Mad Men (2007, 2008, 2009))

Mad Men is an American period drama television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The show is broadcast on the American cable network AMC and is produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007 and completed its second season on October 26, 2008. The third season began on August 16, 2009 and will conclude on November 8. It has been renewed by AMC for a fourth season, which will air in 2010.

Set in New York City, Mad Men is set in the 1960s at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue. The show centers on Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the agency's creative director, and those in his life, in and out of the office. It also depicts the changing social mores of 1960s America.

Mad Men has received critical acclaim, particularly for its historical authenticity and visual style, and has won multiple awards, including nine Emmys and three Golden Globes. It is the first basic cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.

Lead characters

• Donald Francis "Don" Draper (Jon Hamm): Creative director and eventual junior partner of Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency; Draper is the series' main character. His past is shadowy, but he has achieved success at the agency. He is married to Elizabeth "Betty" Draper and has three children, but has a history of infidelity. Draper's real name is Dick Whitman; he assumed the real Don Draper's identity during the Korean War.
• Margaret "Peggy" Olson (Elisabeth Moss): Olson rises from Draper's secretary to a copywriter with her own office. She unknowingly becomes pregnant with Pete Campbell's child, is told she suffered a mental breakdown after the unexpected birth given that she did not know of her pregnancy, and gives the baby up for adoption.
• Peter Dyckman "Pete" Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser): A young, ambitious account executive from a privileged background. Campbell tries to blackmail Don Draper with information from Draper's past. He and his wife are unable to conceive a child, and he remains unaware of his child with Olson until the second season finale.
• Elizabeth "Betty" Draper (née Hofstadt) (January Jones): A former model and Don Draper's wife and mother of their three children, Sally, Bobby and Eugene Scott. She gradually becomes aware of her husband's womanizing over the first two seasons. Following a brief separation, Betty allows Don to return home after discovering she is pregnant with their third child, but not before having a tryst of her own.
• Joan Harris (née Holloway) (Christina Hendricks): Office manager and head of the secretarial pool at Sterling Cooper. She has a long-term affair with Roger Sterling until his two heart attacks cause him to end the relationship. In Season 2, she dates and becomes engaged to Greg Harris. By Season 3, they have married, and Joan quits her job at Sterling Cooper in the middle of the season.
• Roger Sterling Jr. (John Slattery): One of the two senior partners of Sterling Cooper, and formerly a good friend of Don Draper. His father founded the firm with Bertram Cooper, which explains why his name is before Cooper's. A picture in Cooper's office shows Roger as a child alongside Cooper depicted as a young adult. In the same scene^{[episode needed]}, Cooper refers to the picture and calls Roger "Peanut", indicating that theirs is a friendship (perhaps even family relationship) that spans many decades. In Season 2, Bertram Cooper mentions that "the late Mrs. Cooper" introduced Sterling to his wife, Mona, who Sterling is in the process of divorcing in favor of Don's former secretary, the 22-year-old Jane. Bertram Cooper's sister, Alice Cooper, babysat for Sterling when he was a child. Sterling served in the Navy and was a notorious womanizer (living like he was "on shore leave") until two heart attacks changed his perspective, at least for a while. The heart attacks did not affect his drinking or smoking habits, which remained excessive. He retains considerable affection from both Sterling Cooper employees (with whom he has far more contact than Bert Cooper) and his family. By 1962, Sterling has returned to work and is seen to indulge in his old habits.