This probably isn't the HBO Max debut that "Mad Men" had in mind.
If you looked at everything coming to HBO Max this month, then 'Mad Men' might have jumped to the top of your list of what to watch on the streaming service. Starring Jon Hamm as advertising executive Don Draper, this AMC show is considered among the best TV shows ever made. So I certainly wouldn't blame you for trying to binge-watch the entire seven-season run as fast as you can.
Some of us, though, paid more attention when watching the show than others. The version on HBO Max is a 4K remaster, and as one astute X (Twitter) user pointed out, perhaps HBO Max needed to make sure they uploaded the final version of the episodes to the servers — because in episode 7 you can see a guy manning a puke hose.
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/HNgPRNOslaDecember 2, 2025
As you can clearly see, "puke hose" was not a euphemism. In "Mad Men" episode 7 of season 1, "Red in the Face," Roger Sterling (John Slattery) vomits in front clients after drinking too many martinis, eating too many oysters and hiking up some stairs. In the original version of the episode, you just see him projectile vomiting, but in the 4K version on HBO Max, you can see a member of the tech crew controlling a hose to achieve the desired gag-inducing effect.
'Mad Men' 4K rife with errors, but a fix is coming
Now, I could feign anger, and say that it makes me sick to see HBO besmirch the iconic work that is "Mad Men." Or perhaps, I could simply say that HBO Max was caught in 4K. But the reality is that this was a pretty simple mistake, and we know who to blame.
According to People Magazine, Lionsgate, the studio that produced "Mad Men" for AMC, provided HBO with the wrong files. The correct versions of the 4K-remastered episodes are reported in the process of replacing the erroneous ones, so you might not be able to see the puke hose much longer.
However, Roger Sterling's seafood snafu wasn't the only error that needed fixing. Another X (Twitter) user pointed out spotting ads for SIM cards and Los Angeles restaurants. Vulture spotted that multiple episodes had the wrong titles attributed to them, including "Red in the Face," which was mislabeled as "Babylon," the appropriate episode title for episode 6 of season 1.
Again, these errors, while frankly hilarious, aren't worth feeling ill about. If you want to see how many bloopers you can spot, start watching now. Otherwise, just wait a day or two and the new, finished 4K version "Mad Men" should be available to stream in full on HBO Max.
Stream "Mad Men" seasons 1-7 now on HBO Max
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