2025 Calder Cup Conference Final Preview: 2) Abbotsford Canucks Versus 5) Texas Stars
The Abbotsford Canucks (8–4–0) keep on making franchise history. They won their five-game Division Final series against the Colorado Eagles, placing them in the final four of the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs. To win the Western Conference, they'll need to defeat the Texas Stars (6–2–0) in a best-of-seven that starts on Thursday.
Latest From THN's Vancouver Canucks Site:
Canucks Prospect Basile Sansonnens' 2025 Memorial Cup Run Comes To An End
Advertisement
Abbotsford Canucks Will Face A Former Vancouver Prospect In The 2025 Calder Cup Western Conference Final
Vancouver Canucks 2025 NHL Draft Target: Brandon Gorzynski
The Stars currently have three of the Calder Cup Playoffs' top scorers in Justin Hryckowian (15), Cameron Hughes (14), and former Canuck Kole Lind (11). As well, Matěj Blümel, Kyle Capobianco, and Curtis McKenzie round out the team's top-six in scoring. After this, the Stars face a significant drop-off in scoring, as no other player on the team has more than four points. This could make cracking Artūrs Šilovs, arguably the top goalie of the postseason, difficult for Texas. With that being said, Texas has the second-highest goals-for of all remaining teams, trailing the AHL Canucks by only five despite playing in four less games.
Something Abbotsford will want to keep an eye out for during this series is their work on special teams. The AHL Canucks' penalty kill has been discussed at length, as they are currently operating at a stellar 97.1% and previously killed 30 straight. Texas currently has the second-highest power play percentage of the final four playoff teams with a rate of 23.1%. On the flip side, the Stars have a penalty killing efficiency of 85.7%, which only barely falls in the top-half of all the teams who participated in the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs. While Abbotsford's power play scored in their 5–0 win against the Eagles on Monday, prior to that, they hadn't scored in their past five opportunities. It will be difficult for them to nab more power plays, as Texas is the least-penalized team remaining in the playoffs with 61 PIMs and 21 times being shorthanded.
Team Stats
Abbotsford:
Goals-for: 36 (1st)
Goals against: 24 (4th)
PIMs: 172 (2nd)
PP%: 21.6% (3rd)
PK%: 97.1% (1st)
Advertisement
Texas:
Goals-for: 31 (2nd)
Goals against: 19 (3rd)
PIMs: 61 (4th)
PP%: 23.1% (2nd)
PK%: 85.7% (3rd)
Abbotsford Canucks Playoff Stat Leaders After Round 3
Abbotsford Canucks Playoff Stat Leaders After Round 3 The Abbotsford Canucks are continuing to make franchise history. With their
5–0 win against the Colorado Eagles on Monday, Abbotsford has officially punched their ticket to the 2025 Calder Cup Western Conference Final. They begin their best-of-seven series against the Texas Stars on May 29 at 7:00 pm PT. Let's take a look at the team's stats after their third-round series.
