Smoke a bowl and read this masterpiece from Clickhole: An Oral History Of ‘Mad Men’. You will get the chuckles so hard, you’ll spill all the Doritos. It’s very long. It’s very funny.
Here’s a snip:
Matthew Weiner (series creator): It was 2006, and I had just been fired from The Sopranos for writing an episode where every single character dies on a roller coaster. I had been toying with the idea for Mad Men for a number of years, and since I was currently out of work, I figured I would try pursuing it in earnest. I sat down and wrote all seven seasons of Mad Men in about four hours.
Ed Carroll (President, AMC Networks): At that time, the only thing airing on AMC was a show called Broderick Names Them Roderick, which was a reality show about Matthew Broderick holding divorced men at gunpoint and forcing them to change their legal name to Roderick against their will. We aired this show 24 hours a day. Needless to say, we were looking for some original programing.
Matthew Weiner: I walked into Ed Carroll’s office without knocking, and I said, “What about a show where it’s Don Draper, baby?”
Ed Carroll: Matt just stood in my office excitedly repeating the phrase “It’s Don Draper, baby!” over and over again. I had no idea what Don Draper was, but I said to Matt, “You’ve got yourself a show.”
Matthew Weiner: The next step was to get a cast together.
Jon Hamm (Don Draper): Yes. I am Hamm. I read the script of Mad Men. I knew that I wanted to be the main star. The secret man who drinks at work. I loved him. I called Matthew Weiner and I told him, “I love this script. I love the main star. Hamm must be Draper. It has to be Hamm.”
Matthew Weiner: Definitely my favorite part about Don Draper is that he drinks at work.
January Jones (Betty Draper): I went to the audition, and all Matt asked us to do was shout the word “advertising.”
Matthew Weiner: It’s a show about advertising, so anyone we cast would have to be able to say “advertising” very loudly.
Ed Carroll: Matt’s rule was whoever could shout the word “advertising” the loudest got to be in the show.
Jon Hamm: I am Hamm.
An Oral History Of ‘Mad Men’ [Clickhole]
