Mad Men

So much for fresh starts. When we said goodbye to our gin-soaked advertising warlocks last November, they had just formed their own agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, bringing along a support staff that included Peggy, Pete, Harry, and Joan. There was a bracing note of new adventure in the air, the prospect of big challenges and big rewards. It's a little jarring, therefore, that Mad Men returns for its fourth season Sunday night with one of the darkest episodes in the history of the show.

MAD MEN. 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC. MATTHEW Weiner has a few things he'd prefer I not tell you about the Season 5 premiere of AMC's "Mad Men. " Starting with what year in the '60s it is when the show resumes Sunday, after a 17-month hiatus. Also: "What happened with Don and Megan? Don and Faye? "Did Joan have the baby? "How is the character Betty affected by actress January Jones' real-life pregnancy? "What's going to happen to SCDP without Lucky Strike and with Don's anti-tobacco letter?

Philadelphia: birthplace of freedom. And advertising. The first ad agency in the country, N.W. Ayer & Son, opened here in 1869. "When it rains, it pours" (1912) for Morton Salt; "I'd walk a mile for a Camel" (1921) for R.J. Reynolds - those were N.W. Ayer & Son. In the late 1950s and early '60s, Philadelphia hosted its own world of account executives who courted the country's biggest companies. But was the Philly ad-agency life like the one depicted in AMC's much-praised Mad Men ?

There's discontent, disharmony, vexation - yes, madness - on the Mad Men ship. Matt Weiner , beloved creator and exec producer of the sexy, revisionist '60s soap opera, has yet to renew his contract with Mad Men 's home channel, AMC, says Variety. Fans quake in horror! But, there's good news, of a sort: AMC has green-lighted the fifth season of the superb drama - to run in 2012. Seems they're determined to crank it out with or without Weiner. The cabler hasn't necessarily abandoned Weiner, saying that "key non-cast negotiations" continue as we speak.

New episodes of Mad Men are enlivening Sunday nights, offering fans (like me) a glimpse of a way of doing business that's as retro as black-and-white TV. Or maybe not. Consider the Delaware River Port Authority, which operates four bridges, a commuter railroad and an executive suite where the culture is old-school enough to fit the hit AMC show. The high-rise salaries, posh perks and toll-free lifestyle long enjoyed by senior DRPA staff certainly have a definite old-fashioned flavor.

An Emmy nod may be in store for a dark drama about an antihero rising to the top of an all-American industry during a tumultuous historical epoch. And, no, we're not talking about ethically compromised adman Don Draper, bedding his way through the '60s on Mad Men . When the Emmy nominations are announced Thursday, many TV pundits expect that HBO's Boardwalk Empire will land among the six nominees for drama, most likely putting the...

There's discontent, disharmony, vexation - yes, madness - on the Mad Men ship. Matt Weiner , the beloved creator and exec producer of the sexy, revisionist '60s soap opera, has yet to renew his contract with Mad Men 's home channel, AMC, Variety reports. Fans quake in horror! But, there's good news, of a sort: AMC has greenlit the fifth season of the superb drama - to run in 2012. Seems they're determined to crank it out with or without Weiner. The channel is hedging its bets by moving the fifth season debut back from this summer to next fall.

On the big screen, the sleek, smoky, shameless Don Draper was doing that voodoo he does so well. And as another young lovely fell under his spell, another audience did, too. About 60 people watched this compelling Mad Men clip and more as Camden County College launched what could be called March Mad Men Madness on Thursday. A separate, five-week course about the hit AMC drama will debut, also at the Blackwood campus, on March 21. "It's not a college course about a TV show.

Break out the Brylcreem and the Aquanet. Mad Men returns tonight on AMC at 10. There hasn't been as much anticipation for the season debut of a series since The Sopranos' run. Just as that other modern classic used to, Mad Men picks up in propulsive form, opening a number of unexpected and intriguing plot doors. Unlike the second season opener of this '60s saga, there isn't a significant jump in time. It's too early for the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five, but there has been a British invasion.

I'd be the first to admit that I watch and think entirely too much about television. But that doesn't mean that I understand it. Case in point: AMC's intention to put Mad Men's Jessica Paré up for the outstanding-lead-actress category in a drama at this year's Emmys. The channel is obviously convinced that Paré's much-talked-about bordello-grade performance of "Zou Bisou Bisou" at Don's surprise birthday party earlier this season has vaulted her into the first rank of actresses.

I'd be the first to admit that I watch and think entirely too much about television. But that doesn't mean that I understand it. Case in point: AMC's intention to put Mad Men's Jessica Paré up for the outstanding-lead-actress category in a drama at this year's Emmys. The channel is obviously convinced that Paré's much-talked-about bordello-grade performance of "Zou Bisou Bisou" at Don's surprise birthday party earlier this season has vaulted her into the first rank of actresses.

As keenly as Mad Men has been missed during its 17-month intermission, it's not until you hear the vertiginous strains of the opening theme that you really grasp what an important part of the TV landscape this Emmy-monopolizing show has become. In other words, welcome back, Don Draper, you handsome devil. Questions, questions, you've got questions. The Season Four finale left a lot of pimple balls up in the air. Would Don (Jon Hamm) repent of his impetuous marriage to his secretary, Megan (Jessica Paré)

Five things you can do in the five days until "Mad Men" Season 5 begins: Plan your wardrobe. Janie Bryant, the show's celebrated costume designer, lent her name and expertise to a "Mad Men" capsule collection at Banana Republic that's more inspired-by than ripped-from the '60s (and a good thing, too, since Americans on average were thinner then). Think cigarette pants, floral prints and a "Betty dress" for women; fedoras and chino suits for men. All at 2012 prices, of course.

MAD MEN. 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC. MATTHEW Weiner has a few things he'd prefer I not tell you about the Season 5 premiere of AMC's "Mad Men. " Starting with what year in the '60s it is when the show resumes Sunday, after a 17-month hiatus. Also: "What happened with Don and Megan? Don and Faye? "Did Joan have the baby? "How is the character Betty affected by actress January Jones' real-life pregnancy? "What's going to happen to SCDP without Lucky Strike and with Don's anti-tobacco letter?

BEVERLY HILLS , CALIF. - We won't see Season 5 of "Mad Men" until next March - production gets underway a week from Monday - but AMC's already ordered Season 6, according to network programming exec Joel Stillerman. Stillerman also confirmed reports that Jon Hamm, who stars as "Mad Men's" Don Draper, will make his directorial debut in the fifth-season premiere. And while he was confirming things, he also noted the departure of executive producer Frank Darabont from "The Walking Dead" and the elevation of one of the show's writers, Glenn Mazzara, to Darabont's role as showrunner.

An Emmy nod may be in store for a dark drama about an antihero rising to the top of an all-American industry during a tumultuous historical epoch. And, no, we're not talking about ethically compromised adman Don Draper, bedding his way through the '60s on Mad Men . When the Emmy nominations are announced Thursday, many TV pundits expect that HBO's Boardwalk Empire will land among the six nominees for drama, most likely putting the...

If the "Mad Men" crisis has got you down - shutdown averted, but no new episodes until 2012 - I would like to offer a little perspective. First, even in a year that is not A Year Without "Mad Men," it is only a "Mad Men" year for 13 out of 52 weeks; presumably, in the normal course of things, you are all right the other 39. Second, there is a lot of other television to watch, new and old, some of which touches the same bases as "Mad Men," if not...

There's discontent, disharmony, vexation - yes, madness - on the Mad Men ship. Matt Weiner , beloved creator and exec producer of the sexy, revisionist '60s soap opera, has yet to renew his contract with Mad Men 's home channel, AMC, says Variety. Fans quake in horror! But, there's good news, of a sort: AMC has green-lighted the fifth season of the superb drama - to run in 2012. Seems they're determined to crank it out with or without Weiner. The cabler hasn't necessarily abandoned Weiner, saying that "key non-cast negotiations" continue as we speak.

There's discontent, disharmony, vexation - yes, madness - on the Mad Men ship. Matt Weiner , the beloved creator and exec producer of the sexy, revisionist '60s soap opera, has yet to renew his contract with Mad Men 's home channel, AMC, Variety reports. Fans quake in horror! But, there's good news, of a sort: AMC has greenlit the fifth season of the superb drama - to run in 2012. Seems they're determined to crank it out with or without Weiner. The channel is hedging its bets by moving the fifth season debut back from this summer to next fall.

SO MUCH television, so little time: Do you buy TV shows on DVD for the episodes or the extras? Lionsgate seems to think "Mad Men" fans want to understand a lot more of the history behind the 1960s-set melodrama. And when I say a lot more, I'm talking a three-part documentary about "Divorce: Circa 1960s" that's included, along with the usual commentaries, in today's DVD/Blu-ray release of "Mad Men: Season 4. " A mix of professorial talking heads and clips from the series - along with some old movies - it's a mostly scholarly affair, one that reminds us that there was a time as recently as 1960 when just 16 percent of U.S. first marriages ended in divorce, if only because divorces were so hard to come by. Season 4 being the first in which Don Draper (Jon Hamm)