Individual Stat Leaders
Points:
Abbotsford:
Sammy Blais (11)
Linus Karlsson (10)
Phil Di Giuseppe (8)
Arshdeep Bains (7)
Texas:
Justin Hryckowian (15)
Cameron Hughes (14)
Kole Lind (11)
Matěj Blümel (10)
Goals:
Abbotsford:
Linus Karlsson (7)
Phil Di Giuseppe (5)
Sammy Blais (3)
Nate Smith (3)
Max Sasson (3)
Texas:
Justin Hryckowian (7)
Kole Lind (6)
Curtis McKenzie (4)
Cameron Hughes (3)
Matěj Blümel (3)
Assists:
Abbotsford:
Sammy Blais (8)
Arshdeep Bains (7)
Ty Mueller (5)
Jonathan Lekkerimäki (4)
Jujhar Khaira (4)
Texas:
Cameron Hughes (11)
Justin Hryckowian (8)
Matěj Blümel (7)
Kyle Capobianco (7)
Kole Lind (5)
Goaltenders:
Abbotsford:
Artūrs Šilovs: 1.73 GAA, .936 SV% in 12GP
Texas:
Remi Poirier: 1.87 GAA, .926 SV% in 6GP
Magnus Helberg: 2.85 GAA, 0.889 SV% in 3GP
Abbotsford Canucks players Linus Karlsson (94), Phil Di Giuseppe (34), Christian Wolanin (86), and Ty Mueller (39) stand by the bench during a game. (Photo Credit: @AbbyCanucks/X)
Conference Final Schedule:
Game 1 at Abbotsford Centre – Thursday, May 29 at 7:00pm PT
Advertisement
Game 2 at Abbotsford Centre – Saturday, May 31 at 7:00pm PT
Game 3 at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park – Monday, June 2 at 5:00pm PT
Game 4 at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park – Wednesday, June 4 at 5:00pm PT
*Game 5 at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park – Friday, June 6 at 5:00pm PT
*Game 6 at Abbotsford Centre – Sunday, June 8 at 6:00pm PT
*Game 7 at Abbotsford Centre – Monday, June 9 at 7:00pm PT
Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, be sure to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘King of the Hill' cast and creators on revival: ‘Bobby's got a little bit of fame and a little bit of swagger'
'On August 4th I will be back, and I'm pissed off.' That's how King of the Hill cocreator and executive producer Mike Judge teased the long-anticipated revival of the Hulu animated series, in the voice of Hank Hill. The show will be returning for its 14th season on Hulu, after wrapping a 13-year run in 2009. More from GoldDerby David E. Kelley on the secret of his prolific career: 'Don't ever assume you're smarter than the audience' 'I'm glad I'm still alive': Jon Hamm and John Slattery on 'Mad Men,' 10 years later Watch the first 6 minutes of 'Wednesday' Season 2, from Netflix Tudum 2025 Judge offered a sneak peek at what's in store for Season 14 at a panel at the ATX TV Festival in Austin that also included cocreator and executive producer Greg Daniels, executive producer and showrunner Saladin K. Patterson, and voice cast members Pamela Adlon, Lauren Tom and Toby Huss. The new season finds Hank and Peggy having retired and returning to live in Texas, after working in Saudi Arabia; Bobby (as voiced by Adlon) is now 21 and working as a sushi chef — technically a "German sushi robata" chef — in Dallas. Judge said they had toyed with the idea of bringing the show back for years, but "when it clicked for me, I would just say, is when we start talking about actually aging the characters and the idea of Hank going to Saudi Arabia for a propane gig to retire off of," said Judge. "The ideas just started coming in. Because it's such a grounded realistic show, it just seemed right that they would be older. Bobby wouldn't be the same. That just seemed like the right thing." The actors said they'd been following the rumors of a revival for years. "I just never wish for things like that because it's too big of a dream," said Adlon. Once she was convinced it was real, she was quickly on board with playing an older version of her beloved character. "Bobby's got a little bit of fame and he's got a little bit of swagger," she said. "As an adult, he's become more centered and a bit more like his dad." Huss added, 'I came back because it was like I miss my friends. I miss my friends in real life, but I miss my cartoon friends. We used to have crazy adventures, and I want to have more adventures with them.' But some friends are missing — Brittany Murphy, who voiced Luanne, died in 2009, and Johnny Hardwick, who voiced Dale Gribble, died in August 2023. He'll be in the first six episodes, and then Huss will take over the role for the remaining four. Patterson, who stepped in as showrunner, said, 'We talked about the best way to honor them, the show and the fans as well. I don't want to give any spoilers, but we found opportunities to let them be referenced, in a very respectful way that people are going to appreciate.' Add Huss, 'I'm not trying to copy Johnny ... I guess I'm trying to be Johnny," said Huss. "He laid down a really wonderful goofball character ... he had a lot of weird heart to him and that's a credit to Johnny. So all I'm trying to do is hold on to his Dale-ness. We love our guy Johnny and it's so sad that he's not here.' Over its initial run, King of the Hill received seven Emmy nominations and won twice: Best Animated Series in 1999 and Adlon for Best Voice-Over Performance in 2002. Watch a teaser for the upcoming season here: Best of GoldDerby 'I cried a lot': Rob Delaney on the heart and humor in FX's 'Dying for Sex' — and Neighbor Guy's kick in the 'zone' TV directors roundtable: 'American Primeval,' 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,' 'Paradise' 'Paradise' directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra on the 'chaos' of crafting 'the world coming to an end' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
