AMCtv.com invites Mad Men fans to audition for a walk-on role in  Season 3. We'll fly one person with the best video to L.A. to stay for 4 days and 3 nights - enough time to rub elbows with Don Draper. You don't need to be a professional actor to audition and you can do this with a simple digital camera. We welcome funny, spontaneous home-grown videos.

Just perform pre-selected lines for Don Draper, Pete Campbell, Roger Sterling, Betty Draper, Peggy Olson or Joan Holloway and send us your video.  Download complete contest guidelines here >>

HOW TO ENTER
1. Download and select your Mad Men scripts here >>
2. Keep the video under one-minute. (Accepted file formats: .AVI, Quicktime, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, DV, h.264)
3. Upload your video below (max. file size: 75 MB), and tag your video by your character's name. For the title, enter something descriptive but concise.



You will receive an email confirmation when we have accepted your entry.  (Note: this will not be an immediate response.)  Check back here for updates. Soon you will be able to view, comment, and vote for entries on the official "You Could Be on Mad Men Contest" micro-site.

One season in -- and Mad Men has made it onto Entertainment Weekly's list of "The New Classics" (the 100 best TV shows of the last 25 years)... at number 91, thank you very much. Rolling Stone also touts the drama as one of the top 10 musts for summer, noting that Season 2 finds Jon Hamm's Don Draper "struggling with an identity crisis."

Continue reading "Entertainment Weekly Names Mad Men One of "The New Classics"" »

This Sunday's New York Times Magazine devoted its cover and an extensive feature story to the show and its "genius" creator Matthew Weiner.  The author of the article, Alex Witchel spent three days trailing Weiner on the Mad Men set as he auditioned new guest actors, presided over rehearsals, and revised scripts.

The article recounts how the drama landed at AMC after having been passed over by other networks, characterizing it as "one of those stories that give underdogs of all breeds in this town a reason to get out of bed in the morning."   Witchel also covers everything from Weiner's fastidious attention to period detail to his ferocious desire to keep plot spoilers from escaping the set. 

One detail which Weiner did allow to be published was the fact that the show picks up in 1962. "It's too much of a soap opera to pick up with the next month," Weiner said, explaining his decision. "There's more storytelling in moving ahead and taking a season to find out what happened."

Yearning for one of Betty Draper's breezy floral dresses? Coveting a pair of Peggy Olsen's classic pumps with grosgrain bows? How about Joan Holloway's gold tassel necklace? Well, TV Guide's next issue is running a photo spread of Mad Men's influence on today's fashions -- and revealing where the everyday shopper can find outfits and accessories inspired by the show, which has been characterized as an evocative rendering of the styles of the 1960s. (For the record, viewers can check out Forever 21 for Betty's dress, Prada for Peggy's shoes and Bloomingdale's for Joan's necklace.)

Continue reading "TV Guide, Marie Claire Join Mad Men Chorus of Approval" »

The Emmy buzz surrounding Mad Men is growing louder. USA Today, The Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly have all weighed in favorably for  the show concerning likely nominations. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone provides some cryptic hints about Season 2 from Mad Men's creator Matthew Weiner.

USA Today declares that no slate for the Best Drama category would be valid without Mad Men, "a gorgeously evocative look at America on the cusp of the '60s social revolution," and adds that Jon Hamm's performance as a "deceptively cool adman was simply one of the great breakthrough star turns of the season."

Continue reading "USA Today and EW Fuel Emmy Buzz" »

As the run-up to the Emmy nominations intensifiesVariety talks up Mad Men's top male contenders: lead actor Jon Hamm and supporting actors John Slattery and Vincent Kartheiser; the Hollywood Reporter for its part highlights Robert Morse as a potential guest star nominee.

Hamm -- who's usually cast as a nice guy -- discusses forcing himself to be "meaner" in his portrayal of Don Draper, recalling that being directed to be harsher to co-star Elisabeth Moss (Peggy) felt "like kicking a puppy." He seems to have figured out the role however with Variety calling his work the "signature performance for what many believe was the top frosh drama of the 2007-08 TV season." Mad Men has certainly raised Hamm's profile, and he notes that being an unknown quantity when the show started was an advantage. "A lot of people don't know me, and the sense of unknown and the sense of 'who is this guy' really informs my character," he says.

Continue reading "Variety and Hollywood Reporter Tout Some of Mad Men's Emmy Contenders" »

Just as the show ramps up for its sophomore season starting in late July, the Television Critics Association nominates the series in four categories: Program of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Drama, Outstanding New Program, and Individual Achievement in Drama for Jon Hamm's performance as Don Draper.  Those four nods tied the AMC show with HBO's The Wire for the most nominated original series this year. Other nominees for Program of the Year include HBO's John Adams, ABC's Lost and PBS's The War.

Breaking Bad, AMC's other highly lauded original series, also fared well garnering a nomination for Outstanding New Program where it will face off with Mad Men as well as FX's Damages, HBO's Flight of the Conchords and ABC's Pushing Daisies.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hill's, California on Saturday, July 19. 

Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks grace the cover of this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly which takes an inside look at Mad Men.  Series creator Matthew Weiner and the show's principal cast place some strategic hints about the upcoming season while carefully avoiding any plot spoilers.  The importance of protecting the integrity of the storyline has become a mantra on the set but Weiner does allow the series will not pick up exactly where it left off on Thanksgiving of 1960, "It's enough of a period of time that people will wonder what happened in between."

Also included with the article is a 'Mad Men 101' sidebar offering a crash course on each of the show's principal characters (plus coy hints about where they might be headed in Season 2). Christina Hendricks alludes to an amusing development between Joan and Peggy; Michael Gladis admits that his character will be sporting a beard.

Click here for Entertainment Weekly's Mad Men behind-the-scenes video.

Need a fix of Don Draper? Want to know how (or if) Peggy is dealing with motherhood? AMC officially announces the premiere of Mad Men Season 2: Sunday, July 27 @ 10PM | 9C. To get you ready for the second season, AMC will have a Mad Men marathon of all 13 episodes of Season One on Sunday, July 20 starting at 12PM | 11C.

Want to do your homework even sooner? The first season of the series will be released on DVD July 1 and is available for pre-order for $10 off the retail price in the AMC Store. Fans can also look forward to the release of the compact disc Mad Men: Music from the Series, Vol. 1 on June 24 and a 2009 calendar soon thereafter.

Some awards shows make it a point to pair two unlikely celebrities as presenters and honorees for some forced moments of levity. But Vincent Kartheiser didn't have to venture too far outside of the Mad Men universe when he received his prize at Hollywood Life magazine's 10th Annual Young Hollywood Awards on Sunday night. There to crown him as Breakthrough Star of the Year for Television was his co-star Jon Hamm. The whole affair must have felt like some sort of reunion for Vincent. Right after receiving his award, Emmanuelle Chriqui, a fellow winner who appeared with him in Ricky 6 (one of their first films) gave him a shoutout from the podium. Also on hand to show support were fellow Mad Men cast members Elisabeth Moss, Aaron Staton, Bryan Batt and Michael Gladis. After the ceremony, Kartheiser and company adjourned to an after party, conveniently located upstairs at the Spider Club.