The Fall of The Walking Dead | How Scott Gimple Ruined One of Television's Most Popular Series
2022 ж. 16 Қар.
5 002 Рет қаралды
With the original Walking Dead series ending its run on AMC I examine the terrible decisions made by Scott Gimple that destroyed the show and cost them 90% of their fanbase.
All images and videos clips are the property of their creators and used here under fair use.
Scott isn't a showrunner, he's a destroyer of worlds.
Showruiner 😂
The decision to kill off Carl two weeks before the actor's 18th birthday was the dumbest decision ever made. Also keep in mind that producers already knew at the time that Andrew Lincoln wanted to leave the show to be with his family, which makes the decision to kill Carl even dumber.
The actor wanted to leave if i recall
@@jameygormanjr5908No he didn’t.
People don't talk like that, Scott. People don't act like that, either, Scott. Have you ever actually met any real people, Scott?
The first like what? 5 seasons... were so good. It seriously was one of the best shows I have ever seen and it was destroyed into little bite size pieces. I usually don't get but hurt about shows going off the deep end but this saddens me.
It was painful to watch. Everyone has a different threshold with shows, but if a series is good I give them more leeway if they go off the rails a bit in the hope that it improves. But when it only gets worse, as TWD did, it's excruciating.
@@reelworld1 I agree with that. TWD slowly got more painful as they show spanned on. It’s a show that you need to binge. To consecutively watch episodes on a streaming service to enjoy all the pieces of dialogue and details because so many new uninteresting characters and sub plots get introduced. The show suffered a lot from the filler episodes. Like in season 7, no one was trying to watch a solo episode about Eugene at the savior compound, but they give us that anyway. No one’s trying to watch a solo episode about Tara finding a new community. It’s just boring. Eugene and Tara aren’t bad characters either, but no one wants to see that.
@@tylergary5953 Exactly, and those episodes can lead to the audience even disliking some of those secondary characters because they shouldn't have the spotlight focused on them. If those scenes were taken and interspersed throughout the season it'd be more interesting, and wouldn't derail the overall narrative.
@@reelworld1 yes. Like Tyler, I agree the earlier season were good, but they focused to much on characters like Andrea, Tara, and (I know this’ll be controversial) Abraham’s group. They are all alright (well, except Andrea) but they shouldn’t be considered top tier. Again, controversial.
@@tylergary5953 Eugene is the worst fucking character since Jar Jar, and he should have never been one of the main characters. His cringe ass hokey colloquialisms are annoying af.
Scott Gimple's ego and arrogance drove a hit show off a cliff. What's most infuriating is the fact that the HIT SHOW was given to him on a silver platter after Season 3. Yet he managed to ruin it by S6/7. AMC is also to blame for allowing Scott to carry on, as the Fan Base revolted and left the show in droves. Instead of firing him, they promoted him to Lead TWD universe. Looking back now, it never really took off with Gimble at the helm. Oh the Irony of Zombies
For me the show fell off in season six I literally hadn’t watched a full season pass that
Season 6 came out 7 years ago so how are you still watching videos about TWD?
@@discobroccoli198 cause videos for it keeps popping up in my feed
you miss many shit
Season 9 is better than six anyways
@@Shockkings0714 eeeeeh
A finale? I call it a death rattle. They killed the show when they killed off Carl. I’m willing to bet that every single new spinoff will end up being cancelled. If people aren’t tuning in now they’re not going to tune in for a series spinoff.
It's pretty amazing that they think they can squeeze out 3 spinoffs from a show that has a mere fraction of its original audience. They were always cutting corners on TWD budgets imagine how little they're going to put forward on all these new ones.
For me personally the whole show went bad around the time Negan came around. It wasn't even Negan himself, but something just went downhill. Then they killed Carl and that was it for me. Haven't watched a single episode since. Before I used to love this show, I really did, but that one kill was really my final straw.
