AMC’s towering stack of honors is the payoff for one of the biggest, boldest bets in television: giving its show runners the kind of creative freedom most networks would never consider.
The channel once known for frequently airing the ultimate triumph of auteur filmmaking – "The Godfather" films – thrives today on auteur TV. Its bounty of recognition includes five more Golden Globes nominations Tuesday.
Matthew Weiner’s “Mad Men” is about a mercurial advertising mastermind; Vince Gilligan’s “Breaking Bad” follows a terminally ill teacher who cooks meth to feed his family; and Frank Darabont’s “The Walking Dead” centers on a cop who leads a band of zombie-apocalypse holdouts.
Each of these show runners, like his protagonist, has seized the chance to go his own way.
“It’s changed my life, working for this network, because it’s allowed me to tell the type of stories I’ve never been allowed to tell elsewhere,” Gilligan (left, with stars Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston) told TheWrap. “That ballsy-ness and that freshness of vision has really changed my professional life. I can’t speak highly enough of them.”
Also read: "Breaking Bad," "Simpsons," "Glee," "30 Rock" Lead WGA Noms
Show runners hold the power over TV that directors do over films – which often isn’t much. Running a show can mean working with a vast network of writers, powerful stars, and executive bean-counters to produce storytelling by consensus.
But AMC has prevented such dumbing down – as Gilligan puts it, the urge to "file down the sharp edges."
Of course, the auteur model carries risks. At its best, it produces "The Godfather." At its worst, it enables rampant pretentiousness and puts too much weight on one person.
What if a show runner flips out, as “Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola did on “Apocalypse Now” (before it became one of the greatest films of all time)? Or a show runner leaves, as fans of “Mad Men” feared Weiner (below, right) would during a contract dispute two years ago?
“We can’t do the show without Matthew,” star Jon Hamm said at the time. “Of course, you ‘can’ do it, but you know you can’t.”
Lionsgate, which produces the show, came to terms with Weiner, whose negotiating position was aided by yet another big awards season.
“Mad Men” has won the Emmy and Golden Globe for best drama series for each of its first three years. “Breaking Bad” has earned lead actor Bryan Cranston three best actor Emmys in a row. “The Walking Dead” just earned its first Golden Globe nod for best drama (as did "Mad Men"). The zombie drama is the network’s breakout hit, drawing its biggest ratings ever and breaking records in the 18-49 demo for a basic cable drama.
And this is a very abbreviated list of the network’s successes.
“One of the early visions we had was to create an environment where people on every side of the camera would bring us their passion projects,” says Charles Collier, AMC’s president.
