DJariya

Yeah, but still no Weiner yet. He writes or co-writes practically all the episodes, so he still needs to get his deal done.

But, $15M a year to be a cable showrunner.....Hmmm.

Throwing Copper

As long as the quality for the show remains very high, it doesn't bother me that we have to wait until 2012.

Plus, Breaking Bad is back this summer.

DJariya

http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/amc-...2012-premiere/

Update: The Official Premiere Date is now set. March 2012

Geofferson

Same here. Hopefully The Killing is good (premiers next week). Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, thought I heard mention of another new show?

Anyway, should be sufficient quality of AMC original programming to fill the Mad Men void.

PopcornTreeCt

Goddamn! That is a year away! Dexter can't get here soon enough.

DJariya

They have enough original shows to fill the time gap, but I still don't get AMC in HD though.

Luckily I still have a TV in SD, so I can watch AMC on there and it won't look as bad.

DJariya

http://twitter.com/sutterink/status/52698443440865280#

This is what Kurt Sutter from Sons of Anarchy, thinks about Matt Weiner.

TGM

That single tweet makes up for SoA's lackluster past season. ROFL!

aktick

I don't know what others think, but to me it looks just as good not filling the screen on my HDTV as it does filling a 4:3 SDTV.

aktick

Nice. It is hard for me to feel much sympathy for Weiner - what do the show runners for the most watched network shows make? Critical acclaim is only worth so much (and it sure as hell ain't $15mm!).

uteotw

March 2012?!? WTH? I know time flies, but that's just ridiculous.

Props to K. Sutter for sayin' it like it is.

bluetoast

Might be in the minority but I am with Weiner on those three points (but not on the "let him do whatever he wants and pay him tons of money" aspect):

Product Placement:

Sure product placement is expected, but they were talking about more. How much more? Enough that Weiner disagreed with it, so you can bet it's not to the amount is has been in the past. That can mean a lot of things. Potential added storylines, not being able to make something look bad, possible anachronisms just to suit a product's current look, could be part of the things that Weiner didn't want, a number of factors.

Cutting Two minutes:

Also sort of weird. Yes that's 4 extra commercials. Yes, they can probably make some more money off of the first run episodes...but what we'll be getting is more Mad Men themed commercials, or retro-commercials. I like those commercials, but I'd rather have actual Mad Men and not fake Mad Men and Canada Dry Ginger Ale ads. Plus, this is a short term solution. Build quality now to last throughout the years, and cut the damn two minutes whenever you have your Encore presentations, or those marathons that AMC is so fond of.

Oh and apparently this was already solved 2 years ago, though maybe AMC did not like the results?

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118004745?refCatId=14

Cutting Cast Members:

This is also...not something good. Especially considering the rumors that older cast members that have left might be coming back. Plus, the non-main actors were only allowed to appear in a maximum of 9-10 episodes out of 13 for last season.


So to re-cap: Weiner already had limitations imposed upon him with the actors, AMC came to an agreement about the two minute thing. Then he delivered a critically acclaimed season, with it's highest ever ratings. From Weiner's perspective, AMC wanting to change it up to worse than what he had before must make him scratch his head and wonder what is going on.

It's like you were told you had an open book test, and on the day of the test you find out it's closed book, but you still get an A+, and finish it with an hour to spare. I guess from that perspective, Weiner is wondering why the teacher isn't letting him skip class and do whatever he wants (and not in the strip mall parking lot sense). Though I agree, he shouldn't be able to do "whatever". But what if AMC has a plan to get quality out of Weiner by exposing him to tougher conditions? A whole other road to consider!

But I would say that if it is about money and the above points, then take a pay cut. Pay for the two actors with the money you requested, and then take way less than the remainder of that. I dunno, just my thoughts.

Though there is probably a lot more going on that what we see...

Gunde

But still not near enough and that's the problem.

DJariya

Before Mad Men came along. Noone gave a shit about AMC escept film buffs. The channel showed mostly classic movies & documentaries. Mad Men put the channel on the map and allowed it to develop other original scripted shows like The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and now The Killing. So Weiner deserves some credit for being a really talented TV writer and producer.

But, I can't really blame AMC for wanting to actually profit from the show. A story I read today said they actually lose money making the show because the Ad revenue barely covers the costs/fees for the show. 1 episode reportedly costs over $3M to produce. Cable Ad revenue from what I heard sucks and that's why most Cable networks can only afford 10-15 episode seasons.