AMC, you’re killing my buzz.
I wrote the following yesterday. And then after I wrote it, I dug around AMC’s website.
I am so outraged. Like, speechless. (Well, my version of speechless is kind of word-heavy, but you get it.)
Those stupidheads at AMC are NOT GOING TO BE SHOWING MAD MEN AT ALL IN MAY. NOT AT ALL. NOT SUNDAYS AT MIDNIGHT, NOT WEDNESDAYS AT 3AM, NOT SATURDAYS AT 6AM TO COMPETE WITH ANGEL ON TNT, NOT ANYWHERE AT ALL.
Heard about this great new show but still haven’t gotten around to seeing it? Been waiting for the latest run to wind up, (which it just now has) and maybe you’ve even read that the first two episodes will be airing over the next two weeks?
WELL TOO BAD FOR YOU!!! Guess you’ll have to wait until July.
Way to build momentum, Jack. Or, what’s that other thing… LOSE ANY STEAM YOU HAVE WITH POTENTIAL NEW VIEWERS WHO WILL FORGET ABOUT YOU ONCE THEY START WATCHING NEW EPISODES OF HOUSE AND ER.
Anyway, I think this little intro perfectly sets up the rest of what I had prepared. Enjoy:
I’ve been thinking it’s time to recap AMC’s sins. Some of you are new, but also, like when your shitty boyfriend starts acting all sweet lately, you might be losing perspective.
Let’s take a moment, shall we, to think back to a simpler, happier time.
July, 2007. It all started so perfect. I, like so many others (well, there were like twelve of us, including Matthew Weiner’s mom) had been breathlessly awaiting the premiere of AMC’s new original series.
We watched. We were smitten. We were beholden. We were in its thrall.
(And in some cases, we were unemployed, and so in those early, blissful, income-free days of summer, we watched the episodes over and over. In what turned out to be an uncanny lack of foreshadowing, AMC was repeating each one all over its programming schedule, all week long, both nights and days.)
Okay also we told our friends (and in some cases, siblings) about it. And many of them wanted to see it, but wanted to wait until they could see it from the beginning. A respectable choice in these Netflixian times. We hoped at least for a Mad Men marathon to play catch-up with. (Apparently there was one fairly early in the initial season, perhaps pre-midway through, but I somehow missed it. Was certainly not well promoted.) As the season rolled on, and writers were striking so there was NOTHING ELSE ON TELEVISION, and Mad Men was beginning to receive accolades, AMC just kept sitting on their golden egg, wiggling around, proud of what they’d laid but unwilling to share.
(Yeah. No Mad Men marathon leading up to the season finale. Whatever.)
And then a blog was born. Basket of Kisses beginnings coincided with the blowup that was Peggy’s giving birth. We were going to give that child a home. A basinet of kisses, if you will.
(Okay that was just weird. But I’m having fun so it’s staying.)
And we wait with the collective bated breath for one week later, right there in its regular time slot of Thursdays at 10pm (with an encore at 11) for Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, the pilot.
And now here is the recap, with links to outraged post after outraged post, of what AMC has done wrong. Wrong, wrong wrong.
AMC You’ve Harshed My Happy
The first thing I notice is that the pilot is chopped up into smaller pieces. The commercials are in the wrong spots. Also, they have done away with the cool little branded ‘fun facts’ that appear between commercials and tie in with the advertising.
AMC You’re Harshing My Mellow
Week two I’m all set to watch Ladies Room, and they skip three episodes ahead to New Amsterdam.
AMC You are Damaging My Calm
Nothing new here, I just continue to rant my devastation over the unnecessary, premature editing.
AMC You are Wrinkling My Smooth
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water… they show episodes 4-6, then they skip to 10; Long Weekend. Included in what they skipped was Hobo Code!!! (An award-winning, revealing and important episode.)
AMC’s Got Stinking Paws
This is where I finally put it together that there were scenes deleted from the premiere airings. I knew they were chopping up the episodes, but I had assumed the content was still untouched, that it was simply a matter of shorter but more frequent commercial breaks (and shorter “acts” in between commercials). But no. Scenes and lines are missing. Not only that, but it has been this way since the very first. During the very first run, The 10pm airing was pristine and intact, and the 11pm was re-editing; missing scenes. Oh god, it still hurts to think about it.
AMC and I are barely on speaking terms.
So now the second run (if you can call it that, what with five missing episodes) is wrapping up, and what’s next? Not only are they showing it in the worst time slot known to time slots, but the AMC website buried the information. It’s like they don’t want people to find it. (It has since been reworded.)
AMC You are Perching My Nerves
This is just irksome. They are flooding the airways with Breaking Bad. Which is like, a great idea. Wish I’d thought of it!
AMC Schedule
And uh… this latest (midnight) run is almost done. You’d think your fans, both the loyal ones and the potentials, might want to hear some news about your future plans to air/not to air? Your scheduled for the airings (still in that same crappy time slot) for episodes 1 and 2, but can you maybe commit?
AMC You do NOT get points for this.
It hurts my heart. The AMC website is showing “deleted scenes” like it’s something to be proud of. And confusing the fuck out of viewers in the process.
Hope this helps. I am totally depressed.
Kisses,
Roberta
April 16th, 2008 at 8:53 am
And by the way, the worst organized website on the Internet. Apparently explicitly designed to make information harder to find.
