Mad Men

[NakedIfIWantTo]

What about the actors? Must be a pain to be suddenly having to look for another job...

 

[OhSoLively]

They've got contracts so they will all be paid whilst everything is getting sorted. The only issue the actors will have is that they can't really book any jobs because they don't know when MM will start again. Like if a main cast member like Jon Hamm cannot realistically book a movie because filming might clash with MM when it decides to start shooting again. So unless the movie is willing to be flexible, he may have to drop out of the movie because he is contractually obligated to do MM.

So they are pretty much being paid to be in limbo. It may come slightly later than usual but I think it's highly likely that we will get it this year.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Chaky]

This was in Variety today:

'Mad' mode: waiting

Start date not yet set as dealmaking drags on

By Justin Kroll, Cynthia Littleton

The prolonged wrangling between AMC, Lionsgate TV and Matt Weiner over a new deal for the next two seasons of "Mad Men" is starting to take a toll on one of the show's key components: the thesps. Members of the show's large ensemble had been counting on being able to cash paychecks in the near future, based on the show's traditional production cycle. In the past, the "Mad Men" writers room had opened around mid-February, with lensing beginning in early spring and running through the summer.

But with the dealmaking dragging on, it's hard for anyone to pin down a date for the start of shooting on the show's fifth season. That leaves the show's key stars idled and with limited options for taking other jobs because of their contractual obligations to "Mad Men."

AMC and Lionsgate are said to have concluded what had been an arduous negotiation to extend the show's license term through a sixth season. Now the focus is on finalizing a new pact for Weiner to stay at the helm for another two seasons (his previous deal expired at the end of last season). AMC's hired gun, attorney Jim Jackoway, is leading the negotiations with Weiner's team, a signal that AMC is kicking in significant coin to make sure "Mad Men" retains its original creative vision. There were indications last week that a deal was coming together, but sources close to the situation note that it's been a rocky process.

The strain of the uncertainty is weighing on some of the "Mad Men" troupe, including its leading man. Jon Hamm didn't mince words when asked by Variety at last week's "Sucker Punch" preem party when he thought the show might be back in action: "2012," he said. "And you can write that."

variety.com

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

Season 5 of ‘Mad Men’ Is Delayed Until 2012

By BRIAN STELTER
Published: March 29, 2011

“Mad Men,” the three-time Emmy Award-winning drama, will not return to television until sometime early next year, AMC confirmed on Tuesday, because of a deepening dispute with the show’s creator, Matthew Weiner.

In the meantime, fans will have to settle for the public negotiating and the posturing.

AMC, which has showcased “Mad Men” for the last four summers and has benefited mightily from it, has offered Mr. Weiner a three-season deal that would be worth $30 million, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. But Mr. Weiner is bristling at the channel’s proposal to shorten each episode by two minutes (to add commercial time) and to cut the cast budget (to save money). He says the changes would fundamentally make “Mad Men” a “different show.”

“I don’t understand why, with all of the success of the show, they suddenly need to change it,” he said in an interview on Tuesday, the last day of a planned ski vacation.

He added, “All I want to do is continue to make my show, and make it in the way I want to, with the people I want to make it with.”

Mr. Weiner would not talk about the specific proposals. But another person with knowledge of the negotiations said AMC had also demanded additional product placement in the episodes. The people spoke only on condition of anonymity because they did not want to impede the negotiations.

Mr. Weiner, who has a reputation for taking his creative integrity seriously, is recognized as the soul of “Mad Men.” His contract expired last October, at the end of the fourth season.

Since then the future of “Mad Men” has been uncertain. AMC has always insisted that the show would resume, but for months it was at odds with Lionsgate, the company that produces the series. Last week there were reports that production would not start in time for a summer premiere.

Apparently the companies have settled some of their differences. On Tuesday morning — shortly after AMC’s proposals for cuts to “Mad Men” were published by Deadline.com and The Daily — the channel said it had authorized Lionsgate to produce Season 5.

“While we are getting a later start than in years past due to ongoing, key noncast negotiations, ‘Mad Men’ will be back for a fifth season in early 2012,” AMC said. “Noncast negotiations” was a reference to Mr. Weiner.

Mr. Weiner has clashed with AMC in the past. Two years ago, during his last contract negotiation, the channel similarly tried to add two minutes of commercial time to “Mad Men”; the show eventually was lengthened by two minutes to accommodate the added commercials.

This time AMC has shown no willingness to make a similar accommodation, according to one of the people with knowledge of the negotiations. AMC declined to comment.

Fans of the show have swamped social networking Web sites with complaints about the delay, with some taking AMC’s side and calling Mr. Weiner intransigent, while others have faulted AMC.

