The Walking Dead

[catfish]

I looked online, couldn't find anything. Probably try calling in the future, I figure I have a little time before I panic.

Good news everybody! AMC is now in HD on Direct TV! I can't wait for the new season.

[catfish]

The new season starts Sunday night. Set your DVR's people!

[Ryan Ruck]

Here they come!

[Backstop]

Here comes the bad part.

[Phil Fiord]

Saw it. Liked it.

[Backstop]

Not bad.

I got seriously pissed when they confiscated all the guns.

1. I would not have given it up.

2. If they got it somehow, then I would demand it back, saying I'm leaving.

Remember in Season 1 (just watched it last week) they tied that guy to the tree when he was digging all the holes?

There's some bad "we know what's best for you" elements in this show.

[Phil Fiord]

True, Backstop, but those incidents were:

The tree and tied up. To prevent further harm to himself or others, and avoid attracting attention. We do this now when a person is a risk to themselves or others, we just call it hospitalization for assessment.

The guns at the Highway. They introduced tonight that the walkers are starting to gather in groups, or Herds. Gunshots attract a lot of attention from them and that is not desired as they would be overtaken. If one person who was less experienced started shooting, the group could all be taken down. Besides, bullets run out eventually, but a good swinging tool can last a very long time.

I do not see this as undertones for gun control. Just what I said above.

[Ryan Ruck]

Just a reminder that we've got the [ spoiler ] tag we can use.

I agree with you Backstop. I had a chat open with a friend and told him
[spoiler]If I was blondie I would have popped the old man in the mouth. You don't touch another person's gun.[/spoiler]

Also one inconsistency I had a problem with
[spoiler]Why were the zeds unable to smell them under the cars? Remember, in season 1 where the group had to spread zed goo on themselves to "camouflage" themselves and all hell broke loose when it started raining and the goo was washing off.[/spoiler]

[Phil Fiord]

On a side note, the walker that entered the RV. It seems more inquisitive. More developed. I am making a guess here, but in addition to forming Herd mentality, rather than random self, it stands to reason that wink out and regrow of brain stim may be continuing to grow and making a more 'intelligent' walker.

[Phil Fiord]

Ryan, I saw that inconsistency too. I can only figure they felt open area winds would disperse scent moreso than in a closer cityscape.

[Backstop]

True, Backstop, but those incidents were:

The tree and tied up. To prevent further harm to himself or others, and avoid attracting attention. We do this now when a person is a risk to themselves or others, we just call it hospitalization for assessment.

I've had a little bit of mental health-type training.

My thought is he wasn't a harm to anyone else, and more than likely not to himself.

He was digging holes.

Basically, IMO, he was rationalizing and/or acting out his emotions over the death of his wife.

In real life, that needs to happen. Tying him to the tree, again IMO, only prolonged his need and ability to deal with that loss.

Then, he got bit.

The guns at the Highway. They introduced tonight that the walkers are starting to gather in groups, or Herds. Gunshots attract a lot of attention from them and that is not desired as they would be overtaken. If one person who was less experienced started shooting, the group could all be taken down. Besides, bullets run out eventually, but a good swinging tool can last a very long time.

I do not see this as undertones for gun control. Just what I said above.

I gotta agree with Ryan's Spoiler post above this post - you don't touch another person's gun.

Asking for it is one thing, but just taking it and refusing to return it is grounds for a fight.

I'll agree there is a fine line in that scenario. But I (almost always) err on the side of the 2nd.

[catfish]

I agree with the inconsistency pointed out about the hiding part. One thing I really noticed was they amped up the gore quite a bit over last season. That whole here comes the bad part scene I was eating and had to look away, it was that gross.

[Ryan Ruck]

I was busy eating a medium rare steak...

[Ryan Ruck]

Wow, I had no idea there was such a Charlie Foxtrot going on behind the scenes. It's a miracle this show has gotten off the ground!

‘The Walking Dead’: Why Frank Darabont Was Fired & The Chaotic Aftermath

While the news of Frank Darabont being fired from ‘The Walking Dead’ was shocking, the story behind why he was fired may be even more so.

August 12, 2011



The news of Frank Darabont stepping down from AMC’s hit series The Walking Dead took everyone by surprise. This feeling grew even more when it was revealed that Darabont didn’t step down, but was actually fired.

With fans seeking to find out why the man who championed last year’s television phenomenon was unceremoniously fired days after appearing at Comic-Con 2011, The Hollywood Reporter is presenting the facts as they know them – including the chaotic mess in which The Walking Dead season 2 currently finds itself.

Shortly after his appearance at Comic-Con, Darabont returned to Los Angeles to work on editing an episode of the upcoming second season of The Walking Dead. With the cast in Atlanta to continue filming, Ben Davis, AMC vice-president of scripted programming, gathered the cast together for a lunch meeting. In this meeting, he broke the news that Darabont had been fired. With a simple explanation of “This isn’t working,” sources close to the series said that “It’s a crushing blow” and that “Even when you have a hit, they can still destroy you.”

