Dear AMC,
Okay, maybe that was a little harsh. I won’t actually burn you to the ground, but I will metaphorically end you with my mind if you dick over Mad Men. Yes, I know that you said it will be back this summer, which is all well and good. I mean, I would prefer it if it came back right now; hell, what I really want is for Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks to just come over to my house and act out scenes from the show, but I get it. I don’t always get what I want.
But let’s be honest here. You’re AMC. You’re not HBO, or Showtime; you’re not even TNT. What I mean is you’re not exactly known for your original programming. You were what old people tuned into on Sunday afternoons when they wanted to watch reruns of Murder She Wrote, or Unsolved Mysteries, or whatever the hell.
Then, you magically stumbled onto Mad Men, and everything changed. Suddenly, AMC became a home for appointment television. People talked about your show around the water cooler, women started wearing high-waisted skirts and suddenly, a cast no one had ever heard of (except for the chick who used to be the President’s daughter and the guy who wanted Carrie Bradshaw to pee on him) were on their way to super-stardom. Jon Hamm hosted SNL, The Simpsons parodied the opening credits, and Mad Men went on to become the first basic cable show to win the Emmy for Best Drama (not to mention winning the Golden Globe two years in a row).
You have a bona fide phenomenon on your hands here and you’re in danger of screwing it all up. Now, I know that this has never happened to you before, so it’s a scary new world, but let me give you a tip: Give everybody associated with Mad Med everything they want. Does Christina Hendricks want a personal masseuse? Give it to her. Does Jon Hamm want a Bentley? Give it to him. Does Elisabeth Moss want all of the green M&M’s picked out of her candy dish and then covered in gold leaf and fed to her by the Travelocity gnome? Give it to her. Does Matthew Weiner want a shirt made out of money and gold shoes? For God’s sake, give it to him!
There is absolutely no reason why Weiner, the creator and showrunner of the best show your network has ever seen, should be telling reporters that the fate of Mad Men is “unknowable.” Come on. You guys are still haggling over money? Of course he wants more money. I’m sure you got everyone involved with this show at bargain basement prices, but now they’ve given you a hit. Not only that, but Mad Men is on an upward track. I would bet anything that season three will be significantly higher-rated than the first two seasons, because everyone on earth is now aware that they’ve been missing something great.
Yes, I’m sure the show could go on without Weiner. As a friend pointed out this morning, the look and the feel of the show are already established, you just have to worry about the stories. While I agree that the look and feel are integral to Mad Men‘s success, it’s not all about satin nightgowns and smoking. What makes Mad Men great is the tension and desperation that lies just below the surface of these characters who make their living in a fast-paced and somewhat glitzy industry.
Sure, you could bring in someone else and he or she could do a good job of carrying on the storylines, but the heart will be missing. Don’t believe me? Just watch the final season of Gilmore Girls to see an example of a once-great show quietly dying after the showrunner leaves. Even Ms. Joan Holloway herself, Christina Hendricks, has flat-out said that “there is no show without Matthew.” Everyone at Sterling Cooper knows that they should listen to Joan — and you should too.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Jan 13, 2009 @ 16:00 EST5EDT
Maybe it’s all just drama for media attention while we wait for the show to come back. Yeah, that’s it. I like that answer. A lot.
The sad truth is that if Matt Weiner wants to stay with MAD MEN, he’s going to be paid well below what he’s worth. The show may be a critical hit, but good reviews don’t pay the bills. As thing stand now, the network probably isn’t making much, if any, money off of the show. The economics don’t make sense for a network like AMC, and it only gets worse if they start increasing salaries.
You know that when people behind a show start talking about an uncertain future in the press, it’s a bargaining tool to get more money. I’m sure AMC and Weiner will reach an agreement, but as you pointed out they’re not HBO or Showtime. AMC doesn’t have the deep pockets of Time Warner and CBS Paramount, so some concessions have to be made on Weiner’s part.
And just a little nit to pick with you, but I don’t ever remember AMC showing old episodes of “Murder, She Wrote” or “Unsolved Mysteries” (think USA and Lifetime). AMC started out life as an alternative to TCM with movies – uncut and uninterrupted – from the studios that TCM didn’t have deals with (most notably, Paramount). Then they went and started adding commercials to the movies and people started tuning out. They did have an original series a few years back about a 1930s radio show, I believe, but they hit it big with “Mad Men.” They still show movies – with commercials – but they are trying to branch out and become the next HBO/Showtime. Just hope they don’t screw it up with these salary negotiations!
Actually AMC started in 1984 and Turner Classic Movies started in 1994. AMC was a premium network until 1987, and broadcast their first original series “Remember WENN” between 1996 and 1998. TCM was created because the Turner interests had a huge catalog of old movies and not many places to show them.
“Gilmore Girls” passed away a whole season before Amy Sherman-Palladino left. She’s the one responsible for the horrible, horrible 6th season, and the mediocre 5th season. I’ve seen none of the 7th season–I gave up on the show at the end of Season 6 (and I was a faithful viewer since the first episode aired)
Similarly, Aaron Sorkin is partially responsible for the mess he left at the end of his final 4th year on “The West Wing”. He put the story in that place. True, the show got pretty awful for a year, year and half after that, but did manage to right itself (with the main characters as essentially guest stars only) in the 7th Jimmy Smits year, where they essentially acted out the Barack Obama story.
I’ve seen exactly one episode of “Mad Men”–the first one–and had absolutely no interest in watching any others. I think it’s the most overpraised show on TV.