As the final episodes of Mad Men continue to air on AMC, here are a few facts about the critically acclaimed drama.

• After writing for The Sopranos, Weiner began shopping his pilot script for Mad Men around Hollywood. Both Showtime and HBO turned him down before AMC, which had no original programming at the time, gave him a shot.

• The show’s opening credits, which feature a silhouette of an executive tumbling out of his office past skyscraper-sized advertisements, is an homage to the opening sequence of Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest.

• The producers originally wanted actor Thomas Jane to play Don Draper but were reportedly told that “[he] doesn’t do television.” The role eventually went to Weiner’s first choice, little-known actor Jon Hamm. Jane later accepted the starring role in a short-lived HBO show called Hung.

• The actors don’t smoke actual cigarettes. Herbal ones are used instead. Hamm claims to have gone through 74 of them while filming the show’s pilot.

• John Slattery plays Roger Sterling. The actress who plays his ex-wife? His real wife, Talia Balsam.

• In a 2012 episode, French-Canadian actress Jessica Pare (Megan Draper) sings a sexy version of the ‘60s French pop song “Zou Zou Bisou.” Pare’s version cracked the Canadian Top 100—it spent a single week at #100.