As the Zombie Turns: 'Walking Dead' May Become Soap Opera
by EG
“Walking Dead” showrunner Scott Gimple has revealed that his vision for the future of the show involves a never-ending carousel of new characters and a narrative with no predetermined ending. You know, like “Guiding Light” and “All My Children.”
“All TV shows end, but I do think it's possible that it could go on and on and on," Gimple said recently on “Larry King Now.” "I think if it went 10 years, if it went longer than that, it's possible that the cast -- considering the amount of deaths on this cast and everything else -- after 10 or 12 years, it could shift into a whole new cast.”
That means that “The Walking Dead” wouldn’t have a coherent storyline with a beginning, middle and end like “Breaking Bad,” but a shifting storyline that is able to keep moving forward indefinitely. It’s the model followed by day-time soap operas that keep going for decades, and it’s also the format embraced by night-time soaps like “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Some fans are disheartened by the prospect, since the model of an indefinite narrative almost inevitably leads to TV shows that outlive their once-interesting premises and begin reaching for increasingly desperate plot points in an attempt to reinvent themselves. No one wants to think about a time when the walkers jump the shark.