NEW YORK (AP) -- Let's twist again like we did last summer!
Jon Hamm stars as ad exec Don Draper in "Mad Men."
"Mad Men" fans remember how things were really hummin' last summer, the first for that glorious drama series set in the Manhattan advertising world of 1960. There were lots of twists at the Sterling Cooper agency: Peggy's unsuspected pregnancy, Roger's heart attack, the double life of the man we thought we knew as Don Draper.
"Mad Men" returns Sunday on cable's AMC. Now it's February 1962, and as the season premiere gets going, Chubby Checker proclaims "twistin' time is here."
Here's an interesting twist: "Mad Men" is being welcomed back with a whirlwind of attention, accelerating what had been a steady build. Critics' raves and the small but ecstatic audience a year ago were followed by a pair of Golden Globes and then a Peabody.
In recent weeks the show scored cover stories in Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times Magazine, while popping up in GQ and Vanity Fair.
The attention was crowned last week, when the show received 16 Emmy nominations, including a nod for best drama.
It's a saga unfolding nearly a half-century ago, with a genre-busting absence of doctors, lawyers, cops or superheroes. And yet "Mad Men" -- as contemporary and relatable as anything on TV -- seems game to become a mainstream hit.
