The Walking Dead: Will Writing Staffs Become Extinct if The Walking Dead Works?

That's one way to produce a television series. On Tuesday night, it was reported by Deadline that Walking Dead executive producer Frank Darabont had fired his writing staff ahead of the already-ordered season two, and was considering replacing them with freelancers. Well, and his own blood, sweat and zombie-tears. After all, based on the show credits, Darabont has already written or co-written every one of The Walking Dead episodes this fall. Which makes you wonder: Will his decision lead other showrunners to take such action?

Maybe. Darabont isn't the first to do something like this -- Matthew Weiner seems to replenish his staff yearly -- but he's the first to take it this far. (The only other show that operates with freelancers in lieu of a writers' room is Torchwood, which is produced by the BBC and thus free from the WGA.) Needless to say, some people aren't thrilled. "Like Walking Dead showrunner I'd fire my whole writing staff to do it myself," wrote Bones executive producer Hart Hanson on his Twitter page, "except they are REALLY important and I can't do it myself." In the end, though, maybe Hanson could do it himself.

Think about it: If the freelancers strategy is used, Darabont will just be treating his television show like a film director might. Which makes sense since he is a film director. He wants total control and he's going to get it by any means necessary, even if that means firing a room full of perfectly capable creatives who each bring something particular to the table. There are probably other showrunners out there jealous they didn't think of this first.

Of course, there is a problem with Darabont's decision in relation to The Walking Dead. The first season, while praised, hasn't been uniformly accepted by all critics, with the writing singled out as a weak point. And since Darabont has his name on every script, he could very well be responsible the deficiencies. Or maybe he's just correcting the too-many mistakes made by his team. That's an answer that won't be known for another year, but if The Walking Dead struggles during season two, at least we know who will get most of the blame. And if it doesn't, we know who will get all the praise, too.