David E. Kelley on the secret of his prolific career: ‘Don't ever assume you're smarter than the audience'
L.A. Law. Picket Fences. Chicago Hope. Ally McBeal. The Practice. Boston Legal. Big Little Lies. Nine Perfect Strangers. Presumed Innocent. And that's far from the complete list. So it's fitting that David E. Kelley was chosen as the inaugural recipient of the ATX TV Festival's Showrunner Award. Over the course of his career, he's earned 31 Emmy nominations and 12 wins (including a Hall of Fame trophy) and was the first producer ever to take home Emmys for both comedy series and drama series in the same year. Not to mention all of the actors he's written for who have won trophies in their own right. More from GoldDerby 'I'm glad I'm still alive': Jon Hamm and John Slattery on 'Mad Men,' 10 years later 'King of the Hill' cast and creators on revival: 'Bobby's got a little bit of fame and a little bit of swagger' Watch the first 6 minutes of 'Wednesday' Season 2, from Netflix Tudum 2025 In a Q&A at the festival moderated by Gold Derby's editor-in-chief, Kelley talked about his creative process, what he learned from his mentor Steven Bochco, and why he still writes longhand. Gold Derby: You've written comedy, drama, legal dramas, medical dramas, adaptations. What's the secret formula? What's the DNA of a David E. Kelley show? David E. Kelley: Well, there's no secret formula. And if you think that you've got one or it's that easy, then that's when you've lost it and you should get out. It's always hard and always daunting. I would say for my shows, they're character-based. I look to mine the cauldron with a collection of characters that allow me to go in different directions. And so more times than not, you'll see disenfranchised people who have flaws and personality deficits, but who are redeeming and have something to love in them as well. I've always wanted but not always succeeded the piece to ultimately be affirming at the end of the day. That doesn't mean you don't have bad things going on within episodes, but at the end of the day, I would love to nurture the audience with the idea that people are more good than bad. If there's one common denominator that fits the bill across the board, that would probably be it. SEEEmmys flashback 25 years to 1999: David E. Kelley pulls off unprecedented double win for comedy and drama series So what do you look for in an actor to embody that? First, I look for a good casting director. There's something called casting fatigue. It's a long, long process, and the longer it goes, the more likely that you will settle. That the first 20 actors will be so far off, that number 21 will be remotely in the ballpark and you go, that's the one. And that's very dangerous. I've always counted on a strong casting director to bring a point of view and a perspective to (a) find the person that we're looking for, but (b) be strong and secure enough to tell me that this person is not it if I fall for the wrong person. A woman named Judith Weiner cast The Practice and Ally McBeal, which we were doing at the same time. We did The Practice first, and then we went to cast Ally McBeal, and she changed the furniture around in the same room. And I said, "Judith, I can see you've chosen to sit over by the window this time." And she said, "Yes, so I can jump out of it if you fall prey to some of the inclinations that you did during The Practice." When you get a casting director who does not settle, it just makes your job as a producer much, much easier. Do you find that once you've worked with an actor before, you're able to then write with them? You've worked with Nicole Kidman, for example, a few times now. It's a really good question because I don't think people understand how collaborative television series can be. I can't really compare it to movies because I've not done many of them. But in a series you're really looking at what the actor is bringing to the piece and listening to it and feeding off of it. Sometimes you're going for the strengths and shying away from the deficits when you're writing a subsequent episode. But oftentimes, they're doing things that you don't even anticipate. And if you're working with great actors, you just allow yourself to be flexible, to play to their strengths. O-T