The AMC drama which premiered in 2007 stars Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway, a woman who begins the show as office manager and is now a partner at the firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Joan recently divorced her husband (Samuel Page), a doctor who went to serve in Vietnam. She is also the mother of a boy named Kevin who is the son of her former boss Roger Sterling (John Slattery), though he is unaware.
The character of Joan was originally going to be a guest role but was later expanded by the show's creative team, according to a Daily Telegraph article.
