Remember when one of Game of Thrones’ final episodes accidentally included a coffee cup in a scene? Well, despite Mad Men, one of the other great Peak TV era shows, having ended 10 years ago, it now finds itself in a similar situation. The remastered 4K version of the hit AMC series just became available to stream with an HBO Max subscription, but one of the episodes unfortunately included some crew members and a vomit machine in plain sight.
This snafu can be seen, at the time of publication, at the end of the Mad Men Season 1 episode “Red in the Face.” Following Roger Sterling making a pass at Don Draper’s wife, Don discreetly pushes Roger to eat and drink more before their meeting with some officials from Richard Nixon’s 1960 presidential campaign. Then upon returning to Sterling Cooper, Don bribes the elevator attendant to pretend as if the elevator is out of order, prompting Don and Roger to climb up 23 flights of stairs. By the time Roger comes face to face with these men, he proceeds to spill the contents of his lunch… or at least, that’s how it’s supposed to look. Behold what you’ll find on HBO Max:
Whoops! There are some crew members just right there operating the fake vomit machine next to John Slattery. How did that happen? According to THR, Lionsgate Television, which produced Mad Men, delivered the wrong 4K file to HBO Max, resulting in the loss of post-production edits. The former company is in the process of getting the streaming service the proper file.
The 4K version of Mad Men dropped on HBO Max yesterday, December 1, but clearly this premiere didn’t go as planned. In addition to the unedited vomit scene, many of the Mad Men episodes were also listed out of order and mistitled. Presumably these issues will be fixed soon, although those of you streaming the series in its non-4K format on AMC+ or watching your own digital or physical copies don’t have to worry about any of this.
Mad Men premiered on AMC in 2007 and was quickly met with critical acclaim, catapulting actors like Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss to worldwide fame. It won 16 Emmys and five Golden Globes during its seven-season run, among numerous other accolades. It was also the first basic cable show to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, snagging that honor its first four years.
This vomit error aside, if you’ve read this far, yet have never seen Mad Men, I strongly urge you to rectify that immediately. Whether you watch it on HBO Max or elsewhere, this remains one of the best TV shows of the 21st century and is well worth your time. I can also confidently say that you won’t throw up while watching it… well, unless you overdo it on the oysters and alcohol like Roger did.