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Mad Men

Mad Men is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, with seven seasons and 92 episodes. It is set during the period of March 1960 to November 1970.

Mad Men begins at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, and continues at the new firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (later named Sterling Cooper & Partners) in the Time-Life Building at 1271 Sixth Avenue. According to the pilot episode, the term "Mad men" was coined in the 1950s by advertisers working on Madison Avenue to refer to themselves, "Mad" being short for "Madison". The only documented use of the phrase from that time, however, may be the late-1950s writings of James Kelly, an advertising executive and writer.

The series's main character is charismatic advertising executive Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm), a talented creative director at Sterling Cooper. Though erratic and mysterious, he is widely regarded throughout the advertising world as a genius; some of the most famous ad campaigns in history are shown to be his creations. In later seasons, Don struggles as his highly calculated identity falls into a period of decline. The show follows the people in his personal and professional lives, most notably Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), who is introduced as Don's secretary but soon discovers her passion for copywriting. It also focuses heavily on the characters of Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser), a young executive at the firm; Betty Draper (January Jones), Don's wife; Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks), the firm's office manager; Roger Sterling (John Slattery), one of Don's partners; and in later seasons, Sally Draper (Kiernan Shipka), Don's oldest child. As the series progresses, it depicts the changing moods and social mores of the United States throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.

Mad Men received widespread acclaim for its writing, acting, directing, visual style and historical authenticity. It won many awards, including 16 Emmys and five Golden Globes. It was also the first basic cable series to receive the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, winning it each year of its first four seasons (2008–2011). It is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time and as part of the early 21st century Golden Age of Television.

The series covers the advertising industry centered on Madison Avenue in New York City in the 1960s, primarily following the professional and personal life of protagonist, Don Draper, a creative director and partner at a Manhattan firm. The plotlines also follow the personal and professional lives of Draper's family and co-workers as they relate to him and each other. Overshadowing the series is Draper's double life both as to his true identity, and his unfaithfulness to his family, while he tries to maintain a brilliant and charismatic outward appearance.

In 2000, while working as a staff writer for Becker, Matthew Weiner wrote the first draft as a spec script for the pilot of what would later be called Mad Men. Television showrunner David Chase recruited Weiner to work as a writer on his HBO series The Sopranos after reading the pilot script in 2002. "It was lively, and it had something new to say," Chase said. "Here was someone [Weiner] who had written a story about advertising in the 1960s, and was looking at recent American history through that prism."

Weiner and his representatives at Industry Entertainment and ICM tried to sell the pilot script to HBO, which expressed an interest, but insisted that David Chase be executive producer. Chase declined, despite his enthusiasm for Weiner's writing and the pilot script. HBO CEO Richard Plepler later became a fan of the show and congratulated AMC on their success with it. In 2017 he named passing on Mad Men as his biggest regret from his time at HBO, calling it "inexcusable" and attributing the decision to "hubris."

Weiner then moved on to Showtime, which also passed. Lacking a suitable network buyer, they tabled sales efforts until years later, when a talent manager on Weiner's team, Ira Liss, pitched the series to AMC Vice President of Development Christina Wayne. "The network was looking for distinction in launching its first original series," according to AMC Networks president Ed Carroll, "and we took a bet that quality would win out over formulaic mass appeal."

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