Don Draper lived on hard drives for half a decade before anybody paid him any notice.

In 1999, Matthew Weiner, then an unfulfilled writer on CBS' Ted Danson sitcom Becker, spent his every off-hour doing research on the 1960s: what people wore, how they decorated their offices, what they ate and drank (and smoked, and drank some more).

Then, over six days in the spring of 2001, he sketched out his vision for a show about the staff of a boutique advertising agency — Sterling Cooper — and its stylishly debauched head pitchman. Nobody bought the script, but it landed Weiner a 45-minute call from David Chase, who hired him as a writer on HBO's The Sopranos.

Weiner's Madison Avenue opus sat in a drawer for another three years — until a cable network with zero experience in original scripted programming (formerly American Movie Classics) stepped in and self-financed a pilot. Today, nine years later, Mad Men, which on April 5 begins its final seven episodes, is a pop cultural phenomenon that not only has made stars out of its cast of unknowns — Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Elisabeth Moss and John Slattery — but also transformed AMC into one of the most influential networks on the dial and set off cable TV's gold rush for scripted dramas.

'WHO THE F— IS AMC?'
In 2001, Matthew Weiner writes his first Mad Men script, which goes nowhere until 2005, when AMC decides to shop for its first original scripted series.

Matthew Weiner (creator) I finished the script and sent it to my agents. They didn't read it for three or four months. (They're not my agents anymore.) I was advised not to send it anywhere because that was at a time when there were big overall deals for comedy writers. People would pay for the anticipation of what your project would be, and actually having one was going to hurt you. I kept trying to get into HBO, but I never got a meeting. And I met with FX, which Kevin Reilly was running at that time. He talked to me about making it into a half‑hour. Then people started talking to me about a feature. It was my manager's assistant who gave AMC the script. That's who they were pawned off on.

Rob Sorcher (former executive vp programming and production, AMC) I'd relocated to the East Coast, and I'm working at this network, AMC, that has a collection of shit-ass movies. It's like the lesser TCM, and I'm supposed to turn it into something. [What the network needed was] a show for cable operator retention. You want something that can't be replicated elsewhere — like aSopranos — because if you have a signature show, then you won't be dropped [by cable operators]. So your strategy becomes: Let's go for quality. But we have no money. So I hire Christina Wayne, who's never done a thing in her life in terms of an executive.

Christina Wayne (former senior vp scripted programming, AMC) Years earlier, I'd wanted to option Revolutionary Road [Richard Yates' novel about suburbia in the 1960s]. But I was a nobody screenwriter, and [Yates' estate] held out for bigger fish, which they got with Sam Mendes. So when I read [the Mad Men script], it resonated with me. This was a way to do Revolutionary Road, week in, week out. When we had lunch with Matt for the first time, I gave him the book. He called me after and said, "Thank God I'd never read this because I never would have written Mad Men."

Weiner [My agents] were like, "You're going to be coming off The Sopranos. I know you love this project, but don't go [to AMC]. It's really low status, no money, and even if they do it, they've never made a show before, and you don't want to be their first one."

Sorcher Every possible reason on paper why this should not work was cited: It's super slow, it's [about] advertising, everybody smokes, everybody's unlikable and it's period. We couldn't sell it.

Jeremy Elice (former vp original programming, AMC) We sent it out looking for potential partners and got some nice responses, but generally speaking it was, "Yeah, not for us," and "Who the f— is AMC?"

Wayne So we self-financed the whole thing ourselves. The pilot cost $3.3 million, and we did it in New York in the downtime when Sopranos was [on hiatus]. We used all of their crew.

JANUARY JONES AS … PEGGY?
Casting for the pilot begins in 2006. Weiner and AMC agree on hiring unknown actors.

Weiner There were famous people who came in to read. The guys from That '70s Show came in — not Ashton, but the other guys. I'm still impressed by Danny Masterson. But at a certain point, it was working against them. My theory was that The Sopranos casting was great because you didn't know who any of those people were.

Jon Hamm (Don Draper):

Some people went in once and got cast; there was a little more reticence with me. I was on the bottom of everyone's list. The one person who was an early champion of mine was Matthew.

Weiner Back in [2006], there were no handsome leading men. It was not the style. Not that Jim Gandolfini's not handsome, but he's not Jon Hamm. There are moments in time when it's Dustin Hoffman and moments in time when it's Robert Redford. It was a Dustin Hoffman era. People like me or Seth Rogen got the girl, and people like Bradley Cooper were standing on the side of the street being like, "Come on!"

Wayne Matt sent us two actors: Jon Hamm and Mariska Hargitay's husband, Peter Hermann. The quality of the [video] that we were using sucked, and you couldn't see how good-looking Jon Hamm was. We were like, "Really, this is who you think?" And Matt said, "Absolutely." He'd been in the room, and he felt something with Jon. We had him come in again. We had to be sold, so we flew Jon to New York and took him for a drink at the Gansevoort hotel. He was nervous, but I knew that he had star potential. I whispered in his ear before he left, "You got the job."

Elisabeth Moss (Peggy Olson):

I was the first person to audition for Peggy. Matt showed us all our audition tapes at a gathering, and it's hilarious because I don't look anything like Peggy [in the tape]. I'm 23, blond, tan. I look like I just walked off of the beach.

John Slattery (Roger Sterling):

I went in to read for Don; they wanted me to play Roger. Matt Weiner claims I was in a bad mood the whole [pilot]. I had a couple of scenes, but I wasn't as emotionally invested as some of the people because there wasn't that much of Roger in evidence yet. Being a selfish actor, I didn't necessarily see the full potential in the beginning.

Christina Hendricks (Joan Holloway):

I was up for another pilot, and I chose Mad Men. The [agency I was with] was like, "It's on AMC, it's a period piece, it's never going to go. Are you crazy? You're not going to make money for us …" I thought it was a little impatient of them. So I moved on.

January Jones (Betty Draper):

I came in for Peggy twice. Matt said, "Well, there's another role, but I don't really know what's going to happen with her." He didn't have any scenes for me, so he quickly wrote a couple.

Weiner It had been years since I wrote anything in the pilot. And all of sudden, I need a scene by tomorrow for a character who only has three lines.

Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell):

I only auditioned for Pete. My agents aren't delusional enough to think that I'm a Don Draper.

Alison Brie (Trudy Campbell):

I looked up a picture of Vincent Kartheiser and was like, "Oh my God. We kind of look like brother and sister. I could totally be his 1960s wife." Couples kind of looked alike then.

Weiner Alison Brie was a big lesson because we couldn’t afford to make her a series regular. And we gambled [Community] wouldn’t happen. We were wrong.

HOW DICK BECAME DON
Weiner shoots the pilot on location in New York in 2006, but AMC struggles initially to line up financing.

Sorcher Matt had an extremely clear vision for the show. We had only one or two notes that were key.

Wayne We said to Matt, "OK, this is a great show about advertising, but what are people going to talk about week in, week out? What's the bigger story for Don?" He went off, and a few months later he came back and pitched the entire Dick Whitman/Don Draper story. We were mesmerized.

Weiner So I told [AMC] I had this 85-page screenplay that was Don Draper's backstory. It was called The Horseshoe, and I abandoned it five years before I wrote Mad Men. The last scene is this character taking Don's name and leaving his [dead] body at a train station.

Hamm I remember Matthew asking me before we started shooting the pilot, "Do you want to know Don's backstory?" I'd say, "Do you want to tell me?" He told me the back-and-forth of Dick Whitman and Don Draper, and I was like, "Jeez, that sounds Dickensian."

Scott Hornbacher (executive producer) I knew Matt from Sopranos. I think part of the reason that I ended up being hired was because they had very little money for the pilot, and I had a background in independent film. If you take the end of Sopranos and put it up to our first season, I'd say we had about a quarter of [their budget].

Ellen Freund (property master) Matthew is so specific and cares so much about every tiny element, starting with the insides of drawers and wallets. You never, ever went to Matt with a mixing bowl and said, "Here's the mixing bowl." You'd go to him with a mixing bowl and the proof that it was made in the year previous to the year we were shooting in. Sometimes he'd say something like, "Get me the mixing bowls with the clear bottom." And I'd go, "Nuh-uh … not until 1972."

Dan Bishop (production designer) Sometimes we'd get to a point where Matt would essentially throw a hand grenade in the process — one element would have to be this way and not that way. As long as the carpenter hadn't built it already, it was OK.

MMoss The pilot took two weeks. I remember standing on the rooftop of Silver Cup Studios with Matt and we just looked at each other, "Well, that was really great." We had no idea if it was going to go any further than that.

Elice The question became, "How do we pay for it?" At the time, there wasn't any notion to having us produce it. I went all over town and screened it for everyone. The response was, "Wow, this is a really great pilot. How much does it cost?" For a basic cable show, your frame of reference then was The Shield and USA shows. [Mad Men] was much more expensive. A lot of studios were primarily concerned about financing a show that, even if it’s f—ing great, no one’s going to see it.

Sandra Stern (COO, Lionsgate TV) One Saturday I get a phone call from Alan Rautbort, who was an agent at ICM at the time: "I'm coming over." He brought a DVD of the pilot to my house. I looked at him and said, "Shit. This is so good, I have to have it." I went to New York the next day and met with AMC.

Charlie Collier (president, AMC) I got here in September 2006, and we didn't launch until July 2007. We were waiting for Matt to finish The Sopranos, so the next 10 or 11 months we had one show to focus on. Even the decision to get to that poster — the image with the silhouette of a building and Helvetica "Mad Men"— was hard. We'd flown Jon out for a photo shoot, and we had some beautiful imagery that was originally conceived to be poster art. It eventually ended up in our mailers.

Linda Schupack (executive vp marketing, AMC) [The photo] made the show feel too melodramatic. That's when we looked to the title sequence. Once we saw that final frame, the back of Don Draper's head, we knew that's what we wanted to sell.

Weiner I remember reading the first review. It was LA Weekly. I printed it out and took it down the hall to [pilot DP] Phil Abraham. It was, like, three in the morning, and we just stood there: "Holy shit, they like us."

Ed Carroll (COO, AMC Networks) I remember going to advertising agencies to try to convince them that AMC would have the don't-miss show of the season. They all said, "I'm not ready to commit money to it, but I sure would like to see it. Could you get me a screener?"

A DOG NAMED DRAPER
With production having moved to Los Angeles, Mad Men premieres July 19, 2007, to critical acclaim but faces an uphill ratings battle and an uncertain future.

Kevin Beggs (chairman, Lionsgate TV) Early on, I was nervous about the pace. It's very deliberate, extended storytelling, and I've grown up watching and then developing and selling things that move fast and drive action. I remember so vividly having a conversation along those lines, and Matt saying, "That's exactly the opposite of what I'm going to do. I'm going to parse the story out slowly and savor it and not overload."

Weiner Most of the fighting came on episode two. They were really annoyed that I was paying attention to [Betty]. I wanted to branch the show out, and I felt that if Don was cheating on this woman, that was the story. They just wanted it to be a formula in the office.

Jones I was shielded from all of the "We don't care about Betty." 

Kartheiser If you looked around at what was on TV then, there was nothing like this. I would piss the guys off, like, "This is cool, this is great, but [it can't last]. You should start looking for another job!" I remember Rich Sommer [who played Harry Crane] would be like, "F— you, I just moved to L.A. with my pregnant wife."

Wayne My biggest argument with Matt was on the ending of season one: Don coming home and telling Betty he couldn't go to Thanksgiving. He'd written it that Don comes home, hugs Betty, and they drive off into the sunset. But that ties the show up with a bow, and we had to do season two. He got so mad he hung up, but he called back and said: "You're right. I just love my characters so much, I wanted them to be happy."

Moss Because it started airing while we were still shooting, it felt like we were doing it by ourselves in a vacuum. But then the following January, Jon and the show won the Golden Globe. That was the first moment where we were like, "Oh my God, people are watching!"

Hendricks It was during the writers strike, so there was no [Globes] ceremony. We all watched it from the Chateau Marmont and we just sat there with our mouths agape. The Emmys were the next thing up.

Weiner We had to work behind the scenes to just get an evening [screening] at the [Academy of Television Arts & Sciences] because they did not want to let basic cable into that. We weren’t really on TV.

Carroll The ratings were building slowly. Then, early on, I was paging through the Sunday New York Times and there were either full articles or references to Mad Men in the fashion page, the arts page, the media page and the metro page. The show was wrapping itself around the culture.

Josh Sapan (CEO, AMC Networks) When I found out that a guy I know named his dog Don Draper, I said to myself, "I think we've arrived."

WEINER NEARLY WALKS
Instead, in March 2011, he takes home $30 million for a three-season contract after negotiations with AMC and Lionsgate sideline the network flagship for more than a year.

Weiner AMC had waited a very, very long time [to renew the show for a second season]. I remember seeing them at the [2007] Emmys and, with an Emmy in my hand from The Sopranos, yelling at everybody from AMC, "You don't want Mad Men? Let it go." I knew there was a really good chance the show could end up on HBO. After season four — and our fourth Emmy in a row — my contract expired again [in late 2010]. Nobody from AMC or Lionsgate would talk to me. Bryan Lourd [at CAA] got involved. He said, "Don't worry about it." Cut to six months later, and it's, "I've never seen anything like this in my life." They came in with a very low offer and stipulations about cutting time and adding commercials, getting rid of 30 percent of the cast. I was like, "No to all that." They kept offering me more money to take those things, and I kept saying, "No, this is not about money."

Beggs Part of the business of making shows is figuring out how to quantify a value and who pays for what. Sometimes it's a little painful.

Hendricks At one point I thought, "This is taking a little too long."

Moss I remember thinking there was a legitimate chance that we weren't going to go back. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we didn't want to go back without Matt. We privately made that known to him.

Weiner I had conversations with Aaron Sorkin, Steven Bochco and David Chase about what it was going to be like if they took [the show] away and how I was going to live. They'd all been in this situation, and Aaron really talked about what it's going to be like for someone else to run your show: "Don't ever watch it."

Stern When we first started negotiating with AMC, one of the things they wanted was a spinoff. We talked about doing a contemporary one. Given the fact that [Mad Men] ends nearly 50 years ago, most of the characters would be dead. Sally was the one character young enough that you could see her 30 or 40 years later. There was a time we wanted a Peggy spin­off, too, and, a la Better Call Saul, a minor character going off to L.A. Matt wasn't comfortable committing to a spinoff.

Collier We entered into the negotiation and left the negotiation with an aligned goal, which was to get Matthew Weiner to the end of Mad Men.

Weiner Being off the air that long was bad for us. I felt that the show was damaged — its prestige was damaged.

A HANGING — AND A KISS OF DEATH
Finally back on the air in 2012, Weiner makes adds (and cuts) to the cast and starts plotting an endgame.

Jared Harris (Lane Pryce) There was talk about cast changes, so we were all looking around, wondering who it might be. When you start going through the list, it's obvious they're not going to get rid of Jon, Slattery, Christina, January. … You start figuring out that it really comes down to a couple of people. But I didn't know [that my character was about to hang himself].

Jessica Pare (Megan Draper) I was about to move home [to Montreal] when I got the audition for this brunette character. There was nothing on the page. But it was Mad Men, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
My first episode, I had only one line: "Yes, Joan." Even while we were shooting, I had no idea she was a receptionist — and because of the reputation for secrecy, I was afraid to ask. Joining a series midway can be intimidating, and I'd heard stories about how chummy the cast was.

Hendricks The common area [on the set] started as a piece of AstroTurf and a little glass table with four chairs, and then one year we came back and there was a full deck with a built-in fire pit and Christmas lights.

Moss We never hung out in our trailers. You hear stories of people on big shows getting these massive trailers and getting interior decorators to come in and do them. We always had triple bangers, the ones where you have three rooms [for three actors] in one trailer.

Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper) When I was a bit younger, I really only knew about the Sally scenes. It wasn't until I got older that I even started going to the table reads.

Pare When Megan and Don kiss for the first time, everybody on set was like, "Well, it's been great to have you around, Jessica. You'll be on your way out now." That's how things had been going. But Matt called me a few days before and told me Don was going to propose. I had a hint before that: Ellen, our props master, came into my dressing room and said, "You can’t ask me any questions about it, but I need to measure your ring finger."

Freund I've never seen anyone happier than Jessica was at moment.

Stern Matt and I were sitting at the table read for the last episode of season four. Don Draper had started dating a psychologist named Faye, an equal. Then, in the last episode, he runs off and he marries his young secretary. I was a little surprised, and I said to Matt, "I'm sad — I thought Don had finally pulled it together." And Matt said, "Yeah, me too. I really thought he could do it this time, but he couldn't."

Hamm Obviously it's no fun to play a person who only makes the right decisions all the time, but it can be difficult to watch somebody, time and time again, who just continually makes [the same] mistakes. I think it got progressively more difficult for me. As Don’s downward spiral continued, it became kind of relentless, and that takes its toll on your psyche.

Robert Morse (Bertram Cooper) Matt came to me and said, "Bobby, I got some news for you. You're gonna die." I just hoped I wasn't being hung like Jared the year before. He said, "No, no, no! We're going to do a whole show about the moon landing. You're at home, and you just pass away quietly as they land. That's your exit." Then Matt tells me, "I've always wanted you to sing, so you're going to come back as a ghost and sing to Jon Hamm, 'The Best Things in Life Are Free.' "

THE LONG GOODBYE
AMC splits the final season into two parts, with the last seven episodes airing nearly a year after it wraps in July 2014.

Hamm Everyone went through the stages of grief: anger, frustration, sadness and then, finally, you get to acceptance. And nobody knew how it ended, so there was a lot of anxiety about that, too.

Hornbacher It was hard. Everybody has expectations of how the show should end for them, and it wasn't necessarily going to work that way.

Weiner I directed the last two episodes. So there's about eight weeks of us together, and the most intimate part of that is when you go in and ask the actor, "Are you ready to move on [to another scene]?" I'd say, "Do you want another one?" And no one ever said yes. I felt like I was running a hospice.

