The day after his long-awaited Emmy win for best actor, Jon Hamm was reminded of a career before 'Mad Men' when 'Empire's' Taraji P. Henson posted an Instagram photo of the pair playing cops on Lifetime's 'The Division' from over a decade ago. Says Hamm: "Work's work."

A version of this story first appeared in the Oct. 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

Long before Don and Cookie, two of 2015's biggest TV stars — Empire's Taraji P. Henson and Mad Men's Jon Hamm — shared screen time on a less-celebrated drama. In an Instagram post the day after Hamm won the best actor Emmy, Henson reminded the world of when she and Hamm played San Francisco cops on the female-skewing The Division, which ran on Lifetime from 2001 to 2004: "Who remembers that!!!!!" she joked.

Turns out Hamm does, recently telling THR how the less-prestigious credit informed his decision to work on a then-nascent AMC. "They didn't do programming; they just showed old movies," he said of AMC. "But the last show that I was on with any regularity was on Lifetime, so it wasn't like I had some network bias. Work's work."