\'Mad Men\' Set to Return on April 7

Michael Yarish/AMC Don Draper in a scene from “The Phantom,” the Season 5 finale of “Mad Men.”

The fifth season of “Mad Men” concluded last June on notes of ambiguity: Don Draper was considering a proposition from an alluring stranger; his wife, Megan, had embarked on her acting career; Roger Sterling was enjoying an altered state of consciousness; and Peggy Olson, having quit the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce agency to join a rival firm, was on a field assignment, watching dogs do, well, doggy things.Where does this 1960s period drama go from here, and what will happen next to its characters

AMC answered part of this question on Wednesday morning, announcing that “Mad Men” will return for its sixth season â€" and what is planned as its second to last â€" on April 7. That premiere episode will be two hours long, the network said, and  written by the “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner and directed by Scott Hornbacher, an executive producer. The following week’s installment, written by Mr. Weiner and Matthew Igla, is directed by Jon Hamm, who plays Don Draper on the series.

But as is his frustrating custom, Mr. Weiner was offering few other concrete details about the new  season in a phone interview on Tuesday, not even to specify what year it will be set in. (Still, it seems safe to assume the first two digits will be 1 and 9.)

“It will advance in time, as it does,” Mr. Weiner said cryptically. “I ! can’t say how much or how little. We’re coming off a period in Don’s life where he’s trying to normalize, and trying to have this relationship - a real relationship with this woman that he fell in love with. She expressed her desires and that was a surprise for him. On this show, it’s a very rich, full orchestra, and we like to follow what is the next stage in these people’s lives.”

Mr. Weiner said he hoped “Mad Men” would once again connect with the “cultural psyche” as it did in Season 5: references to horrific 1960s moments like the Richard Speck murders and the Charles Whitman tower shootings seemed to anticipate a national mood of paranoia, even before contemporary events like the Aurora, Colo., shootings; while, on a more optimistic note, Jessica Paré’s performance of the bubbly pop song “Zou Bisou Bisou” gave the tune a new lease on life.

Once again, “Mad Men” is openingwith a two-hour premiere, though Mr. Weiner said he approached the task differently this year.

“The network requested it this time,” he said, “whereas last time it was my idea to come back with a splash. It worked well last year and they wanted to try it again. For me, I was like, well, I don’t have the same set of problems, but I do have a way to start the story with a movie. It has some cliffhanger elements to it, it does propel you into the rest of the season â€" it does foreshadow a lot what the season is about. But I was like, I want to write a movie here, that we can create the atmosphere and vibe of the season.”

Mr. Weiner said he was committed to making this the penultimate season of “Mad Men,” and that this was influencing how he wrote these episodes.

“I did approach this season originally saying, ‘O.K., we can’t do tha! t yet. We! shouldn’t do that yet. I’m saving that for here,’” he said.

But after three weeks of plotting stories this way, Mr. Weiner said his executive producers Maria and Andre Jacquemetton told him: “Just approach the season the way you always approach it â€" go for broke, use up everything you have and we’ll deal with it later.”

“So I decided to throw it all in,” Mr. Weiner said. “When you’re on a show where drama is somebody watching a phone ring, you really shouldn’t take out any story ideas you have.”