Fagbenle who played Nico Della Guardia on Presumed Innocent, I had no idea what he was doing when the dailies first came in. He was playing it with an affect and an aloofness and a humor and it wasn't at all the way I'd heard it when I'd written on the page. But it was great and the show needed a little bit of levity where we could find it. So I remember saying I don't know what he is doing but tell him to keep doing it. SEEDavid E. Kelley says new ending for 'Presumed Innocent' on Apple TV+ 'wasn't mandatory' Did you write end up writing to that? It's folly to say, well, that's not the construct that I set out to build and I'm going to stick to the original idea. Sometimes you do, but other times if you see what the actor is giving you is elevating the piece, don't be afraid of it. Is that something you've learned over the course of your career? I learned it pretty early from Stephen Bochco. He taught me so many good habits, and he also had huge amount of respect for the actors. If you surround yourself with good people and smart people, it's only going to make your work better. Lord knows we have more than a few in our industry who get threatened by others, who want to populate their piece with opinions who won't threaten their own, but he never did that. He did that, from the very first day I walked in his office, and he did that with the audience as well. So don't ever for a second assume you're smarter than the audience. These people more likely are going to be every bit as intelligent as you, if not more so. How were you lucky enough to find your way to Stephen Bochco so early in your career? I was a practicing lawyer in Boston, and I knew I liked to write. I had done a little bit in college, but it wasn't something I really thought I was going to make a living at. I was a young litigator and it was motion practice for the most part, which means you sit in a courtroom with a zillion other lawyers and you wait for your case to get called, and it's a long day in court with not much to do. So I started writing a script while in court, and over the course of a year, at the end of that year, I had a script of a young lawyer who was bored with his practice because all he did was go and sit in motion session and never got to argue. Gee, how did you ever come up with that idea? (Laughs.) There was someone in my law firm who was getting into the movie production business from the producing side that I knew, and they were getting bottom of the barrel scripts. They heard I was writing one, and he said, let me read it. And he said, by comparison, it looks good, and he optioned it. The script found its way to Stephen Bochco, who at that time was hatching L.A. Law and he was looking for lawyers/writers, hybrids of people because he really wanted the series to be as authentic as possible. He invited me out, and I had no idea what a fluke it was. I met him, we got along quite well, and he gave me a script assignment. How did he respond to the script? I remember the first couple of weeks were a bit strange because there's a writing staff of about eight to 10 people, and we would get script assignments. I had script number eight, so there were seven that came before me. And I was noticing people walking by with their belongings leaving the office, and I heard, "Oh, these are the writers who have turned in their scripts." Steven would weed them out pretty quickly. When it came time for my script, I walked into the office and sat down, and he looked across the table and he just said, 'You can do this.' And I remember, oh my god. It was like when I had taken the bar exam and opened the envelope and it said that I'd passed the bar. I'm not the complete fraud that I'd convinced myself that I was. When someone like Stephen Bochco says that, that can really fuel the tank. How did his writers' room work? Steven Bochco did his best work in a room with other writers. The more people, the more the heightened his acuity would be. In fact, when he would write himself, and he could not break a story or solve an ending, he would call all the writers into the room to talk about it. We quickly realized he really wasn't calling us in to get our ideas, he was calling us in because he did his best thinking with an audience. I could not do that at all. Where Steven's process was if he's stuck, bring everybody into the room, my process is I can't really do my best work unless I get everybody out of the room because I want to be in the room with the characters. It's probably a more schizophrenic way to work, but I immerse myself into the world. I've always been more of a solitary writer. I've gotten better about working with staffs, and it's easier to share the load. But at the early part of my career, it was actually harder because I didn't really know what I wanted in some of the storytelling until I immersed in the world myself