They dragged the Negan storyline out too long and had bottle episodes to show each person's perspective. There was just no continuity to the narrative and it was painful to watch it all play it.
Hit the nail on the head with this video. I was literally a religous TWD watcher, but when Gimp took over it pained me. He ruined the show.
I Completely agree. I got disinterested in the show about the time the show lost over ten million viewers per episode. But I actually started to question things a season or more before that. I knew the fact that even the actors themselves didn't know who was going to be killed next. And to some point that was exciting but what happened was and maybe they didn't expect this either.....people were falling in love....not literally but just really liking some of the characters. And those characters made the show. And they started killing them off. Tyrese, glen, Abraham, carl, beth, wow and she was just starting to become a fan favorite and bam, shot in the head. After so many of these deaths I was actually mad after each episode ended thinking.......what are you doing to this show? These characters are what made the show and what drew people in. And brought them back each week wanting more. And then they are just gone? And then it's just a whole new show and not the walking dead that brought that record breaking 17 million viewers in. And me along with ten million other fans started just not watching the show. I stopped watching I think in season 7, maybe 6. Far after the blinders of the writers began. I gave it a chance for a long time.....a season or two thinking....damn. this was one of the best shows I have ever seen so they know how to keep it going and repair the damage......but they didn't. And the show got stagnant. I remember maybe in the fourth or fifth season when the show was at it's very best people were just so hyped about this show. More than any show in the history of television. And I remember the producers and writers and Gimple saying...."We may do 23 seasons or even more. ". And people were so excited. This was going to be one of the longest running shows in the history of television but it fluttered. And it fluttered because of the bad decisions the management made. And then Andrew Lincoln just out of nowhere leaves? Lol. The main character of the entire show? What? Saying he missed his family. I will say he handled that so well. Very diplomatic. Do people really believe that is the reason he left the show? Lol. I can tell you that absolutely is not the reason he left the show. He saw the direction the show was taking the last couple seasons and the absolutely horrible mistakes that were made in the writing and he simply just wanted out. He knew they ruined the show. But he was such a gentleman about it. Never saying what he probably really wanted to that they effed up the show badly. And they absolutely did. When they came out and said they wanted to run this show 23 seasons and even more I was so excited along with everyone else I like. People just couldn't believe it but we're so happy. But after what they started doing people lost that excitement and we're just pissed off after each episode as I was as well. Sad. Imagine if they hadn't done all that. Imagine if they realized these characters were what made the show what it was and decided not to kill them off. Just where this show could have went.
For me too it wasn't just the deaths, but that they didn't have meaning. Early Walking Dead it advanced the plot, like Shane, or it was a sacrifice with purpose, like Merle, that showed the full evolution of his character.
@@reelworld1 yes, I totally agree with that. Thank you. I just thought of this now. I've never stopped watching a show after watching it religiously the first several seasons. I think I stopped watching after the 7th maybe. My neighbor and I would order out every Sunday and eat and watch the show. Just couldn't wait for Sunday. But I just lost interest. I still watched but not until the whole season came out on Netflix. And that's what I've done the last several seasons. But I can't ever remember being so into a show and then just losing that interest like that. It's still a good show. But I don't think it's a freSt show like it was and could have been. I know this wouldn't happen but I think it would be so cool if someone just remade the show. Or took it from the fifth or sixth season or whenever it started to go down hill. Whenever the viewership dropped over ten million people per week.
Not watched yet, but I'm so glad videos like this seem to be appearing, and a lot more frequently now. It's too little too late, but hopefully word will get out, and Gimple along with all the frauds he employed will not get the chance to ruin other shows/franchises in the future. What he did to the main show was bad, but the rapid decline in Fear from the end of S3 onwards is a case study in how to ruin a show. How no-talent hacks with no clue on writing or character development are employed in the first place is beyond me, let alone employed to run, create, and move a franchise forward that was this popular. It's almost beyond comprehension how he and Kang could drop the ball so badly on the main show, when they literally had the comic as a successful template to work from. The main show has been an embarrassment since at least Carl being killed off/Rick leaving - the show since has felt cheap and nasty, with a lot of the events making little sense, and some bad-to-mediocre-to-excellent actors having to work with some of the worst scripts in television.
