October 17, 2008 By: Deborah Lipp Category: AMC, Matthew Weiner, Media-Web-News
I pulled this out of “Mad News;” it’s too important to slip in among everything else.
AMC has formally signed Mad Men for a third season, but Matt Weiner is still seeking the best-possible deal. He is in active negotations.
I don’t want to live in a world where Mad Men continues without Weiner. Watch this space.
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October 17th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I shudder, visibly, at the thought.
October 17th, 2008 at 11:45 am
How long can Mad Men go on? Seems like they could go until they hit the Summer of Love in 1967. That was sort of the end of the Mad Men era, I think.
And, please, I don’t want to see a 40+ yr old Pete Campbell in a 70’s-era powder blue leisure suit!
October 17th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
DD, depending on which interview you pull from, Matt has talked about it going for five seasons, which would be 1970, or even as far as 1972.
October 17th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Five seasons, would be great. However, ten seasons would be even better. We can hope, right?
October 17th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
OT for Deborah and other Buffyphiles: Last night on a second viewing, my partner identified “Christian” from “The Jet Set”–the man who arrived with the children in tow–as the same actor who played Dracula in “Buffy vs. Dracula.”
October 17th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Oh, and I paused the show to tell him that “Sinjin” was really the name “St. John”–something I learned here–only to have him tell me that of course he knew that…from James Bond.
October 17th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I agree with you DuckDodgers-
“I don’t want to see a 40+ yr old Pete Campbell in a 70’s-era powder blue leisure suit!”
Its a very offensive image in my head.. I imagine him in the room with Jennie (from Forrest Gump) being all overconfident jerk.
MM with out Matt is like Lord of the Rings (and now The Hobbit) with out Peter Jackson. Possible but with a very poor discombobulated product nobody wants.
October 17th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
SuziQ–how ’bout they go back in time? Season 6–1958. Could be fascinating.
“Dear Mr. Weiner…”
Inanna, Deb was all over that. We’re planning an udated Whedon crossover post.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I think a 40-year-old Pete Campbell would be a hoot! I mean, how much more offensive could he really get?
Personally, I can’t wait for all these suits to get a load of a real live hippy. Going to that most ’60’s of all years, 1972, would be ideal.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
And it ends with Nixon. I think Weiner said that would bring it full circle.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Inanna, someone else identified Christian; I will probably save the updated Whedon-crossover list for after season’s end.
And I, too, knew “Sinjin” from James Bond; specifically, from A VIEW TO A KILL.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
…or West Wing without Sorkin. But West Wing had about a half a really bad season, and then got its legs back.
October 17th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Roberta, going back in time would be really great. Instead of what would Don Draper do, how about what did/would/could /Dick Whitman do? This story line has so much potential. Damn, I love MW!
October 17th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I know they all adore the show, and the short season leaves a flexible schedule, but I wonder for how long they’ll be able to resign all the regular cast members. Bad enough Francine had to leave us; I don’t want to live in a world where MM continues without Joan or Roger or Pete…
October 17th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
*** Breathes a sigh of relief ***
October 17th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Will this be the case every year – Weiner having to confer with AMC for contract negotiations?
October 17th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Rosie,
Weiner is actually negotiating with Lionsgate. The big news is that AMC wants it. Everything else is haggling — and I’m sure MW is used to it from working on The Sopranos.
October 17th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Be just and fear not.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
LionsGate won’t let Weiner go. He’s too important to the show’s direction. He’s executive producer, show runner and a writer. He is The Architect of the Mad Men universe. Without him, the show will crumble.
Besides, he’s got plenty of bargaining chips to use. David Chase was the brains behind The Sopranos from beginning to end. Star Trek had Rick Berman (even if Berman was also the architect of the franchise’s eventual collapse, too). Tom Kapinos is behind Californication. The “one-man-army” approach to a show’s creative direction has plenty of precedents and without MW, I think Mad Men will collapse.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
In the Variety article that spoke about the MM renewal they mentioned the “rabid fans.”
Then I though how would Kurt (I am homosexual) say rabid fan?
Answer: rabbit.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I have no doubt that Matthew Weiner will return. It’s not the same show without him.
And everyone knows that.
And everyone will get paid and get on board.
Trust Uncle Joe.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
The show would not be the same without the “Weiner” touch. I think it would be cool, that when they do the last episode (maybe 10 seasons from now) they flash forward to show what each character is doing in our current year.
Peggy leading a Top Advertising company. Sal running an art studio in San Francisco with his husband Steve. Pete, He’d be single. But I don’t know what he would be doing.
October 17th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
In the Variety article that spoke about the MM renewal they mentioned the “rabid fans.”
“Basketcases”
October 17th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Elleque-I really like your predictions for what the characters would be doing. Pete would be running Sterling Cooper. However, the agency would be failing, because everyone would to going to Peggy’s agency. I thought what you had Sal doing was touching and sweet.
October 17th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I always pictured Pete following Trudy’s family (and money) to somewhere like Martha’s Vineyard, where Pete achieves his career goal of sitting on his butt and spending money all day.
Cooper dies in his office choking on his lunch. When they clean out his office, they find his desk drawers were filled with a freakish devotion to some kind of benign collection, like beetles or Christmas ties.
Roger has a massive heart attack while having sex with someone besides his significant other, whoever that is at the time.
Don replaces Roger and moves into his office. Betty divorces him. He immediately remarries someone who looks and acts like Betty…but nobody knows.
