AMC Painlessly Renews MAD MEN for a Fourth Season

That was fast.  AMC announced today that they have picked up the kudos-happy series “Mad Men” for a fourth season.  It must have been a hard decision – what with that Emmy Award for Best Drama in 2008 and the 16 additional nominations they picked up for 2009 – but the brass over at AMC are mavericks.  Don Draper style.  Details are after the jump.

According to Variety, AMC has announced that a fourth season of “Mad men” is indeed on the way.  After the long and stressful negotiations to make “Mad Men” season three a reality, the relatively quiet and painless acquiescence to a season four feels a bit anticlimactic but, believe me, I’m not complaining.

“Mad Men” is still the most intelligent and beautifully crafted series on television and as a fan recently told me “I wish that it would be renewed FOREVER”, it would be the TV story of the summer had AMC failed to secure a fourth season deal.

“Forever” is probably not going to happen for “Mad Men” (creator Matthew Weiner has proved that he’s pretty savvy about contract renegotiations) but the chances that “Mad Men” will live on past season five are still excellent – although by then Weiner’s contract will have expired once again.  The fact is that in every battle between art and commerce in the development of “Mad Men”, commerce has had to kiss art’s ass.  At this point AMC is likely to agree to any demand of Weiner’s that will keep their flagship series from sailing – and that’s just as it should be.