Welcome to the Deep Dive. Our mission here is,
well, it's to take these huge, sometimes sprawling
source materials. Could be geopolitics, could
be... you know, 11 seasons of a TV show and really
break them down for you. We want to deliver the
key insights, the drama behind the scenes, the
surprising technical stuff, basically the things
that take you from just watching to really understanding.
And today, yeah, we are definitely strapping
in. We're doing a forensic deep dive into, I
mean, a true giant of cable television. AMC's
The Walking Dead. This show is just a juggernaut.
It ran for 11 seasons, 177 episodes, kicked off
on Halloween, October 31st. first 2010, which
is fitting, right? Very fitting. And it ran all
the way through November 20th, 2022. And it's
all based, of course, on those incredible graphic
novels by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie
Adler. Now, we're not just going to give you
a like a season by season plot summary here,
because honestly, the story of The Walking Dead
is so much bigger than just what happened on
screen. We're here to look at how the story itself
evolved, dig into the production side, which
was pretty turbulent at times, and maybe most
importantly, unpack these like really astonishing
financial and legal fights that were going on
completely behind the scenes of this massive
hit. Right. But first, just to set the scene
for anyone maybe less familiar. The basic setup
involves two major constant conflicts. First,
obviously the immediate danger. The zombies,
or walkers as the survivors call them. Walkers,
yeah. They're your classic slow -moving horror
type, drawn to noise, drawn to scent. And the
only way to really stop them for good is, well,
destroy the brain. And there's that extra layer
of dread, isn't there? That idea established
pretty early on, it's never fully confirmed maybe,
but everyone operates as if it's true, that everyone
is infected. Exactly. That's the kicker. You
die for any reason, walker bite, gunshot, heart
attack, whatever, you come back. Yeah. Unless
the brain's destroyed first. It just ramps up
the tension constantly. Survival isn't just about
avoiding bites. It's about managing death itself.
Every single death. Which naturally leads to
the second and arguably more interesting conflict
over time. Right. The human element. Once society
just collapses, people have to form new groups.
Sometimes it's small families. Sometimes it's
these big fortified towns. And inevitably, they
clash. Over food, over land, over, well, just
fundamentally different ideas about how to live
now, what rules apply, what morals. And it all
kicks off, as most people know, with our protagonist,
Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes. Wakes up from a
coma, King County, Georgia. Finds the world's
completely changed, utter chaos. And so begins
this, like, incredibly long, desperate, often
really brutal journey to find his family. And
that search, that journey, pretty much defined
the next decade of the show. You know, if you
look at the show's arc. Not just like season
one, season two, etc. But think about what they
were fighting for at different stages. What kind
of security they were searching for. You can
actually map out the big thematic shifts pretty
clearly across the whole run. Okay, I like that
framing. Let's try that. So the first couple
of seasons, S1 and S2, that feels like the search
and loss arc, maybe. Yeah, I think that works.
Rick finds his group near Atlanta. Right. Lori,
Carl, Shane. And they make that desperate trip
to the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control.
Hoping for answers. Right. And all they find
is that chilling confirmation. No cure yet. Basically,
the world is gone. Which sends them looking for
shelter, leading to season two and Herschel Green's
farm. And that farm represents this sort of false
sense of security. But it's where the internal
drama really starts to cook. Right. You've got
the whole search for Sophia, Carol's daughter.
The love triangle, basically, between Rick, Lori,
and Shane, which gets incredibly volatile. And
Lori's pregnant in the middle of all this. Yeah.
And then there's Herschel's conflict. He's keeping
walkers locked up in his barn. Including Sophia,
as it turns out. Including Sophia, because he
believed, or maybe just desperately hoped, they
could be cured somehow. Finding Sophia in that
barn, and then Rick having to kill Shane, who'd
completely gone off the rails. That just shattered
any illusion of safety there. Absolutely. Force
them out. Force them to accept the harsh reality,
which pushes them into, let's call it the next
phase, establishment and external war, seasons
three and four. The prison era. Exactly. After
eight months on the road, they find and secure
that prison. It feels like, finally, a defensible
position. But stability is short -lived, because
then comes... The governor. Ah, the governor.
