Sweating the small stuff

In his 2001 article "Typecasting," type designer Mark Simonson picked nit with the type choices in many period movies. It seems that anachronistic type runs rampant in Hollywood, and Simonson needed the world to know.

Simonson's original article is a decade old, but he occasionally posts more recent examples of out-of-place typography in his Son of Typecasting series. A 2008 article included a pretty thorough review of the type and signage used in AMC's Mad Men. His take-away message is that, on the whole, the sets and scenes of Mad Men are pretty solid but they could do better with their typography.

It's critical that designers know the heritage of the typefaces they select, and I understand that the typophiles out there want to see period-accurate fonts. Even I cringe when Zapfino is passed off as '60s hand-lettering. But how far do designers really need to go? Is it a big deal that Mad Men uses the ITC version of Kabel from 1975, rather than the original Kabel from 1927? Sure, an expert could tell the subtle differences, but the two are pretty dang similar.  The ITC version, by my eye, doesn't really seem all that out of place.

ITC Kabel in Mad Men: The worst thing ever?

But what do you guys think? When creating a period piece, should typefaces be kept true to their time period? Or is there some wiggle room?