The Walking Dead

[mgoblue2290]

The new executive producer or whatever, Robert Kirkman, talked about this on the new aftershow show Talking Dead. I don't really remember his response word for word, but it was something about the walkers not being bloodhounds and that hiding under a car would work.

Kirkman is the creator and writer of the comic. Still though, they are still within a few feet of them. I seriously doubt they couldn't smell them.

Also, where did the herd of zombies even come from? One minute coast is clear, next minute, 50 zombies rolling up. I mean they couldn't see them coming down the open stretch of freeway. I guess they could've come out of the woods or something.

Anyways, that is enough of me being critical. I did like how Dale was buying time, also seems like with what happened at the very end they will be getting more in line with the comic.

[Buzzman]

I always thought they covered themselves in zombie guts to blend in so they can walk by them. I thought the disguise was for appearance rather than smell.

[Palooza]

Needs to die -
Woman with child
Child
Woman with suicidal thoughts
Shane
Wife

Need to start kicking more ass -
Rick
Carl
Old Man
Black Guy

Keep on Keepin' on -
Redneck badass

Needs to return -
Merle
Black dude from the pilot

[Sharkweather]

Needs to return -
Black dude from the pilot

Robert Kirkman, both writer and producer for the series he’s adapted for TV, is anxious to have the character Morgan return for the next season, though it would be changing the storyline dramatically from the comics lore, "We're just dying to get (Lennie James) back in the show. He's such a great actor!" It isn’t until later in the comic series -- much more so than where season one of the show left off -- that we meet back with the man who helped Rick at the story's beginning.

[Palooza]

[Palooza]

I've decided to take the storyline and the stupidity of the characters with a grain of salt this season. Instead of being disappointed with how those two things are developing, I'm going to try to simply focus on the murdering of zombies and patiently wait while the five characters I listed above die.

[spiker]

I've decided to take the storyline and the stupidity of the characters with a grain of salt this season. Instead of being disappointed with how those two things are developing, I'm going to try to simply focus on the murdering of zombies and patiently wait while the five characters I listed above die.

This is a great way to approach this series.

AMC deserves any and all the criticism they will get for this series if it sucks. You can't shitcan the creator of your most watched series and expect it to take off after that. Fucking morons.

[Palooza]

I would really love to know what the fuck happened between AMC and Darabont. AMC, while still "young" in regards to creating television shows of this caliber, have obviously been wildly successful with their first two attempts (Mad Men & Breaking Bad, two of the best shows on TV*). They took amazing source material (just finished reading book 2 the other day, this shit is brilliant) and took an amazing creative mind (Frank Darabont) and put the two together. Plus, Darabont is known for his ability to adapt near-impossible source material (His three Stephen King adaptations are the only good ones in the history of ever** including a little movie called The Shawkshank Redemption) Sooooo, what the fuck could have possibly gone wrong?

*I just started Mad Men, so that's just from what I've heard. BB is the best show on TV, though.
** Not counting Stand By Me, of course.

[spiker]

I would really love to know what the fuck happened between AMC and Darabont. AMC, while still "young" in regards to creating television shows of this caliber, have obviously been wildly successful with their first two attempts (Mad Men & Breaking Bad, two of the best shows on TV*). They took amazing source material (just finished reading book 2 the other day, this shit is brilliant) and took an amazing creative mind (Frank Darabont) and put the two together. Plus, Darabont is known for his ability to adapt near-impossible source material (His three Stephen King adaptations are the only good ones in the history of ever** including a little movie called The Shawkshank Redemption) Sooooo, what the fuck could have possibly gone wrong?

*I just started Mad Men, so that's just from what I've heard. BB is the best show on TV, though.
** Not counting Stand By Me, of course.

If I were to guess, it's about money and AMC not wanting to spend it. The cast of Mad Men makes a ridiculous amount of money. That has to be cutting into whatever they want to spend elsewhere. Creating a zombie apocalypse can't be cheap on the production budget.

So my theory? AMC wants to cut what they are spending on TWD. Darabont says "fuck you, this show is your most watched. spend more plz". The suits butt heads with Darabont and their egos push him out the door.

[EmpireWF]

Darabont and the network butted heads and they gave him the boot/he said fuck it and left.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/51622

Apparently tonight’s 90-minute “Walking Dead” season premiere was originally two hourlong episodes, the first written by now-fired series mastermind Frank Darabont and the second by Robert Kirkman, who co-created the “Walking Dead” comic book series.