Their first major human antagonist leading Woodbury.
That seemingly perfect little town. Which was
anything but. Oh, totally rotten underneath.
And that conflict, that war with Woodbury, it
cost them so much. Laurie dies during childbirth,
an emergency C -section, right? Yeah, brutal.
Which sends Rick spiraling, seeing hallucinations
of her. And Andre dies in the final conflict
with the governor, too. Woodbury Falls, its people
joined the prison group, but the cost was immense.
And even after winning that war, the threats
just keep coming. Season four reminds them that
it's not just other people. The killer flu. Yeah,
that deadly flu rips through the prison population,
shows how vulnerable they still are, even behind
walls. And then the governor comes back, like
a bad penny. He does. For one last devastating
attack, he kills Herschel. Oh, Herschel's death.
That was a gut punch. Right in front of everyone.
It really was. That attack basically destroyed
the prison as a safe haven. The group gets scattered
to the winds, all heading supposedly towards
this place called Terminus. Ah, Terminus. Those
who arrive, survive. Which leads us into the
next era. Maybe The Human Extremes, seasons five
and six. I think that fits. Because Terminus,
well, Terminus wasn't a sanctuary. No, they were
cannibals. Yep. The residents were luring people
in and eating them. Just horrific. And Carol,
again, steps up massively there. Leads the charge
to free everyone. She really became formidable,
didn't she? That whole experience, escaping Terminus,
it pushes them towards Virginia and eventually
Alexandria. Alexandria safe zone. Looks perfect,
right? Walls, houses. Looks perfect. But the
people inside are soft. They've been protected.
They haven't faced the real world out there.
They're naive. Dangerously so. And Rick sees
that immediately. He clashes with them, especially
with Pete, Jesse Anderson's abusive husband.
Right. And that culminates in Deanna Monroe,
the leader, basically giving Rick the order or
maybe the permission to kill Pete. That felt
like a turning point. Rick essentially taking
control, imposing his harder view of the world
on Alexandria. It was. He knew they weren't ready.
And season six proves him right. Alexandria's
fragility just... Shatters. It's the wolves attack.
Using a massive walker horde as cover. Yeah.
The Anna dies. The Anderson family dies. It's
chaos. And then just when they start to maybe
recover. Yeah. They run into the savior. The
saviors. Led by Negan. This is the next big external
threat, but different for the governor. They're
not about taking over. They're about extortion.
Give us half your stuff. Basically. Yeah. Absolute
rule through fear and brutality, which leads
directly to that infamous season six finale cliffhanger.
Someone's going to die. That wait was agonizing,
which sets up totalitarian rule and revolution
season seven and eight. Season seven opens with
just pure brutality. Negan kills Abraham and
Glenn, bashes their heads in with his bat -loose
seal. It was shocking. Controversial, even. So
graphic. Absolutely. And it works, initially.
Rick submits. He's broken. But not for long.
Michonne pushes him, right? Tells him this isn't
living. She does. And slowly, they start to build
resistance. They form alliances with Hilltop,
with the kingdom. King Ezekiel and Shiva the
tiger. Can't forget Shiva. And even reluctantly
with the scavengers, they prepare for war. Season
8 is just all -out war. Constant battles, shifting
tides. Alexandria falls at one point. Huge losses
on both sides. But the real turning point, the
moral one, comes late in the season. Carl. Carl
gets bitten by a walker. Wasn't even in a big
fight, just... Bad luck. And before he dies,
he makes Rick promise. Yeah. His dying wish is
for Rick to find a way to make peace, to stop
the killing. My mercy prevails over my wrath.
That changes everything for Rick. It leads to
Eugene sabotaging the Savior's bullets. Right,
makes their guns backfire. And in the final confrontation,
Rick wounds Negan, but he doesn't kill him. He
spares him, cuts his throat, but saves his life,
then imprisons him, honoring Carl's wish. trying
to build something resembling civilization again.
