Matt Weiner: Mad Men Goes To 2011

Mad Men Creator Matthew Weiner Tells All (To His Big Sister) It’s been a long wait between Season 4 and Season 5 of AMC’s Mad Men thanks to the epic contract negotiations between creator Matt Weiner, AMC and Lionsgate TV. But that’s a blip compared to the ending Weiner has envisioned for the series. He told the website Grantland about his plan for how the three-time best drama Emmy winner will take its bow: “It came to me in the middle of last season. I always felt like it would be the experience of human life. And human life has a destination. It doesn’t mean Don’s gonna die. What I’m looking for, and how I hope to end the show, is like … It’s 2011. Don Draper would be 84 right now. I want to leave the show in a place where you have an idea of what it meant and how it’s related to you. … I was 35 when I wrote the Mad Men pilot, 42 when I got to make it, and I’ll be 50 when it goes off the air. So that’s what you’re gonna get. Do I know everything that’s gonna happen? No, I don’t. But I just want it to be entertaining and I want people to remember it fondly and not think it ended in a fart.” Weiner also disclosed in the interview that AMC’s first focus groups after Season 1 thought the show was lacking in some places. “They said, ‘Our focus group told us they think Pete and Peggy are boring, and they hate the advertising business parts … the show is boring, the pace is too slow, and you need more scenes …,’ ” he said. He added that the network lost its leverage to force changes when word got out before a crucial meeting that AMC had already renewed the show.