If you're out on the road, or falling past Manhattan skyscrapers, you might be binge-watching some well-loved TV. Which actors (and director) have Mad Men and The Gilmore Girls in common?
We're all in to keep moving forward on that:

Lesli Linka-Glatter directed six episodes of Mad Men, including:

5G (Adam)
The Benefactor (Peggy and Bobbie)
A Night to Remember (Betty's dinner party)
Love Among the Ruins (Gene moves in; Patio cola)

Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency (a real fan already knows)
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (Honda)

and four episodes of Gilmore Girls, including the pilot episode.

Alexis Bledel plays Beth Dawes, Pete Campbell's adulterous love interest on Mad Men, as well as Rory Gilmore.
She and Vincent Kartheiser met on the Mad Men set and later married (but have since divorced).

Danny Strong played Jane Siegel's cousin Danny ("the cure for the common breakfast") on Mad Men, and Paris's boyfriend, Doyle McMaster, on Gilmore Girls.

Madchen Amick plays Andrea, the subject of Don's fever dream in Mystery Date in the fifth season of Mad Men, as well as Sherry Tinsdale, Christopher's girlfriend, on Gilmore Girls.

Abigail Spencer plays Suzanne Farrell in Mad Men,
and one of Logan's sister's mean bridesmaids (Megan) on Gilmore Girls S6E16: Bridesmaids Revisited.

Mary Kathleen Gordon plays a nurse in the hospital where Pete visits Beth Dawes, and an unnamed woman at the inn on Gilmore Girls in S2E7: Like Mother, Like Daughter.

John Aniston emcees the Clio awards in Mad Men, and he appears as Douglas Swope on Gilmore Girls on S3E9: A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving.

Jeanne Simpson, who is Betty's neighbor on Mad Men, also plays an unnamed customer on Gilmore Girls on S6E1: New and Improved Lorelai

Ray Wise, who plays Ed Baxter in Mad Men (Ken's father in law and the CEO of Dow Chemical) also plays Jack Smith, friend of Emily Gilmore in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.

Hayley McFarland plays Bonnie, who talks to Don backstage before the Rolling Stones arrive in Mad Men, as well as Marcia (who attends April's birthday party) on Gilmore Girls.

Patricia Bethune, who plays Sally's therapist Dr. Edna in Mad Men, also plays Terry in Gilmore Girls in S3E19: Keg! Max!

Audrey Wasilewski, who plays Peggy's sister Anita in Mad Men, plays Sandra in Gilmore Girls in S5E18: To Live and Let Diorama.

Nora Zehetner, plays Don's neighbor Phoebe in Mad Men, and an unnamed girl in Gilmore Girls in S1E6: Rory's Birthday Parties.

Jon Hamm, Don Draper in Mad Men, is also Peyton Sanders, a brief romantic interest for Lorelai Gilmore in S3E5: Eight O'Clock at the Oasis.

Update: it turns out there are even more that we missed!
Ron Brownstein plays Roger's psychiatrist in S6E1: The Doorway, and appears in Gilmore Girls.
Katie Walder is Pete & Trudy's neighbor in S6E3: Collaborators, and Paris's Yale roommate Janet in Gilmore Girls.
Oliver Muirhead is a Jaguar executive in S6E3: Collaborators (not the Herb guy) and in Gilmore Girls.
Lukas Behnken becomes Kate's date Leo in her night out with Joan in S6E4: To Have and To Hold, and he is also Todd in the Double Date episode of Gilmore Girls.
We'll add more as they pop up in our re-watch!

Toast your coffee cup - or old-fashioned - to the people who appeared in both shows. Maybe it's time for a re-watch!

See our Mad Men Episode pages for details

This is the full, human-edited transcription of Mad Men C to Z's podcast about Season 5, Episode 9: Dark Shadows. Although many podcast providers include AI transcription (including Spotify), there are often errors in name spellings, punctuation, or even speaker recognition.
You can listen to the podcast episode here.
Visit our Mad Men S5E9 Dark Shadows episode page, for more details and a chance to vote on your favorite Sterling Lines, and vote on our Double Dip question.

Mad Men C to Z S5E9 Dark Shadows Transcript 
 
Jenna: Hi, I'm Jenna.
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou.
 
Jenna: There's so much to love about this amazing show, and we're happy to connect to fans like us, who discover new things with each rewatch.
 
Steve: Be advised, while we aren't gratuitous with spoilers, they can pop up as we discuss character arcs through the final season.
Let's get started with Mad Men C to Z.
 
