For the props department of Mad Men, the devil is in the Sixties-specific details—and sometimes, so are the historical blunders. Can you guess what’s fact or fiction?

Suits
Fact: Costume director Janie Bryant designs bespoke suits for the male cast, all tailored by Brooks Brothers (its original Madison Avenue shop was favored by the era’s creative set). Lo and behold, Chuck Bass wears BB, too. Aside from chronic womanizing, who knew Don Juan Draper and Gossip’s Mother Chucker shared a common thread?
Fiction: Menswear experts have raised the fact-checking flag on the office wardrobe, nitpicking on the “narrowness” of the jackets, lapels, ties, and collars. Everything should be slimmer and skinnier, suggested one O.C. designer.

Cigarettes
Fact:  Schwarzenegger’s state prohibits actors from smoking nicotine-laced tobacco on set. The solution: Ecstasy herbal cigarettes! “They taste like a mixture of pot and soap,” said Jon Hamm. For authenticity, their filters—cough, cough—are even cut off.
Fiction: In Season 1, the Sterling Cooper cads come up with a new Lucky Strike slogan, “It’s Toasted.” Uh, that campaign debuted in 1917. In the early 1960s, their official blurb was: “ . . . separates the men from the boys, but not from the girls.”

Liquor
Fact: And the Emmy for Best Supporting Alcohol goes to: Bourbon (Office Category) and Old Fashioned (Party Category). Prop master Gay Perello is the show’s one-woman Liquor Department—she shakes and stirs each drink using non-inebriating ingredients. Another mocktail, Mr. Draper?
Fiction: Draper is shown guzzling down a flat-top can (no pull tabs or pop-tops in those days!) of Fielding beer. But the brand—as many booze-loving bloggers and eagle-eyed alcohistorians have pointed out—didn’t exist in 1962. Same goes for Roger Sterling’s Johnny Walker Blue Label.

Furniture
Fact:  How do they achieve that midcentury-modern aesthetic? Set decorator Amy Wells makes virtual scouting trips to eBay—where she declares bidding wars against desperate housewives drunk with nostalgia. Visits to vintage stores and estate sales are also part of her J.D. Other pieces—like Betty’s turquoise-velvet headboard—are a D.I.Y. nightmare
Fiction: In one episode, set in March 1960, Wells admitted to “cheating” by using IBM Selectric II typewriters—non-existent until the 70s. A bookshelf also holds Scott Turow’s 1996 novel, The Laws of Our Fathers.

Cars
Fact: The Chatsworth, California-based Specialty Vehicle Association—an “automobile agency” that specializes in cars made from 1900 to 1970—supplies the Mad Men set with such vintage beauties as Betty’s 1961 Mercury Colony Park station wagon and Don’s 1960 Buick LeSabre.
Fiction: In Season 2, Don invests in a new Drapermobile: a powder-blue Cadillac Coupe de Ville (1962)—the ultimate American car that embodies his newly-minted status. However, Cadillac connoisseurs have pointed out that he bought an entry-level Series 62, not a Coupe de Ville.