The credits on tonight’s 90-minute installment appear on screen thusly:

Written by Ardeth Bey
Written by Robert Kiirkman
Directed by Ernest Dickerson
Gwyneth Horder-Payton

"Ardeth Bey" is apparently Frank Darabont’s pseudonym, a fake name supplied presumably to distance himself from the finished product. Type Ardeth Bey into the search box at IMDb and watch whose page comes up.

I’m told the first 16 minutes or so of tonight’s episode were cannibalized from what was supposed to be the original Darabont-scripted second-season premiere. The balance of tonight’s 90 minutes comes from what was originally the subsequent season-two episode Kirkman scripted.

I’m told also it was the now-truncated original second-season premiere, presumably directed by Horder-Payton from Darabont’s teleplay, that precipitated Darabont’s ouster.

If the production of the season premiere seems awfully early for AMC to start thinking about dismissing the Oscar-nominated writer-director who gave the channel by far its biggest hit, it may help to remember a Deadline Hollywood story that appeared a few days before AMC aired the first-season finale.

The Deadline story suggested Darabont was considering going forward in season two without a regular writing staff; word was he might instead work on future scripts with freelancers only.

But as spring rolled around, word came that there would be a second-season “Dead” writing staff. Kirkman, credited with the teleplay of the first-season “Vatos” episode, would continue to script episodes. Greg Mazzara, showrunner on Showtime’s critically reviled TV version of “Crash,” was hired onto the “Dead” writing staff.

DEADLINE interview with Darabont before the changes.....DEADLINE: [I]t made headlines last November when you dumped your entire writing staff after finishing up Season One.
DARABONT: Let me just begin by stating the obvious: that it was all pretty overblown. It left the impression that I walked in one day and murdered 12 people. Would you like to know how many writers we were talking about? Two. My thought had been that they’d under-delivered, and a change was necessary. I had to do too much of it by myself last year, and that was only six episodes. This season, it’s 13 and we’ve hired a fantastic writing staff. We hired Glen Mazzara as our Number Two in the room. We consider him our head writer and he’s just a fantastic asset. We’ve also got three other staff writers in Scott Gimple [“FlashForward,” “Chase”], Evan Reilly from Rescue Me, and Angela Kang [“Terriers”]. Plus Executive Producer Robert Kirkman, who wrote the original comic book, is also writing for us.


Hollywood Reporter report from August 10.......The show went into production on its second season in June. Sources say an early episode came in with footage that was not usable. The director had shot a successful first-season episode and was a mutually agreed-upon choice. Darabont was editing the episode in an effort to fix it but by then, an insider believes, AMC was looking for a pretext [for firing Darabont].

That director is presumably Horder-Payton, who directed last year’s third “Walking Dead” episode, “Tell It To The Frogs,” which reunited Rick with his long-lost wife Lori. Horder-Payton has directed 32 hours of episodic television since 2007, including installments of “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Shield,” “Fringe,” “Criminal Minds,” and “Sons of Anarchy.”

Dickerson, who directed quite a number of episodes of “Dexter” and “Treme,” helmed “Dead’s” fifth 2010 episode, “Wildfire,” which brought Rick and Lori to the steps of the Center For Disease Control. According to IMDb, Dickerson not only co-directed tonight’s “Dead” episode, he directed next Sunday’s (“Bloodletting”) and the one after that (“Save The Last One”).

I’m told Darabont was still showrunner on “Walking Dead” during the shooting of "Save The Last One/".

Phil Abraham, who directed nine episodes of “Mad Men” but was not involved with “Walking Dead’s” first season, directed “Cherokee Rose,” which is now the fourth episode of “Dead’s” second season, according to IMDb.

[Palooza]

God forbid a show's mastermind dumps a writing staff full of wankers in an effort to make the show better.

[Twigg4075]

I watched the show yesterday. Are they seriously not going to let us know what the doctor whispered into Rick's ear? Assholes.

[Houston]

And questioning the logic of people under the threat of a zombie apocalypse is more comical than any of the plot lines. You can't pick this show apart like Dexter or The Wire, it's not that kind of show it's a fucking zombie show.

But by all means please carry on with how perfectly you heroes would have all handled these situations better. Part of this shows charm to me is the flawed decision making and logic of the characters because what is going on around them DEFIES ALL LOGIC.

It wouldn't be bad if the characters were more interesting, or actually had something to talk about. There are plenty of normal shows that can pull of a "search and rescue" mission in the woods and make it good. Yet somehow a show with Zombies manages to be boring while doing so. The characters are horrible, show needs less of them and more zombies.

[SethMode]

Local politics?

When the Governor makes his entry into the series? Then yes.

[Sharkweather]

It sucks that Michonne and the Governor aren't coming until season 3, I don't know what they are going to do this season. This Hershel guy and his farm better be good.