Matthew Weiner first developed Mad Men in 2000.
While working as a staff writer on the sitcom Becker, Weiner wrote the first draft of Mad Men’s pilot as a spec script. The early script was titled “The Division,” and it used 1960s advertising to examine American culture and social change.
The project did not immediately become a television series. Weiner and his representatives tried to sell the script to HBO and Showtime, but both passed. HBO showed interest only if The Sopranos creator David Chase became involved. Chase declined, but after reading the pilot in 2002, he hired Weiner as a writer on The Sopranos.
Mad Men eventually found a home at AMC, which ordered it as the network’s first original dramatic series. It premiered in 2007, seven years after Weiner wrote the initial pilot. The development date is therefore different from both the show’s 2007 premiere and its 2006 pilot filming.