If they had played their cards right, they had a strong franchise. Now they've sunk so low that they're even doing a Daryl in France spinoff. It's all become like a parody.
After Beth was killed off, the show started to decline. Then Carl being killed off was an awful decision. Then the Negan character became way to dominant. I felt like I was watching A team episodes with the battles between sanctuary and Alexandria, just awful. The show was still great up through terminus and Beth being held at that hospital. When Beth died and the group made there way to Alexandria it was the beginning of the end. This story was so much about Rick and his son Carl surviving, to just kill Carl off like that, ridiculous. The show was once so special
They should've had an endgame in mind with the central Rick/Carl story. Then they could've gone on with all these other spinoffs. People might've been more receptive to the new shows if the main plot was given a legitimate conclusion. The show really died when they killed Carl.
We all know that when Glen died that show died too. I was Over it.
The impact of his death was made all the worse because they even faked Glenn's death previously with the dumpster dive. There was no way he should've survived that, and it would've actually been a better end for him. But once you do save him like that it's such a waste to then kill him off as they did.
That was a huge comic book plot point. People dropped off when Carl died, not when Glenn died.
@@cloudcovercreations Thats fact ..but for the millions in the tv audience who didn't follow the comic that was definitely the start of the END. A sociopath with a wooden bat covered in barbwire beating one of the MOST beloved characters in the head (eyeball falling out) as his wife watches was a terrible idea. Terrible idea. Terrible lol.
I love season 8 & 7 but I do agree Gimple really did ruin everything for the show and I hate that his decisions changed the quality of the show for most viewers especially my friends whom used to love the earlier seasons and would talk about it for days but when I got into the show at seasons 5 & 6 they started to lose interest after the season 7 premiere and honestly if it weren’t for the great acting of the cast, the directors, and Bear’s incredible scores in the later seasons I wouldn’t be into the show much either so Gimple imo really owes all of those people not only an apology but major gratitude
The acting did keep the show together, even when they were given ridiculous scripts or inexplicable character changes. I thought though the casting became sloppy when they introduced most of the Commonwealth characters. Aside from Mercer, the rest were not stellar performances.
angela kang was just as bad if not worse than gimple, i will never accept any prazie for the unworthy, it sends the wrong massage, they just changing between bad and worst and worst and bad and expect audience to say one is good, they are lowering expectations and quality bars.
Scott Gimple: "Character Deaths equal good writing." 😊
The Walking Dead was everywhere…then one day it wasn’t
For a show to have 11 seasons, an after show, 3 spin offs, a video game tie in (survival instinct), and collaborations with other shows how was the first season still the best?
I'm very Skeptical about the Daryl show in 🇫🇷 France.
Killing Carl was the point that made the long time (& comic?) fans stop forgiving mistakes and enduring bottle episodes. The cliffhanger with Negan was OK, I remember being like ooooo and couldn't wait for the show to come back it created great anticipation and fan theories and deep dives counting where he was and where he ended and some people predicting Abraham, which needed to happen for the shock value for comic readers, As sad as I was for Glenn it needed to happen also RIP. However how they handled the return from the cliffhanger was poor, also as mentioned in the KZhead video, handling Negan as a Fonzy was poor. But back to killing Carl, the absolute worst mistake considering Rick was announced as leaving shortly after, Perhaps if they secured Rick till the end maybe they could have made it work somehow as the show started with Rick ends with Rick yada ya, or even Judy taking the mantle of the Carl comic arc to finish it out but it would have needed more time with Rick to hand over to this character to work. Carl was the succession the show was building towards, as you said the show was about a dad and a son and heck if they wanted shock factor for another main charcter being killed off what better way even if it's cheesy than for a father to sacrifice himself so his son could survive and have a better life. I would have respected the show just ending on a dark note of Carl dying, Rick lost in his grief of everything he fought for to get this far, to fail and caught in the sadness of it all just ending his life and cutting to black. Then maybe then a year or 2 down the track they could have done some mini-series (limited run) spin off/s like 6 episodes max to close out some of the other 'beloved' characters stories like an epilogue.
