<P> Darabont himself had been a fan of the zombie genre since seeing George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead when he was fourteen years old . "" Night of the Living Dead" had this weird vibe that was almost - it was like pornography...It had this marvelously attractive, disreputable draw...I loved it immediately ." Darabont recalls walking into a comic book store in Burbank, California and seeing The Walking Dead on the shelf in 2005 . "Being that I've always had "the love of zombies genre," I of course grabbed it, took it home and read it, and immediately started pursuing the rights to it . I thought it would make a great TV show...I loved the idea of an extended, ongoing, serialized dramatic presentation set in the zombie apocalypse ." He described the process of developing the series and getting it set up at a network as "four years of frustration," and credits executive producer Gale Anne Hurd with finally getting the series on AMC . "I can't remember what the hell prompted her to read it (the script), but she said, "Wow, I really love this pilot you wrote . What are you doing with it?" I said I'd been trying to set it up forever...She said "I think AMC might be the place to take this ." She did, and then bam! They were immediately interested . I had to credit Gale, her insight into marrying the material and the buyer ." </P> <P> Darabont's original pilot script was split in half and embellished, making the first two episodes instead of one, "...just to slow the narrative down and dig into the characters more deeply, so it's not just plot - driven, event - driven stuff . You really want to drag these characters into the equation ." To write the remaining episodes of the season, Darabont recruited Charles H. Eglee, Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara, all of whom he had worked with while directing an episode of The Shield . Jack LoGiudice also joined the writing team, along with Robert Kirkman, also an executive producer . "I have the best of both worlds," says Kirkman . "It was a lot of fun writing Episode 104, and I'm hoping if it continues into Season 2, I'll be able to write more episodes ." </P> <P> Principal photography for the pilot episode, "Days Gone Bye", began on May 15, 2010 with the subsequent five episodes beginning filming a few weeks later on June 2 . The first season was filmed in and around Atlanta, Georgia where the episodes were primarily set . </P> <P> The first season features seven actors receiving opening credits billing: </P>

Where was season 1 of the walking dead filmed