Fans took particular exception to the possibility that $1.5 million, roughly two regular cast members, would be excised from the cast budget each season. Vanity Fair’s Web site asked in a blog post which two characters should be cut — and helpfully recommended Betty Francis and Harry Crane.

People in Mr. Weiner’s camp, meanwhile, deflected blame for the delay and suggested that AMC never intended to start Season 5 before March 2012. Thanks largely to “Mad Men,” which had an average of nearly three million viewers per episode, AMC has become well known for its cable dramas, and it has several other shows that it wants to put on its schedule this year.

Amid the contentious contract talks for “Mad Men,” AMC’s parent company, Rainbow Media, is in the process of being spun off by its owner, Cablevision, and renamed AMC Networks. The process is expected to be completed this summer.

AMC’s $30 million offer to Mr. Weiner would make him an exceptionally highly paid producer — perhaps the most of anyone working in cable television. But for now he is objecting to the channel’s terms.

He said on Tuesday: “I love the show; I have every intention of it working out. This has been the most creatively satisfyingly experience of my life.”

nyt

 

[OhSoLively]

As this new contract with Weiner will make him the highest paid producer on basic cable - if he felt that strongly about the cuts why doesn't he take a slight pay reduction to save the two cast members. Afterall they only need around 2mill extra. I'm sure these negotiations have more to do with MW pay & control rather than anything else.

While extra product placements and ads are annoying, a show like Mad Men needs them. Shows as authentic as MM and Boardwalk Empire are expensive to maintain. It is also harder for those type of shows to make money from product placements as obviously most things may have not existed back then. Mad Men only averages less that 3m viewers, and as Lionsgates gets ALL the revenue from DVD sales - a small channel like AMC needs the extra ads etc.

Mathew Weiner is turning into Ryan Murphy imo. While Mad Men was AMC's tentpole in terms of exposure, their new original shows are pulling in double the viewers that MM does. Especially as MM is nearing it's final act, AMC won't be as understanding if MW keeps pushing everytime at renogotiations.

AMC has stated that MM will return March 2012. It could have premiered in later in 2011 but they have a few new shows to accommodate.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[McClaire]

When news hit that ‘Mad Men’ wouldn’t return until 2012, fans of AMC’s juggernaut sighed. When that news spiraled into the notion that creator Matthew Weiner may leave the series, fans wept.
Now Weiner is clearing a few things up. “There’s been a lot of speculation and misinformation in the press about what is going on,” he tells ‘Mad Men’ blog Basket of Kisses. “I want the fans to know directly from me that I had nothing to do with this delay and it is not about money. I am fighting for the cast and for the show. And I appreciate the kindness and concern of the fans.”
The AMC/Weiner negotiations have been rumored to be in progress for months. “We didn’t have an actual conversation until three weeks ago,” Weiner clarifies.
AMC’s three reported conditions for ‘Mad Men’ are trimming the show’s length to accommodate more commercials, incorporating more product placement and ditching two cast members. Weiner says that while characters have departed the series before, it’s never been about money.
“I’ve brought the show in on budget,” Weiner says. “I’ve been a good producer.”
HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall, one of the web’s foremost ‘Mad Men’ gurus, has a thought-out take on the situation. “AMC compromised on the commercial time once, and though they suggest to [The New York Times] that they won’t this time, you never know,” Sepinwall writes. “Maybe in the end AMC blinks, deciding that the prestige of the show — which is largely dependent on having Matt Weiner present and happy — and what it means to their own brand is worth more than squeezing some extra bucks out of the margins.”
Weiner clarifies that the massive salary being floated in the press — $30 million for three more seasons — is inaccurate. “I offered to have less money, to save the cast, and to leave the show in the running time that it’s supposed to be,” Weiner says. “The harder that I’ve fought for the show, the more money that they’ve offered me.”
Weiner’s final words for troubled ‘Mad Men’ fans? “Everyone can hold on, and we’ll see if it’s necessary, but of course I would want them to express their feelings. I can’t even tell you what it’s meant to me to have intelligent people who care about the show, who reflect about it, who obsess about it, it’s been a total surprise to me. It’s surpassed everything I would ever have expected.”

lippsisters.com

 

[NakedIfIWantTo]

The harder that I’ve fought for the show, the more money that they’ve offered me.

That sounds fun

 

[MyNameIs]

Although there's always two sides to the story, I do sort of blame AMC for all this. I mean Mad Men put them on the map. It's THE show that everyone thinks of when you say AMC. I don't know why they wouldn't try to get them on set as soon as possible. Is AMC losing money in all this?

 

[McClaire]

^ I feel like this is AMC first and really only BIG hit. It put them on the map as far as programing is and maybe they don't know or have the experience to do negotiations right? They're rookies. If it were say CBS or NBC this sh*t would have been done and in the can with the whole cast back and with big paychecks. That's just my feeling/opinion on it.

