Mad Men Fans Notice Major Editing Mistake in Remastered Episodes

Mad Men fans caught an editing error from season 1 after the series started streaming on HBO Max.

“The new 4K transfer of mad men on HBO somehow does not have any of the post-production edits added in, which means you get stuff like this where you can see the crew member manning the puke machine after Roger has too many oysters lmao,” read an X post with a screengrab from a 2007 episode.

The episode, titled “Red in the Face,” showed Don pushing Roger to eat and drink at lunch before having to walk the twenty-three flights of stairs to the office. Roger became exhausted and vomited in front of the Nixon officials.

In the HBO version, crew members could be seen in the background due to the large view of the scene. A source told The Hollywood Reporter that Lionsgate delivered the wrong 4K file to HBO Max. The non-4K files were fine as delivered and Lionsgate is reportedly working with HBO Max to swap out the scenes, which didn’t feature the crew in the shot when it premiered on TV.

Mad Men, which aired from 2007 to 2015, followed the lives of advertising executives at a prestigious New York City agency in the ’60s.

While shows being remastered in 4K can create new errors, other TV shows have let goofs slip through from the beginning. Earlier this year, ABC’s Doctor Odyssey made headlines when a fan took to X to share a screengrab from an April episode, writing, “In last nights Doctor Odyssey, while the ship was sailing around the ocean. a tree from the outdoor studio they film at (on land) could be seen behind Tristan.”

The scene on Hulu didn’t appear to have a tree in the background, but the screenshot did show greenery behind Tristan (Sean Teale) despite them not being at a dock. In a behind-the-scenes video, the cast and crew showed off the real outdoor set with the ship docked with trees in the background. ABC ultimately fixed the error after it was pointed out on the internet.

Squid Game on Netflix, meanwhile, showed a cameraman in a scene. A viewer took to X in January to share a season 2 moment, writing, “Someone is getting fired from the Squid Games team after one of the cameramen was spotted in the background mid episode 😭😭.”

The scene from season 2 showed a shoot-out that switched angles, which is when a cameraman suddenly appeared in the corner. Also at Netflix was The Umbrella Academy, which wrapped up its run in August 2024 with a scene showing a camera operator in a shot.

“I’m watching The Umbrella Academy season 4 and noticed that they forgot a whole ass camera rig in the backseat of a car during this shot 😅,” read an X post, while another fan pointed out the “prop snow” that they saw move in another scene. “Omfg they did NOT care. I bet they were so tight on the deadline that they forgot to remove it in time,” the second viewer wrote.

Netflix’s Outer Banks was another production under fire for not hiding their stunt doubles. In several season 3 episodes, which dropped in February 2023, fans picked up on editing mistakes where actors’ stunt doubles weren’t removed from the respective shots.

The trend continued into season 4 when several romantic scenes between Rudy Pankow‘s JJ and Madison Bailey‘s Kiara were ruined once viewers flagged that there were different actors in the scenes.