Thursday, August 11, 2011

AMC Slashes The Walking Dead's Budget

Everyone's trying to make a buck these days and sometimes even more buck than they should. Another great show may bite the dust.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, Frank Darabont did not resign, he was 'fired' by AMC's head of original programming, Joel Stillerman.  Allegedly the dispute was over, what else--money.  For some strange reason, after The Walking Dead's breakout 1st season, AMC decided to slash The Walking Dead's budget and pocket the 30% tax credit they received for filming the show in Georgia, instead of reinvesting the tax credit into the show.  Needless to say, Darabont raised Cain about this.  That's when they told him to hit the bricks.

Mind you The Walking Dead is AMC's biggest rainmaker.  Although Mad Men and Breaking Bad are award-winning shows, The Walking Dead is the network's biggest hit with the largest audience (5.3 million viewers watched the premiere and 6 million watched the finale).  According to Stillerman "ratings have no bearing" on the network's decision.  Gee, that makes sense.  What's going on at AMC?  It's not just isolated to The Walking Dead.  AMC has fought tooth and claw with the creators of Mad Men and Breaking Bad too.  Those battles have been even more public.  

Read the Hollywood Reporter article for more info.  The highlighted sentences are very troublesome.  One thing I know for sure, is that canning Frank Darabont was an epic mistake.  They will pay dearly for it when it comes to the show's quality.  This is so disappointing.  Just when we get a good zombie show, AMC decides to muck it up.  *sigh*
"But this source says that AMC had its own ideas about how to make the show more cheaply. The show shoots for eight days per episode, and the network suggested that half should be indoors. 'Four days inside and four days out? That's not Walking Dead,' says this insider. 'This is not a show that takes place around the dinner table.' That was just one of what this person describes as 'silly notes' from AMC. Couldn't the audience hear the zombies sometimes and not see them, to save on makeup? The source says Darabont fought 'a constant battle to keep the show big in scope and style.' "

15 comments:

  1. I hope it doesn't affect the new season.

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  3. Idiots !
    Here is a show that was kicking ass, and some tight money grubbers are taking advantage once again. It's the viewers that lose.
    Happy Thoughts !
    :-)

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  4. It's really unfortunate that we have to be held prisoner (in essence) by money hungry fools. And they wonder why people are going to the movies less and less.

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  5. @Angry Lurker-- I hope so too, but it may affect future seasons. If AMC continues w/ it's plans I worry for that show. Darabont gave that show the look and feel of a professional film production. W/o Darabont I'm worried...

    @Max-- Agreed. How crazy is that? It's not like the show isn't performing. How much sense does it make to do this to their highest rated show? I could see if the ratings were bad, but they aren't.

    @Alex-- Yet another one to bite the dust. It's like they just want to feed us reality crap b/c it's cheap to make.

    @Eric-- So true! I just don't understand why they create such good shows only to tank them?

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  6. Terrible news, i hope doesn't it affect the show because i'm desperately waiting for season 2 to start.

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  7. This is such a sad story that keeps getting worse. Breaking Bad is getting a raw deal too. Just when AMC was looking to be the best network on TV too.

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  8. money, always a good reason to make a bad decision

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  9. @Ting Tubby-- I think the 2nd season will be fine, as they've probably already shot most of it. It's the seasons after that, that worry me.

    @Kamatacci-- I agree, what AMC is doing makes no sense. What are they thinking?

    @J. Littlejohn-- So true unfortunately. They're getting way too greedy. Making a good show costs money. They can't take the zombies out of a zombie show.

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  10. It's always that way with network execs. Too many hands in the zombie jar.

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  11. Not a good start to the second season. :(

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  12. @Shock-- Very true. The Network execs are too worried about their next bonus to care about the quality of the show.

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  13. @Jay-- Nope. I'm worried about this show. I'm wondering how far along into the 2nd season were they when Darabont was unceremoniously fired.

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  14. I am so sick of TV execs screwing with good shows because they want to be cheap. We get force fed more reality shows because they're cheap, it's all about making the most money for the least amount of production. No one seems to care about quality anymore. This is going to be a disaster.

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