WALKING AND TALKING DEAD

The Damn Dirty Geeks revisit one of our favorite topics and TV shows, THE WALKING DEAD in our first wildcard episode linking up several hot topics. This time, both Franks, Scott and Jack address the recent Season 6 cliffhanger episode that put Glenn’s life in the hands of zombie-horde fate, and how this trend of keeping audiences in suspense over mid-season breaks has changed modern television.

Our TWD discussion evolves into a rousing debate about this era of binge watching TV series like GAME OF THRONES, SHERLOCK and HOUSE OF CARDS. We examine how this television trend crashes headlong into the internet era, which can reveal TV story spoilers nearly-live as they appear on the screen — if the fan rumor mill doesn’t spoil them before episodes air.

The fun continues as we compare and contrast THE WALKING DEAD to the George Romero DEAD universe of films and their collective impact on zombie mythology in pop culture. We also enter a Hasslein Loop linking TWD to PLANET OF THE APES, JAWS, THE OMEGA MAN, SOYLENT GREEN and WESTWORLD.

Our TWD discussion evolves into a rousing debate about this era of binge watching TV series like GAME OF THRONES, SHERLOCK and HOUSE OF CARDS. We examine how this television trend crashes headlong into the internet era, which can reveal TV story spoilers nearly-live as they appear on the screen — if the fan rumor mill doesn’t spoil them before episodes air.

The fun continues as we compare and contrast THE WALKING DEAD to the George Romero DEAD universe of films and their collective impact on zombie mythology in pop culture. We also enter a Hasslein Loop linking TWD to PLANET OF THE APES, JAWS, THE OMEGA MAN, SOYLENT GREEN and WESTWORLD.

We wrap up this wildcard episode with the hilarious prospect of Damn Dirty Geeks action figures that would include kung-fu grip, eyepatch and blaster gun accessories.

Also, this episode will be the first released using our new DDG studio microphones, which improve the sound quality of our podcast greatly, as we hope you’ll agree. Let us know if you can hear and enjoy the difference.

Coming soon will be another wildcard episode in which we return to the 1970s to discuss sci-fi films prior to STAR WARS like WESTWORLD and much more.

Special thanks to Brice Cranston for engineering audio for this episode and composing our fantastic Damn Dirty Geeks theme we proudly present in every episode.

SHOW NOTES:

Clarification: the actress from THIRTYSOMETHING Frank Dietz was referring to is Patricia Wettig, not Patricia Clarkson — both are fine actresses in any case.

Trivia: indeed Frank Dietz called it when referring to George Romero’s EMPIRE OF THE DEAD as a Marvel comic book series, Act One of which was published in 2014, previously to the November 2015 announcement that AMC has bought the rights to the TV series adaptation being developed by Romero and Peter Grunwald. George Romero’s Empire of the Dead: Act One, George Romero’s Empire of the Dead: Act One and Act Three are available at Amazon.com.

Trivia: executive producer Greg Nicotero made his fifth on-screen appearance as a walker in the third episode of Season 6, playing one of the walkers in the alley dumpster scene with Nicolas and Glenn.

Trivia: as discussed in this episode, Scott M. Gimple became an executive producer of THE WALKING DEAD in 2013 as of Season 4 Episode 1 “30 Days Without an Accident.” Since then, Gimple drives the boat and a great job he’s doing.

THE WALKING DEAD – official show page for the TV horror series on AMC’s website
KNB EFX Group – visit the official website and Facebook page for Greg Nicotero’s makeup effects company, along with Greg’s recently started Instagram.
Empire of the Dead – visit the page and view the issues/collections of George Romero’s Empire of the Dead comics series at Marvel.com
PLANET OF THE APES DAY – listen to our referenced podcast episode about the APES film franchise with guest Dana Gould