and got in the trenches with the characters. How then do you get your head though into a character that is not you, like Ally McBeal, a single working woman? I'm not really sure. That's probably the schizophrenia part. I just focus on who he or she is, and I listen to that voice. My process in every episode of every series is that you listen to the story and you listen to the characters. And at the beginning, you are crafting the story and you're creating the characters, but at some point the characters are telling me where they want to go and the story is now becoming the boss and dictating which direction it should go in. Do you prefer creating your own shows or adapting preexisting material as you've been doing lately? I've loved both. I would say creating was the biggest high. In fact, I never really wanted to adapt because I thought the process of writing is twofold. There's a huge intoxication when you come up with an idea and when you break an idea and there's an adrenaline that comes with that and that adrenaline applies the fuel when you set sail and you go and and write it. And my fear of an adaptation process was, well, someone else has been the architect. The story breaking is done, the idea has been hatched, now you're just kind of the contractor to execute it. I thought that's the work without the high of breaking the story. The first one I tried was Big Little Lies and I actually quite loved it because, first of all, the book was great, the characters were so fun to write. The book was very internal, the characters were thinking things but not voicing them. So there was a great deal of challenge of how do we take what's going inside the characters' minds and convey them? So there was real hard work to be done there. The adaptation process occasioned me to go in directions that I might not otherwise have ventured into. I did Mr. Mercedes, the Stephen King thing, and that was horror. I had never gone into the horror genre before. I said, "OK, I'll try this," and went down that path and there was a lot of discovery in it, and I ended up quite enjoying it. So, at this point in my career I've been lucky. I've worked with Stephen King, Liane Moriarty with Big Little Lies, Scott Turow has always been one of my favorites with Presumed Innocent, Tom Wolfe with Man in Full. So that's pretty cool when you get these kinds of authors trusting you with their babies. How much collaboration do you do with them? Well, Tom Wolfe was unavailable. (Laughs.) I was probably the most daunted with Stephen King because, you know, it's Stephen King, and, there are things that he writes that logistically and from a production standpoint are going to be hard to do, so I knew I was going to have to make changes. And oh man, he may make me a victim in his next book! But he blessed everything. He says he loved it. I think he even said that Mr. Mercedes was one of his favorite adaptations, because I knew he hated The Shining. SEE'Presumed Innocent' producers J.J. Abrams and David E. Kelley on teaming up, 'contemptible' characters, and season 2 What about Scott Turow with ? Scott Turow's the same with Presumed Innocent. Again, I loved that book. I also loved the movie. I was daunted. This has been done well twice — in book form and in movie form — and I didn't want to be the one to screw it up. The series offered an opportunity to dig deeper into characters, especially the ancillary characters, so I was really excited about that opportunity and it was the love for the characters that that made me dive in. And Scott Turow said OK. He understood the difference in the process. A book is a book, a television series is a series. It was my baby, it's now it's your baby. You've been on a run of limited series; would you ever go back to continuing drama again? I do enjoy the limited series, but right now I'm beginning to miss series again. I tend to mourn characters when series are over. You live with them for a year or two years, and they become a little too real, and then when they're gone, it's sad. Big Little Lies, I still miss them. With series television, you live with the characters for longer. Also, you're really building a community. I am looking to do less amount of projects and get back to a series where it can go on for a long time and maybe we can get that community that I missed back. There was real currency in it. The studios now are looking for shows that aren't going to be over and done with in one, two, or three years, and I think that's going to be good for the consumer. And I look forward to it as a writer too because when, again, when you spend so much time working with these characters, they tend to become real, they tend to become like your family, and you want to hold on to them. But not the Mr. Mercedes family. I was happy to say goodbye to that family. Is there any other family in your library you