Draper Meets the Beatles

DON DRAPER MEETS THE BEATLES: The memorable use of the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” on last Sunday night’s installment of Mad Men cost producer Lionsgate a cool $250k, according to a story penned by the N.Y. Times’ Dave Itzkoff and Ben Sisario. Ironically, one of the plot lines in the episode was about how difficult it was to license a song from the Fab Four for a TV commercial. Apple’s Jeff Jones e-mailed the paper it was the only time in his five years running the company that such a license was granted, while show producer Matt Weiner added he was told it was the first time ever that a Beatles master has been licensed for TV, other than a live performance by the band itself. The song is used during a scene in which Don Draper is given the Revolver album by his wife Megan and encouraged to listen. After a few minutes of the psychedelic song, whiskey in hand, he picks up the needle and walks off, puzzled and unimpressed. (5/8p)