NBC Wanted The Walking Dead To Be A 'Zombie Crime' Procedural
It is very difficult to imagine our present pop culture landscape without "The Walking Dead," particularly since the story will be continuing in the form of several spin-offs coming after the original series' finale. The show not only helped the zombie trope become probably more popular than it has ever been in film and television but also launched a highly profitable TV franchise. So it's rather surprising to learn that, had a certain network had its way, it might have looked very, very different.
According to Variety, creator Frank Darabont originally brought the concept for the show to NBC. At the time, Darabont had an overall deal with the network, meaning that anything he created for the duration of the deal belonged to them. As stated by "The Walking Dead" executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, NBC's first response was, essentially, "Do there have to be zombies [in it]?" Network executives then suggested a change that would have similarly altered Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's comic book series beyond any recognition: a procedural on which characters "solve a zombie crime of the week."
A human drama with zombies
NBC's proposal may not seem quite as far-fetched to those unfamiliar with the source material. After all, the very first character we see on-screen is Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), still wearing his sheriff's uniform from before corpses started to rise from the dead with a hunger for human flesh. The idea of watching him and his partner, Shane (Jon Bernthal), solve zombie-related crimes is not entirely out of left field. It would have, however, dramatically altered the trajectory of the show as we know it, not to mention radically departed from Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's comic book series.
Exactly when Frank Darabont was let out of his overall deal with NBC isn't clear, but it was fortunately early enough for a much more faithful adaptation to go into production under the auspices of AMC. Despite the centrality of zombies to the show's formula, however, Gale Anne Hurd insists that "The Walking Dead" is still fundamentally a human story. "What attracted me to [Kirkman and Adlard's] comic-book series is that it is a story about characters on a journey into this new world, and constantly trying to figure out not only how to survive but what's important to them," she said. "And very quickly we realize that it is not the zombies you have to be afraid of, it's the other humans."