Which sets the stage for the final act, Collapse
and Rebuilding, seasons 9 through 11. Season
9 starts 18 months later. Rick's trying to build
bridges, literally and figuratively, between
the communities. But it's fragile, and it leads
to Rick's, well, his supposed death, blowing
up that bridge to save the others. Right. We
know now he survived, taken away in a helicopter.
But for the characters, he was gone. And that
leads to a six -year time jump. And when we come
back, the communities are estranged, isolated,
and there's a new threat lurking. The Whisperers,
led by Alpha. This was a really different kind
of enemy. Creepy as hell. Wearing walker skins,
moving among the dead, controlling huge hordes.
They were terrifying. And Alpha was ruthless.
That massacre at the fair. Putting heads on pikes
to mark her territory. After her daughter, Lydia,
chose to stay with the communities. Just brutal.
Their threat really dominated Season 10. Carol
uses Negan. Basically lets him out. To infiltrate
the Whisperers. Yeah, and he does. He kills Alpha,
which was, you know, complicated but effective.
Then they deal with Beta, Alpha's second -in
-command, and the rest of the Horde. A huge final
battle. Yep. And also in Season 10, Michonne
finds proof that Rick might still be alive and
leaves to find him, setting up their own spinoff
later. Right. Which brings us to the final season,
Season 11, and the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth,
this huge advanced community, almost like the
Old World. But deeply flawed. A rigid class system,
corruption at the top with Governor Pamela Milton.
Exactly. So the final conflict isn't against
walkers or psychos. It's a revolution against
a corrupt system. Our group, the Coalition, leads
the charge. The series wraps up with some big
moments. Rosita dies saving her daughter. That
was rough. Yeah, really tragic. But also, Maggie
finally kind of accepts Negan as an ally. A huge
moment of growth for her. Ezekiel becomes the
new, hopefully better, governor of the Commonwealth.
And Daryl. Oh, well, Daryl heads off on his own
to see who else is out there. Which, of course,
leads directly into a spinoff. A neat way to
end the main story while throwing the doors open
for the future of the franchise. Okay, thinking
about moments like Carl dying or Rick leaving.
It really highlights something core to this show,
doesn't it? The constant churn of the cast. People
died. A lot. Oh, absolutely. For a survival horror
show to work, the stakes have to be real. Characters
you love have to die, often shockingly. But at
the same time, you need anchors, right? Characters
who stick around and give the audience someone
to root for long term. Definitely. And when you
talk about the anchors of The Walking Dead, two
names immediately jump out. Norman Reedus as
Daryl Dixon. Fan favorite from day one, pretty
much. Totally. The quiet competence, the crossbow,
Rick's right -hand man. He just embodied survival
skill. And the other one has to be Melissa McBride
as Carol Pelletier. Carol's journey is maybe
the most incredible transformation in the entire
series. Season one, she's this meek, abused woman
by the end. She's one of the most capable, ruthless,
and complice survivors there is, making impossible
decisions. Exactly. Her arc really shows how
the apocalypse fundamentally changes people,
sometimes strengthening them, even if it means...
You know, breaking bad sometimes. Now, speaking
of Daryl, this is where the show's relationship
with the comics gets really interesting, isn't
it? Because Daryl... He's not in the comics.
Mm -hmm. At all. Created entirely for the show.
Which was kind of a masterstroke, looking back.
Oh, absolutely. The producers said it themselves.
Having a major, beloved character with no comic
book counterpart meant nobody knew what would
happen to him. Even hardcore comic readers couldn't
predict his fate. Kept everyone guessing. Total
unpredictability. But they also play games the
other way, right? Taking deaths from the comics
but giving them to different characters on the
show. Yeah, they called it transferring deaths.
It was clever. They knew a certain death had
a huge impact in the comics, but maybe they wanted
to keep that comic character alive on the show
for longer or maybe give that impactful death
to a character the show's audience was more invested
in. Like Herschel. Herschel's death is the prime
example. In the comics, it's Tyrese who the governor
publicly executes like that. Right. The beheading.
