The Waikiki that Scott Hornbacher wanted to see when he arrived at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel last October had not been around for 45 years.

But Hornbacher, an executive producer on the AMC series "Mad Men," knew he could find it. All he had to do is work the same magic that has made the hit show a weekly flashback to the 1960s.

And as millions of fans saw Sunday night during the two-hour Season 6 premiere of "Mad Men," the show turned back time with carefully arranged shots of the hotel and Waikiki Beach, decor that screamed tiki bar exotica and a vintage luau that seemed right out of a Matson travel brochure.

"Given that what we do in general is exceptional — and I try to appreciate that all the time, what a great gift that is — this was an especially wonderful experience," Hornbacher said by telephone from Los Angeles. "Being able to go and shoot on location in Hawaii and have all that production scope and resources and to see it realized and up on the screen is a good feeling."

Hawaii and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel are the setting for the first 12 minutes of the premiere, titled "The Doorway." The 86-year-old pink hotel even gets a shout-out.

"It’s a great way to start and I think it is very unexpected," Hornbacher said. "Not that we haven’t gone anywhere, but going to Hawaii in this real way where you see Diamond Head and the Royal Hawaiian and the beach and people in the water and a luau is unexpected and we wanted a big, satisfying opening."

The episode took six weeks and an "abnormally large amount of preparation" before the cameras rolled on series star Jon Hamm, who portrays ad executive Don Draper, and Jessica Paré, who plays his wife, Megan.

Hamm and Paré were the only series regulars who made the trip to Hawaii. They were joined by about 60 other members of the production, said Hornbacher, who directed the episode.

"Mad Men" was in Hawaii for about five days at the end of October and shot scenes over three long days.

Nothing about it was easy. Even getting approval from Lionsgate Studio, which produces the series for AMC, took some convincing. Shooting an episode in such a remote — by Hollywood standards — location was "terribly expensive," he said.

"We do scenes in buildings with lots of people and we have a stock of clothes and props and things that we use for those scenes, but we don’t do scenes on the beach," Hornbacher said. "We had to source the right type of people to be in the scene and put them in the right type of clothes."

When they turned their cameras on Diamond Head, they had to make sure they were looking at 1967.

The Royal Hawaiian Hotel was specifically chosen for its decor, which was there during the period in which the episode takes place. It was also a location for military R & R during the Vietnam War and that figured into the episode as well.

But even with its vintage feel, the transformation brought about by "Mad Men" amazed hotel staffers who saw detailed props — matchbooks, cocktail napkins, coasters, wooden luau plates, bathrobes and brochures — that might be overlooked in the episode.

Some of the look was inspired by old photographs the hotel dug out of its archives, said Diana Su, public relations manager for Starwood Waikiki, which manages the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

"There are a lot of small details they used," Su said. "It is amazing how precise that show is when it comes to depicting that time period."

"Mad Men" built an all-wood, seven-stool bar near the lobby for the late-night scene with Don and a young serviceman. If you visit the hotel today, you won’t see the bar but you’ll know where it was because it was placed in front of a classic Eugene Savage painting that hangs on the wall.

"The bar was actually fully functional," Su said. "We could have kept it and operated a full bar service."

During filming it was clearly a set destined to be torn down. But in the world of television, it was something else.

"I saw it on camera when they were filming it and it looked like you were in an intimate tiki bar," Su said.

The show also had to disguise the Mai Tai Bar, which was near the area used for the luau scenes. It was hidden by fake palm trees and kapa-decorated panels while nearby table umbrellas were covered with grass skirts, Su said.

"At first it was just a bunch of stuff on a truck," Su said. "As they unwrapped it, you said, ‘How will this look good?’ But when they actually put the sets together, if it were not for the lighting overhead and the roped-off areas, it would look like you were back in the 1960s. It really transported you back to that time."

The clothing and costume jewelry were equally authentic and a large part of what makes the show feel as real as it does because they are real, Su said.

"We had to pack and store a lot of the wardrobe to be sent back to the mainland," she said. "We had to crank the air conditioning on to high because some of them, if exposed to humidity for a prolonged period of time, would ruin the fabric."

The hotel staff members were not the only ones who were left in awe of the experience. Hornbacher was as well.

He called the episode one of the most exciting and fulfilling things he has done in a TV career that includes work on HBO’s celebrated series "The Sopranos."

"To have the opportunity to film in Hawaii, in this exotic location and do huge scenes with a luau is an awesome responsibility but really a gift," he said. "There is a part of me that never imagined I would be able to do this in my life and it was amazing. And I am very fortunate."