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Setting the scene
Zombie fiction had resurged with 28 Days Later and Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake, while AMC sought scripted drama after Mad Men to prove it was more than a one-hit network. Frank Darabont adapted Robert Kirkman's Image Comics series about survivors in a world overrun by walkers. Cable had rarely attempted expensive horror with weekly gore and large ensemble casts.
What happened
The Walking Dead premiered on AMC on October 31, 2010, with Andrew Lincoln as sheriff Rick Grimes waking from a coma into Atlanta's corpse-filled streets. The pilot's budget delivered cinematic scope, including a horse chase and tank sequence on deserted highways. Lennie James's Morgan and the bicycle girl zombie became instant emotional benchmarks for the show's humanity-versus-horror balance.
Why it still matters
The series became AMC's ratings backbone for years, spawned spinoffs like Fear the Walking Dead, and turned Georgia into a production hub. It proved horror could sustain prime-time ad sales when characters mattered. Memorable detail: the show used thousands of background actors made up as walkers, with dedicated camps nicknamed Walker School for training extras in consistent decay.
Background
AMC proved horror could anchor ratings for years.