would revisit for a reunion or a revival? I'm not a reboot kind of guy. I feel I've done that once, and I'm not opposed to someone else taking something I've done if they've got a new idea on it. But I feel it I just want to go forwards not backwards if I can. And do you still write longhand? I do, although my hand sort of runs out of gas now. (Laughs.) I actually do believe that there is a hand-brain connection. Because when I try to dictate or type, the brain doesn't fire as well as when I write with my hand. You heard it here. Best of GoldDerby 'I cried a lot': Rob Delaney on the heart and humor in FX's 'Dying for Sex' — and Neighbor Guy's kick in the 'zone' TV directors roundtable: 'American Primeval,' 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,' 'Paradise' 'Paradise' directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra on the 'chaos' of crafting 'the world coming to an end' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘I'm glad I'm still alive': Jon Hamm and John Slattery on ‘Mad Men,' 10 years later
It has been 10 years since Don Draper bought the world a Coke — but the legacy of Mad Men lives on, in (somewhat) good health. "I'm glad I'm still alive, basically, because of the amount of cigarettes I smoked," joked Jon Hamm. "But the amount of work we put into it feels commensurate with the amount of love we're feeling as well. So that's pretty awesome." More from GoldDerby David E. Kelley on the secret of his prolific career: 'Don't ever assume you're smarter than the audience' 'King of the Hill' cast and creators on revival: 'Bobby's got a little bit of fame and a little bit of swagger' Watch the first 6 minutes of 'Wednesday' Season 2, from Netflix Tudum 2025 Hamm reunited with his Mad Men costar John Slattery to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the finale of Mad Men, the multiple Emmy-winning drama, at the ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas. At the panel, which was moderated by Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley, the two actors about their experiences making the groundbreaking series. Slattery recounted that he'd originally auditioned the role for Don Draper. "I called them back and said, 'Are you sure that's the part they want me to read?'" he said. He went ahead with it, and did all of his homework. "And then they said, 'Here's the thing, we already have that guy.'" (Turns out they thought he wouldn't have come in if they knew they only wanted him for Roger Sterling.) Quipped Hamm, "I'm glad I told you that I had the part because they didn't tell me I had the part." Hamm recalled that he had about nine auditions, and only got confirmation that he'd landed the iconic role when someone made an off-handed comment during an elevator ride. The show's impact was near-instantaneous. "It rang a bell pretty quick," said Hamm. "It was almost immediately kind of recognized as something. Now that doesn't mean anybody saw it, but people heard about it." Mad Men, which was created and executive produced by Matthew Weiner, won the Emmy Award for Best Drama Series its first season — it would go on to win that trophy a total of four times during its seven-season run, earning 16 Emmys overall — but while that early success was exciting, it was also 'intimidating,' Hamm acknowledged. 'I just remember looking over at Matt and going like, 'My God. This guy has to do all of this again, from a blank page.' And I thought, 'I wouldn't want to trade with him.' But you just have to enjoy the terror.' And while the pilot made an impact, the show only improved from there. Recalled Slattery "I remember walking in early on with Lizzie Moss to a table read of the second or third episode, and I said, is it me, or is it are these things getting better?" he said. Given the amount work that goes into a pilot, he said, "sometimes the quality drops off. And this didn't." Weiner always had a clear vision for the finale, said Hamm. 'Matt had the end scene during season one. He knew he wanted Don to end up somewhere on the West Coast and dreaming up that Coca-Cola commercial,' said Hamm. 'He didn't know how many episodes he would have between here and there, he didn't know how many seasons, he didn't know any of that. But he knew that he wanted this guy to end up there. The rest of it was very murky. ... But I trusted him as the caretaker of all of these characters to not bang on a key that comes out with a false note.' That said, he admitted to being initially disappointed in the final season, which saw Don off on his own journey, removed from his colleagues — and Hamm, separated from the co-stars he'd grown close to. 'I really had a hard time with that,' he said. 