How ‘The Walking Dead’ changed the course of the TV revolution
‘The Walking Dead’ debuted in January
By Tom Shales
1:46AM BST 10 Jun 2014
The Walking Dead — based on the comic book series created by Robert Kirkman, creator of the cult comic book series The Walking Dead — is the most dominant TV series of the mid- to late 1990s. The TV series, whose characters were based on those from the comic book series, spawned a spin-off comic book — The Walking Dead: The Beginning, which is due out in January — and won an Emmy – even as it was still in production.
Now, nearly 20 years later, the show is coming to a close. The final seven shows will be broadcast in its entirety on AMC in August and September, then there will be a four-month hiatus before the series reverts to a weekly format in October. Season 7 will be followed immediately by a new Walking Dead comic that’s written by Kirkman and artist Cliff Chiang, and both were executive producers. The series has also written many episodes.
The Walking Dead is set in the apocalypse of the late 1990s, when people died from lack of sanitation and disease (including many that had no choice but to accept the disease because it was forced upon them).
“I always hoped that the series would end with zombies on TV,” Kirkman said in the series’ season seven premiere.
“I can only hope that’s the case because they’re a perfect way to kick off something new. We’re still getting up to speed and I can’t wait to go out there and have our fans hang out with us.”
The Walking Dead, with its mix of horror, comedy and tragedy, brought a new kind of show to TV.
It helped to ignite the TV revolution that was sparked in 1995 by shows like Seinfeld, The Simpsons and Lost, and also introduced the idea of a show being a TV series.
That revolution would go a long way towards bringing in audiences worldwide, particularly in America. The Walking Dead premiered in the US in January