Jenna: This is Mad Men C to Z, Season 5, Episode 9, Dark Shadows. This episode was written by Erin Levy, and directed by Scott Hornbacher.
 
Steve: The episode kicks off with Betty in the kitchen preparing a very healthy breakfast.
 
Jenna: In the commentary, Matthew Weiner talks about their researchers checking Weight Watchers, and getting these details to be really accurate.
And I looked up some of the guidance from the 1966 cookbook, and portion control and eating a lot of fish each week, and eating either an orange or a grapefruit daily was part of it.
 
I normally love a montage about the underdog and the hard work that doesn't happen overnight. I mean, Rocky Balboa, right? But this is Betty Draper . . . Francis . . . Manfredjensen.  [Laughing]
I have some sympathy for her, but her struggle to lose weight just isn't a compelling storyline. And we see a lot of it in this episode.

This is the full podcast transcript for Mad Men C to Z, season five, episode eight, Lady Lazarus. The AI transcriptions provided by podcast distributors aren't reliable with character spelling, punctuation, and sometimes, even which speaker is talking, so we're providing a human-edited version here.
You can listen to the podcast here.

Find more details about Lady Lazarus on our episode page, including links to cultural references, voting for your favorite lines, and responding to our Double Dip questions about the episode.
Follow us on socials @MadMenCtoZ, and thank you for your support!

Mad Men C to Z S5 E8 Lady Lazarus Transcript
 
Jenna: Hi, I'm Jenna.
 
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou.
 
Jenna: There's so much to love about this amazing show, and we're happy to connect to fans like us who discover new things with each re-watch.
 
Steve: Be advised, while we aren't gratuitous with spoilers, they can pop up as we discuss character arcs through the final season.
Let's get started with Mad Men, C to Z.
 
Jenna: This is Mad Men C to Z, Season 5, Episode 8: Lady Lazarus.
This episode was written by Matthew Weiner and directed by Phil Abraham.
Lady Lazarus, of course, is the title of a Sylvia Plath poem about a woman who wants to live and die on her own terms.
And like the biblical story of Lazarus coming back from the dead, in this episode we see Megan starting over.
 
The episode opens, though, with Pete on the train with his buddy Howard, the insurance salesman, and Pete lets Howard make him an insurance pitch.

This is the full podcast transcript for Mad Men C to Z, season five, episode seven: At the Codfish Ball. The AI transcriptions provided by podcast distributors aren't reliable with character spelling, punctuation, and sometimes, even which speaker is talking, so we're providing a human-edited version here.
You can listen to the podcast here at our host, Alitu
You can also find it here on Spotify
And you can find it here on YouTube

Find more details about At the Codfish Ball on our episode page, including links to cultural references, voting for your favorite lines, and responding to our Double Dip questions about the episode.
Follow us on socials @MadMenCtoZ, and thank you for your support!

Mad Men C to Z S5E7 At the Codfish Ball Transcript
 
Jenna: Hi, I'm Jenna.
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou.
Jenna: There's so much to love about this amazing show, and we're happy to connect to fans like us, who discover new things with each re-watch.
Steve: Be advised, while we aren't gratuitous with spoilers, they can pop up as we discuss character arcs through the final season.
Let's get started with Mad Men C to Z.
 
Jenna: This is season five, episode seven At the Codfish Ball.
 
This episode was written by Jonathan Igla, who has written 30 episodes of Mad Men, and he's also a producer of Bridgerton.
The episode was directed by Michael Uppendahl, who directed 11 episodes of Mad Men, and he has also directed six episodes of Fargo, nine episodes of American Horror Story, and episodes of The Walking Dead, Glee, and Weeds.
 
I'm a huge fan of this particular episode, although when I start breaking it down, there's a lot of sadness and darkness, so I'm not sure why I enjoy this one so much.
 
Steve: For me, I get a lot of pleasure out of the introduction of Emile and Marie as the parents of Megan and their interplay with each other, and then also their interactions with their daughter and Don.
 
Jenna: This episode begins and ends with Sally talking to Glen on the phone. Glen asked Sally about the Spoonful album, if she's listened to it yet.
This would have been Daydream, which came out in March of 1966.
 
Steve: While Sally is on the phone with Glen, Pauline trips over the phone cord and hurts herself. Sally has to take kind of an adult role here, nursing Pauline.
 
