How to play the Mad Men episode timeline game

The deck is made of standout Mad Men episodes, each with a line under the title about the story, and you place them in the order they originally aired. You begin with one episode already down, its air date showing. Read the next card and choose its gap, earlier or later than the episodes on the line. Get it right and you see the date. A wrong one still puts the card where it belongs but costs one of your three lives.

Mad Men moves through real history, so a hint that nods to an actual event is a strong anchor. The agency itself keeps changing names, partners and offices, which gives you another way in if you followed the business side. Episodes about home life and marriages are harder to pin down, because the personal stories keep circling back on themselves.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in exact air dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 28 of the 32 cards you might be dealt, with 4 more in the deck. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Don pitches Lucky Strike with 'It's toasted'
Ladies Room 'What do women want?' early hour
Nixon vs. Kennedy Election night reveals Don's past
The Wheel Don's Carousel pitch for the Kodak slide projector
For Those Who Think Young A Valentine's Day at Sterling Cooper
Flight 1 A plane crash reshapes Pete
Meditations in an Emergency The office holds its breath through the Cuban Missile Crisis
Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency The infamous lawnmower scene
The Gypsy and the Hobo Betty confronts the locked drawer
The Grown-Ups The Kennedy assassination episode
Shut the Door. Have a Seat The partners secretly break away to form a new agency
Public Relations 'Who is Don Draper?' opens a magazine profile
The Suitcase Don and Peggy's all-nighter masterpiece
Tomorrowland Don's surprise California proposal
Signal 30 Pete and Lane's office fistfight
Far Away Places Fractured triptych with an LSD trip
The Other Woman The Jaguar pitch's steep price
Commissions and Fees The Lane storyline's tragic climax
The Phantom 'Are you alone?' — Don drifts toward temptation
The Doorway Don pitches a Hawaii resort and broods on death
The Crash Amphetamine-fueled weekend fever dream
In Care Of Don breaks down pitching Hershey with his brothel childhood
Time Zones Don and Megan live bicoastal lives
The Strategy Burger Chef and the 'My Way' dance
Waterloo Moon landing and Bert's send-off
Severance 'Is that all there is?' return
Lost Horizon Peggy's roller-skate hallway strut
The Milk and Honey Route Betty's letter as Don keeps driving