Talking Bad

AMC has a follow up show to The Walking Dead called Talking Dead* where they have cast and crew members and a (varying level of) celebrity guest discuss the show with host Chris Hardwick.  Capitalizing on the monster ratings for Walking Dead, they immediately follow it not with an encore (the "pre-owned" instead of "used" version of "re-run") but this talk show which is entertaining enough to passively watch and (I imagine) a low cost way for the network to get some cash and keep making quality shows.**

* Talking Dead led to this hilarious moment in online polling, when posing a question related to whether the group should spend time looking for Sofia.  The audience clearly had no patience for it.

** Nationals Park in Washington, DC abuts a parking lot that laid vacant for the longest time.  With the rest of the area, which was supposed to have restaurants and bars and retail shoot up, almost completely devoid of options, it makes sense to do the bare minimum, put up a tent, and sling Miller Lights for six bucks, rather than let all that potential income go by the wayside.  That is the concept with these talk shows.  The captive audience from the lead in is there.  This is free money.


It makes sense considering how much and energy we spend discussing these shows, why not do it in house and capitalize?  

They've expanded the concept to Breaking Bad with Talking Bad.  Creator Vince Gilligan and Modern Family's Julie Bowen (who largely carries that show with Ty Burrell) were guests on the first (live) show after the season premiere Sunday.

It's refreshing to see Julie Bowen's sincere and earnest interest in the show.  The Breaking Bad finale is going to be one of those "television events" and it's cool to see a celebrity clearly invested in it.  It's not like celebrities who attend and comment on the Super Bowl, while not actually being a fan of the teams, or football in general  Bowen was clearly a huge fan who wanted Talking Bad to go longer than the half hour allotted.  Anyone who's started talking about a show they love knows that feeling.

Oddly, the show takes a caller like a radio call in show, rather mine from e-mails or tweets.  Given all the sports radio (now podcasts of radio broadcasts) I prefer e-mails because it gives the hosts and production staff a better chance to weed through the nonsense and find comments or questions that are constructive to the show, rather than listen to a caller ramble only to be cut off.   

If the guests remain main cast members, or Vince Gilligan returns I'll continue to watch this Monday evenings.

Have an A-1 Day!