Jon Hamm Auditioned To Play Sandy Cohen On ‘The O.C.,’ Years Before He Was On ‘Mad Men’

Jon Hamm’s big break should have come following his sweet-ass butt cut’s appearance on The Big Date, but the actor would have to wait until 2007 when Mad Men premiered on AMC. In another timeline, however, he would have already been known by that point for playing a good TV dad — arguably the best TV dad — instead of a bad TV dad.

On Rolling Stone‘s “Too Long; Didn’t Watch” podcast, hosted by Alan Sepinwall, Hamm revealed that he auditioned to play eyebrow icon Sandy Cohen on The O.C. “I did audition for one of the dads on The O.C. I was probably 31 or 32. I think it was me and Harry Hamlin,” he recalled. “I remember walking in and going, ‘Is that Peter Gallagher? Why am I here?‘ I love Peter Gallagher, but I was just like, ‘Dang!’” Hamm didn’t get the role — he’s only eight years older than Adam Brody, who would have played his son — but he did eventually get to California, right back where we started from.

The debut episodes of “Too Long; Didn’t Watch” have Hamm and Alison Brie watching the first and last episodes of Gossip Girl and Game of Thrones, respectively. Both shows with good beginnings; both shows with terrible endings. Listen to them below.