This morning, I was among a group of journalists who saw an advance screening of the Season 2 premiere of The Walking Dead . And while an actual review is embargoed until closer to the premiere, I can say it's a strong episode that definitely had me very anxious and excited to see what comes next.

Of course The Walking Dead enters Season 2 with a lot of behind-the-scenes drama, as the man who was the driving force behind the series – showrunner Frank Darabont – abruptly departed mid-way through production, among reports he was fired After the screening there was a Q&A with several Walking Dead executive producers -- Gale Anne Hurd , David Alpert, Robert Kirkman and Glen Mazzara --- and as you might imagine, the departure of Darabont was a subject of great interest to all of us in attendance. Darabont's replacement as showrunner is Mazzara, who wrote one episode of Season 1 of The Walking Dead ("Wildfire"), before joining the series full time in Season 2.Speaking about the transition, Mazzara -- a veteran of The Shield -- remarked, "I came over to be Frank's number two. I believe in Frank. Frank's a talented individual. I think he's a terrific guy who was a mensch to me in everything and I really loved working with him. And we all did a lot of work on plotting this season under Frank and I think part of the reason we've had such a smooth transition is that it's a fully articulated world, both coming from the comic and what Frank's been able to put on screen – what everyone here has been able to put on screen. Again, I was just a freelancer last year. I think there's been all this concern that I'm gonna f**k up the show and all of this stuff and really, we're just trying to get it done. I think this is consistent with the material that we did last year. I think like with any second season, you work out the bugs. You kind of try to improve. You find what you can do. What you're seeing is the usual growth of any TV show, creatively, from what we're showing today. So I think there's no plan to deviate from what we've worked out. There's no different vision for the show. It's just let's make the greatest show that we can. We started off strong. The show came roaring out of the gate. Let's just continue on that path."Both Mazzara and Gale Anne Hurd had a lot of praise for the entire Walking Dead writers room, with Hurd saying, "Robert [Kirkman] and Glen are obviously the leaders of the pack, but we have such a terrific team. They're all really strong. " Said Mazzara, "It's a great staff. Everybody gets it. Everybody's passionate about the material. Everyone's arguing all the time on how to make it better." He added with a laugh, "It's hard getting home late at night and getting five pages of notes on something that's already good, you know, but the writers really are fully, fully invested and all of those writers signed on under Frank. Everybody came over to do the show that Frank had done. So again, it's been a smooth transition I think because we've all bought into what was already there."I did ask the producers if they could comment on exactly what led to Darabont to leave, to which Mazzara replied, "I'll be fair. I don't want to talk about Frank's situation or AMC's situation. I don't want to get into that… Frank's still an executive producer on the show, but it would be innapropriate for me. I can talk about my experience - how much I care about the show. But I don't want to get into that, to be honest."The cast of The Walking Dead had always praised Darabont as a strong guiding force on the show, and Mazzara was asked how they handled the news of his departure. Said Mazzara, "Let me be honest – it was rough. I went in there when everything went down that week and I met with the cast and that was tough, because you know… It wasn't exactly this situation, but when I was on Crash there was a leadership change there and I was the guy who got that show up and running. So I know… it's painful. People are working on a show. You're working hard and stuff. And I realize that the cast… He's the big daddy figure. And they care about him. They're going on auditions and they're blowing gigs and stuff like that, and then suddenly the great Frank Darabont picks them and puts them on a hot show. So there's an emotional connection to Frank that they're never going to have to another writer/producer. They're just not.""So now I'm in a situation where I have to take over and try and fill Frank's shoes. Well that's a dangerous situation. So I just spoke to them honestly about that and said that at some point there's going to be material that's written… Everything's been conceived but not everything has been written under Frank's direction. There's going to be scripts and material that's going to feel different. I think the show would be inauthentic if I tried to mimic Frank's voice. I'm not Frank Darabont. I shouldn't try to be. I think that would hurt the show. So I asked them, please, help keep me honest, keep the writers honest. Be collaborative. Let us know what you're responding to on an emotional level. And actors are obviously very emotional people and they may or may not like everything. And sometimes they have questions and you talk them through that kind of stuff. But I knew there would be a strong reaction. So I went in asking for their support."

Continue to Page 2 to see what the Walking Dead producers had to say about the reduced budget in Season 2.