Don Draper fans, you can heave a sigh of relief.

After what felt like a very long wait, Matthew Weiner has signed a new deal with AMC, which airs 'Mad Men,' and with Lionsgate, the production company that makes the acclaimed drama.

The show still won't return until early 2012 -- probably in March, according to various reports -- but when it does, Weiner will be at the helm of 'Mad Men.' Weiner's deal calls for him to serve as show-runner of the drama for its fifth and sixth seasons, and for a possible seventh season if the show runs that long.

The status of 'Mad Men' and whether Weiner would return to the show had occupied the media and fans of quality drama for several weeks, and in recent days there were worries that Weiner would have to compromise his vision for the show in order to continue it -- and by the same token, there were some who couldn't quite understand why it was taking so long to close a deal that would, by all accounts, make Weiner a very wealthy man (as noted here, his deal calls for him to be paid almost $30 million during the next three years, though Weiner disputed that figure in a recent interview with Basket of Kisses).