The Mad Men mid-season 7 finale closed out with a surprise dance number by actor Robert Morse who plays Bert Cooper. In a new interview, Morse explains how the scene came to be.
Morse says that Mad Men creator Matt Weiner wanted the actor to jump back to his musical roots. He is well known for taking the lead role in 1961’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway, amongst other projects over his long career.
“Matthew Weiner came to me and said, ‘Bobby, I want to talk to you… You’re going to pass away in this episode. I’m sorry.’ I said, ‘I perfectly understand.’ And he said, ‘By the way, I’ve always wanted to have you sing. That’s what I remember you from, all your Broadway and theater days. When I hired you, always, in the back of my mind, I wanted you to sing a song, but there was never a place to do it.’ And then he came up with this idea. He said, ‘I am going to make you come back in the last shot in the picture and sing a song to Don.’ [Morse sings] ‘The moon belongs to everyone. The best things in life are free.'”
Morse also explained the amount of planning that went into his one and only Mad Men dance number. “They had this wonderful choreographer, Mary Ann Kellogg, whom I knew very well, and hired four or five beautiful dancers who would play secretaries… I dance with them and also sing to Don, and it’s a whole production. I went and learned the song, and I went into the studio and we recorded it with a huge orchestra. Then we rehearsed it on the set for a couple of days, away from everybody else. Nobody knew what was going on… It was just a lovely way, a sweet way, for dear Matt to send me off.”
We loved the surprise number coming to Don and found it to be a perfect send off for the legendary Morse.
Mad Men resumes in 2015 with the final seven episodes of the series. Check out our recap of Sunday night’s episode for more on what happened during the mid-season finale.
Thanks to AMC.com for the interview quotes.
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