observe and study the trends that shape America today. This is his fist story to appear in The Atlantic.”
• Ken Cosgrove unbeknownst to his co-workers until then is a writer who has done two novels. One about a roughneck on an oil rig who has to move to Manhattan because his wife’s mother is sick, and the other is about a widow who got stuck with a family farm where no one would help her except this boy.
• According to Pete Campbell, Ken Cosgrove is actually from Burlington, Vermont whose father is a salesman.

Nikki Carpenter - Character Profile

Nikki Carpenter (Elyssa Davalos) first appeared in the episode Fire and Ice when she and MacGyver collaborate to catch the jewel thief who murdered Nikki’s brother. The two have opposite personalities and are often in disagreement. In fact, in GX-I, MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) was displeased when Pete Thornton (Dana Elcar) had brought along Nikki in East Germany to pose as his wife in order to evade suspicion. Nevertheless, their friendship develops in The Widowmaker when MacGyver shuns himself from the world after the death of his good friend Mike.  Continue reading...
Eventually, the Phoenix Foundation hires Nikki Carpenter as an agent given her background and previous work in the senate. In Blow Out, she becomes the target of terrorists when she unconsciously witnesses the post office bombing. Despite threats on her life, she found it difficult to seek help for fear of getting other people into trouble. This apprehension was brought about by the murder of her husband who was killed in a mob hit that was meant for her. Later, Nikki allows herself to be involved with the Phoenix Foundation director Matt Webber. Only, as luck would have it, she had gotten herself in deep trouble after discovering that Webber is one of those conspiring to assassinate President Yaman Amunde. During this time MacGyver had started to doubt her loyalty, but she proves him wrong when she herself becomes Webber’s captive. By the end of season 3, Nikki Carpenter and MacGyver’s friendship had deepened and is affirmed when he confesses to his then girlfriend, Deborah, his sincerest concern for his colleague and friend Nikki.