Jenna: You have to be a certain age to remember this, but phones used to have wires, and sometimes they were wall mounted in very public family areas so you had no privacy for your conversation. Everybody knew your business, they knew who called and how long you talked, and they could also hear your entire end of the conversation.

This is the full, human-edited podcast transcript for our Mad Men C to Z discussion of season five, episode six, Far Away Places.
Visit our episode page for more details about this episode, and listen to the podcast here.

Mad Men C to Z S5E6 Far Away Places Podcast Transcript
Jenna: Hi, I'm Jenna.
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou.
 
Jenna: There's so much to love about this amazing show, and we're happy to connect to fans like us, who discover new things with each re-watch.
 
Steve: Be advised, while we aren't gratuitous with spoilers, they can pop up as we discuss character arcs through the final season.
Let's get started with Mad Men, C to Z.
 
Jenna: This is Mad Men Season 5, Episode 6 Far Away Places. The episode was written by Semi Chellas and Matthew Weiner, and directed by Scott Hornbacher.
 
This episode follows three separate stories during the same time period; it's a Thursday in September.
It feels a little bit like the episode Seven Twenty Three that had the ending of three storylines, and it catches us up to how they got there.
In that case, it was Betty and Henry,
Peggy and Duck, and Don's robbing hitchhikers.
 
Here we get one connective point in all three stories, where Don asks Megan to leave with him, and then we get to see Peggy's story, Roger and Jane, and then Don and Megan's trip.
 
The title of this episode, Far Away Places, seems like a goal for each of the characters, because they all want to get someplace, but they can't quite escape themselves.
For Peggy, it's becoming Don,
for Jane, it's an LSD trip with Roger,
and for Don it's trying to recapture what he and Megan had on their trip to California.

Steve: The episode starts with Peggy getting ready for work. Abe's displaying his frustration that Peggy seems to prioritize her job and work over paying attention to him.
 
Jenna: Each of the three storylines features an argument between couples, and this one between Peggy and Abe opens with a truth call-out.
Abe complains Peggy's too focused on work.

This is the full podcast transcript for Mad Men C to Z, season five, episode five, Signal 30. The AI transcriptions provided by podcast distributors aren't reliable with character spelling, punctuation, and sometimes, even which speaker is talking, so we're providing a human-edited version here.
You can listen to the podcast here at our host, Alitu
You can also find it here on Spotify
And you can find it here on YouTube

Find more details about Signal 30 on our episode page, including links to cultural references, voting for your favorite lines, and responding to our Double Dip questions about the episode.
Follow us on socials @MadMenCtoZ, and thank you for your support!

Mad Men C to Z S5E5 Signal 30 Transcript
 
Jenna: Hi, I'm Jenna.
 
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip & Dip to Zou Bisou.
 
Jenna: There's so much to love about this amazing show, and we're happy to connect to fans like us, who discover new things with each rewatch.
 
Steve: Be advised, while we aren't gratuitous with spoilers, they can pop up as we discuss character arcs through the final season.
Let's get started with Mad Men C to Z.
 
Jenna: This is season 5, episode 5, Signal 30.
This episode was written by Frank Pierson and Matthew Weiner.
 
Frank Pierson wrote a number of notable films, including Cool Hand Luke, Dog Day Afternoon, and Presumed Innocent, and he co-wrote and directed A Star Is Born, the movie with Barbra Streisand.
 
This is also the third episode of Mad Men directed by John Slattery.
 
I've been a bit critical of the last two episodes overall, but I appreciate this one a lot. I think it's a great example of theming across an episode that works in service of the characters.

This is the full, human-edited podcast transcript for Mad Men C to Z Season five, Episode 4: Mystery Date. Sometimes the AI transcriptions released from various podcast platforms include name misspellings, errors in punctuation, or errors identifying the correct word or speaker.
You can listen to the podcast here.
Please visit the S5E4 Mystery Date episode page for more details.

Mad Men C to Z S5E4 Mystery Date Podcast Transcript
 
Jenna: Hi, I'm Jenna.
 
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou.
 
Jenna: There's so much to love about this amazing show and we're happy to connect to fans like us who discover new things with each rewatch.
 
Steve: Be advised, while we aren't gratuitous with spoilers, they can pop up as we discuss character arcs through the final season.
Let's get started with Mad Men, C to Z.
 