Yeah. But on the show, giving that horrific death
to Herschel, this kind, moral father figure played
so well by Scott Wilson, it just landed with
incredible emotional weight for the TV audience.
Made the governor seem even more monstrous. And
sometimes characters who are huge in the comics
just didn't last as long on screen. Like Andrea
or Sophia. Right. Both had much longer, more
significant arcs in the comics. Andrea especially
becomes a major leader. But the show took them
in different directions, killed them off much
earlier. And then Carol is the opposite. Her
comic counterpart died way earlier. Way earlier,
yeah. Her transformation into the powerhouse
we saw on TV is purely a show invention. So this
constant remixing kept even comic fans on their
toes. No one was truly safe. But people didn't
just leave because a walker got them or a villain
showed up. There were major exits driven by real
world stuff, too. For sure. Contract negotiations,
actors wanting to do other projects, personal
reasons. The biggest one, obviously, Andrew Lincoln
leaving as Rick Grimes in season nine. Yeah,
that was huge. And he was pretty upfront about
it. Filming for... Six, seven months a year in
the Georgia heat? Being away from his young family
back in the UK? It just became too much. Understandable,
really. Totally. But his exit caused a huge stir.
AMC immediately tried to manage it by promising
Rick would return in, like, a trilogy of theatrical
movies. Which never happened. No, those plans
kept shifting. Eventually, by July 2022, they
announced it would be a six -episode limited
series instead. The Ones Who Live. reuniting
him with Danai Gurira's Michonne. Right, because
she also left the main show in season 10. Yeah,
she had other acting projects, writing opportunities.
Another major departure the show had to navigate.
And sometimes actors didn't leave the universe
entirely, they just moved house, so to speak.
Exactly. Lenny James, who played Morgan Jones
right back in the pilot. Then came back later.
Then came back, yeah. He was the first big one
to cross over, moving his character over to spin
-off Fear the Walking Dead after season 8 of
the main show. And Austin Emilio, who played
Dwight. followed him over there later too. Mm
-hmm. It showed AMC was thinking about this as
a connected universe early on. And you also had
cases like Lauren Cohan, Maggie. She left for
a bit, didn't she? She did. There was reportedly
a contract dispute, and she went off to star
in another show, Whiskey Cavalier. Which didn't
last long, I remember that. No. And so she was
able to return to The Walking Dead as a series
regular for the final season, season 11. But
it just shows even core characters weren't always
locked in. Network TV business still applied.
Fascinating. One last little casting tidbit.
The Frank Darabont connection, the first showrunner.
Oh, yeah. Darabont definitely liked working with
people he knew. He brought several actors over
from his movie The Mist. Laurie Holden, who played
Andrea. Jeffrey DeMunn, who played Dale. And
Melissa McBride, Carol herself. All three were
in The Mist. It was like it's a little apocalypse
repertory company. And the biggest what if, Thomas
Jane was originally going to be Rick Grimes.
That's the story, yeah. When Darabont was first
developing the show, apparently pitching it to
HBO before it landed at AMC, Thomas Jane was
attached to play Rick. Wow. It's almost impossible
to imagine anyone but Andrew Lincoln in that
role now. The whole feel of the show might have
been different. Completely different. Crazy to
think about. Okay, so shifting gears from the
actors and characters to the actual... like nuts
and bolts of making this thing. The production
itself was a massive, complex machine. And one
defined, especially early on, by some serious
turbulence at the top. The showrunner carousel,
you could call it. Right. Frank Darabont, who
developed it, wrote and directed the pilot. Brilliant
start. But he was fired halfway through filming
season two. And it wasn't amicable, was it? Not
at all. It got very messy, very public later
on. Disputes over budget cuts AMC wanted. Darabont
feeling the network was undermining the show's
quality and, as we'll get into, serious claims
about shady business practices. So Darabont's
out. Who steps in? Glenn Mazzara took over for
the rest of season two and season three. He oversaw
the transition to the prison, but then he stepped
down too. Why? The official line was a difference
of opinion with AMC about the show's direction
moving forward. Seemed like a pattern developing.
