On the set of AMC’s new show ‘Walking Dead’

We watched one scene from the first episode during a sweltering Monday afternoon in Grant Park right by the Atlanta Zoo. (You could faintly hear the lions.) The lead actor Andrew Lincoln plays cop Rick Grimes, who had just woken up from a coma and discovered the world had become populated with zombies. He arrives in his neighborhood and gets whacked in the head by a kid wielding a shovel. "I got the son of a bitch," the kid tells his dad, thinking he got a zombie. "I'm going to strike him dead!" Grimes does not die, of course. He's the lead character!

AMC signed on for a modest six episodes, which executive producer Frank Darabont ("Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile") told reporters today was more manageable than the usual 10 or 13.

“There’s a learning curve,” he said. “We’re getting the half measure to start. If I had to do 13, I’d be feeling a little overwhelmed. ”

The show began shooting in metro Atlanta on June 2 and will wrap in mid August. It’s set to debut in October.

This past weekend, “Walking Dead” shot in downtown Atlanta with a tank and dozens of zombies. Photos they previewed to us look pretty gruesome – in a good, horror-style way. They even had a “training school” for zombies, as this video shows:

On Tuesday, AMC released this photo of Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, the lead character: