The ongoing Mad Men business saga threatening the show’s future appears at an end, with AMC announcing today that the show will go on, and, with negotiations nearing an end, the show’s creator Matthew Weiner will be on board. In a press release today, the network announced a new “long-term” deal for a fifth and six season, hinting at the possibility of even a seventh, with all parties sounding excited to get back to work.

A source familiar with the ongoing (and much buzzed-about) negotiations regarding AMC’s Mad Men has cleared up some widely-circulated misinformation regarding the show’s future plans and impending return.

Despite other reports painting the show’s return as being somewhat up in the air, our source confirms that the show will definitely return in 2012 – with or without the show’s creator, Matt Weiner. Weiner has apparently taken issue with his base paycheck of 30 million dollars.

With 24/7 cable news channels providing endless intellectual stimulation and enjoyment, who has time to squeeze in any non-news shows? To ring in the new year, check out a recommended list of the ten best entertainment programs of 2010 that are definitely worth your attention in 2011.

How does the costume designer for TV’s hit Mad Men keep her forces in line and stop them from stepping out of the ’60s fashion orbit?

There’s a tendency when the offspring of a famous person does something notable to define them by their more-famous parent. But this week, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is being defined by his insanely talented daughter, Allison Williams, who stars in the viral video sensation Mad Men theme-song mashup. “The Mad Men Theme Song, [...]

If you turned on the television last week then you probably noticed that The Town’s press tour brought Jon Hamm on just about every single talk show imaginable. He was on the Daily Show, he talked with Bill Maher, heck, I’m pretty he sure even travelled back in time to discuss Ben Affleck’s directing style with Dick Cavett. However, it was during his appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that we learned this disturbing secret: Brian Williams is stalking him.

Is President Obama a Mad Men fan? On Monday Obama gave a fiery Labor Day speech during which he accused the Republicans of talking about him “like a dog.” There’s been speculation he was quoting Jimi Hendrix, however the line may date to Muhammed Ali, who uttered it to the press just weeks before his rematch with Sonny Liston in 1965.

NOTE: This post originally ran last August to celebrate the premiere of Mad Men season three. We thought it’d be fun to pull it out of the Mediaite vault ahead tonight’s fourth season opener. Enjoy!

Hats off to Rush Limbaugh, leading the 21st Century feminist charge in his roll as a judge for this year’s Miss America pageant. It was hard work! Says Rush. Also: “I love the women’s movement — especially when walking behind it.”

Thanks to MTV’s Jersey Shore, the humble little town of Seaside Heights, New Jersey, is now the center of the pop-culture universe. The show has been the subject of protest, controversy, mockery, and obsessive recaps by Steve Krakauer. The town is getting a priceless amount of free advertising, albeit to drunken, promiscuous, brawl-prone twenty-somethings.

What was the the town like in the time of this year’s other pop-culture phenom, Mad Men? Mediaite has the goods on “Jersey Shore: 1960.”

It’s not really a secret around here that I am a big fan of New York Times op-ed columnist and author Gail Collins. Collins, whose witty and sharp columns often add a measure of levity to the Times op-ed pages — particularly during last year’s sometimes fraught campaign season — has brought those same talents [...]

So it’s the day before Halloween, and you don’t have a costume. What to do? Fortunately, Mediaite has come up with some costume suggestions for you. Pulled straight from the headlines, these are guaranteed to be hits:

In keeping with our posting of various Mad Men parody videos (Meshuggenah Men, Sesame Street), here’s one more: MA Men, aka what Mad Men would be if it was a bunch of [BLEEPIN'][BLEEPERS] in Boston pitching an idea about the Red Saahx. Also, you read the title correctly: The video stars Joey McIntyre, late of [...]

The thing about long-time New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin is that even though he represents the very best of what we are arguably losing in the demise of old media, you get the sense that had he been born into the 2.0 era he would have done just fine.

Blackface has somehow worked its way into the headlines twice over the past week. The October edition of French Vogue features a model with her face and body painted black. Harry Connick, Jr. called international attention to Australia when he protested a blackfaced skit on a variety show. Coincidence, or part of a larger trend?

HLN host Joy Behar somehow combined Mad Men and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” in a segment last night, talking to Bryan Batt, a gay actor from the show, and columnist Dan Savage.

But Behar threw another topic into the mix – the sexual orientation of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

We’ve noticed the parallels between Mad Men and journalism before, and took the opportunity to compare our favorite characters from the AMC drama to the personalities on Morning Joe. But according to classic journo Gay Talese, in a new video from Big Think, when it came to “smoking, drinking, writing, womanizing, smoking, drinking…,” the glory days Gray Lady had ‘em beat.

Walking into any library, there is an index showing everything that is included and where to find it. The Internet has no such directory, just an earnest tour guide in Google who can tell you what he’s seen. But there are some great tools on line to help you sort it out. So in the spirit of the helpful guy at the information desk, let me share them with you.

Ok, Oprah just got slightly cooler. Mad Men stars Jon Hamm and January Jones will be guests on her show on Monday. And, the entire episode will have a retro-chic 1960s theme to it, including a segment that sounds like Oprah’s Favorite Things: 60s edition.

Does advertising work? It’s an age-old question with an elusive answer. Today, TargetSpot, an internet radio advertising network, took a step toward proving its effectiveness by announcing a new system of analytics that will track the performance of audio ads online by monitoring the anticipated influx of website traffic after an internet radio spot airs. But is it accurate? And more importantly, what if the ads don’t do anything?

I’m not alone: the media is obsessed with Mad Men. Seeing jokes about Don Draper and photos of January Jones everywhere suits me just fine, but why do I suspect that to a big chunk of the population, the Mad Men hype feels shoved down their throats?

Yesterday I watched an advanced screener of the season three premiere of Mad Men. At this point it’s hard to imagine anyone not being aware that the show will be debuting tonight on AMC. It has officially become a cultural phenomenon. Here’s some thoughts about the premiere episode and how it might fit into the larger picture. Don’t worry hardcore fans, no spoilers here!

“Nostalgia,” said Don Draper to the hushed and darkened room. “It’s delicate, but potent…Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.” Then he convinced a roomful of clients that calling it a Carousel might actually reinvent the wheel. Suckers!

We can’t speed time up and make it Sunday at 10 p.m. any faster than the Lord or Matthew Weiner willeth, but we can pull together a few videos that will slake your mighty thirst, momentarily.

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know that Mad Men is debuting its hotly-anticipated third season on Sunday — and everyone’s excited. All that smoke-filled, sexed-up, whiskey-splashed glamour is enough to make one long for the heady days of the early Sixties — who knew advertising could be so compelling? We know who — the folks at Morning Joe, currently representing the most harmonious blend of advertising and editorial on the airwaves. Don Draper himself couldn’t have topped it (and he might even have switched out his whiskey for a Venti Frappucino). From there, the comparisons suddenly seemed obvious.

Did Conan miss the part where everyone is excited about Mad Men? All the reviews and previews and tie-ins excuses to write about Mad Men because people love it? Sesame Street is doing a parody this year, for God’s sake. Conan, wake up!