Then came Scott M. Gimple. Gimple took over from
season four all the way through season eight.
He really steered the ship through that whole
middle period, including the rise of Negan and
the all -out war arc. He provided some stability.
And then for the final stretch. Angela Kang came
in for seasons nine through 11, and she got a
lot of credit. critically for revitalizing the
show after Rick left, dealing with the Whisperers,
bringing it home. And Gimple didn't just disappear,
did he? He got promoted. Right. He became the
chief content officer for the entire Walking
Dead universe, which tells you a lot about AMC's
strategy. They weren't just making a show anymore.
They were building a franchise and they wanted
one person overseeing it all. Makes sense. But
OK, beyond the showrunners, the real visual signature
of the show, the thing that made it work was
the walkers, the makeup effects. Oh, absolutely
critical. That was largely down to Greg Nicotero,
legend in the special effects makeup world, who
was also an executive producer, directed a ton
of episodes. But his core contribution was making
those walkers look so terrifyingly real. And
he took it seriously. They had zombie school,
right? They did. You couldn't just show up and
wander around groaning. Actors hired to be walkers
went through training, how to move, how to hold
themselves, that specific shambling gate. Walker
etiquette. Don't blink too much. Exactly. Keep
your eyes kind of unfocused. It was all about
creating that consistent, unnerving presence,
whether it was one walker or a hundred. And the
makeup itself was tiered, wasn't it? For practical
reasons. Yeah, had to be. You couldn't possibly
give every single walker in a giant horde the
full treatment. Too expensive, too time -consuming.
So they had levels. What were they? You had your
hero walkers. These are the ones giving the close
-ups, doing the biting, the main action. They
got the full works, detailed prosthetics, rotting
teeth, cloudy contact lenses, intricate skin
decay. Yeah. Hours in the makeup chair. Okay.
Then mid -ground walkers. They'd be in the, well,
the middle distance. Maybe get some basic facial
appliances, highlights and shadows to make them
look gone, some blood splatter, enough to sell
it from 10 feet away. And the background, guys.
Deep background, way in the back of the hoard.
Often they just wore pre -made latex masks, maybe
some basic distressing on their clothes, relied
on sheer numbers and distance to blend in. It
was a smart, efficient system. Allowed them to
create that epic scale without breaking the bank
on makeup every single day. Smart. Very. And
speaking of budget and logistics, the decision
to film almost entirely in Georgia was huge.
Tax incentives, right? Absolutely. Georgia offered.
and still offers really significant tax breaks
for major film and TV productions. It's been
a core part of their economy since the early
2000s. The Walking Dead took full advantage.
Season one was more Atlanta -based, I remember.
Lots of city shots. Yeah, which involved major
coordination, shutting down streets, big logistical
hurdles. So as the show got bigger, they moved
operations primarily to Riverwood Studios, which
is near the town of Sonoya, Georgia. And that
place became their base camp. Totally. It was
this massive 120 -acre... private studio lot.
AMC eventually bought it outright in 2017. It
gave them complete control. And allowed them
to build those iconic permanent sets, like the
Alexandria walls. Exactly. The Alexandria safe
zone walls, the hilltop mansion exterior, the
sanctuary complex, even the heaps of trash for
the scavenger's junkyard. These were real standing
sets built on the lot. Gave the show incredible
production value. And they were smart about reusing
things, too. Oh, yeah. Incredibly resourceful.