Slattery It became this succession of last days. There'd be emails sent around like, "If you're around and you want to come have a glass of champagne …" They'd wheel in a bunch of champagne and everybody would raise a glass to whomever. And Matt would say something. It was so emotional because it was the same crew for most of the show.

Hamm It felt very much like the end of senior year when we were wrapping up. One of our producers made a yearbook. She separated everyone into freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors, depending upon how long you'd been involved. Everyone came in to take their class pictures. We had senior superlatives and all that stuff.

Slattery I think I was "Class Flirt."

Jones On the last day, we stayed until three or four in the morning and we TPd Matt's car.

Collier This show transformed our network. Matt asked me to speak at the wrap party [at the Roosevelt hotel], and then Jon made some terrific remarks about how he, like Don Draper, would fall back on alcohol.

Hamm It was the end of something we all really liked, but all good things come to an end. Obviously, you want people to like it and to find it satisfying. And then you just hope that somewhere down the line someone wants to cast you in something else.

Weiner I remember somebody saying, "This is going to be hardest on you." And I was like, "Really? I don't think so." That just stuck in my head. First, it was the writers who just start peeling off. Then the actors are gone. Then the crew's gone and the sets are gone, and then the stages close up. All of a sudden, they're coming to take the copier. I moved out of the office in December. It was back to being me and my computer.

SEE ALSO: 26 sexist ads of the 'Mad Men' era

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NOW WATCH: The trailer for the final season of 'Mad Men' is here

As Mad Men enters its final seven episodes next month, all eyes are watching Jon Hamm — including Bryan Cranston.

The Breaking Bad star gave advice to the Mad Men mainstay on the hardships of ending a series, Hamm noted in a GQ April cover story.

"It's hard, man," Cranston told him. "It's hard to let it go. It'll hit you a couple of different ways at different times."

Hamm added that over the years, it's been exhausting to partake in Don Draper's downward spirals.

"You're kind of hoping for redemption, and it's not forthcoming. … To consistently come in and be the bummer was always like, 'Oh, that's not fun.' But at the same time, it's been like the greatest obstacle course in the world. A puzzle to figure out."

The actor said that shooting the final episodes for the AMC series "was like senior year in high school. … 'We'll stay in touch!' 'I'll text you!' 'We'll see each other all the time!' And it's like, 'Will we really?' "

But beyond the role, he wondered, "Are people still going to take me seriously? Am I just going to do romantic comedies for the rest of my life? What's next? And I don't know, you know? I wish I was smug enough to have had a grand plan. I guess some people would say, 'OK, the last three years of Mad Men is going to be like this: I want to do a play. I want to do this. I want to do that.' I was just like, 'I want to do something that seems cool.' "

Mad Men begins its final run April 5 at 10 p.m. on AMC.

SEE ALSO: 26 Sexist Ads of the 'Mad Men' Era

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NOW WATCH: Bryan Cranston returns as his 'Breaking Bad' character in a Super Bowl ad

Warning: If you're not caught up with "The Walking Dead," both the show and the comic series, there are some spoilers ahead.

The "Walking Dead" season-five finale is Sunday at 9 p.m.

Right now, Rick and his group are living relatively safely behind the walls of Alexandria. (Though after last week's episode, Rick may be messing up the group's chance at living zombie-free.)

If you're a fan of the series, and especially the comics, you're probably wondering when the next big villain is coming to town.

Many people think it's Negan, a foul-mouthed, hot-headed, tyrannical leader of a group called the Saviors. (We've talked a bit about him here and here.)

But creator Robert Kirkman told us at New York Comic Con in October that it will be a while until we see the fan favorite from the comics. At a previous Con, in Arizona, Kirkman mentioned that we could be waiting around until season nine. Of course that could have been in jest.

If Negan's not coming soon, who does that leave?

Throughout the past two seasons, the series has been dropping some hints about at least one other group who's around.

You may recall seeing zombies maimed with what looks like the letter W (or M depending on how you look), but no one really seems to know what that means.

Warning: Big potential spoiler ahead.

There are two theories in "Walking Dead" fandom about the marking.

Perhaps the best guess is that this is a nod to the Whisperers, a group who wanderers around wearing masks made out of zombie skin to blend in with the dead.

The Whisperers were introduced in issue 130, which was released August 2014.

Since it's a pretty recent storyline, the group is still shrouded in a lot of mystery. We don't know where they come from, the size of the group, their motives, and if they're necessarily a real danger to Rick and the other survivors.

I've held off on writing about this because it didn't seem relevant to the progression of the series; however, it was brought to our attention that a fan on imgur made a fantastic connection that ties the present Whisperer storyline in the comics to season three of the show.

Basically, you're going to want to head back and rewatch parts of season three, episode 12, "Clear," before the finale airs Sunday.

In the episode, which aired March 3, 2013, Rick, Michonne, and Carl head back to Rick’s hometown in search of guns.

There, they find Morgan (Lennie James), the man who took Rick in and told him about the zombie apocalypse back in season one.

While Morgan now has a big storehouse of guns, he appears to have gone a bit mad. That's understandable considering he lost both his son and his wife back to back since the world changed.

There’s one part in particular that fans should revisit in this episode.

At one point, Morgan, who doesn't recognize Rick, lunges toward and stabs the series' protagonist. During Morgan's confusion, he shouts out, what, at the time, sounds like a bunch of nonsense.

If you revisit the clip, Morgan says something of great value that makes sense.

Rick asks Morgan if he knows him.

Morgan's response is "People wearing dead people's faces."

Rick responds to the claim but ultimately shrugs it off.

Again, at the time, Morgan's comment sounded like a bunch of gibberish especially since he didn't appear in the best mental state. The Whisperer characters also didn't exist in the comic series at this point.

The knowledge of them now changes the context of that line entirely.

In season three, Rick leaves Morgan back in their hometown.

Since then, viewers know Morgan's character has reappeared and has been following Rick's trail to catch up with his group.

At the same time, we've been seeing strange markings on trees and have come across the letter "W" on walkers in various episodes.

However, if they're not the Whisperers, the show has at least been hinting at some sort of group that is going around wreaking havoc.

