‘The Walking Dead’ Almost Didn’t Have Any Zombies In It

Seeing as the title of The Walking Dead is synonymous with “zombies”, it’s difficult to imagine how the show could have been made without any man-eating undead.

But, if US network NBC had got their way, that’s what we’d have got.

Executive producer Gale Anne Hurd recently revealed that in the early days of The Walking Dead, back while they were still trying to get it green-lit, NBC expressed an interest:

“Before the show was picked up by AMC for domestic and Fox for international, its creator Frank Darabont presented the first version of the script to NBC, with whom he had an overall deal. According to Hurd, their response was, “Do there have to be zombies [in it].” NBC then asked Darabont if the show could be a procedural in which the two main protagonists would “solve a zombie crime of the week.”

What’s a “zombie crime of the week”?! Honestly, can you imagine… Luckily, Darabont stuck to his guns, and held our for a network more suited to his show… And we’re glad that he did.

AMC clearly aren’t scared of zombies, and we have to say that we’re relieved. Part of what makes The Walking Dead so good is how dark it is, and we’d imagine that a network reluctant to allow the undead wouldn’t be too hot on cannibalism, men ripping each other’s throats out, or people being beaten by barbed-wire bats.

In any case, YouTube user Timmy Lunsford imagined what a lighter, more jovial Walking Dead might look like, and came up with this:

The Walking Dead returns on the 23rd October.

H/T HitFlix, Image Credits: AMC