The sound stages they used for the prison interiors
in seasons three and four, they later redressed
and reconfigured those exact same sets to become
the dark industrial corridors of the Savior's
Sanctuary. In season seven. Wow, I never realized
that. Saved a ton of money and time. And they
did it with locations, too. Remember Father Gabriel's
church from season five? Yeah. Later on, they
cleared out that exact same spot in the woods,
and that became the clearing where Negan lined
everyone up in the season seven premiere. They
knew that Georgia location inside and out. Okay,
another technical thing. The look of the show
changed towards the end, didn't it? It always
had that gritty film look. It did. For almost
its entire run, seasons 1 through 10, basically,
they shot on 16mm film. That was a deliberate
choice by Darabont initially, and they stuck
with it. Gave it that grainy, slightly desaturated
cinematic texture. But the last season or so
felt different, cleaner. It did. For the final
block of episodes, the last 30, they switched
to digital cameras. Part of the reason was practical
during the COVID -19 pandemic. Digital workflow
meant fewer physical touch points, handling film
cans, etc. Made sense for safety. Yeah, but it
definitely changed the aesthetic. The final season
looks sharper, cleaner, less gritty. Some fans
loved it, some missed the old film look. It was
noticeable. And one last production point. They
actually tried to be green on a zombie show.
Surprisingly, yeah. Executive producer Gail Ann
Hurd was a big champion for sustainability on
set. They were one of the first big shows to
really embrace digital workflows using an app
called Dottle for call sheets, schedule scripts,
basically going paperless. Which saves trees,
obviously, but probably helped with logistics,
too. And security, Hurd argued. Less chance of
sensitive scripts or schedules being left lying
around if it's all on people's phones or tablets.
Smart. They also did other things, used energy
-efficient lighting like compact fluorescents
where possible, recycled tons of set materials,
used hybrid vehicles for transport. It proved
you could make a massive action horror show and
still be mindful of your environmental impact
and often save money doing it. Okay, so we've
got this incredibly complex, sometimes turbulent,
but ultimately successful production machine.
And for years, that machine was fueled by just...
Insane ratings success, right? This show was
a monster for AMC. Oh, it was the show for AMC,
their absolute flagship. After a solid start
in season one, averaging around 5 million viewers,
the numbers just exploded. From season three
right through season seven, you're talking 10
to 17 million viewers per episode, consistently.
For basic cable, that was just unheard of. And
that season five premiere, that was the peak,
wasn't it? Record -breaking. October 2014. 17
.3 million total viewers. At the time, that was
the single most watched episode of any series
in basic cable history. Wow. And critically,
it wasn't just total viewers. It dominated the
18 to 49 demographic, the one advertisers crave.
It was beating pretty much everything on broadcast
and cable during its run. It was a phenomena.
But, like, nothing stays at that level forever,
right? The ratings did eventually start to slide.
They did. After the peak around season five and
holding strong through seven, you started to
see a noticeable, steady decline. By the end
of season nine, the numbers were back down to
levels closer to season one or two. Why do you
think that happened? Viewer fatigue? Partly,
maybe. Eleven seasons is a long time. But a lot
of it was attributed to specific creative choices.
The Negan storyline in Season 7, particularly
the premiere violence, was really controversial
and turned some viewers off. It felt grim, maybe
even nihilistic for a while. And losing major
characters definitely hurt, too. Rick's departure,
especially. Absolutely. Losing your central protagonist
after nine seasons is bound to have an impact.
But credit where it's due, creatively, they managed
to bounce back somewhat, didn't they? Critics
seemed to like Season 9. They really did. While
season 7 and 8 got pretty mixed reviews, people
called the violence in the S7 premiere gratuitous,
the war arc felt drawn out to some. Season 9,
under Angela Kang, was widely praised. Critics
said it felt refreshed, more alive than ever,
even without Rick, so they could still deliver
quality. Okay, but now we need to get into the
really juicy stuff. The deep dives behind the
curtain, the legal battles and this concept of
vertical integration. Right. This is where the
business side gets fascinating. And frankly.
Pretty ruthless. It all stems from how AMC set
itself up as both a production company and the
network airing the show. Explain that. How does
vertical integration work here? OK, so typically
a network like AMC buys a show from an outside
production studio, right? They pay that studio
a license fee per episode. The studio makes its
money. The network makes its money from ads.