'And now, of course, in retrospect, I thought, well, that's perfect. What better way to feel the ambiance and the loneliness of this character's journey than to be like, 'You've got nobody left, and you're on the road by yourself. In retrospect, good job, man.'' The actors reminisced about Weiner's infamous meticulous attention to detail, shooting in L.A. for New York ('We never went outside,' said Hamm), the martinis ('The vodka was fake, but the onions were real,' said Slattery). and all those fake cigarettes ('Somebody did a count and in the pilot alone, I smoked 75 cigarettes,' said Hamm). 'I remember at some point having a conversation with the executives at AMC, the network that aired the series, when they said, 'Do they have to smoke?'" said Hamm. "And I was like, 'Are you f--king kidding me? Yes, they literally have to. They're addicted. Kinda why they're sold.' Asked about the now-infamous blackface episode, Slattery recalled his initial hesitation when he got the script. 'I felt like, well, this is probably something that occurred, and it's probably something that this character would have done,' he said. 'And then I got all dressed up in the outfit and got in the van and rolled to the set. And the first person I saw when I got to the set was a very large African-American Los Angeles motorcycle cop who was helping me open the door.' Hamm acknowledged the show dealt with issues that are 'problematic,' adding 'That's how we learn,' he said. 'It's a wonderful thing to learn. ... We had to lean into the good, the bad, and the ugly of all of it, and understand that in this lens of the now, and part of it was representation of Black people in the '60s. Why aren't there any black people in here? There are you just don't see them because they were not seen. That's not great. But the versatility of it is there. And the show ended up dealing with all of those issues as uncomfortable as they made those characters.' Hawley asked the actors about the feeling of the show being about "we don't understand this world anymore," as the '50s transitioned abruptly into the '60s. ("I wonder what that's like," quipped Hamm.) "There's a moment when Don puts on a Beatles album and just is like, 'This is garbage. I don't get this, what is this nonsense?'" said Hamm. "People have to understand, Frank Sinatra was still on the top 10 list when the Beatles were selling records. It was very much a a crash of the Eisenhower era and the new era." He pointed to the 1966 Best Picture nominees, which included The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, Camelot — and Dr. Dolittle. Having worked with Hamm on Fargo, Hawley asked him about his creative process with Weiner, and what conversations they had about the inconsistencies in Don Draper, 'At a certain point, he's this person because at the very base of him, as we find out over the course of seven seasons, he is not the person who he says he is,' he said. 'His foundation is profoundly fake.' Hamm revealed that the first-season episode '4G,' where we meet Dick Whitman's brother, was written in response to a note from AMC asking for more understanding of Don's behavior. 'There is certainly that mercurial nature to Don. And he's searching, as he is over the course the of the of the 92 episodes for what is the truth? Who is he at the end of it? He ends up on a cliff at the end of the things — but on a cliff in a good way.' As for Roger Sterling, 'Those scripts were so well-crafted that there weren't a lot of questions as to how to play those scenes,' said Slattery. Slattery said they often learned what was coming up in table reads, calling them 'electric.' He recounted the season three episode with the schoolteacher. 'There's like 35 people with scripts, and everybody turns the page at the same time. 'Exterior, and the schoolteacher's still sitting in the car,' and everybody's like, 'Oh my God!' Everybody had forgotten that the schoolteacher was still sitting outside. It was incredible. So that's how we would find stuff out.' The actors also praised their costars at length, including Christina Hendricks (Joan), January Jones (Betty), and Elisabeth Moss (Peggy), and the characters they embodied. 'It was an amazing thing to watch Peggy's ascendancy and confidence and place in the world, not just of the agency, but in the world of the business, in the world of the culture, in the world of New York City — the comfort level from being a bridge-and-tunnel kid to fully owning being a Manhattanite was amazing,' said Hamm. 'It was so definitely handled, and those actresses especially just f--king crushed it in every in every possible way.' Best of GoldDerby 'I cried a lot': Rob Delaney on the heart and humor in FX's 'Dying for Sex' — and Neighbor Guy's kick in the 'zone' TV directors roundtable: 'American Primeval,' 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,' 'Paradise' 'Paradise' directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra on the 'chaos' of crafting 'the world coming to an end' Click here to read the full article.
