"Adecade ago, Matthew Weiner was a little-known writer who landed a job on The Sopranos with a script for his own show. In Sydney last week, he was on top of the world - in demand from writers, producers and fans - as the creator of one of TV's most acclaimed shows in recent years. Mad Men, set in a 1960s New York advertising firm, has taken all before it since its debut two years ago, including consecutive Emmy awards for outstanding drama series and best writing in a drama series. There have also been Golden Globes, Writers Guild awards and a BAFTA. The show is a persuasive advertisement for the successful marriage of substance and style. Weiner, who had been carrying around the idea for Mad Men in various forms for years, was working on the sitcom Becker when the pilot finally emerged. If he had already found a place in the business and in his personal life - married to Linda, an architect and sounding-board for his work, and with four children - an existential question remained: what does identity mean? That question goes to the heart of Mad Men, especially for the main character Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm. The advertising industry was the perfect setting because it was ''a fantastic model for how society sees itself'', Weiner says." - RAPatton

"In Draper, he constructed a man who sells not only product and dreams, but himself. His journey along the highway of social mobility is strewn with car wrecks from his past. "I have affection for all of them,'' Weiner says of his characters. ''They live with me all the time and I'm very hard on them. ''I like to think that every single character has a reason for doing [something]. As long as there's a reason … you can't be judgmental. But audiences like to have a sense of superiority over the characters and that's fine but a lot of them realise they're looking in the mirror.''" - RAPatton