The Walking Dead producer says networks were “afraid” to make the show

According to The Walking Dead producer Denise Huth, networks were very hesitant to make the show back in the day. AMC got the last laugh on that one.

The Walking Dead is one of the biggest series in television today, and has been for almost a decade. While it’s true that ratings have dropped in recent years, the main show is still going strong, with an eleventh season coming down the pipe. Add to that the popular spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead, the upcoming spinoff The Walking Dead: World Beyond, a trilogy of movies following Rick Grimes, and you have yourself a cultural force.

But the original show wasn’t a sure thing. Speaking on AMC’s The Walking Dead: Beginnings, producer Denise Huth remembers a time when The Walking Dead was just a popular comic by Robert Kirkman and networks were afraid to touch it. “It kicked around for about five years before AMC was finally brave enough to say ‘yes’ and actually put it on the air,” she said. “It was one of those things that hadn’t been done before.” According to Huth, the show “sort of broke every rule of what television is supposed to look like.”

The Walking Dead TV show was originally managed by The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont, and Huth recalled the moment he told her of Kirkman’s comic back in 2005. “[A]s he was telling me the story, I remember saying, ‘That’s a television show.’ It just had all the great elements of a serialized drama.”

But again, it was a challenge to make networks see what she saw. “I think everybody recognized it was good, but I think they were afraid that this was going to be possibly an over-expensive show,” Huth said. “It was a gamble. We certainly couldn’t say to anybody, ‘This is gonna be a huge hit!’ We were just praying five people would watch. It’s hard to begrudge everybody who said no, but it is satisfying now to look back on it.”

Reflecting on season 1, Huth recalls shooting being a lot of fun. ”That whole first season just felt like this really cool summer camp that we all got to go to and run around Atlanta and dress people up as zombies.”

I wonder if she had any idea how much of a huge success The Walking Dead would become.

Whilst we’re remembering the old days of The Walking Dead, let’s take a look at both Andrew Lincoln (Rick) and Jon Bernthal’s (Shane) audition tapes. Be warned: they will make you very nostalgic.

The Walking Dead returns (finally) for its highly anticipated season 10 finale October 4 on AMC. Right after that, we’ll get to catch the new spinoff, The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Then, if you still can’t get enough, the new season of Fear the Walking Dead kicks off a week later!

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