Advertising vs. Advertising

Has the world gone mad? AMC just announced that for the first time since 2007, "Mad Men" will not make its season debut in July. In fact, the world will not see the future exploits of Don Draper until March of 2012! For those as devoted to the show as I am, this delay is the pinnacle of a television buzz kill.

I was in denial. Surely, there must be some explanation for this. My gut told me that it must be a contract dispute with the entire cast. We've all seen this before. A show becomes an unexpected hit, wins a few Emmys, and then the cast bands together in solidarity in an "all for one-and one for all" battle with their producers. We saw this with "Friends" and later with "The Sopranos." In the end, everyone got their money.

But this layoff wasn't about actor compensation. This ensemble was fair about their collective worth and negotiated accordingly. I guessed again. Maybe the dispute was over producing credits. Everyone likes the word "producer" on their business card, so the disagreement must be about some of the actors or writers demanding credit for production. I looked around, but saw no signs of Hollywood narcissism. I was starting to run out of logical explanations. So I started on the illogical.

Maybe AMC didn't like the competing voiceovers between Jon Hamm and John Slattery for Mercedes and Lincoln, respectively. Or possibly, they decided that January Jones was just too pretty to be this mean and they had to revamp her character. Wait a minute, I've got it. Showrunner,Matthew , was leaving the show to return to "The Sopranos." Alright, I give up. What's the real reason?

Drum roll, please.

Mad Men, the show about the old world of advertising was in conflict with AMC's new world of advertising. We've all been privy to the show's penchant for product placement and interstitial trivia questions about upcoming spot advertisers. But now they wanted even more time to sell a few more :30 spots in each show. Matt Weiner initially refused, citing fear about the integrity of the program. And talk about a man of principle. He made this claim, even after they signed him to a highly lucrative contract extension.

So the battle for advertising on the show about advertising raged on until a compromise was reached. The network could take back two minutes from the Mad Men's content, so they would have four more commercials to sell each week. This would apply to each episode with the exception of the season premiere and the season finale. There's nothing greater than a story with a happy ending.

This tussle reminded me of that season on "Seinfeld" where Jerry and George had to pitch NBC on "a show about nothing" while Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander were starring in a show about nothing. The whole concept of a show within a show carried Seinfeld for an entire season. So it would be great if "Mad Men" could return the favor and dedicate one episode next season to an ad agency in the 1960's that wants to place an advertiser's commercial on a hit show, but has to wait several months due to a network contract dispute.

Sometimes fiction is stranger than real life.