Ken takes the first available job at the biggest advertising company he can find once all the women at SC have turned him down.
Joan gleefully becomes a housewife and moves to the suburbs, where she inevitably repeats her role at SC. She becomes the Queen Bee to the other Stepford wives in her neighborhood, supplying everything from Ritalin to arguing techniques.
Harry stays at Sterling Cooper…forever.
October 17th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Pete, He’d be single. But I don’t know what he would be doing.
Pete would have thinning hair and girls would go home with him from time to time because they’d feel sorry for him. You know why? Because no one will like him.
And as far as Matt Weiner, he, as a brand, has so closely associated himself with the show. So many interviews, so much screen time. The show does not exist without him.
October 17th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Dick Whitman’s Ghost, you get a LOL.
Paul ends up as Obama’s running mate.
Joan, definately let’sthe weight take control. I just can’t picture her turning into a fitness freak. Maybe she gets her Jane Fonda on during the 80’s. But still never lets herself get too skinny.
Don gets totally out of advertising and takes upsome kind of art. Maybe he becomes a great photographer like Annie Lebowitz, or Ansel Adams. I just picture him taking his own path and he is a great observer of people.
Pete definately ends up bald. Pete becomes “Mr. Hand” LOL, I don’t know why that image came into my head for anyone who knows who I m referrencing.
October 17th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
My guess: MW (and the entire cast) will be back for a third season. Perhaps they make the jump to 1965. After that, it may get tricky trying to bring everyone back. You know how it goes with a successful series…egos and salary demands quickly grow.
Mad Men is not a cheap show to produce. And while we love it, the rating are not spectacular (although the audience demographics are quite impressive). I fear it will be tough to get a fourth season out of this same crew. Too bad, because I’d love to see what happens as they inch towards the 1970s.
Bottom line: Enjoy the third season, it may be the last.
October 17th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I want them to stay the course and go to 1963. I think they need to make sure it covers JFK’s assassination since it is such an important time. I would like to see how it affects the characters.
My mother lived in Dallas (not downtown, but in the suburbs) at the time, she was only 14. She said that everyone was walking around in the streets aimless and crying. She said that everyone there felt responsible because it happened in thier city.
I think Pete would have a sad reaction. More so than his own father’s death. He thought JFK was a little like Elvis, both came from wealth. Married to a Jackie. I could see Pete likening himself to him. Pete has a high opinion of himself. It would be humanizing to Pete to see someone so young, with a bright future ahad of him get cut down in his prime.
Not to mention MLK’s assasination. If Paul comes back a changed man that we all hope, we want to see his reaction. I would also like to see some of the reactions of the African-Americans. Something tells me that after MLK’s assasination, Hollis is not going to be so content to be “Invisible.”
So no, continue to 1963. Too much excellent history to cover. Too much excellent avenues of characterization and growth.
People didn’t just start thinking correctly. It took these kind of events to alter their ideas.
October 17th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
“The Truth”, give us time, we are working on getting more viewers little at a time. Until then, don’t rain on our parade.
October 17th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
“The Truth,” the fact is, this is not an expensive show to produce, although if salary demands go up, that could change. They cut lots of corners, and Weiner has spoken often of how they budget the show so that it looks expensive while still being cheap.
October 18th, 2008 at 2:15 am
#23 @Deborah,
Ah poor Kurt, not being in the twenty-first century he would not know the wonderment of the Lipp Sisters’ Basket of Kisses!
So a ‘rabid fan’:
He would say ‘Rabbits’ when but in his (future) heart he would say ‘BasketCases”.
And to MW we would all give a thanks to his genius!
October 18th, 2008 at 2:29 am
The budget is a problem, and part of what is being fought for. The crew works to hard to create what they create in seven days. They are scrounging for materials, like a community theater.
October 18th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I can totally understand (and am rooting for) Weiner trying to leverage his success with this show into a better deal — maybe even a first-look development deal somewhere. Go MW! If he were to step down as day-to-day showrunner of MAD MEN, hand the reigns to the Jacquemettons or Noxon or whomever, in order to start developing other shows (movies!), that could be a very good thing for the TV landscape.
Weiner’s already done all the big work and set the show up, it’s a well-running machine now. As long as he keeps his hand in the writers room, it might not be the worst thing for him to take a few steps back here…
October 18th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
LippSisters! Maybe you two will break the news of Matt Weiner’s return!!! Perfect timing! Right after the S2 finale, Matt announces to the world exclusively through you two during your interview with him that HE’S BACK. Wouldn’t that be great!!!
October 18th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
“I always pictured Pete following Trudy’s family (and money) to somewhere like Martha’s Vineyard, where Pete achieves his career goal of sitting on his butt and spending money all day.”
Sounds lovely. Then again, that is probably how Pete would run a business. Heck, he did all the work in California, while sitting beside a pool or eating inside a restaurant.
October 18th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Peter, we’ll do what we can to get an exclusive anything from Matthew. He absolutely wanted to speak to us on the day following the finale. Whether it’s for a scoop of that nature, or just that he wanted to discuss whatever that finale drops in our laps, we are so pleased that he knows who to talk to and that he respects the level of discussion that takes place at the Basket.
October 27th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I have read through several of the threads of discussion and have yet to see a predicted date for the start of Season 3? Lipp Sisters: Via of your interviews with the producers, writer, etc., do you have this info?