That sounds fun

For.Real. Would we all want to be that lucky.

 

[bunburyist]

If it was on CBS or NBC then it wouldn't be the same show

 

[McClaire]

^ That wasn't my point. I feel like AMC just didn't know what to do.

However everything seems to be okay now!

"Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner and AMC announced Thursday that they had come to a contract agreement that would keep him with the show for three more years. The deal is reportedly worth $25-30 million, and comes after heated negotiations that became public and almost broke down earlier in the week.
“I want to thank all of our wonderful fans for their support,” Weiner said in a statement. “I also want to thank AMC and Lionsgate for agreeing to support the artistic freedom of myself, the cast and the crew, so that we can continue to make the show exactly as we have from the beginning. I’m excited to get started on the next chapter of our story.”
A source close to the show outlined to The Huffington Post the outcome of the negotiation's areas of dispute:
AMC dropped its demand for a $1.5 million per season budget cut; the preserved money means in part that Weiner will no longer be required to cut two significant actors per season. Instead, characters will be cut if it suits the show creatively.
The network insisted that the show cut two minutes per episode for more advertising time; the contract calls for the first and last episode of the show to be the normal 47 minutes. For episodes 2-11, they will initially air as 45 minute episodes, and Weiner's "Final Cut" will be available digitally 8 days later.
Additionally, product integration policy will remain the same; AMC had wanted more transparency in placements, requesting the ability for companies to publicize that their products appeared on the show.
The source emphasized that Weiner has full creative control of the show. It will begin again in March, 2012; AMC has a full slate of summer and fall shows and had always intended to start "Mad Men" later than it had hit airwaves in seasons past.

HuffingtonPost.com

Have to to wait for it but at least it's going to air.

 

[kokobombon]

March 2012! I never doubted that it would be back but that´s such a long wait!

 

[Northern Star]

^ It is isn't it. Never mind I'm sure it will be worth the wait.

It's crap when this sort of thing happens, but thankfully they got it sorted.
I would hate to see the show suffer over some disagreements.

 

[farou7a]

oh my sweet lord, another whole year?

 

[ladygodiva]

I finished watching the first season yesterday, I did not see the end twist with Peggy. I thought she might just be pregnant, not be in labour. The show lags a bit but it's interesting. I'm still not decided on Betty, she's so child like one minute and then completely different the next. I'm guessing that's because of her childhood but she's the one I care about the least. I really don't like Peter, he's so slimy but the actor plays him so well. Does Roger come back any time in the second season? But my favourite is Joan, always so put together and so pretty. Can't wait to start the second season tonight.

 

[CielDeLit]

^ Of course Roger a.k.a Silver Fox is back he's in all the seasons so far. You're so lucky you have so many episodes to discover, I can't wait for season 5 ! But be careful about this thread, there is a lot of spoilers.

I don't get all the hate towards Pete, nobody likes him but I don't think he's any worse than the other men on the show, even compared to Don

 

[ladygodiva]

^ Of course Roger a.k.a Silver Fox is back he's in all the seasons so far. You're so lucky you have so many episodes to discover, I can't wait for season 5 ! But be careful about this thread, there is a lot of spoilers.

I don't get all the hate towards Pete, nobody likes him but I don't think he's any worse than the other men on the show, even compared to Don

Thanks, I'm glad he's back! I've watched the first 5 episodes of season 2 and am liking it so far. I'm not going to go through this whole thread until I've watched all the episodes, just in case of spoilers.

I think the thing with Pete is he tries TOO hard. From what I've gathered he obviously wants to move up in the world and has to live/deal with his family's legacy with the Crash but I feel like he puts this fake smile on and fake persona just to please people, it's not who he is. I feel like he even cheats because that's what the men around him are doing. LoL

I have to admit I was shocked from one of the episodes where Betty wanted Don to punish their son and she pushes him and he pushed her back!

And OMG I did not see that twist with Peggy and the baby coming. Can't wait to see how that will unravel.

 

[CielDeLit]

Yeah I know what you mean about Pete but I find his 'failures' engaging, we can relate to them quite easily. I don't remember which member of the cast said it but it was something like "everyone wants to be a Don Draper but in reality we're all Pete Campbells", and I think it's fairly accurate.
Although he's a cheater and a liar Don oozes effortlessness and gets away with everything, unlike Pete. His character is very subtle, paraoxical; like you pointed out he's caught bewteen conficted interests, it's not easy to deal with that and sometimes it might lead him to be fake so he can please both sides.

And I have a crush on Vincent Kartheiser so yeah, maybe I'm a little biased.

 

[kokobombon]

Emmy Magazine#3 2011



ebook-free-download.net

 

[Aby]

^Ha! Great tag line! Worthy of a good ad agency!)