The Walking Dead revisiting season 1 – behind the scenes

On October 31, 2010, the first episode of The Walking Dead  “Days Gone Bye,” aired on AMC. Zombie fans tuned in because of the content and comic fans watched because they couldn’t wait to see how this would translate from page to screen. No matter the reason for watching, most stayed and have continued to watch because of the characters.

This first behind-the-scenes photo from season one shows Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) meeting Teddy Bear Walker, whose character name is Summer, portrayed by Addy Miller, as a short-haired Greg Nicotero looks on.

This is such an amazing photo featuring the leader and main character Rick Grimes and his first walker kill in the series. This classic scene showed the viewer this wasn’t an ordinary series; they took a huge chance by killing a walker child in the first scene.

The Walking Dead season 1 SFX

There are several BTS photos of Greg Nicotero from season one. Many featured him with walkers as he was doing SFX in the first season of the series. He wouldn’t start directing until season two. It is incredible how creative Nicotero and the SFX team are and the gory realistic way they make the walkers is an astonishing element of this series.

Here Nicotero ensures that Rick’s bloody jacket is bloody enough. This scene is the first we see the characters using walker guts as camouflage. This episode was aptly titled “Guts.” They would go on to use this tactic over the course of the series and still use it in the final season.

As the years have gone by, the walker’s state of decay has become more pronounced, which then dials up the gore factor. It is impressive that the SFX crew continues to create more grotesque ways to create walkers.

As the series is in its final season, these BTS looks at the early episodes mean even more to the die-hard fans.

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