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Apr 29, 20226 min read

Season 2 Episode 18 - The Walking Dead


S2 E18 Outro

Hello my survivor friends – are there airplanes in the apocalypse?

I just got off one last night, didn’t get home until 1:00 in the morning – so if my voice sounds like a sexy overnight DJ, that’s why.

And kids, I don’t mean a DJ like the ones that spin beats at a rave while you stumble around high on ecstasy with a manic smile on your face, bouncing around to flashing lights – although that would be a good setting for a zombie apocalypse – not a good one, but like a direct-to-cable one – we could call it “Death at the Disco” – except that that is already the name of a franchised murder mystery theater…But I digress…

The type of late-night DJ I refer to as an archetype is the guy, and it was usually a guy, who worked the overnight shift at the local radio station when there were actual humans required at radio stations to play the records.

And typically, this was the guy who couldn’t get a normal job because he was a stoner or a closet communist.

And since he was on at night when no one was listening he could get away with what ever he wanted and play whatever he wanted, and no one cared.

And since he knew no one was listening he usually sounded half asleep and bored.

And since he stayed up all night every night he usually sounded pretty burnt out.

And that is four straight sentences started with a conjunction.

Which reminds me of a song – “Conjunction Junction, what’s your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses…”

Google it. 10 extra Apocalypse points for anyone who gets that reference.

Links in the show notes.

Today I want to tell you my Walking Dead story. The Walking Dead was definitely an inspiration for me. I was not a zombie virgin when it came out. I had been already influenced by the original Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead and 28 Days Later.

I did not start watching the Walking Dead until into the second season but then became a huge fan boy until somewhere around the 8th season where they killed off all the good characters and it turned into a lame soap opera.

I started watching because I heard the buzz and I was training for a triathlon. Let me explain. If you live in New England like I do there is a very short season for riding your bicycle outside. If you need to train for a race you have to put your bike on this medieval torture device called a Trainer, which basically turns your race bike into a stationary bike.

If you’re training for a race you have to spend hours on the trainer and it’s a form of living death. You’re in a fixed position and you’re not going anywhere. To alleviate the tedium, boredom and mind-numbing discomfort I positioned my laptop so I could watch movies and shows while I suffered for the sport.

After a bit I found the Walking Dead and binge watched through those first seasons and it was awesome. It took my mind off the spinning and started to make me look forward to the sessions.

After I caught up I would watch the new shows on Sunday nights, which probably lowered my net worth by a few hundred thousand dollars because I’d have a couple beers and stay up late watching the Walking Dead – which is a terrible way to start your week.

Like I said I stopped watching in whatever season they killed Rick off. Part of it was that I lost interest in the characters. Part of it was that they made it really hard to binge watch after it got popular. In the words of the business world ‘they put a lot of friction into the user experience’.

I did watch and liked Fear the Walking Dead spin-off, but again had to give up because AMC made it hard to watch the shows in sequence to catch up.

…

The show was originally a graphic novel series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. I have not read the graphic novels, but I will at some point.

AMC ordered the pilot episode in 2010 based on the strength of the graphic novels and the adaptation.

They are currently in the 11th and last season but the universe is going strong with a dizzying number of spin-offs. It is a case study in content exploitation. These guys are farming this universe for all it can give.

So… take a deep breath because here we go… First is the web series created by AMC. These were web episodes that happen in the same universe. There are four if these that you can find on the AMC website if you’ve got the patience.

Next there was the Talking Dead talk show that aired after the episodes on Sunday nights as a sort of cool down where they talked about the just played episode. It was annoying.

There are three films in the works to continue Rick’s character story. I’ve never actually seen that episode but apparently he gets mysteriously rescued in his exit from the show.

There is the spin-off Fear the Walking Dead which started in 2015 and is in its 6th season. It also had four web-series episodes created.

There is the spin-off Walking Dead: The World Beyond – which follows the first generation of children after the apocalypse. That has 10 episodes.

AMC has green-lighted a spin-off anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead which should debut mid-2022.

There are plans for a Daryl and Carol spin-off series starting after they wrap up the final season of the original Walking Dead.

And AMC has greenlit a spinoff called Isle of the Dead starring Negan and Maggie that will take place in Manhattan also slated for 2023.

So kids, let that be a lesson to you; if you have a good idea and people seem to like it – milk it for all it’s worth!

…

Can’t wait until Hollywood calls on me and I can start writing spin-offs. Because who can live without knowing what happens to your pet golds fish in the planned sequel “After the Aquarium”?

We’ve got 144 nice people with excellent senses of humor and reasonable self-grooming standards in our Facebook group now. We are at about 13,500 downloads a month and have surpassed the 100,000 total downloads mark on Acast.

That doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels. Which, I should explain comes from the ancient Greek and Roman traditions of the champions being rewarded with laurel wreaths to wear. Some wag in the 18th century used that in the phrase ‘rest on your laurels’ to mean a champion who stops trying.

Anyhow, this small team of poorly groomed survivors needs to keep liking, reviewing and telling your friends about the podcast, especially if we ever hope to learn what happened to Harvey the goldfish.

All the links are in the show notes. Shoot me an email at cyktrussell at gmail if you need anything. I hope to kick off a couple projects soon.

One will be to build out some episodes of the ‘man in the mirror’ story.

Another will be the re-write and expansion of the season one script into an actual book form – and I’ll need some good beta editors for that because I’m about 40,000 words short and I think there’s a lot of room to go deeper into some of the characters.

I’m really happy about where this season is ending up.

I’m looking forward to creating a compelling arc for season 3 – that moves the story forward and creates new, and compelling centers of gravity in the universe.

Thank you. No really. Thank you for downloading and listening. You air the fuel for my fire and the wind in my sails. Keep up the good work.

Let’s keep building that positive karma, let’s be kind to the other citizens and most of all, put one foot in front of the other, keep moving forward, I know you can do it, and keep surviving.

Patreon to support the show ->https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse


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