'Mad Men' Season 6

The sixth and penultimate season of Mad Men begins this Sunday, April 7th, a week after the season finale of The Walking Dead. Yes, AMC gets to follow up one hit show with another. Good decision to have it begin a week after The Walking Dead, and a sincere thank you to AMC because it will help hold us over until our favorite zombies/walkers return in the fall. 

One of the big questions is always "what time-frame will Mad Men pick up in?" Season 5 ended in 1967, and we famously got a dose of an actual Beatles song, "Tomorrow Never Knows" from their 1966 album Revolver. In a video interview with Jon Hamm posted on the Rolling Stone website, Hamm explains he prefers The Rolling Stones to The Beatles. Mad Men also featured The Rolling Stones' "I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)" in Season 4. Maybe this time we'll get a song from both bands at the same time? Other musicians who could start to be played in episodes are Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Doors, and Aretha Franklin.

Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris

AMC also just released 10 photos from Sunday's two-hour premiere, and some of the photos feature Christmas decorations and a tree, so we can assume Season 6 picks up in November/December 1967. Most of the season will take place in 1968 that means, and should be heavily influenced by the civil rights movement and the escalating protests of the Vietnam War.

The seventh and final season should take us into 1969, with the moon landing and Woodstock. I'm looking for an episode called "Sally Goes to Woodstock". Just hopes she stays away from the brown acid. I was hoping that we'd get a few seasons that take place in the 1970s, for some leisure suit and bell-bottom fun, but it looks like that may not happen. Unless the end of Season 7 takes us there.