Who pitched Mad Men to AMC executive Christina Wayne?

Ira Liss pitched Mad Men to AMC executive Christina Wayne.

Liss was Matthew Weiner’s talent manager, and his pitch helped revive a project that had struggled to find a buyer. Weiner had developed the period drama years earlier, but HBO and Showtime had passed before AMC became interested in expanding its original programming.

Wayne was AMC’s vice president of development when Liss brought the series to her. The network ultimately took a chance on a 1960s advertising drama, a project that did not resemble the conventional crime and genre programming then associated with cable television.

The other names in the choices belong to different parts of Mad Men’s development story. Richard Plepler was associated with HBO, Ed Carroll was an AMC executive who described the network’s decision, and David Chase later hired Weiner for The Sopranos after reading the pilot. None of them was the manager who pitched the show to Wayne.