No more ‘Mad Men’ — till 2012

There's discontent, disharmony, vexation - yes, madness - on the Mad Men ship.

Matt Weiner, the beloved creator and exec producer of the sexy, revisionist '60s soap opera, has yet to renew his contract with Mad Men's home channel, AMC, Variety reports.

Fans quake in horror!

But, there's good news, of a sort: AMC has greenlit the fifth season of the superb drama - to run in 2012. Seems they're determined to crank it out with or without Weiner. The channel is hedging its bets by moving the fifth season debut back from this summer to next fall.

The cabler hasn't necessarily abandoned Weiner, saying that "key non-cast negotiations" continue as we speak. Variety puts a more negative spin on things, saying the two sides are at loggerheads. (Weiner plunged AMC into a similar void of contractual chaos two years ago.)

According to the blog Deadline Hollywood, Weiner is opposing AMC and producer Lionsgate on three points: more product placements, two minutes less running time in favor of commercials, and cutting two performers. No names mentioned.

Weiner, widely recognized as the true genius behind all that is good, true and beautiful about Mad Men, got his showbiz start as an uncredited joke writer on Fox' short-lived and forgotten Swoosie Kurtz-starring '96 sitcom, Party Girl.

His AMC masterpiece stars Jon Hamm as a latter-day Ivan Ilych who has been forced to confront his mortality and the morality of his Mephistophelean role as facilitator of the American cancer, hyper-consumerism.

Hope they resolve their differences: AMC would be be mad - maaaad! - to steer the Mad Men ship without Weiner at the helm.