Even though The Walking Dead proved to be a hit – and it is the only series that AMC owns completely – the network had already announced to the producers that they would not only be cutting the budget of the series from $3.4 million to $2.7 million, but that they would also want 13 episodes produced instead of 6 episodes that made up its first season. To make matters worse, AMC also told the producers that the 30% tax credit that the series receives from filming in Georgia would go directly to the network, and not make up for some of the money that was taken out of the production budget.


The Walking Dead @ Comic-Con

AMC’s fiscal irresponsibility and their lack of appreciation for those who make The Walking Dead is largely what led to Darabont being fired. Originally taking the announcement of a second season budget cut in stride, the producers of the series decided to wait until the first season premiered. After The Walking Dead began breaking ratings records for the network, the producers assumed their budget wouldn’t be cut as much as originally thought.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened – and Darabont wasn’t too happy about it. Known as a man who fights for what he believes in, a confrontation between AMC and The Walking Dead producers occurred. With the head of original programming for AMC, Joel Stillerman, sticking to the cut budget, the network than began to overstep their bounds and attempt to tell Darabont how to produce the series.

Instead of long, sprawling outdoor scenes, the network wanted the second season of The Walking Dead to occur 50% outdoors and 50% indoors (indoors being cheaper to film). Another note asked whether or not the audience had to always see the zombies – couldn’t they simply hear them sometimes.


Head of Original Production for AMC Jack Stillerman (on the right)

It’s been said that Darabont was involved in constant battles with the network to maintain the creative vision that drew so many fans to the series in the first place. On top of that, sources say that Darabont “doesn’t like to see the cast and crew overworked and underpaid.” Even with record ratings on their side, Darabont would repeatedly enter meetings with Stillerman where he would simply say, “Ratings have no bearing on this conversation.” Stillerman is somewhat known for not being the “best person” to deal with. With rumors persisting that he has poor relationships with most of AMC’s series creators, insiders have begun to say that “Joel [Stillerman] thinks he is responsible for the success of shows on AMC, and not the creators.”

With AMC making a leap into the forefront of scripted television, there’s always been a sense of the network going through growing pains. Not only is AMC doing it on their own (they have no parent company to support them), but they’re also trying to maintain a quality which rivals that of their pay-cable counterparts, HBO and Showtime.

Unfortunately, AMC only makes 60 cents for each cable subscriber, which isn’t enough to maintain the level of quality they were once able to do when they weren’t expected to pay the same amount as the other networks for programming. That being said, it’s hard to really stand up for a network that’s being championed by someone who’s a complete contrarian to the creative process.

Even if AMC was trying to do what’s best for the network (without having to operate at a loss – something that HBO does, but is evened out by HBO being owned by Time Warner), there comes a point when taking a loss for the quality of the product is more important for the long term.

As the saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait.”

AMC has been waiting a long time to make it this far. Jumping from simply replaying old movies to creating original content – this all comes with a price. While not everything will make the financial return that you’re hoping for, it rarely does when you’re first starting out. And for AMC, they’re most certainly starting out.

Hopefully AMC will make it through these growing pains intact. If not, you can sure bet that there are many other cable networks willing to take over in the place (and have the money to do it).

Now that Glen Mazzara is taking over for Frank Darabont, we’ll have to wait and see what happens when The Walking Dead season 2 premieres.

Fingers crossed.

[Malsua]

Jack Stillerman is a corporation bean counter dipshit that is the death of good series. I suspect the new guy in charge of Walking Dead will have his head so far up Stillerman's ass, that this is a certainty that the show will turn into a piece of shit.

[Ryan Ruck]

Which would be a damn shame. Apparently the Season 2 premier broke cable viewership records.

[MinutemanCO]

I'm way behind on this one as we ditched realtime television a few years ago. In its place we do the Netflix streaming video thing. Netflix carries The Walking Dead first season, so I thought I'd have a look. So far, it's well made and appears to be well written.

[catfish]

You know, as I watched the 2nd season premier I could kind of tell something was "off". I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something was missing. Now that I read the article Ryan posted and the things Mal said, its starting to come together. The firing of Frank Darabont and the lowering of the budget seems to have affected the show in some way and I've got a bad feeling about this. I just hope I'm wrong.

It's almost like when someone buys an established business, fires the highest paid people and 6 months to a year later the company is all but finished.

[Phil Fiord]

I have been thinking on this since the season Premiere and the article.

From what I see, this first ep was mostly still within Franks hands, but subsequent ones may not be.

I did see something in the show that stuck out. It hung with me like a continuity error will.

In the scene where the herd moos by, at least twice in the same spot, although scene splices where involved, the exact same shuffling half twisted feet. Less extras reused.

Add the aspect of the inquisitive one from the RV and a new avenue opens.

[Ryan Ruck]

Anyone who's watched Breaking Bad (also on AMC) watching tonight's episode catch the blue meth when they found the drugs in the cars? I got a chuckle out of that little Easter Egg.