Don Draper wants out of Mad Men.
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Just weeks before filming starts on its fifth season, the man behind the advertising wunderkind of the1960s-based series, says the show should end after its seventh season.
![Jon Hamm in the role of Don Draper in Mad Men. Jon Hamm in the role of Don Draper in Mad Men.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/1acba4de-0f36-4041-bf28-11f6e11700a1.jpg/r0_0_729_489_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The Emmy Award-winning drama, which follows the lives and loves of New York's advertising industry throughout the 50s and 60s, has been plagued by its own set of off-screen dramas due to contractual issues between network executives and the show's creator Matthew Weiner.
Shooting of the fifth series will begin in late July or August and will go to air in March 2012 in the US. It is still unknown when Australian audiences will see the new episodes.
![January Jones, left, as Betty Draper with her <i>Mad Men</i> co-stars. January Jones, left, as Betty Draper with her <i>Mad Men</i> co-stars.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/d73f40c9-0ab8-4074-a03f-b2613e886f0a.jpg/r0_0_729_440_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Following months of discussions, the series has now been renewed for three more seasons but Hamm believes it would have run its course by then.
"I think it should end [after the seventh season]. Everything should end," Hamm said while promoting his new film Bridesmaids.
"I was a big fan of The Office in England because it ended."
40-year-old Hamm, who credits the role of notorious ladies man Draper to launching his Hollywood career, is grateful for the success the show has brought him, including guest star roles on 30 Rock and a Golden Globe in 2008.
"I'm 40, which is ridiculously old in Hollywood," he said.
"I mean, come on, I'm not in Twilight. I could play their grandfather or something. It's crazy that this has happened. I'm a very, very lucky human being."
Hamm will make his directional debut in the upcoming season of the show but admits that he doesn't know what is in store for Draper.
"I don't think the scripts exist," he said.
"The way Matthew writes the show is very organically. He starts and eventually there are scripts but I certainly haven't seen them."
One cast member enjoying the down time between filming is January Jones, who plays Draper's estranged wife Betty, who is expecting her first child later this year.
"I've been enjoying a nice break. I've been in a nesting phase just preparing my house and stuff. I've had the luxury of having a couple of months off," she said in a recent interview.
Follow Jenna Clarke on Twitter @JennaMClarke