TVSquad

Recently, when I interviewed Matt Weiner, the creator of AMC's Mad Men, we talked about the movies, books and television shows that influenced the inception of the show. The 1960 Oscar-winning best picture The Apartment was one, so were the sitcoms Dobie Gillis and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Of all the television shows he mentioned, though, there was one that was the most influential. "You can't have the '60s without The Twilight Zone. It is a mind opening experience for a generation," said Matt. "It was not just science fiction, it dealt with social issues. It's filled with the texture of real life. Just the idea of having a show every week where you don't know who is going to be in it and what it's going to be about, to have this acceptance of the fact that we don't know everything about the world. That in itself was something."

Going through The Twilight Zone episode guide, there are quite a few shows in which you can see where Mad Men could find inspiration. Here's four that reminded me of Don and Betty and Pete and Sterling Cooper:

Kim Cattrall is hot. Hot as in busy as well as in looking good. She's also smart, funny, observant and remarkably candid. Recently, I spoke with her for TV Squad about the success of the Sex & the City movie, her new HBO project Sensitive Skin, and a whole lot of other things, including Star Trek, aging, Universal TV in the 1970s and more.

Allison Waldman: When Sex & the City ended, you didn't want to do the movie. Now it's done and it's a huge success.

Kim Cattrall: It's extraordinary. I look back four years ago when this was a runaway idea, I just did not feel ready to do it. We had reached such a high point, I wasn't sure I had anything else to say. I also had incredible personal challenges. My marriage was coming apart, also, my dad was diagnosed with dementia. I really needed a time out.

AW: How did the movie come back around?

KC: Michael Patrick King called and said, 'I'm writing something and I think you're going to love it. ...I think you were right to say no when you did because of whatever reasons you had.' See, I had never been public about my reasons I felt that it was nobody's business.