In season five, episode nine, the group visited Noah's old home, which we learn was ravaged by another group. Written on the back of a wall was a sign that mentioned "wolves not far."

If you go back even further, to season four, the cannibal crew holding Rick's clan hostage mentioned a group that came in and ruined their way of life. A few of them were locked up in a train car.

(Again, not sure if these are people from the same group, but if “The Walking Dead” ties all of that together, you have to admit, it’s brilliant.)

Either way, people are guessing this “wolf group” may be based on a ruthless and savage group from the comics coined the Scavengers, who, as you could probably guess, are looters who go from place to place taking whatever they can. They're led by a man named Derek, and, in the comics, are in the DC area.

I won't say much more about them here, but we'd be surprised if we don't get a real glimpse at the group behind the "W" markings.

If it's not the Whisperers now, "The Walking Dead" has already laid the groundwork for them. At this point, it seems more likely we'll see the Scavengers in some iteration. We'll most likely see a brief glimpse of Morgan again, too.

One thing's certain. Something big is happening Sunday night during the series' 90-minute season finale. "The Walking Dead" has been building up to it for a while.

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NOW WATCH: There's A Good Reason 'The Walking Dead' Creator Doesn't Use The Word Zombie

Later this year AMC is launching a spinoff series to its most popular show, "The Walking Dead," and we finally know its name.

Creator Robert Kirkman revealed the name of the companion show on Twitter. Get ready for "Fear the Walking Dead."

Previously, the show went by the codename "Cobalt."

"Fear the Walking Dead" has already been confirmed for two seasons.

Unlike the original series, which takes place on the East Coast, the new series will be set in Los Angeles. The series will star Kim Dickens and Cliff Curtis along with Frank Dillane and Alycia Debnam Carey.

Season one will comprise of six one-hour episodes, and will debut on AMC in summer 2015. Season 2 will air in 2016.

We don't know much else about the show, but the first trailer for the series will debut after the 90-minute finale of "The Walking Dead" Sunday evening.

We'll have more on it then.

SEE ALSO: The first teaser trailer for "Fear the Walking Dead"

AND: "The Walking Dead" may have teased one of the next big villains back in season 3

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NOW WATCH: There's A Good Reason 'The Walking Dead' Creator Doesn't Use The Word Zombie

For years, fans have wondered how the zombie apocalypse started on "The Walking Dead" and in the long-running comic series. And it looks as if we may finally find out this summer.

The first short trailer for the spinoff series, "Fear the Walking Dead," debuted during the season-five finale of the AMC show.

The companion series, which will be set in Los Angeles, hints at a flu-like virus going around.

"Fear the Walking Dead" will air on AMC in late summer 2015.

SEE ALSO: Everything we know about season 6 of "The Walking Dead"

AND: "The Walking Dead" may have teased one of the next big villains back in season 3

Even more "The Walking Dead": Robert Kirkman says he has at least 12 seasons worth of material for the zombie series

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Warning: There are some minor spoilers ahead for "The Walking Dead" season finale.

"The Walking Dead" ended its fifth season Sunday night answering a lot of fan questions.

Morgan (Lennie James) returned(!) and has finally been reunited with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) after trying to catch up with him for a few seasons. We also finally have an idea of who's been marring zombies with "W" markings on their heads.

As we noted Friday, they're a group called "the wolves" who have been hinted at for some time. We've only seen two of these people so far, and have no idea how large their group may be. Currently, it looks like they'll be one of the greatest dangers to our group in the Alexandria safe zone.

While we'll have a spinoff companion series to look forward to late this summer, the sixth season of "The Walking Dead" won't air until the fall.  

Where do we go from here?

Here are a few things we learned during the series' aftershow, "The Talking Dead," hosted by Chris Hardwick.

Morgan will be back for at least one episode 

James coyly told "Talking Dead" host Hardwick he could confirm his fan-favorite character will return for at least one of the next eight episodes. We're sure we'll see him in more.

The Wolves (and their zombie herd) will most likely be at the center of the first half of season 6.

In the finale Sunday night, we were introduced to two of the wolf characters who have marked themselves with the letter "W" on their heads. 

The duo have acquired quite the zombie herd, which they keep locked up in old food trucks to fool other apocalypse survivors.

After trapping Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) briefly, they got a hold of some images of Rick and his son Carl (Chandler Riggs). It's probably only a matter of time until they track down the Alexandria community. 

The season will be filled with some of their "most ambitious stuff yet"

Showrunner Scott Gimple sent in a note for Hardwick to read live on "The Talking Dead" teasing the season ahead.

Most interestingly, he mentioned humans will not be the bigger threat. (Maybe those wolves aren't much to worry about.) So it looks like those two wolves may not be the greatest concern for the Alexandrians.

Here's Gimple's note in full: 

“For a good while now, humans have been the bigger threat. At the start of our next season, that will change. I said the show reinvents itself every eight episodes, and we’re doing it again, friendos. Now, that these characters know that they have what it takes to survive, what are they going to do with that power? How will they choose to live? Beyond answering those questions, we’re currently putting into motion some of our most ambitious stuff yet, and things are going to get very big, loud, and scary.”

Season 6 of "The Walking Dead" should return to AMC later this fall.

SEE ALSO: "The Walking Dead" spinoff may finally tell us how the zombie apocalypse began

AND: "The Walking Dead" could go on for 12 seasons

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NOW WATCH: There's a good reason 'The Walking Dead' creator doesn't use the word zombie

Peggy Olson is depicted as the sole female copywriter to wander the halls of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in the "Mad Men" series' depiction of advertising in the 1960s, but women had actually been working in the industry for decades.

Click here to see the real 'Mad Women'>

JWT (then J. Walter Thompson) published a booklet in 1963 titled "Advertising: A Career For Women," to lure college women to Madison Avenue—and not just for its secretarial pool.

JWT kindly agreed to let us excerpt the booklet (as well as its male-oriented booklet, "Advertising: A Career For Exceptional Men," and gave us access to its photo archive. The images and the text form a stunning historic record of the real women of the "Mad Men" era. The final series of "Mad Men" premieres on AMC on April 5.

Laura Stampler originally compiled this post.

The booklets begin with an explanation of what advertising is, with one notable difference...