Standard model. Right. But with The Walking Dead,
AMC owned the network and the production arm,
AMC Studios. They were essentially making the
show in -house. OK, so they're paying. Exactly.
And this is crucial for the lawsuits. When a
network buys a show from itself, it sets something
called an imputed license fee. Basically, it
decides on paper how much the network arm is
paying the studio arm for the show. And the allegation
was that AMC set that fee incredibly low. Unconscionably
low, according to Frank Darabont and later other
producers like Robert Kirkman and Gail Ann Hurd.
By setting this artificially low internal price,
they made it look like... The Walking Dead, the
biggest show on cable, was actually losing money
on paper. Wait, hang on. You said it was getting
17 million viewers. How could it possibly be
losing money? It wasn't. Not in reality. It was
generating massive advertising revenue for the
AMC network. But the accounting for AMC Studios,
the production arm, showed huge deficits because
the license fee it was receiving from the network
arm was deliberately kept far below market value.
Why would they do that? Profits. Guys like Darabont
had contracts that promised them a percentage
of the show's profits. If the show never officially
showed a profit on the studio's books because
the license fee was too low to cover production
costs, then AMC wouldn't have to pay out those
profit shares. That seems incredibly cynical.
That was precisely the argument in the lawsuits.
Darabont claimed that after season two, the show
was reporting an internal loss of something like
$49 million. For the biggest hit on cable? That's
insane. It's accounting magic, basically. And
Darabont argued his firing was timed specifically
to screw him out of his profit participation,
fully vesting. So he sued them. Oh, yeah. Big
time. In late 2013, the lawsuit dragged on for
nearly eight years. He was initially seeking
damages well over $280 million. And the outcome?
A massive settlement. In July 2021, AMC agreed
to pay Derivant and his agency, CAA, $200 million,
plus future royalties. That number tells you
everything you need to know about how much money
was really at stake. Wow. $200 million. And he
wasn't the only one suing over this, right? No.
Robert Kirkman. Gail Ann Hurd, other producers.
They filed similar suits, making the same arguments
about the low license fee and suppressed profits.
Their potential damages were estimated to be
maybe even up to a billion dollars combined.
Did they win too? Actually, no. In a somewhat
surprising ruling in April 2022, a judge sided
with AMC in the EP's case. The judge basically
said that while the deal was clearly very unfavorable
to the producers, AMC had technically followed
the specific language of their contracts when
calculating those profits or lack thereof. So
AMC won that round, legally speaking. Legally,
yes. But the combined lawsuits paint this picture
of years of intense conflict over the massive
revenues the show was generating. The corporate
drama was intense. OK, shifting from financial
battles to a much more somber note, we have to
mention the tragedy on set during season eight
filming. Yeah, the death of Stuntman. man John
Bernecker in July 2017. It was awful. What happened?
He was performing a stunt that involved a fall
from about 21 feet. He was supposed to land on
safety cushions below, but he missed them, hit
the concrete floor, suffered a fatal head injury.
It's horrible. Was there a lawsuit? Yes. His
mother filed a wrongful death suit against the
production companies involved, TWD8 and Stalwart
Films. She argued they hadn't taken adequate
safety precautions. Not enough padding, maybe
not enough rehearsal for what sounded like a
complex stunt near a balcony railing. Not a result.
The jury found the production companies were
negligent. They awarded his family $8 .6 million
in civil damages. It was just a tragic, stark
reminder that even on a set dealing with pretend
monsters, the physical risks are very real, and
safety has to be paramount. So despite the ratings
eventually cooling off, despite the behind -the
-scenes turmoil, the lawsuits, the tragedies,
AMC clearly knew they had something incredibly
valuable with The Walking Dead. The success wasn't
just about the main show finishing its 11 seasons.
It was about launching a whole universe, a franchise.
Yeah, it really became its own little media empire,
didn't it? Starting with the essential accessory
for any big genre show. Talking Dead, the live
after show, hosted by Chris Hardwick. Absolutely
crucial for fan engagement. Dissecting every
episode, bringing on cast and crew, kept the
conversation going all week. Then came the actual
spinoffs. The first big one was Fear the Walking
Dead. Right. Premiered in 2015, ran all the way
to 2023. That was positioned as a companion series.