It's incomprehensible how they could just turn the source material upside down and kill off the core of the whole story. Like you said if they wanted to end the show there, Carl's death would've felt different. Also they could've concluded TWD with Rick and Carl alive, but just went to these spinoffs they're doing now anyway. People would've been more receptive to the new shows with having at least a finality for the main story.
And he’s in charge of the entire universe.🥲
I never understood the season 4-6 hype. For me the series actually got bad at season 4. I wasn’t buying the preachy dialogue where everything feels like a rhymed puzzle. Gimple really brought in this Shakespeare dialogue that completely destroyed the series. I strongly urge people to rewatch season 5 in it’s entirety. It does not hold up at all with its wooden performances, choppy editing and bad writing. For me season 1-2 are amazing season 3 is great season 4 is decent season 5 sucks season 6 sucks season 7-8 are awful season 9 is actually alright season 10 sucks and season 11 is awful
Okay you’re just waffling now because 1-6 is prime walking dead.
Season 2 isn't preachy and Shakespearian? Lmao are you kidding me? It's without a doubt the most Shakespearian season on the show.
@@Shockkings0714 they felt like real people though.
@@SpoonfulForYou Dude, rewatch the season. Not saying it's bad btw but they don't feel real. Only person that feels real is Shane. Everyone else is saying soap opera lines. Literally the season with a love triangle.
Nice video. But personally I think the fact that they turned negans introduction into that insulting and pointless cliffhanger did at least as much damage as the characters killed and darkness of that season premiere. I know I for one bailed because I hated the cliffhanger execution so much and not cause of the actual events
I agree. I was turned off by that insulting gimmick too. I left it out of the video because someone could counter with the record ratings the premiere had off the cliffhanger. And while you can't draw a direct line between the cliffhanger and the lost audience, I feel it was another factor in the decline too.
I would argue Scott Gimmick has sucked the whole time. His first episode as showrunner was pathetic. Season 4 premiere featured a gimmicky walker battle in a Big Spot after a conveniently-crashed helicopter falls through the suddenly rotten roof. And Rick meets a strange woman in the bush to setup the exposition of "getting to come back from the horrible things you've done." The whole episode adds up to one great big Nothing Burger (and it's hardly the only one under his watch!)... This show would have been so much better if they'd stuck with their original creative teams.
There's no doubt it would've been much better under Darabont. The first big sign for me was how they messed up the Tyreese character. His death sequence was cringeworthy too.
I loved the first 3 seasons I loved Frank's and Glen's vision of the show season 4-11 sucked!! Season 4 is when Scott Gimple became showrunner and it's sucked ever since but I will say the ones who live is just as good as the first 3 seasons and is the true season 4 in my opinion
Lol i like that you used an anthony green song clip from the song "youll be fine" when talking about the show dragging things our i love that song 5:26
This show had a pacing issue since season 4 and with obviously fake deaths, 90 minute episodes that were only devoted to more ad time, false flag trailers, and unnecessary cliffhangers, fans finally started to realize how insulting things got.
I wish they kept frank darabont around, aswell as Andrea grimes, overall the show is ruined, although it’s still entertaining just not as much as the first 1-5 seasons
Darabont was upset about the limited AMC budget. Imagine if the show had been on HBO and Darabont had stayed throughout.
I was really looking forward to having a huge evil empire like the Commonwealth in the Spinoff Age. Yet they destroyed it in one season of Rick and Michonne. A giant sprawling 3 city military run dictatorship run in secrecy that kill survivors to maintain that secrecy. In comes Rick and Michonne and they destroy it one season. Scott Gimple speacial.