In the male-oriented booklet, "Advertising: An Exceptional Career for Men," the text reads: "There are probably as many forms of advertising—and as many facets to it—as there are leaves on a tree."

For women, there are as many different kinds of advertising "as there are soap flakes in a box."

Women often worked on soaps and other lady-friendly accounts.

The leaflets gave different reasons why advertising is an interesting career ...

For men, JWT explains that it works with "more than 100 corporations whose products range from toothbrushes to giant jet airplanes ... You might find yourself working on a problem related to the soap business at one time, cameras at another, and automobiles the week after that."

Women, however, were not promised that diversity in such detail but rather fed the blanket phrase that they would deal with  "all kinds of people and an infinite variety of businesses."

It was far less likely that a woman would go on to pitch to auto and other "male-oriented" companies. Jane Maas, who worked at Ogilvy & Mather in the 1960's, told Business Insider,"working on the American Express account took longer than my becoming a Vice President [at Ogilvy] in 1970."

The women's recruitment guide had a special section dedicated to opportunities specifically for women ...

It begins with the pitch: "Advertising is a particularly promising field for women because so much advertising is directed to women and so many products are purchased by women. At J. Walter Thompson, women work in all departments and in all phases of advertising. Included among the many women holding highly responsible managerial and executive positions are two Assistant Treasurers, ten Vice Presidents and a member of the Board of Directors."

Pretty impressive for 1963.

Part 2 of the seventh and final season of AMC's "Mad Men" will premiere on Sunday, April 5. Take a look at the show's stars when the series began in 2007 compared to 2015. 

Produced by Devan Joseph 

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AMC will begin to air the final episodes of “Mad Men” on Sunday.

If you haven't had a chance to watch the first part of the final season 7, which aired last spring, don't worry, we have you covered.

Before saying goodbye for good to Don Draper and the rest of the gang, here's a refresher of what went down the first half of the final season.

If you haven't watched the first part of season 7 yet, warning: spoilers ahead.

Season 7 begins with Don Draper (Jon Hamm) still on “mandatory leave of absence” from Sterling Cooper & Partners after he divulged his shocking childhood at a pitch meeting with Hershey at the end of season 6.

But Don doesn't reveal his work situation to his actress-wife Megan (Jessica Paré), who he still visits in Los Angeles on the weekends.

Back at the advertising agency's office in New York, Peggy Olsen (Elisabeth Moss) is at odds with Lou Avery (Allan Havey), Don’s fill-in.

When "Mad Men" first debuted in 2007, it featured a cast made up mostly of unknown actors.

Before the hit AMC show, many of the cast members had bit roles in TV shows and films, one was even a clown who performed at birthday parties.

But with the success of the Emmy-winning drama series, the actors' careers skyrocketed.

Today, Jon Hamm, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, and others, have all seen major career boosts thanks to "Mad Men."

Before Jon Hamm was suave ad executive Don Draper...

... he was a struggling actor landing minor roles in episodes of "Ally McBeal" and "Gilmore Girls."

Hamm's pre-"Mad Men" acting career has become something of a legend now. He had trouble finding roles due to his "older appearance," and he was eventually dropped by his agency. He also briefly taught an acting class at his old high school in St. Louis (where one of his students was "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" star Ellie Kemper).

His first credited TV appearance was "Gorgeous Guy at Bar" in an episode of "Ally McBeal." 

Today, we know John Slattery as the outspoken, scotch-drinking Roger Sterling.

AMC will begin to air the final episodes of “Mad Men” on Sunday.

If you haven't had a chance to watch the first part of the final season 7, which aired last spring, don't worry, we have you covered.

Before saying goodbye for good to Don Draper and the rest of the gang, here's a refresher of what went down the first half of the final season.

If you haven't watched the first part of season 7 yet, warning: spoilers ahead.

Season 7 begins with Don Draper (Jon Hamm) still on “mandatory leave of absence” from Sterling Cooper & Partners after he divulged his shocking childhood at a pitch meeting with Hershey at the end of season 6.

But Don doesn't reveal his work situation to his actress-wife Megan (Jessica Paré), who he still visits in Los Angeles on the weekends.

Back at the advertising agency's office in New York, Peggy Olsen (Elisabeth Moss) is at odds with Lou Avery (Allan Havey), Don’s fill-in.

When "Mad Men" first debuted in 2007, it featured a cast made up mostly of unknown actors.

Before the hit AMC show, many of the cast members had bit roles in TV shows and films, one was even a clown who performed at birthday parties.

But with the success of the Emmy-winning drama series, the actors' careers skyrocketed.

Today, Jon Hamm, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, and others, have all seen major career boosts thanks to "Mad Men."

Before Jon Hamm was suave ad executive Don Draper...

... he was a struggling actor landing minor roles in episodes of "Ally McBeal" and "Gilmore Girls."

Hamm's pre-"Mad Men" acting career has become something of a legend now. He had trouble finding roles due to his "older appearance," and he was eventually dropped by his agency. He also briefly taught an acting class at his old high school in St. Louis (where one of his students was "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" star Ellie Kemper).

His first credited TV appearance was "Gorgeous Guy at Bar" in an episode of "Ally McBeal." 

Today, we know John Slattery as the outspoken, scotch-drinking Roger Sterling.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

Almost 11 months after “Mad Men” paused it’s final season, the show finally returned last night with the first of its final episodes.

After Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and his actress-wife Megan (Jessica Paré) decided to end their marriage in the last episode of the first part of season seven, Sunday's premiere had Draper back to his skirt-chasing ways.

One interesting storyline through the episode is Don’s reaction to the death of Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff), an old fling of Don’s from back in season 1.

But who is this past character who is suddenly addressed in the new episode?

On Sunday, we saw her appear wearing nothing but a long fur coat in a day dream Don has while casting models for an ad.

The dream motivates Don to look her up. But his secretary later informs him that she recently died. This leads Don to pay his respects at her Shiva. There he meets Rachel’s sister, who knows everything about their affair and guilts him for showing up.

When Don later meets a waitress at a diner (Elizabeth Reaser of "Twilight" fame), he ends up having sex with her because she reminds him of Rachel.

