AMC Greenlights Kevin Smith Reality Series, Supersizes 'Walking Dead' Premiere

AMC has greenlighted 2 unscripted series, Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash and JJK Security, about a private security firm. Additionally, the network announced that, just like Season 1 did, the second season of The Walking Dead will launch with a 90-minute premiere episode. It will once again kick off AMC’s two-week long Fearfest on Sunday, Oct, 16. The 13-episode second season will be split in 2: 7 episodes airing in the fall and the remaining 6 launching Feb. 12.

Secret Stash, executive produced by Kevin Smith, Charlie Corwin’s Original Media and Elyse Seiden (Red State), is set in Smith’s iconic comic shop Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. AMC has ordered 6 hourlong episodes of the series, which aims to capture the world of the neighborhood comic book store and fanboy culture, for a 1Q 2012 launch. “Draper.  Meth.  Zombies.  This show couldn’t be on a better network,” said Smith, referring to AMC’s flagship dramas Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead.  “AMC is to television what Miramax was to cinema back when I first got in the game: they’re the premier destination for any story-teller looking to spin an offbeat yarn that no other outlet has the stones to touch. And as if I didn’t love them enough, now they’re putting my friends on TV!  I’m ecstatic, proud, and extremely lucky to be in bed with a network I watch religiously anyway.  And if they’d pushed just a little harder in the negotiations, I’d have done this show for no payment beyond early access to every episode of Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Walking Dead.”

JJK Security, executive produced by Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver from Left/Right (This American Life), revolves around the slightly off-kilter characters who work at a small, family-owned private security company in rural Georgia – a one-stop shop for services that range from private investigations to personal protection to neighborhood patrols, and everything in between. AMC has ordered 8 half-hour episodes of the series, which is looking to bring to the reality genre the sensibility of the Coen Brothers, Christopher Guest and Robert Altman movies. Launch is slated for 3Q, 2012.