'Mad Men' exhibit eyes Draper's world.

• Author: Moore, Frazier
• Position: Living

Byline: Frazier Moore

NEW YORK -- You don't need to be mad about "Mad Men'' to savor "Matthew Weiner's Mad Men'' at New York's Museum of the Moving Image.

This collection of hundreds of props, dozens of costumes, two full-scale sets and scads of notes and scripts from AMC's glorious drama series will surely thrill all "Mad Men'' fans as they brace themselves for its final seven episodes (starting April 5).

But beyond any frisson from actually entering the sacred space of ad man Don Draper's 1960s office after seeing it on-screen so many times, or from standing inches from Megan's "Zou Bisou Bisou'' mini-dress (displayed, alas, not by Jessica Pare but on a mannequin), the exhibit is more than a TV-focused spectacle. It's a resurrected world of Americana as frozen in time a half-century ago.

Item: When was the last time you saw an S&H Green Stamps Saver Book? You may spy a couple of them among the many props dressing the Ossining, New York, kitchen of Don and Betty Draper (which, like Don's office, was transplanted to this MOMI gallery from the L.A. studio where "Mad Men'' was shot). Then turn your gaze past the vintage Lux liquid bottle at the sink and the ceramic knickknacks on the paneled wall over to the breakfast table, where a grocery list calls for such items as a can of peas, whipping cream and margarine.

To behold this intimate scene, which seems to breathe with life even absent its fictional residents, can make you feel downright voyeuristic.

Now don't forget and light up! Among the curios at hand are a circa-'60s cigarette machine...