Looking back on Don and Rachel’s affair, you realize why her death affected him.

We first met Rachel in the pilot episode of the show, looking for advertising for her department store. Don was instantly attracted to her and that only grew when Rachel played coy toward his advances.

Through more business meetings, the two began to connect, which inevitably leads to them beginning to sleep together when Don was still married to Betty (January Jones).

And thanks to Rachel, we finally got our first glimpse into Don’s past. In an episode towards the end of the first season, Don reveals to her after making love that his mother was a prostitute and that his father was a drunk.

Then in the second-to-last episode of the season, Don surprises Rachel at her office and asks her to run away with him to California. Telling her, “You know more about me than anyone.” But she sees right through him and replies, “This was a dalliance, a cheap affair. You don’t want to run away with me, you just want to run away.”

We thought that would be the last we would see of Rachel, but in episode five of season two, Don runs into her at a restaurant. But by now Rachel is married and goes by the name Rachel Katz.

In an amazing parting line, Rachel turns to the woman with Don, a client, and says “He’s all business, isn’t he?”

SEE ALSO: 10 early roles of "Mad Men" actors before they were stars

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NOW WATCH: The new trailer for Season 3 of 'House of Cards' is terrifying

In AMC's hit series "The Walking Dead," anyone can get killed at any moment. Creator Robert Kirkman has said that no character is safe despite their popularity in the longstanding comic series.  

However, in the show, more people get killed by the living than the dead. 

In the zombie apocalypse, most people would think the cause of death would either be getting devoured or infected by other zombies. It turns out that’s not the case! 

Matt Yancey put together an incredible graphic extensively tracking the life and death of 105 characters on the series.

Check it out below:

SEE ALSO: "The Walking Dead" may have teased one of the next big villains in season 3

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NOW WATCH: There's a good reason 'The Walking Dead' creator doesn't use the word zombie

Paris (AFP) - Don Draper, the central and serially seductive character of the hit TV show "Mad Men", is actually a "very weak man", his creator told a Paris audience on Sunday.

"Shame is his lifeblood," Matthew Weiner said of his intriguing main character, who is the engine of his influential and stylish series about an ad man of the 1950s and 1960s that has won multiple awards for its cinematic quality and near-literary writing.

The comments by Weiner -- the show's producer, chief writer, frequent director and, though he dislikes the title, showrunner of the series on the air since 2007 -- were made to a packed theatre in a French festival on world TV called Series Mania.

Weiner, who was notoriously cagey about "Mad Men" during its run, let loose about its creative input now that the landmark programme is coming to an end. The seventh and final season -- split in two by the AMC network over Weiner's objections -- is being broadcast right now in the US and other territories, and will wrap up next month.

Commenting on the end of the 6th season, which saw Draper's character implode under the weight of his several layers of lies and mystery, Weiner said "I wanted him to commit to change".

While viewers have watched the alcohol-dependent, womanizing but brilliantly perceptive Don Draper try to invent himself several times, Weiner warned against seeing the protagonist, played with suave nuance by Jon Hamm, as a hero or anti-hero.

"Don doesn't fill the typical hero mode because he's more like a regular person, and his flaws have to do with being shitty, and not coming through," he said. 

That is something of a comedown for a character who Weiner has said he partly created from James Bond, but who has proved a flawed -- if charming -- centerpiece of a series that sought to capture the zeitgeist of its period with non-politically correct humor.

'I'm a writer'

Weiner himself, though, said he was delighted at the impact his show has had, emphasizing that it took seven years from when he wrote its pilot to finally seeing it made. He worked in-between as a writer on the much-vaunted "The Sopranos".

"I'm a writer -- that's my job," he said, downplaying the other hats -- producer, director, showrunner -- he had to assume to see "Mad Men" made.

"It's a rare talent that I never take for granted."

With disarming honesty, Weiner suggested no other show he might write in the future would soar as high as "Mad Men", but he hoped his star profile in the TV industry now meant he would no longer have to wait years to see his projects get off the ground.

"I hope I have this again in my life -- I don't mean success like that ('Mad Men'), that's insane -- I just hope I get a situation where everything I write gets shot."

A recognised master of TV now, Weiner hasn't made a successful shift to making feature films, however. A 2013 comedy movie he made starring Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis, "Are You Here?", was generally panned. 

But Weiner appeared confident as he discussed what it took to make it in the industry.

"Kiss ass -- you know that expression? OK: you're going to need it if you're in show business. I've kissed a lot of ass. That's why I'm here."

That phase, however, can be said to be safely behind Weiner, who has become seen as something of a pioneer by bringing film-like qualities to TV, opening the way to other shows today like "House of Cards" and "True Detective".

And that is the crux of the change Weiner has wrought: starting a revolution that has made the small screen the new place to be to see sharp and deep drama once reserved for cinema.

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NOW WATCH: HBO's 'Game of Thrones' got the Iron Throne all wrong

Currently in its seventh and final season, "Mad Men" will soon say goodbye after eight years on the air.

When that time comes, the show's creator and writer, Matthew Weiner, says, "I'm pretty sure I'm going to be sad." 

The 49-year-old spoke to Business Insider at the Time 100 gala, where he explained that in the meantime, he's just trying to live in the moment.

"I'm doing something I don't usually do, I'm trying to really savor these current experiences and the love that I'm getting from people about the show," says Weiner. "I'm hearing things that I always wanted to hear, people telling me what the show means to them, people worried about how I'm doing. I'm just a writer, and I love that this meant something to people."

With a cast and crew that have become like family over the years, Weiner says, "We have all sworn to stay in touch, I'll tell you that. And I think we'll all watch the end of the show together."

But Weiner usually prefers to watch the show on Sunday nights with a smaller crowd.

"I do like to watch it," Weiner says of his hit AMC show. "I watch it with my family, and we're going to have some viewing parties. But I'm not fun to watch it with. I'm totally intolerant of any conversation."

While Weiner says that the show "does look different when when you see it with other people," he never has any regrets because "I had the chance to do whatever I wanted to do" during filming.

But to this day, Weiner says, "I get anxious on Sundays. For me, it's like a performance."

