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25 Things You Didn't Know About "Mad Men" That Will Blow Your Mind

Just a few factoids to get you excited for Sunday's season finale.

1. "Mad Men" was originally pitched to HBO — and they turned it down.

2. Glen is played by Matthew Weiner's real-life son.

3. 7 out of 9 writers on the show are women.

4. Jon Hamm could have become famous for playing Jack Donaghy instead.

5. Mona, Roger Sterling's ex-wife, is John Slattery's wife in real life.

6. The toxic smog featured in the episode "Dark Shadows" really happened.

Megan tells Don, "The radio said there's a smog emergency. The air's toxic. I don't want that in here." In the world Matthew Weiner's created, this is less about the historical reference point and much more about symbolism, however, the smog did cause real problems for real New Yorkers of the time.The smoggiest day the city experienced that year was on November 24th (in Mad Men it's mentioned as Megan is preparing Thanksgiving dinner), and there are varying reports that the smog killed anywhere from 169 to 400 people in the city that year.

7. The actress who played Mrs. Blankenship also played the Karate Kid's mom.

8. The $19K that Peggy left the company for turns out to be equivalent to $131K today.

9. Freddy Rumsen is Bill Murray's brother in real life.

10. Every episode of the show has been filmed in Los Angeles except for one.

11. In the first episode of "Mad Men", the photo of Trudy on Pete Campbell's desk is not Alison Brie.

12. It costs roughly $2.84 million to produce each episode.

13. Sterling Cooper's original building is the same as the UBS tower in the movie "Network".

14. Jessica Pare recorded a full-length version of "Zou Bisou" and it went to #1 on Billboard's World Music charts.

15. Pete and Peggy's baby was given up for adoption.

“I mislead the audience all over the place, and that’s the fun of the show. I give out little bits of information at a time and then play on that,” he said.But was he clear about the fact that Peggy’s sister is not raising Peggy’s son. He said the child was given up for adoption.

16. The show paid $250K to use The Beatles iconic song "Tomorrow Never Knows" in an episode.

17. Robert Morse starred in the original 1967 movie "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"

18. The show became the first basic-cable show to be nominated for Best Drama at the Emmy Awards in 2008.

19. Though Don and Harry were trying to get the Rolling Stones to endorse Heinz beans, The Who released an album in 1967 that features Roger Daltry bathing in them.

20. The "Mad Men" theme song is by RJD2.

View this video on YouTube

The song is called "A Beautiful Mine" and you can listen to the full version here.

21. Much of season 3 revolves around a commercial parody of "Bye Bye Birdie" – the nickname Don has for Betty. By the end of the season, they divorced.

22. In real life, Vincent Kartheiser lives "off the grid".

I have been in a slow process of selling and giving away everything I own. Like, I don't have a toilet at the moment. My house is just a wooden box. I mean I am planning to get a toilet at some point. But for now I have to go to the neighbours. I threw it all out.

23. Christina Hendricks originally auditioned for the role of Midge.

24. All those cigarettes? Fake.

25. The father of Jared Harris (Lane Pryce) is Richard Harris — the man who played the original Dumbledore.