'Mad Men' success surprised creator, star
LOS ANGELES — As many things as they did right with Mad Men, creator Matthew Weiner and star Jon Hamm were not the best handicappers of the AMC drama's prospects before it premiered in 2007.
Weiner says he didn't expect big success and Hamm, who brought brilliant, troubled ad man Don Draper to life, "was even less delusional. From the beginning, he was letting me down easy, saying the pilot would be the end of it but that we had a great time."
The writer and actor, sitting together for an interview with Paste BN, were off by seven seasons, not to mention four consecutive Emmys for best drama, as Weiner's critically acclaimed story of 1960s New York advertising men became a cultural phenomenon and helped usher in an era of quality drama on basic-cable networks. Men returns for its final seven episodes Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Men's influence is apparent in current museum exhibits, such as one at New York's Museum of the Moving Image that features Don's office and the Draper kitchen. "It remains an incredibly evocative thing," Hamm says.
After career, romantic and family ups and downs, Don has spent last year's episodes "fighting to get his job back, fighting to repair his relationship with (colleague) Peggy, fighting to get his self-respect back" even as others, including colleagues and family members, focus on their own lives, says Weiner, who agreed to the seven-season run in 2011 as part of his contract deal with AMC and Lionsgate, which produces the show.
He believes viewers have been drawn to the real-life nature of the drama. "Someone is not saying, 'You killed my father.' They're saying, 'You lied to me.' What people in the audience have responded to and what we've tried to do is say, 'That is the drama in our life,' " Weiner says. "Don has been behaving in a universe that we occupy."
As the final episodes await, Hamm says he can't pick a favorite episode or moment. "It's been a singular experience in many ways. It's just been a field of points of excitement. At the end of it, you step back and you realize all those points have created this picture. I'm thrilled to have been part of it and of the impact it has made with people."