The ‘Mad Men’ 4K Stream on HBO Max Had So Many Problems (Not All of Which Involved a Barf Machine)
If you wanted to see Mad Men truly like never before, you had your chance on HBO Max.
The 4K stream of the classic Lionsgate Television series for AMC Network came to HBO Max on Monday, Dec. 1, but the big acquisition did not go exactly as planned.
For starters, the Mad Men episodes in 4K on HBO Max were listed out of order and mislabeled, which likely made series creator Matthew Weiner an absolute mad man.
But that’s nothing compared to an actual edit-oopsie in the seventh episode of season one. In “Red in the Face” (what the episode is supposed to be titled, but was not on 4K HBO Max), a drunk (they were always drunk) Roger Sterling (John Slattery) vomits up oysters in the office in front of prospective clients. In the initial 4K stream that released on HBO Max, a Mad Men crew member was very visibly operating a barf hose behind Sterling, in full view of the camera. There was even a second staffer in frame supporting the puke-hose tech. That guy would have been a great friend in college.
So, what happened? Lionsgate delivered the wrong 4K file to HBO Max, The Hollywood Reporter was told. The non-4K files were fine as delivered.
At the time this story first published, Lionsgate was working on getting HBO Max the correct file(s), THR was told. They were then in the process of being swapped out around 10 a.m. PT on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
Lionsgate did not immediately comment on the fail; HBO Max referred THR back to Lionsgate.
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 pic.twitter.com/HNgPRNOsla
— johnny (@bigrackspart7) December 2, 2025
HBO Max has been heavily promoting its acquisition of Mad Men reruns, and especially touted how Mad Men on HBO Max would be the series’ first time ever in 4K. The launch was probably not quite how executives pictured it — literally.
“Mad Men is a great addition to the HBO Max library of iconic content,” Royce Battleman, executive vice president of global content acquisitions at Warner Bros. Discovery, said in last month’s announcement. “We are thrilled that HBO Max will provide fans the opportunity to enjoy the series in a fresh way with an enhanced 4K viewing experience.”
“Enhanced” is in the eye of the episode 107 viewer, we suppose.
“Mad Men continues to show truly remarkable staying power with audiences a full decade after concluding its network run, and we couldn’t imagine a better home for it than HBO Max,” Jim Packer, the president of worldwide television distribution at Lionsgate, said at the time. “HBO sets the bar for premium entertainment, making it the perfect place to celebrate one of television’s defining series while introducing Mad Men to new viewers and reintroducing it to longtime fans in 4K.”
Mad Men has been streaming on AMC+ since 2020; the non-4K version remains there as well.
Dec. 2, 10 a.m. PT This story has been updated to reflect HBO Max was working on swapping in the correct files.
