Matthew Weiner and the Ending of 'Mad Men': Will Don Draper Live?
Matthew Weiner, the creator of AMC's Mad Men, has revealed how the series will end.
But the more important issue is, will Don Draper live?
Will he see the '70s and the birth of bell-bottoms, Saturday Night Fever and Afro hairstyles?
Rest assured, Mad Men fans. Draper is not going anywhere, and viewers might even see him tackle the 21st century.
I do know how the whole show ends. It came to me in the middle of last season. I always felt like it would be the experience of human life. And human life has a destination, Weiner told Grant Land on Monday.
It doesn't mean Don's gonna die. What I'm looking for, and how I hope to end the show, is like ... It's 2011. Don Draper would be 84 right now. I want to leave the show in a place where you have an idea of what it meant and how it's related to you, Weiner said.
In March, following a long battle over contract negotiations between AMC, Lionsgate and Weiner, all parties agreed to a season five start, scheduled for March 2012.
The dispute, which resulted in a 17-month gap between the end of season four and the beginning of season five, was apparently related to three main things Weiner was rejecting.
According to Deadline, Weiner was against the idea of having product placement on the show, chopping two whole minutes from each episodes and reducing two regular cast members.
Two months after a deal was reached between Weiner, AMC and Lionsgate, the show announced that the season five premiere would be directed by Hamm himself.
Hamm, 40, will follow the footsteps of fellow Mad Men castmember John Slattery (Roger Sterling), who directed two episodes in season four.
Since its July 2007 premiere, Mad Men has remained one of the strongest television shows on cable, thanks to a stellar cast (Hamm, Slattery, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, January Jones and others) and a storyline that just keeps getting better and better with the times.
From the secret of Dick Whitman, to ad campaigns for Lucky Strike and Utz, to the rise of Peggy Olsen, the birth of Sterling Cooper Draper Price and the growth of Sally Draper, Mad Men has hit all the right notes with its multiple storylines.
The show's season four premiere more than tripled the number of viewers for its series premiere (2.92 million viewers vs. 0.90 million).
So come March, with the start of season five and three seasons to go before its ending, fans will still wonder, how will Don Draper and company fast forward to present day? What will happen to Megan? Will Peggy Olsen start her own ad agency?
There is a culmination of an experience of people working at their highest level. And all I want to do is not wear out the welcome . . . do I know everything that's gonna happen? No, I don't. But I just want it to be entertaining, and I want people to remember it fondly and not think it ended in a fart, Weiner told Grantland.
Season five of Mad Men premieres on Mar. 16, 2012 on AMC.
Scroll down to watch highlights from the season four finale, courtesy of AMC.
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