NBC would have picked up the series were it not for the disgusting ghouls

May 12, 2014 17:47 GMT  ·  By

As a TV series that has long moved into the collective consciousness of our society, “The Walking Dead” still manages to surprise fans with some odd turn of events or some shocking uncovering from behind the scenes.

For example, can you imagine what your favorite show would have looked like with no zombies in it? What would the survivors have had to fight? Boredom? Creators of the show Frank Darabont and Robert Kirkman reveal that, when they pitched their idea to NBC, the zombies almost didn't make the cut.

“[The Walking Dead] actually almost did almost get made at NBC,” Frank says and explains that “It didn’t get made when the pilot was turned in, the famous story is one of the executives said, ‘This is awesome. I really love this. Does it have to have zombies in it?’”

We can all be thankful that the producers kept pitching their idea around until it landed in the lap of AMC studio execs, who decided it was worth investing in. Kirkman adds that NBC wasn't a good option because of the censorship.

“You couldn’t have done that kind of show at that network. We were very concerned early on what kind of gore we were going to be able to film and what kind of boundaries we were going to be able to push with the show,” the producer claims.

So, right about now, when the show is averaging millions of viewers each episode and the premiere of the fourth season scored an impressive 16.1 million, it's safe to say that someone at NBC is banging their head against an office desk.