Go to AMCtv.com and click Mad Men. There’s a list of links. If you click Blog you get the Mad Men blog. If you click Photos you get Mad Men photos. And if you click Schedule, you get…
Oh, hey, they fixed it. You used to just get the whole AMC schedule, but now you do, in fact, get the whole AMC schedule pre-selected for Mad Men. It only took them a year! Yay web programmers!
But here’s a thing. There is no way to get a schedule for a future month’s showing of, well, anything. If you click a show the current month refreshes so that you see the current month’s showings of Mad Men or Breaking Bad or whatever. If you click ahead to the next month, the selection refreshes back to “all shows.” If you then select what you’re looking for, you’re forced back to the current month. There’s simply no way to search May today. And won’t be for two more weeks.
Hello? I have a DVR! I can record two weeks in advance! STOP FUCKING WITH ME!
April 16th, 2008 at 9:58 am
One thing I can’t stand about AMC is the weirdo way they’ve marketed Mad Men. When the show won a Golden Globe, there were folks on the ‘net who had never even heard of the program. Why aren’t there marathons of Mad Men during various holiday weekends. I recall the marathon during Labor Day weekend, but none since then. Also, Jon Hamm’s an award-winning actor on an award-winning show, why is this man’s mug not showing up on Letterman and Leno? (Jimmy Kimmel and Bill Maher are OK but not the “biggies,” if you catch my drift….)
AMC really should cease with the shabby way it treats Mad Men fans….
April 16th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I’ve just clicked on you randomly from Maurinsky’s site.
Funnily enough, I’ve just returned from the States — I live in England — where I tried (and failed) to buy a DVD set of the Mad Men series. I didn’t know if such a thing existed, but if it did, I wanted it. We just started getting Mad Men in January . . . and having become hooked, I then had to go and miss three shows in a row! Unlike in the States, you cannot count on rerun action of this sort of thing.
Also, regarding House — I had never seen this one until my flight back to the UK on Continental. They aired three episodes — and it really soothed the pain of being stuffed in economy for 1o hours. I know that the genius curmudgeonly doctor has been done before — but never to such perfection!
April 16th, 2008 at 10:30 am
For the umpteenth time …
If MM were on HBO it would be the f-ing talk of the industry. Critics would be singing about how HBO pulled itself out of the crapper.
John from Cincinnati would have morphed into Don from Ossining and everyone would be raving about Christina Hendricks’ ass.
MM would be on HBO 1, 2 and 3, East Coast, Romance and every other channel they program.
Instead we get these shut-ins at AMC that treat their best asset like it’s a Charles Bronson double-feature.
YOU DON’T MARKET ORIGINAL CONTENT THE SAME WAY YOU MARKET REPACKAGED CLASSICS.
This isn’t 1985 when we could expect people to find your show. AMC is channel 138 on my system. CHANNEL 138!!!
Do they think I’m going to find it by accident, and then be riveted to an hour-long dialog-heavy drama??
It’s clear that these guys took a flier on a new show by “that Soprano’s guy” without any real game plan. Mr. Weiner has the good taste (and duh, they’re his bosses) to praise the network. But I gotta believe he’s shaking his head at how they’ve buried his baby.
The fact that this show succeeds (quality over quantity, that is) despite itself is testament to it’s greatness.
AMC does not know how to market original content, and that, if anything, is the crime here. There is no shame in ubiquity on television aymore.
As many have reiterated here and elsewhere, how do you think Bravo, Food Network, VH1, A&E, et al. break out? They market the shit out of their original properties and aren’t shy about re-playing them until they find an audience.
Jeez, Louise.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Hi Beth! Welcome.
The DVD is not yet available. It will be out July 1. We’re very excited and impatient. We’re promised commentary on every single episode!
Kay, EOnline was doing live surveys during the Golden Globes. Over 80% of responders answered “Huh? Never heard of it” in response to Mad Men’s GG win.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Let me repeat that.
OVER EIGHTY PERCENT.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I was talking with a friend about this, a friend who indicated that I am perhaps overreacting. He may have also been playing devil’s advocate. But his idea is, because the ratings have been low, they are perhaps trying to save it all for DVD sales. Like, if people who want to see it start watching now, they won’t buy DVDs.
And I’m sorry, I just don’t agree. (Not that I don’t agree that it’s what they are trying to do, I just don’t agree that it’s the RIGHT thing to do.)
Fans love their shows. They buy DVDs not only to watch the show, but to watch it over and over and to watch the extras (which there will be plenty of, in this case). The fact that there is currently zero publicity and visibility is just not smart investing IMO.
If 80 f-ing percent of these people (people who are perhaps entertainment oriented) haven’t heard of it, why aren’t we going after them NOW? Why aren’t their appetites being whetted NOW?
I’m sure when the publicity does start (for the DVD and for the new season) we’ll all (we, here) be excited. And if they do it a little right, it will have impact. But I just don’t agree that there should be any ‘dark’ time. Because right now only 20% of people (theoretically) have even heard of it. So how many of that small number are even interested? is all I’m saying.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
You should be paid $250/hour for this kind of advice. If only they would take it!
April 16th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Works for me.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I have to say I was blessed — I got into it several episodes in, at a friend’s insistence — and downloaded the episodes from iTunes. Completely missed AMC’s incompetence.
Ever think that’s the plan? Screw up the order so much that people purchase the episodes and then, when the DVD comes out, buy that for the extras?
April 16th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
That’s too clever by half, like the people who thought the disaster of New Coke was a conspiracy to increase loyalty to Coke Classic when it was reintroduced.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:05 am
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