It also doesn't make much sense in the world they already created. If this evil group was taking resources from others they would certainly have known about a community as large and developed as the Commonwealth.
My question is how the F this dude kept the position for so long and now he even has hand on the spinoffs, 0 sense
It's strange. With all the lawsuits that AMC has had over TWD from Darabont and Kirkman, maybe they just see him as loyal. The shows just keep getting worse though.
Don’t get me started on Fear The Walking Dead!!
That was a whole separate train wreck. In the end it didn't even remotely resemble the show it started out as.
i never watched that one 😂 sounds like i didnt miss much!
Streets won’t forget 1-6 walking dead. Now they just dragging it on with these corny storylines.
Oh, and AJ was a pointless addition and only exists to say “awww Rick and Michonne had a kid!” That might have worked if it was the end of the series like in the comic with Carl and Sophia. But here, it just doesn’t. AJ pops up in S9 and does nothing of note. I’m not hyperbolic when I say if he wasn’t in the show, NOTHING would have fundamentally changed. He’s that pointless.
Exactly. And it's not like they didn't already have too many characters. Many just faded away and then came back, just to give them someone to kill off, like Luke and his girlfriend.
I loved the first 3 seasons I loved Frank's and Glen's vision of the show seasons 4-11 sucked!! Season 4 is when Scott Gimple became showrunner and it's sucked ever since but I will say the ones who live is just as good as the first 3 seasons and is the true season 4 in my opinion
Mazzara faced some criticism following Darabont's exit which I felt was unfair. Glen knew one key to the series was to feel no one was safe. Critics felt he killed too many off, but the show lost its edge when he left and Gimple took over.
Alot of Negans lines are straight from the pages so blame Kirkman for that not limp Gimple
True, but my problem was less the lines but how they were delivered and the way they amplified the more cheesy side of Negan. It gave it more of a comic feel, and they needed to tone it down a bit more, as they had done previously with other characters.
sure bro, killing Carl was kirkman's fault
Now everyones praising him for the crap spinoffs I can't stand it
The Rick series is terribly written too. The CRM is unrealistic and nothing that happens makes any sense. Some people are enjoying it and I just don't get it.
@reelworld1 same bro. I went to watch reviews to see if people were picking it apart but people are saying last night's episode was the best of the entire series lmao I've also seen people say they're the best written episodes. No clue what they're drinking but I want to stay far away from it.
well he fucked ending lol
The show was only interesting during the outbreak phase, the phase directed by Frank Darabont who was another reason for its early success.
The Darabont firing too revolved around him being upset with the budget for the show. If HBO had taken the series instead of AMC, and Darabont had continued as showrunner it would've been an entirely different result.
I don't mind the spin offs just make shit right bring Carl back
Get over it, carl is dead. If you dont like the show, then dont watch it. The show is not going to mirror the comics. Regardless people still watch the show. Also everyone need to stop your hate against RJ . He is Rick and Michonne son. Not his fault carl got killed of the show. No need to hate on RJ just because he is Richonnes legacy. Judiith is not Ricks cild and she died with Lori in the comics, don't see anyone hating on her or calling her pointless. All the kids born in the apocalypse are important to carry on the human species. Dont matter who their parents are. Stop hating on Richonne's legacy becausr Gimple screwed up, would have been nice to have all 3 Grimes kids.
STOP PLEASE
I agree about everything in this video besides the negan all out war story arc. In my opinion it’s one of the best if not the best parts of TWD.
Show was dead b4 Carl died. Season 7 & 8 were sooo slow and boring people just left after Glenn died
Negans introduction was perfect and everything about that story arc was great:
He still made the show become as popular as it ever was.
Yes, Darabont set the foundation but Gimple was a big part of that early success. I think he was at his best during the "Hunters" arc, where they expanded it from what Kirkman wrote. It's one of those few times where they surpassed the comic. It started to falter in season 6 with Glenn's fake death and then the final episode became campy with all the roadblocks that were set up that led them to the Saviors. But yeah, there's no doubt he did a good job early on.
