Matt Weiner

The reason why ‘Mad Men’ is so enjoyable this year: the writers are writing what they know

This has not been a great time for those of us who would like to see longer running times and fewer commercials in TV programming. (This isn’t just about the boredom of commercial breaks, which after all can increasingly be skipped; it’s about the limitations on storytelling that are imposed by the ever-shrinking running times.) The failure of Fox’s “Remote Free TV,” even after it proved that audiences are more likely to watch the commercials in short breaks, seemed to demonstrate that the networks probably won’t return to selling 10 minutes of commercial time per hour, as opposed to 20.

This has been rumoured for a while, but it’s now been confirmed that Matt Weiner, the creator of Mad Men, is demanding a big raise if he’s to come back for the third season and that the production company is considering replacing him.