Let the breathless speculation begin: Don Draper and his wife Megan will travel to Hawaii in the Season 6 premiere of “Mad Men.”

According to a report published in Deadline and confirmed by AMC, lead actors Jon Hamm and Jessica Paré, who play the photogenic couple in the drama, will travel to the 50th state this Sunday with a small crew to film scenes for the upcoming Season 6 premiere. Creator Matthew Weiner and producer Scott Hornbacher reportedly scouted locations for the episode back in September. Hamm and Paré will reportedly be there for two days, suggesting that plenty of the premiere will take place back in New York.

But still: Hawaii!!!

PHOTOS: On the set of ‘Mad Men’


It certainly won’t be the first time Don Draper has left the hustle and bustle of 1960s Madison Avenue for sunnier climes. Don makes frequent jaunts to California, which has been the setting for some of the show’s most memorable episodes, including the shocking Season 4 finale in which he proposed to Megan, then his secretary.

“Mad Men” joins a long line of television shows to go on location in the Aloha State, including “The Brady Bunch” and “Saved by the Bell.”

Nevertheless, the news of the Drapers’ Hawaiian adventure is especially enticing – and not just because of the possibility of seeing Don in a Hawaiian shirt and lei drunkenly singing along to “Tiny Bubbles.”

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No, it’s because it gives “Mad Men” fans license to speculate wildly about what’s in store in the season ahead, which is at least 50% of what’s so enjoyable about the show in the first place.

So just what will Don and Megan get up to in Hawaii? Here are just a few possibilities:

-- When last we saw Don, he was approached by a beautiful young woman in a dimly lighted bar while Megan was off filming a commercial she’d all but forced Don to cast her in. Maybe, in a moment of weakness, he flies off to Hawaii with said beauty and Megan follows him there in an attempt to win him back.

-- Megan’s acting career takes off and she is cast in the pilot for “Hawaii Five-O,” which begain airing on CBS in September of 1968. (“Mad Men’s” most recent season ended in 1967.) While Megan is hard at work, Don slips off to a Don Ho concert where, drunk off of too many mai tais, he rushes the stage and is arrested. Mortified, Megan talks to Don about his drinking and decides that, for the health of their marriage, she will quit acting.


PHOTOS: On the set of ‘Mad Men’

-- Megan and Don decide to repair their troubled marriage with a trip to Hawaii. Too bad they decided to do so in the middle of the eruption of Mt. Kilauea, which was highly active during 1967 and 1968. Nothing much happens but the bubbling lava provides the perfect visual metaphor for the volcanic rage just beneath the surface of their relationship.

-- In a major coup for the agency, Don lands Spam as a client after pitching them a series of commercials set in Hawaii, where the canned meat product is unusually popular. He and Megan fly to the island to film the ads, in which she appears wearing a grass skirt and coconut bra. Megan, who has been attending consciousness-raising meetings back in New York, rankles at being objectified and she and Don get in their 7 millionth fight, only to make up later with a frisky roll in the sand.

Have your own predictions? Please feel free to weigh in.


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