Oddly enough, based on how the New York Times is reporting the negotiations, I think I'm siding with AMC here. The network is apparently offering Weiner $30 million to run the show for three seasons (a lot of money), but he won't sign because AMC wants to cut two minor cast members, drop the show time by two minutes to add more advertisements, and continue to include product placement. I get Weiner's insistence on artistic integrity, but it's probably important for him to also realize that the ratings for Mad Men are sort of terrible, so on that level, AMC is offering him a spectacular deal, paying him an obscene amount of money for critical, if not economic, success.

Take the money, Matthew! Give in a little! We need Mad Men back, and with you at the controls, instead of some other hack they can pay half your rate for 3/4 of the ability! [If anyone from AMC is reading this and looking for that sort of hack, get in touch. I'm available.]

Thankfully, NBC decided to renew Parks and Recreation last week, but it's always been a little touch and go for the show, since people don't generally watch it. Still, I think it's one of the best shows on TV, consistently funny with a stellar cast, so here's an animated GIF of Andy Dwyer (played by Chris Pratt) from last night's episode:

[Note from TW Web Producer Dan Gibson: Reader Gregory Heathco sent in a eulogy for the HBO series Big Love, which ended on Sunday. Since The Range's regular TV columnist, Jordan Green, is on a not-really-at-all deserved vacation this week, Gregory provides a nice perspective on a show that ran for quite a while, but didn't grab the popular success of The Sopranos or Six Feet Under or the critical success of The Wire.]

Bill Hendrickson passed away on Sunday and with him an era of series drama that may never be equaled. That era was a twelve year stretch of story-telling excellence brought to us by the once peerless HBO. It began in 1999 with the ground breaking first episode of The Sopranos and ended with the heart wrenching finale of Big Love. My own appreciation of good television was born during this era, along with so many others, and I find myself grappling with the fear that my best viewing years are behind me.

Entertainment Weekly has the first look at Adrianne Palicki, formerly of Friday Night Lights, as Wonder Woman, from the forthcoming TV series from David E. Kelley. From my days watching the Superfriends, I seem to remember her wearing red boots, but the boots aren't really what they seem to be highlighting with this costume.

Last year, I went to Wrestlemania when it was held in Glendale at the University of Phoenix stadium, and while there were some fun matches, it was a little lacking in big time star power and surprises. It was hardly the big time sports entertainment event I expected. This year's Wrestlemania in Atlanta, there's already a match scheduled between announcers Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole, The Rock will be the guest host and likely end up "fighting" John Cena, and now Snooki will be there. I guess Arizona only deserved a Wrestlemania of the caliber of a Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view. I can't pretend it doesn't hurt to see something I love give its best to another state.

Part of what made The Wire such an amazing show was the tension in that some of the actors seems plausibly threatening enough to commit the real life versions of their televised crimes. When Snoop is rattling off information about how she might be able to use a nail gun to kill people, it was beyond just being believable. Unfortunately, it looks like Snoop might have slipped back into the troubled past that informed her work on The Wire, according to the Baltimore Sun:

More than 60 people, including the actress known as "Snoop" from the Baltimore-based HBO series "The Wire," were arrested Thursday morning across the city and its surrounding counties in connection with a large-scale heroin and marijuana operation.

Raids were carried out in the pre-dawn hours by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Baltimore police and a slew of other federal and state law enforcement agencies.

Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, known for her drug-assassin character on "The Wire," was taken into custody at a downtown apartment on a state warrant, officials said.

The actress has a troubled past, which served as the basis for her memoir, Grace After Midnight. In 1996, when she was 16, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for fatally shooting Okia "Kia" Toomer during a fight in Baltimore and was sentenced to eight years in prison. More recently, she refused to testify as a witness at a murder trial and was arrested at her then-Northeast Baltimore home.

As part of his tribute to Finland last week, Conan played a giant game of "Angry Birds" (a game developed by Finns) destroying furniture from IKEA (based in Sweden, Finland's neighbor and biggest rival):

• flickr

One of my biggest influences in writing "Idiot Boksen" is Wm. Steven Humphrey's "I Love Television" column in the Portland Mercury, which I read often in my early 20s. Now, I read it every Wednesday to see if anything out of the ordinary is airing in the coming week. That's how I knew Pig Bomb was going to be on.

From last night's episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: