Is there a new trend in the television landscape? Could be. At the TCA panel for Mad Men, creator Matt Weiner, revealed that the show is only going to run four more years.

That's right, the man has a plan. Each season of Mad Men will jump ahead approximately two years, so that when Don Draper's story comes to an end, it will be 1969. Can you imagine how radically the show will look by the end of the 1960s? With their attention to detail, it'll be amazing.

So what's the trend? It's setting an endpoint for a series. Battlestar Galactica did it, and Lost has as well. Traditionally, American television series run and run and run until the creators choose to end or the network calls it quits which usually corresponds to viewers having tuned out.