When you think about it, AMC has managed to pull off quite a feat. A channel that was originally devoted to actual American movie classics (hence, ya know, the name of the network) but devolved into repeatedly showing stuff like Halloween 5 has branded itself for more than just slapping the word "classic" on any movie they get the rights to show.

Fortunes changed when the channel's executives made the brilliant decision to make the move into original television programming. And thus the viewing public has been graced with such high-quality, highly-addictive stuff as Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and the 3-time Emmy award winner for Best Drama, Mad Men.

Here's a look at what was left hanging in the balance at the end of Season Four:

Does marrying your secretary ever really work out?

Seriously? Does he want his picture to be under the word "cliche" in the dictionary, or is he just trying to be like Roger? Next thing you know he'll dye his hair silver. First he was asking a prostitute to slap him, then he went on this journey of self-discovery...only to completely regress and propose to his buck-toothed secretary. Still, she's a sweet enough girl...but Betty was probably sweet before she had to put up with Don's philandering and emotional remoteness, too. And look how she turned out.

Will Betty's new husband finally come to the realization that she's nothing but a vapid baby and he needs to leave her because sure, she's pretty, but looks aren't everything...especially when the pretty lady is spoiled and bitter? And vapid?

Will Pete ever grow up and become an actual human being?
Pete. The guy you love to hate. In a long line of all-too-human characters, he seems to be the most flawed - whiny, self-absorbed, grasping and climbing, he's not easy to endure. It's always fun to see him get the smack down, be it from the guys at the office or one of the women in his life. We last saw Don paying Pete's share of money, which he was contractually obligated as a partner to kick up, to keep SCDP afloat. And now he's a father. Has a fictional character ever been more pitied than that poor child? But this could be Pete's time to shine - to step up as a father, as a business partner, as a man. Or he could just ask his father-in-law for money and mess around with a random girl in his apartment building. Either/or.

Speaking of SCDP, what gives? It seemed like a good idea at the time but Season Four saw our heroes floundering - thanks in large part to the loss of Lucky Strike. Will the endeavor go belly-up, or will Peggy and the other unsung underlings rally together to keep things afloat? Of course, that might mean Peggy would get credit for her work, which we know can never actually happen. Because she's a girl.

Will Peggy be swept up into the Woman's Lib movement?

Peggy did a lot of exploration last season - in fact, on the whole her character may have had the most richly-drawn arc over the course of the series so far. The first episode saw her as a shy, inexperienced young girl who didn't realize that the Pill doesn't start working right away. Now she's an office inhabiting, account winning, lesbian gal pal having, "I'm gonna get what I want out of life" woman. In a way she's like a depiction of so many women of that day and age - coming into her own, finding that there's a world out there for trailblazers with smarts and tenacity, trying to strike the balance between being an equal in the business place and being a woman. So what if she has an illegitimate child living with her parents? She has work to do! It will be interesting to see where she goes as the 60s progress.

What about Joan's baby?
Genius move on the part of the show's writers to leave the question of whether or not Joan "took care of" her pregnancy (resulting from a moment of adrenaline-induced passion with Roger) hanging in the air.

There she sat, on the bus ride home, after being mistaken for the mother of a teenage girl at the clinic as opposed to a wedding ring wearing woman in her mid-30s going in for yet another procedure. Talk about an eye-opener. Afterward she even told Roger that it was "taken care of." And yet, we know from the conversation she had with her husband that she is, in fact, still pregnant. How many people cheered when they realized that she'd kept the baby? (I did.) How will Roger deal with the knowledge that there's a little silver haired, gin swilling baby running around (that would be awesome, by the way)? Will Joan's husband ever get wise? Will he even make it out of Vietnam?

Will anyone ever pay attention to poor little Sally?

Poor, poor Sally. With a mother like Betty, who seems hell bent on repeating the mistakes her own mother made, and an absentee father like Don, what's a little girl to do? Oh, right, get caught touching herself. Duh. What does this kid have to do to get someone to sit and talk to her? She cut off her hair, thinking it would make her look prettier. She ran away from home and was luckily found by a good, honest person who helped her reach Daddy's office in one piece. She developed an attachment to her (creepy) neighbor and was spot-on when she accused Betty of being jealous that she wasn't the one getting all of the attention. If the show manages to make it back to the airwaves before the kid's in college, it will be fun to see the tension between her and Betty get worse until one of them explodes. Could Daddy's new wife provide the motherly support Sally so obviously needs? She does seem to care for the kid. Time will (hopefully) tell.

Mad Men: Are you a fan?