Matthew Weiner, Jon Hamm and the "Mad Men" Cast Say Goodbye to Their Show and to the TCA – Ed Martin

Pasadena CA amp8211 Between their annual Winter and Summer tours members of the Television Critics Association attend hundreds of panels every year Throughout the course of a decade or more that translates into thousands of press conferences filled with personalities promoting projectsThat said it isn39t very often that any one of those panels packs any kind of emotional wallop The few that do are usually quotfarewell sessionsquot or panels at which the producers and stars of a longrunning series promote its final season In some cases they take the time to thank the critics reporters and bloggers in the room for embracing their show early on and keeping it at the forefront of their coverage until viewers find itOne such session took place Saturday at the Winter 2015 tour when quotMad Menquot creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner and the six primary stars of the show amp8211 Jon Hamm Christina Hendricks January Jones Elisabeth Moss John Slattery and Vincent Kartheiser a man of few words amp8211 came by to talk and actually say very little about the final seven episodes of their series and to thank the TCA for its collective support especially back at the beginning 2007 when few people were watching and AMC was not yet known as the home of some of the best hour dramas on televisionThe panel began with a lookback video presentation featuring dozens of unforgettable moments from the series and it ended with the premiere of a powerful promo for the last seven episodes Throughout the session and especially at its end critics including myself were feeling increasingly wistful if not downright saddened by the realization that one of their favorites was coming to an end I think one big reason I was moved by it all was the fact that I have lived with thought about and talked about the show for seven years It has been a part of my life for a significant portion of my life That wouldn39t be the case if I had bingewatched it in seven short weeks or monthsThe last time I can recall experiencing this same widespread emotional connection at a TCA tour was in January 2006 when the cast of NBC39s quotThe West Wingquot came by to talk about that show39s final halfseason That session opened with producer John Wells and cast members thanking the critics for supporting the show when it was very new and vulnerableAMC president Charlie Collier nailed it on Saturday when he introduced the quotMad Menquot panel which he described as quotthe definition of a bittersweet momentquot He couldn39t have been more accuratequotFor the people in this room and for so many around the world 39Mad Men39 is a show that needs no introduction and you all know this history because frankly you helped shape itquot he told the critics quotBackstage Matt just said to me 39The last time I was on a panel we were your only show39 Obviously 39Mad Men39 went on to become one of the most iconic shows in television history and you the television critics were the very first to believe in it You helped the world discover it So please allow me to begin this panel by saying 39thank you39 againquotThe session will also forever be remembered by those who attended it as an unexpected showcase for the sharp wit of series lead Jon Hamm As I tweeted at the time any broadcast or cable development executive worth his or her weight in salt should at this very minute be working on developing a single camera comedy for this guyFor example when one critic oddly asked if Hamm was happy that the show was ending he didn39t miss a beat quotYeah I39m thrilled that it39s endingquot he exclaimed quotI39m so looking forward to being unemployed for as long as I39ll be unemployed I39m so happy not to see any of these people ever again All of that is really great Hashtag sarcasmquotWhen the laughter died down Hamm heightened the sense of melancholy in the room quotHonestly there39s no version of this ending that is not super painful for me and mostly it39s because of these people the other actors and this person Matthew Weiner because they39ve been the single constant in my creative life for the last decadequot he said quotI will never be able to have this again and that39s a dragquotHappy Hamm returned when another critic asked about the possibility of spinoffs quotBetter Call Petequot he declared in reference to Kartheiser39s character Pete Campbell and the quotBreaking Badquot spinoff quotBetter Call Saulquot a panel for which had run shortly before the quotMad Menquot sessionWeiner was asked for his thoughts about how people watch the show and obsess over it quotI have no complaintquot he said quotI don39t care how it39s being watchedquot He did bring up one of the most bizarre rumors that played out in the press during the show39s history about Don Draper39s second wife Megan somehow being murdered by the Manson family quotThe Sharon Tate thing is so flimsy and thinquot he mused quotI don39t know what to tell you I would like to think that people would know that the show39s striving for historical accuracy and that I would not add a person who was not murdered by the Manson family into that murder So that in itself is the dumbest argument in the world for me But I love that people have conspiracy theories that they have all this other stuffquotIt didn39t take long for Hamm to once again entertain the room When a critic prefaced his question about the quotMad Menquot finale by bringing up the fact that many viewers were upset with the way CBS39 quotHow I Met Your Motherquot ended last year with the revelation that the mother of the title was dead Hamm cut him offquotFinally a 39How I Met Your Mother39 questionquot he exclaimed quotWe39ve been waiting and waiting seven years FinallyquotHamm also said that his next job would be in car detailing quotI39ve started a little jobquot he revealed quotIf anybody needs it I will seriously wash your carquot As the conversation continued we learned that Kartheiser is joining him in the car washing businessquotBecause of the show we are sticklers to detail which is actually the name of Vinnie and my car detailing companyquot Hamm laughed quotStickler to Detail I39m gainfully unemployed if it39s not obvious by that answer I have nothing to do literallyquotEnding on a somewhat more serious note Weiner admitted that he will never fully be able to let quotMad Menquot go quotIt is a very special creatively satisfying experience and the part that you can39t leave alone is you39re like amp8230 am I going to expect this to happen againquotHere are the original six cast members of the showquot Weiner said gesturing to the actors on stage quotWhat show gets to do that for seven years They39re all here They all were integral in the story You got to see them change over all this time It39s at this point close to a decade in the lives of these characters which was sort of the intention from the beginning Good or bad it39s just been this incredible experiencequotI don39t know about everybody else but I can39t wait for people to see the last seven episodesquot he continued quotIt39s going to be weird to actually get to the point where there are no more new ones The spinoff right now is these last seven episodes as far as I39m concernedquotEd Martin is the Editor of Planet Ed and MediaBizBloggers and the television and video critic for MyersBizNet Follow him on Twitter at PlanetEdCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates at MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Matthew Weiner, Jon Hamm and the "Mad Men" Cast Say Goodbye to Their Show and to the TCA – Ed Martin

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