Days Gone Bye

"Days Gone Bye" is the first episode of the first season of AMC's The Walking Dead. It is the first episode of the series overall. It premiered on October 31, 2010. It was written and directed by Frank Darabont.

Plot
Rick searches for his family after emerging from a coma into a world terrorized by the walking dead. Morgan and Duane, whom he meets along the way, help teach Rick the new rules for survival.

Co-Stars
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 * Jim Coleman as Lambert Kendal
 * Linds Edwards as Leon Basset
 * Keisha Tillis as Jenny Jones
 * Adrian Kali Turner as Duane Jones

Uncredited

 * Melissa Cowan as Hannah
 * Addy Miller as Summer
 * Blade as Siggard's Horse
 * Tommie Mack Turvey as Criminal 1
 * Chick Bernhardt as Criminal 2
 * Brent Bernhard as Criminal 3
 * Orlando Vargas as Camp Survivor
 * L. Stephanie Ray as Camp Survivor
 * Frances Cobb as Camp Survivor
 * Jan Taylor as Camp Survivor
 * Sam Witwer as Tank Walker
 * Joe Giles as Atlanta Suited Walker
 * Mike Kasiske as Black Suited Walker
 * Max Calder as Baseball Bat Walker
 * Brian Stretch as Tank Walker
 * Charles Casey as Walker
 * Cody Rowlett as Walker
 * Kristen Sanchez as Walker
 * Sonya Thompson as Walker
 * Larry Mainland as Walker
 * Steve Warren as Walker
 * Gary Whitta as Pajama Walker
 * Joe Hernandez as Walker Under Tank
 * Shannon Brinson as Female Gas Station Walker
 * Michelle Flanagan-Helmeczy as Walker
 * Jack Byrd as Walker
 * Charlie Adlard, Travis Charpentier, Erin Leigh Bushko, Carl Cunningham, Jevocas Green, Alexyz Danine Kemp, Ryan Kightlinger, Derrick McLeod, Christoph Vogt, Scott M. Yaffee, Tony Gowell, Scott McPherson, Marty Brotzge, Tyler Capehart, Chance Bartels, Stephen M. Phillips, Taso N. Stavrakis as Walkers
 * }
 * }

Deaths

 * Summer (Zombified)
 * Jenny Jones (Alive, Confirmed Fate)
 * Leon Basset (Alive, Confirmed Fate; Zombified)
 * Hannah (Zombified)
 * Mr. Siggard (Confirmed Fate)
 * Mrs. Siggard (Confirmed Fate)
 * Siggard's Horse
 * 3 unnamed criminals
 * 1 unnamed cat (Confirmed Fate)

Trivia

 * First appearance of Rick Grimes.
 * First appearance of Shane Walsh.
 * First appearance of Morgan Jones.
 * First appearance of Dale Horvath.
 * First appearance of Amy.
 * First appearance of Lori Grimes.
 * First appearance of Carl Grimes.
 * First appearance of Niall Ross.
 * First appearance of Glenn Rhee. (Voice Only)
 * First (and last) appearance of Summer. (Zombified)
 * First (and last) appearance of Lambert Kendal. (Unknown)
 * First (and last) appearance of Leon Basset. (Alive and Zombified)
 * First (and last) appearance of Jenny Jones. (Zombified)
 * First (and last) appearance of Duane Jones. (Alive)
 * First (and last) appearance of Mr. Siggard. (Corpse)
 * First (and last) appearance of Mrs. Siggard. (Corpse)
 * First (and last) appearance of Siggard's Horse. (Alive)
 * First (and last) appearance of Hannah. (Zombified)
 * This episode is 90 minutes long, according to AMC's schedule.
 * The title of the episode, "Days Gone Bye", refers to the fact that many days have passed since Rick has been in a coma and that the old days before the outbreak are gone forever.
 * It's also a reference to Volume 1: Days Gone Bye of the Comic Series.
 * This is the first episode to share the same title of a Comic Series volume. The others being "Made to Suffer", "This Sorrowful Life", "Too Far Gone", "No Way Out", "A New Beginning" and "What Comes After".
 * This episode, along with "No Way Out" and "A New Beginning" are the only episodes to be directly adapted from the respective comic volumes of the same name. The other four used the titles for episodes that are not directly related to the source material from that volume.
 * Rick's awakening in the hospital room with no recollection of prior events is very similar to the opening of 28 Days Later, a British horror film released in November of 2002 in the United Kingdom, nearly two years prior to the comics' Issue 1's publication and eight years before the TV adaptation.
 * As Rick wakes up from his coma, he looks at the clock which reads 2:17, which is the same time seen on the clock when explosions are heard from the same room in "TS-19".
 * According to the first commentary track, 217 is a nod to Stephen King's novel "The Shining".
 * It was revealed by Darabont that the pilot was supposed to be two hours long, but the script was split into two episodes instead.[1]
 * The walker that Rick encounters in the tank at the end of the episode was portrayed by Sam Witwer. The original intention was to have a prologue in Season 2 which shows how Atlanta fell, how Witwer's character died in the tank and how Dale rescued Andrea and Amy amidst the chaos.
 * This never materialized since Darabont was fired from the show.
 * In a deleted scene, when Rick goes through the gas station at the beginning of the episode, the walkers from the abandoned cars were supposed to chase him.[2]
 * The tank that Rick climbs into is an obsolete British Chieftain, which was never used by the U.S. Military, visually modified to represent an M-1 Abrams, a common model used for films.
 * It's possible that the producers chose the Chieftain because it has a hatch on the underside of the hull, which the Abrams does not.
 * The abandoned UH-1 "Huey" helicopter is marked with the insignia of the 7th Squadron, 1st Air Cavalry Regiment, which was deactivated in 1976.
 * The song that plays at the end of the episode, as the camera pulls back from the tank to reveal the street covered in walkers, is Space Junk by Wang Chung.
 * Rick's home in fictional King County, Georgia is actually a house located directly across the street from Zoo Atlanta. In fact, when Rick exits the house, you can just see one of the zoo buildings through the trees on the other side of the street.
 * According to the first commentary track, King County is a nod to Stephen King's name.
 * Many of it's locations were used for the movie "The Blind Side", which features IronE Singleton(T-Dog).
 * The production took over "13 square blocks of downtown Atlanta" for the sequences shot in the city.[3]
 * When Rick wakes up in the hospital bed, and the circumstances he is in are unknown, it's similar to when Beth Greene wakes up in Grady Memorial Hospital in "Slabtown".

Comic Parallels

 * Rick waking up from a coma after being shot by a criminal on the line of duty is adapted from Issue 1.
 * Rick meeting Morgan and Duane in his neighboorhood is adapted from Issue 1.
 * Morgan explaining to Rick the events of the outbreak during his coma is adapted from Issue 1.
 * Rick taking a bag of guns from his police armory and giving a few to Morgan for protection is adapted from Issue 1.
 * Rick putting down Bicycle girl is adapted from Issue 1.
 * Rick discovering the corpses of a couple who committed suicide at a farmhouse, as well as a horse in the barn, is adapted from Issue 2.
 * Rick arriving at a desolated Atlanta by horse is adapted from Issue 2.
 * A herd of walkers surrounding Rick and devouring his horse is adapted from Issue 2.