Last month, a standing-room only crowd packed a room at the Las Vegas Convention Center...at 9 in the morning...for one purpose: they wanted to hear about The Walking Dead.
As a part of this year's gathering of the National Association of Broadcasters, I moderated a panel with Robert Kirkman, the creator and executive producer of The Walking Dead; actor Steven Yeun, who plays Glenn on the show; and Charlie Collier, the president of AMC.
The panel discussed a wide range of subjects, including whether Yeun is prepared to see his character die; how extensive the show's universe can become; where the show left things off at the end of the season; and what to expect from "Fear the Walking Dead," the new spinoff that will run on AMC this summer.
I spent 24 hours in Las Vegas earlier this week to moderate a panel at the National Association of Broadcasters convention with "The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman, star Steven Yeun ("Glenn") and AMC president Charlie Collier. It was a wide-ranging chat covering the launch of the show, as well as where things are heading in Season 6 (more Morgan, as he and Rick reunite) and what to expect from the upcoming companion series "Fear the Walking Dead." We also chatted about the potential of a movie (none on the horizon) and the idea of a foreign companion series (never say never).
Sandra Gonzalez at Mashable attended the panel and wrote up Kirkman's latest hints about the new show, and what he's not telling us about the zombie origins story:
The forthcoming The Walking Dead companion series might be taking place in the early days of the zombie apocalypse, but executive producer Robert Kirkman has no intention of using the show to explain too many details about the zombie virus outbreak.
"[Learning the origins] is not the priority in Walking Dead; that's not the priority in Fear The Walking Dead," Kirkman told a packed panel at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. "Every other story deals with that stuff and we're concerned about the heart."
Which is not to say, of course, that Kirkman doesn't have the origin story worked out; he simply never thought it was the most interesting aspect of the series he wanted to make.
"I know the story, but I've never bothered to write it down," he said. "Let's hope I don't die."
So what will Fear The Walking Dead be?
The show, which debuts this summer and is set in Los Angeles, will take viewers "back to a timid time when the walking dead were more dangerous and more of an ever present threat," according to Kirkman.
Sundance TV and the producers behind "The Writers' Room" were kind enough to actually put me on camera and participate in a special episode devoted to "The Walking Dead" and "Smallville," as well as a general conversation about how genre and comic book adaptations have taken TV by storm. I also got to spend some time behind the scenes while another episode, devoted to "House of Cards," was shot. Jim Rash is the perfect host -- a man who understands writing, acting and TV in general -- and I admire the work he puts into being prepared for the show. (Lots of binge TV.) And the Sundance folk are good people.
"The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman was most of the episode's focus, but "Smallville's" Al Gough and Miles Millar also appear in the second half. Blair Butler and I round out this panel.
Watch it tonight! But if you want to get a gist of the show, I make an appearance in both of the Sundance TV promos seen below! Check it out as Robert Kirkman talks about the evolution of "The Walking Dead" and I add a few comments:
Read more about the show here. An excerpt from my TV Guide Magazine story:
Zombies have treated the brains behind AMC's The Walking Dead very well. But Robert Kirkman, who originated the comic book series that inspired the show, admits the early days of his career were slower than, well, the undead. "You have to be crazy to get into [writing]," Kirkman tells SundanceTV's The Writers' Room, which digs into the art of creating some of TV's biggest series. "I went massively into debt."
On April 25's special comic book-themed episode, Kirkman recounts some of the obstacles he faced in getting the TV adaptation of The Walking Dead made. That includes the NBC development executive who gave Kirkman a disheartening note: "I love this, but does it have to have zombies in it?"
Also in this episode, Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar discuss how they fought the odds to get their show on the air in 2001 — back when comic book adaptations weren't in vogue. "Pre-9/11, the reaction was negative," Millar says of his series. "But after that, people were ready for a hero."
Smallville aired at a time before social media, streaming and time-shifting changed the way viewers experienced television. Kirkman admits it's tough now to ignore all that chatter, but in the end, "we only try to satisfy ourselves. That's the big truth."
In Season 2, The Writers' Room also features the writers, executive producers and stars of Scandal, House of Cards, The Good Wife, Sons of Anarchy and Pretty Little Liars. Jim Rash, who plays the naive Dean Pelton on NBC's Community, returns as host.
