Lets all take a moment to ignore all of the hubbub about the removal of Frank Darabont from the production of The Walking Dead Season 2 and realize that holy crap, we are weeks away from Season 2 of The Walking Dead.

Sure, if the rumors are true about AMC wanting to cut costs, that’s kind of messed up, given that The Walking Dead is their best rated series to date, but lets play devil’s advocate - Season 1 wasn’t all the series could have been. If you’re producing a series and you constantly deliver over budget and after deadline, you’re gonna get smacked, no matter how good you are. Maybe these changes could be good.

But whatever changes we see, we’ll be seeing them in two parts, as AMC announced today that the first seven episode half of Season 2 will air starting on October 16th, and the second, six episode backend will air starting in February 2012.  Take this as notice to expect a pretty big cliffhanger at the end of episode 7, and to probably ignore a Season 2, Part 1 DVD or Blu-Ray set (I mean, they’re already double dipping Season 1, for fuck’s sake).

But, it’s not all doom and gloom, as it was also announced that the first episode will be an extended 90 minute episode, just like the amazing opener to Season 1.

I think they can salvage this. Lets hope it’s true. Don’t let us down, AMC!