Mad Men removes Dusty Springfield song from season five premiere

Critics in the US who were sent preview copies of the season five premiere, which airs on AMC this Sunday and will be shown in the UK on Sky Atlantic two days later, made an observation that will have chilled the meticulous Weiner to the bone: the episode featured Dusty Springfield's The Look of Love, a song released in 1967.

The Dusty hit, several critics noted, was released several months after the events in the new feature-length episode, which is entitled A Little Kiss.

Weiner acted immediately, replacing the song with another, currently unnamed piece of music. Then he wrote back to the critics: "As you know, one of the things I love best about Mad Men is the passionate response I get from members of the press. Recently a few of you have mentioned that the song 'The Look of Love', used in our season five premiere episode, was not actually released until six months after the episode takes place.

"Because of this we have replaced this song with one more suited to the time period and you, along with our audience, will hear it for the first time during our March 25th broadcast.

"Although we take license for artistic purposes with the end-title music," Weiner added, "we never want the source music to break from the time period we are trying to recreate. As someone who has a deep appreciation for details, I want to thank you for bringing this to our attention.

"It's a privilege to work on a show that generates an ongoing dialog with you and our amazing fans so please – keep those notes and comments coming!"