On Sept. 14, AMC launchedThe Walking DeadFan Rewards Club.

This is a novel, intriguing concept.

Its also not one were used to seeing on television.

What AMC has done withThe Walking Deadis finally bridge the gap between corporate speak and geek speak.

Words like fan and consumer often mean the same thing.

IfLostrepresents the time thatfandom culture went mainstream,The Walking Deadrepresents the time that fandom culture went corporate.

I understand there is a rough connotation that comes along with the phrase corporate.

Hell, going corporate is not often a phrase someone uses to celebrate something.

The show has its struggles and certainly wont be compared to Picassos Guernica anytime soon, but itisart.

The fandom around it, however, has been incorporated under the AMC corporate umbrella in fascinating ways.

Swords and shields dominate premium cable in the form ofGame of Thrones.

Step one is to create something good.

AMC could not have possibly knocked the ball further out of the park.

It didnt take long forThe Walking Deadto develop a legitimate and vibrant fan community.

Youve likely gone to one too if you consider yourself a fan of the show.

And by the end of season one, thats exactly whatThe Walking Deadhad.

The Walking Deadsubredditcurrently has more than 401,000 registered users ready to discuss the show.

Compare that to some other fandom-friendly offerings.

Seriously, the things a monster.

Again, that has a negative connotation, but I mean that in purely morally neutral terms.

Theyre just savvy business folk and they know how to vertically integrate.

Here is TVs most savvy businessman, Jack Donaghy, explaining what vertical integration is.

In hindsight, its kind of weird that we didnt make a bigger deal ofThe Talking Deads existence.

The fact that AMC decided to get in on the chatter is rather ingenious.

The Talking Deadalso debuted far earlier than you remember.

AMC launched the Chris Hardwick-hosted post-episode talk show at the beginning of season 2.

The show is really just AMCs opportunity to monopolize more ofWalking Deadfans time and attention.

WithThe Talking Dead, however, theyre able to keep not only viewership but also conversation going.

That leads to another interesting aspect of the shows fandom.

There are potential mitigating factors for this.

Or maybe this is a result of the shows recent creative struggles.

There is one final way in which AMC interacts with the showsfandom and treats them as consumers.

The Walking Deadhas gone through some major creative and personnel changes throughout the years.

There are many potential reasons for Darabonts departure.

AMC alleges that Darabont was erratic and difficult to deal with behind the scenes.

Darabont alleges that the web connection was unwilling to give him creative freedom or an adequate budget.

Regardless of the reasoning, Darabont was jettisoned and Glen Mazarra took over.

Mazarras version of the show happened to hew more closely to the original comic source material.

Comic characters like Michonne and Tyreese were introduced and the characters came to settle at the infamous prison setting.

Then Mazarra left and writer Scott Gimple took over.

Its impossible to know the true reasoning behind both Darabont and Mazarras exits.

We could read absolutely nothing into that, if we wanted.

The comics are very good and perhaps each subsequent showrunner has realized that to be the case.

We were able to look at the feedback on the level of violence.

The season finale will be a conclusion that promises an epic story ahead.

Its about setting up season eight but also beyond,he said.

Even the stars got involved with the apologies.

Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) toldEntertainment Weekly:

I was saying that about the first half.

I think part of that chatter youre talking about came from me.

But you know, its true: You cant make everybody happy about everything.

So I know that everybody felt it.

In some respects, that is actually good news.

On the other hand, AMC has put great effort into bringing fans entirely into theirumbrella.

Its not out of the goodness of their nerd-loving hearts, of course.

There is gold to be found in them fandom hills.