There's an interesting
interview with Matt Weiner on Salon. There are no spoilers whatsoever (Weiner wouldn't even let her say what year the new season takes place in).
Quote:
Do you feel complimented by all the ersatz-”Mad Men” period-shows [like "Playboy Club" and "Pan Am"] that have popped up?
The compliment for me is that the companies that are making them all hated my script! They were so incredibly dismissive to me. Some of the people who were involved in one of these new shows literally rejected me four times. And to see them jumping on the bandwagon, and to see their perception of why the show succeeded, that it was somehow about haircuts and bra cups. On the other hand, part of me is like, I’m in TV, and there have been plenty of period TV shows.
When I grew up, the biggest TV shows were “Happy Days” and “MASH.” I don’t own this concept. And from a writer’s standpoint, any writer who goes through that entire process with a major network and ends up with the show on the air, all they have is my heartfelt congratulations. It is a hard road to hoe. And they don’t need me sitting out here wishing failure on them. I don’t.
But creatively, I’ve got to say, why don’t they take a risk doing something else? This was a huge risk for AMC. No one thought that anyone would give a crap about this show. It had no stars, and we were on a channel with no time slot. It had no audience and this is what happened. I bet most networks have a dozen scripts hanging out there that are bold and amazing and new and they never want to do that. They try to make people do stuff that is already out there.
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