"It's such a pleasure," Weiner adds of his experience on the show. "Do you know how weird it is to see your name on TV? I haven't gotten over that yet, believe it or not."

SEE ALSO: Here's how 'Mad Men' creator Matthew Weiner manages his super busy schedule

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How the stars of AMC's blockbuster 'Mad Men' have changed over the years

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

If you're a fan of "Mad Men," episodes like Sunday night's is why you watch.

Since the show came back from its hiatus to deliver the final seven episodes, there hasn't been much to be excited about.

In the first episode back it was fun to see one of Don Draper’s old flames from season one return in a dream sequence, but since then it has just been a lot of Draper dealing with grief, sleeping around, and little going on at the office.

But now we've finally gotten that shot in the arm we needed to get us excited for the remaining final three episodes of the show.

Sunday's episode had a major development, as Sterling Cooper & Partners got word that it would be absorbed into their subsidiary, McCann Erickson, after learning their office lease was terminated.

Following the initial shock, Draper came up with a plan to keep the company afloat. By moving to their west coast office, with a handful of accounts, the company could prove to the McCann Erickson big wigs that they are still valuable.

It seemed like one of the gritty, “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” moves we’ve come accustomed to seeing Draper and Roger Sterling pull off to keep their company in business over the seasons.

However, when Draper, Sterling, Ted Chaough, Peter Campbell, and Joan Holloway showed up at McCann Erickson to pitch the idea, McCann Erickson’s executive Jim Hobart told them that they have it all wrong.

They aren't getting thrown aside, but becoming a major part of McCann Erickson.

As he put it, "You've passed the test."

Hobart apologized for the way things were handled, but that McCann Erickson was now ”rolling out the red carpet" for them.

“You’re getting five of the most coveted jobs in advertising… Travel, adventure, and international presence. You’re dying and going to advertising heaven,” Hobart told them.

At McCann Erickson, Don, Roger, Ted, Peter, and Joan will be put on blue chip accounts like Buick, Nabisco, and Coca-Cola. (Though Joan admits to Peter after the meeting she’s suspect if a woman will get the same accounts her male counterparts will receive.)

It seems it's finally time for the SC&P brass to start playing with the big boys. And that there’s finally an end in sight for the show.

Our assumption is that the final episodes will look at SC&P being broken down and who will be moving to McCann Erickson and who will decide to go another direction.

SEE ALSO: 12 beautiful airline ads from the "Mad Men" era

MORE: Here's how 'Mad Men' creator Matthew Weiner manages his super busy schedule

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NOW WATCH: Disney just dropped another 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' trailer — and it's the best one yet

Hulu is on a roll. The streaming video company just closed a deal with AMC for exclusive rights to replay an upcoming "Walking Dead" spinoff.

That spinoff probably refers to AMC's previously announced "Fear the Walking Dead" series, though it's unclear.

Announced during the company's NewFronts presentation to advertisers on Wednesday, Variety reports the deal will most likely also give Hulu exclusive streaming video on demand (SVOD) rights to other future AMC programming.

In March, AMC ordered two seasons of "Fear the Walking Dead." The six-episode first season will premiere this summer, with the second season projected for 2016.

This would be the second major deal announced by Hulu on Wednesday. Earlier, the company announced it had acquired the SVOD rights from Sony Pictures Television to the entire run of hit comedy "Seinfeld."The deal will reportedly cost Hulu an upwards of $180 milllion.

Watch a trailer for "Fear the Walking Dead" below.

SEE ALSO: Hulu just bought all the 'Seinfeld' reruns

MORE: 15 TV shows that will most likely be canceled in the next few weeks

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NOW WATCH: There's a good reason 'The Walking Dead' creator doesn't use the word zombie

AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan saw his 2014 compensation reach an impressive $40.3 million.

That compared with $9.53 million in 2013 and $8.92 million in 2012.

The company — whose flagship, AMC, has aired such hit shows as "Mad Men" and "The Walking Dead" — disclosed details of its executive pay in a regulatory filing.

Sapan's massive pay increase — 323 percent — was mostly due to $29.7 million in stock awards, up from $2.2 million a year earlier. AMC stock, though, fell 6 percent in 2014.

Sapan's basic salary was $2 million, up from $1.3 million a year earlier.

The company also disclosed the pay of its other top executives on Thursday.

Executive chairman Charles Dolan made $2.3 million, up from $1.7 million.

Ed Carroll, the COO, was paid $5.6 million, up from $4.9 million.

Sean Sullivan, the CFO, was paid $2.8 million, up from $2.3 million, while general counsel Jamie Gallagher made $2 million, up from $1.7 million.

SEE ALSO: Here's how 'Mad Men' is so good at avoiding spoilers

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NOW WATCH: There's a good reason 'The Walking Dead' creator doesn't use the word zombie

"Breaking Bad" fans could possibly get a taste of the now wrapped series.

Apparently, there's a chance that the show's fictional Mexican restaurant, Los Pollos Hermanos, could become a real thing, show creator Vince Gilligan said during a Reddit AMA on Thursday.

“Believe it or not…there is talk of a Pollos Hermanos becoming a real restaurant,” he said. “This is not an idea that I generated personally. But it’s one that’s been presented to me, through the good folks at Sony, and the idea came to them from a businessman who has an interest in doing that.”

That businessman could be barking up the right tree.

Twister, the Albuquerque, New Mexico restaurant where "Breaking Bad" shot the Garduno's restaurant scenes had been hit with some big business from the show.

In 2013, there was a run on the restaurant's guacamole dip after "Breaking Bad" featured a tense dinner scene between Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his wife (Anna Gunn) in which the waiter continually interrupted them with glowing praise for the restaurant's guacamole.

Reddit members began a long chain of things a restaurant based on Los Pollos Hermanos should have if it really came to fruition, including "a guy that looks like Walter White sitting alone eating,""a set of mute twins in silver suits staring into space in the corner," and "ice cream covered with blue pop rocks."

SEE ALSO: Why you should watch 'Breaking Bad' in one chart

MORE: Breaking Bad-ness: NY cherry factory hid drug op

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NOW WATCH: The 15 Best Quotes From 'Breaking Bad'