It was a simpler time, 1960 — at least as it was known in 2007 when Mad Men premiered on AMC. Don Draper was just a pedestrian adman, not an iceberg of lies named Dick Whitman; Peggy Olsen was a fresh-faced secretary, not a copywriting genius; and Pete Campbell was an obnoxious, haughty junior account executive, not an obnoxious, haughty Head of Accounts. Now, in celebration of the show’s final episodes, AMC has launched “Mad Men: The Fan Cut,” a contest that asks fans to relive those halcyon days and recreate individual scenes from the pilot that will be compiled into an entirely fan-made episode.
AMC has uploaded Mad Men’s entire first episode onto YouTube, breaking it up into short clips ranging from eight to 38 seconds. Fans can register for the contest and select the moment they want to recreate, but must act quickly because only five fans will be allowed to claim a single scene. Several have already been reserved, but a number of highlights still remain, including snippets of Don talking cigarette preferences with a waiter, Peggy putting the moves on her new boss and numerous instances of Pete acting like a jerk.
Fans will have until March 2nd to claim their clip, after which they’ll have 30 days to shoot their video and upload it to YouTube. The winning clips will be selected by a group of judges who will announce their decision on May 6th. The fan-created version of the pilot will air during Mad Men’s final season this spring.
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