‘Mad Men’ Episode Accidentally Turns Up Early on iTunes

By Dave Itzkoff
Mad MenFrank Ockenfels/AMC Peggy Olson’s got a secret, and some “Mad Men” viewers already know what it is.

Updated | 1:16 p.m. Having waited nearly a year for the new season of “Mad Men” to have its premiere last Sunday, some fans of that AMC drama discovered on Tuesday that they were briefly able to download the third episode of the new season from the Apple iTunes store, nearly two weeks before the episode is scheduled to be broadcast on television.

Bloggers for Web sites like mashable.com and several commenters on the online social network Twitter said that they discovered the unaired “Mad Men” episode, called “My Old Kentucky Home,” had been automatically downloaded to their iTunes queues just before midnight on Tuesday, and some of them wasted no time in watching it. (As a commenter named chaya wrote on mashable.com, “this is awesome(save one distasteful part).”)

What the lucky viewers appeared to have in common is that they were all subscribers to the “Mad Men” season pass feature on iTunes, which automatically downloads each episode for a user some time after it has been broadcast. The second episode of the third “Mad Men” season, called “Love Among the Ruins,” is scheduled to be shown on AMC on Sunday, and “My Old Kentucky Home” was to be shown on Aug. 30.

At some point on Tuesday or Wednesday, the apparent iTunes glitch was fixed, and users are no longer able to download “My Old Kentucky Home.” But some devoted bloggers have already posted short synopses of the episode’s contents. Possibly major spoiler alert? The episode apparently contains a soon-to-be-repeated line of dialogue: “I’m Peggy Olson and I want to smoke some marijuana.”

In a statement, AMC said: “The third episode of ‘Mad Men’s new season was made available prematurely to some iTunes Season Pass holders for a short time late last night. We urge those who received this episode in error to please refrain from spoiling plot lines out of respect to other ‘Mad Men’ fans who are looking forward to watching the story unfold.”

Comments are no longer being accepted.

rem06513 August 19, 2009 · 11:39 am

So much for suspense. The show is a hit anyway I don’t think it hurt in any way.

//www.publicworkscomics.com

Doug August 19, 2009 · 12:58 pm

OOPS! We’re getting millions of dollars of free advertising and lots of buzz in the media for next to nothing at all.

We have no idea how such a thing could have happened (wink, wink, wink)

M August 20, 2009 · 10:56 am

I was going to subscribe to this service but I decided not to after several comments on the website said that it takes iTunes too long to get the episodes out to the subscribers each week. I guess they solved that problem…

JBG September 4, 2009 · 5:50 pm

1960-1970
Worked hard,drank hard, but always had ethics, values, to say No.
Lots of good times great business trips..
I was the client–especially satisfying, to work with the top agencies.

Coming back home, after a trip always special.
Air travel was lots of fun.(First Class)..
4 children..Well behaved,respectful. .

Still married -60 years.

Bill Bartmann- September 13, 2009 · 2:18 pm

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A definite great read…

– Bill Bartmann

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