Set initially in L .A., showing the start of
the outbreak, the collapse of society, which
the main show skipped over with Rick and a coma.
Different vibe, different characters, initially
at least. Very different. Then they tried other
formats, too. Like The Walking Dead, World Beyond.
That was the limited series, right? Only two
seasons. Yeah, 2020 to 2021. Specifically focused
on the first generation to come of age during
the apocalypse. These kids who call themselves
Endlings. Exploring a different perspective.
And Tales of the Walking Dead. That was an anthology
series. Launched in 2022. Standalone episodes,
different characters each time, some new, some
familiar faces like alpha pre -whisperers. Gave
them flexibility to tell smaller stories without
multi -season commitment. But the current strategy
seems very focused on bringing back the heavy
hitters, the original stars. Absolutely. That's
clearly the core of the franchise now. You've
got Dead City. Maybe in Negan in New York. Who
would have thought? Right. An unlikely pairing
navigating Manhattan. Then The Walking Dead.
Daryl Dixon taking arguably the most popular
character all the way to France, bizarrely enough.
Which actually worked surprisingly well. It did.
And then the big one everyone was waiting for.
The ones who live. Finally bringing Rick and
Michonne back together to finish their story.
Plus, they're already talking about more tales
from the Walking Dead universe. It just keeps
expanding. It shows AMC pivoted. When the main
show's massive audience started to shrink, they
didn't abandon the IP. they double down on the
characters people were most invested in. Smart
move. And the footprint goes way beyond just
TV shows, too. There were webisodes early on.
Yeah, little shorts like Torn Apart or Red Machete,
filling in backstory details. Huge amounts of
merchandising. Those McFarlane toys action figures
were everywhere. Very detailed figures, too.
Looked just like the actors. And maybe the ultimate
sign of making it? The parodies. Oh, tons of
parodies. Saturday Night Live did sketches. But
the king has to be bad lip reading. La Bibida
Bibidum. Yes. That spoof of Rick and the governor
talking nonsense. It was hilarious. And David
Morrissey, the actor who played the governor,
he actually confirmed this happened. For years
after that video came out, fans would just randomly
yell, hey, La Bibida Bibidum, at him on the street.
That's amazing. He apparently had no idea what
they were talking about at first. That's when
you know you've permeated pop culture. When nonsense
freezes from a parody, stick to your character.
So the show, despite everything the showrunner
shuffles, the ratings drop, the legal wars, it
just proved incredibly resilient. It really did.
It managed to navigate all that chaos and successfully
launch this sprawling, ongoing franchise that
people are still watching. Hashtag, hashtag,
outro. So wrapping this up. We've gone through
the whole bloody journey, 11 seasons of survival,
evolution, community building, community collapse.
We've looked at the characters who endured, the
ones who didn't, the production machine that
made it happen. But as we finish this deep dive,
maybe the most stunning takeaway, the real irony
here, comes from those lawsuits we discussed.
The source material makes it unavoidable. Yeah,
think about it. The Working Dead was, for years,
the biggest show on cable TV, a massive financial
success by any real -world measure, generating
$4 And yet, because of that vertical integration
model, because of the deliberately low license
fee ANC set internally, the official books for
the production company were designed to show
it running at a loss. Denying huge profit shares
to the creative partners who helped build it,
the people like Darabont, Kirkman, Hurd. The
fight over the money, the corporate maneuvering
to control the profits. It was honestly just
as brutal, just as calculating as any conflict
we saw on screen between Rick and Negan. or Carol
and Alpha. It really makes you think. In the
end, maybe the most dangerous predators weren't
the walkers outside the walls. Maybe they were
the ones inside the boardroom crunching the numbers.
A sobering thought, isn't it? Even in the apocalypse,
the human drama of greed and power plays out.
Thanks for joining us for this deep dive.