‘Mad Men’ Creator Discusses Bringing Series to a Close

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner discussed his love of the Beatles‘ Abbey Road and even used it in a metaphor for the end of his series, which begins its seventh and final season April 13th, in an interview with Buzzfeed.

“I just always loved that the album actually ends, almost like The Sopranos did, in the middle of a song. It’s just, ‘Cut!’ – you know, that last note of ‘Her Majesty’?” he said. “So I just admire it in artistic expressionism, looking at wrapping up the show. I’m writing an ending, and it will – whether I like it or not – frame the entire 92-hour experience of the show in some way. So I was impressed with how the Beatles dealt with that responsibility.”

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Weiner also revealed that, unlike the Beatles, the show’s storyline won’t make it to 1970. He would not disclose at what point in time the show would wrap things up, but he was adamant that the series was meant to be a Sixties period piece. “The intention of the show starting in 1960 was to reframe or revise people’s concept of what it was like to live then, and show how similar it was to now, or how different it was — and all of the sex and all of the reframing of that, and not being Leave It to Beaver,” he said.

The season will begin with an episode titled “The Beginning,” and Weiner confirmed that it indeed meant “the beginning of the end.” He described the series’ final 14 hours as “dense” and a new chapter for the characters. The only tidbits he would offer about characters, however, are that “professionally,” Elisabeth Moss’ character Peggy Olson is “OK” and that the season would be investigating the “tension” around lead character Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm.

Ultimately, the final season of Mad Men will offer “our version of resolution.” “What I’m really interested in is the last chapter,” he said, adding, “not in these people’s lives, but what we know about in these people’s lives.”