@@reelworld1 Everything after Darabont was decline. Gimple proved himself to be an arrogant clueless hack with a broad variety of grave errors in production. Some were instantaneous (e.g. letting Glenn go), some were chronic (Set design steadily getting shittier). The writing is obviously the worst part but the casting, camera, set design, sound, etc. etc. were all atrociously bad by season 7 after steadily declining since season 2. There were inexcusable errors in sound quality in later seasons, for example, such as dialogue in and out of sync, or changes in room tone with no fades mid scene. Film school student stuff. They used bow and arrow in fights with humans after 6 years of apocalypse when in Ukraine right now they're using guns that are 60 years old. Moronic. Gimple as showrunner was ultimately responsible for all of this. Of course word of mouth spread after season 1, and the characters were already developed, with the framework of the show planned out. Gimple rode this wave until season 6 but what you see after that is all him, after everything Darabont did was stripped away. Does nobody remember the prison season feeling a little off? Yes it was entertaining, because we were invested and it was new, but didn't it just lose focus in places, or make odd choices with pacing, character motivation, dialogue? I'm certain it did. It didn't feel top tier, that's for sure. And it only got worse. Those odd episodes in Negan's base were not experimental or ground breaking, they were odd because they were full of bad creative choices. And again, we were invested. He turned this show from something that was on the cusp of rivalling HBO and Breaking Bad in terms of quality, into some cult thing that is barely better than Sci-Fi channel junk. Angela Kang recovered some quality but compared to season 1 we're looking at a pile of crap. All thanks to Scott Gimple.
@@-BuddyGuy TWD was originally pitched to HBO and they declined. If they had taken it, then Darabont still would've been aboard. It was the budgetary fights with AMC that largely led to his firing. It'll be interesting to see if The Last of Us becomes a hit for HBO, as they finally jump into the zombie apocalypse genre.
@@-BuddyGuy I agree with a lot of your points, I’m rewatching the show right now. Season 1-3 Imo were the best. Everything after that, may have been walking dead jn it’s prime (up until season 7), I even watched from the start and was the advocate for the show when it was new, but rewatching it made me realize how little I was paying attention to it. In reality the show really only had good episodes and moments sprinkled in after season 3. Gimple started in season 4 keep in mind. Season 1 was darabont, season 2 and 3 were mazzara. I agree with your point about the prison, but only for season 4. I think season 3 was a damn near masterpiece. Rewatching it, season 3 had everything and kept me thoroughly engaged through every moment, episode, and piece of dialogue. Mazzara and darabont were just far more suited for the show IMO. Knowing what I know now about details of the show, it wasn’t until gimple took over that I started skipping and missing episodes and details regularly.
I could kind of say you're right and wrong they did complete the series and it did feel like an ending but it also feels like we're in a chapter of a new beginning
oy vey
well Chandler aka Carl had to go to college so he wanted his character killed off so is it gimples fault for carls death
That's not true. It came as a surprise to him and his family. Chandler's father called it a "firing." He had also just bought a home in the Atlanta area expecting to be filming there for years to come. Link below. www.insider.com/walking-dead-chandler-rigg-father-says-son-fired-2017-12
@@reelworld1 Oh my bad so your right he did ruin it like that
Why after 4 years do people still spread this lie.
@@damonlongstreet8630 bud thats just what I heard from my friend Brayden so my bad
@@ChR4se that what amc was trying to spin, Chandler bot a house close to set to continue the show. Carl was killed off only cause Chandler was turning 18 and Amc didn't want to 1) pay him an adult wage. 2) possibly have to pay him royalties for the rest of his life. Gimple took the balm to get the promotion he got.
People stopped watching because of the negan ark go ask anyone who stopped watching they’ll all say the same thing. Nothing to do with Carl he was written so badly anyway
Very true. It went down after Negan.