Jenna: Hey, everybody. This is Mad Men Season 5, Episode 4, Mystery Date.
This episode was written by Victor Levin and Matthew Weiner and directed by Matt Shakman.
There's a lot in this episode that has a horror movie quality to it. You can find it in almost every scene, but there is also a lot about bargaining and negotiation. We see that with Sally and Pauline, Ginsberg, Joan and Greg, and most delightfully, with Peggy and Roger.
 
Steve: Do you think the horror elements integrate seamlessly into this episode of Mad Men, or do you think it's a bit of a distraction or diversion?

This is the full, human-edited version of our Mad Men C to Z discussion of Tea Leaves, from Season Five, Episode 3 of Mad Men. You can find more details about this episode on our Tea Leaves episode page, and follow us on socials @MadMenCtoZ.
You can listen to the episode here.
You can also find it here on Spotify, or here on YouTube.

Mad Men C to Z S5E3 Tea Leaves Podcast Transcript
 
Jenna:  Hi, I'm Jenna.
 
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou.
 
Jenna: There's so much to love about this amazing show, and we're happy to connect to fans like us, who discover new things with each re-watch.
 
Steve: Be advised, while we aren't gratuitous with spoilers, they can pop up as we discuss character arcs through the final season.
Let's get started with Mad Men C to Z.
 
Jenna: This episode is Season five, Episode three, Tea Leaves.
It was written by Erin Levy and Matthew Weiner, and directed by Jon Hamm.
 
This episode is not a favorite for me, but the early episodes in each season of Mad Men tend to be setting up the complexities that make the later episodes so rich and compelling.
 
The parts in this episode I like best are Henry being such a nice guy, and Peggy being the hiring committee for Michael Ginsberg. How do you feel about this episode overall?
 
Steve: I think I'm pretty close to where you are. I really like the Michael Ginsberg character, so I'm happy to see him show up here.
 
 
Jenna: Mad Men is almost always dealing with issues surrounding perception and image and the discrepancy between what is real and what is performed,
but I feel like this particular episode is dealing with that very explicitly: how things look, as opposed to what is authentic.

This is the full, human-edited transcript for our Mad Men C to Z discussion of Season 5, Episode 2: A Little Kiss, Part 2.
The AI transcripts released on podcast platforms regularly make spelling and capitalization errors, or confuse the speaker or some of the words, so we wanted to share a more correct version.
Please visit our episode page for A Little Kiss, Part 2 for more details.

Mad Men C to Z Podcast Transcript for S5E2: A Little Kiss Part 2
 
Jenna: Hi, I'm Jenna.
 
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou.
 
Jenna: There's so much to love about this amazing show, and we're happy to connect to fans like us, who discover new things with each rewatch.
 
Steve: Be advised, while we aren't gratuitous with spoilers, they can pop up as we discuss character arcs through the final season.
Let's get started with Mad Men C to Z.
 
Jenna: This is season five, episode two, A Little Kiss, Part Two.
This episode was written by Matthew Weiner, and directed by Jennifer Getzinger.
This episode is set in the early summer of 1966, after Megan throws a surprise party for Don.
 
This episode shows us several characters getting the message that you can't be this thing you want to be.
We see that for Megan, for Lane and Joan, and of course, it's always in the shadows for Don.
 
Steve: As the second half of the episode opens, we have Lane in a cab where he finds a wallet.

This is the full, human-edited transcript for our podcast discussion of Mad Men's Season 4, Episode 9, The Beautiful Girls. You can listen to the episode here, or you can listen to it here on Spotify. Visit our episode page for more details and extras about The Beautiful Girls.

Mad Men C to Z S4E9 The Beautiful Girls Transcript
 
Jenna: Hi, I'm Jenna.
 
Steve: And I'm Steve. Welcome to All Things Mad Men, from Chip and Dip to Zou Bisou.
 
Jenna: There's so much to love about this amazing show, and we're happy to connect to fans like us, who discover new things with each rewatch.
 
Steve: Be advised, while we aren't gratuitous with spoilers, they can pop up as we discuss character arcs through the final season. Let's get started with Mad Men, C to Z.
 
Jenna: Today, we're talking about season four, episode nine, The Beautiful Girls.
This episode was written by Dahvi Waller and Matthew Weiner, and directed by Michael Uppendahl.
The scene opens with a couple of wrapped takeout sandwiches and two soda bottles on an end table, and we can hear Don and Faye from the bedroom.
 
This seems like a really happy and healthy relationship for him.
He's not married and cheating, he isn't drunk, and he's not taking advantage of someone at the last minute or with somebody he doesn't respect.
Although he's not working.