From their obsessive rituals (Peppermint Patties! Oatmeal! Bruce Springsteen!) to the parts of their jobs they hate most (killing characters off, dealing with agents), TV’s most influential writer-producers featured on The Hollywood Reporter’s annual list of the Top 50 Showrunners come clean about the people, things and quirky habits that keep them — and their shows — alive.
“Artists aren’t supposed to be of their times. They’re supposed to look at it,” says the creator of the AMC drama, which received 17 nominations Thursday morning.
The Academy is still mad for Mad Men, which for a fourth straight year has garnered the most Emmy Award nominations of any drama series, with 17. The AMC series’ latest bounty – including Jon Hamm for Lead Actor, Elisabeth Moss for Lead Actress, directing and three writing bids – also make it the most-nominated basic cable drama of all time, with 85 nods to date.
As with every previous season, Weiner was tight-lipped about plot details in the flood of publicity that attended the show’s return in March, even going so far as directing critics not to spoil viewers’ fun by revealing key story lines. But while taking a break from his feature directorial debut, “You Are Here,” Weiner talked about the narrative choices centered on office politics, marriage, personal pain, sex and race for this season’s show, which is enjoying some of its best ratings ever.
When she debuted on Mad Men last season, Megan Draper went from mere secretary to surprise spouse to Don Draper, and this season, she’s blossomed into a “Zou-Bisou-Bisou”-ing sex kitten who knows how to push all of Don’s buttons. How did Mad Men creator Matt Weiner conceive of Megan’s story line, and how did he find the fascinating Quebec-born actress who portrays her, Jessica Paré (who’s also on the cover of New York’s recent TV issue)?
Emmy-winning “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner has signed up to direct his first movie — a project he also wrote years ago. Called “You Are Here”, the movie will star Owen Wilson as a free-wheeling bachelor and Zach Galafinakis as his bi-polar best friend who take a road trip after a family death.