‘Sons of Anarchy’: Kurt Sutter talks ‘Walking Dead’ comments, ‘Mad Men,’ and AMC

If you have a good 22 minutes or so of your day open and you want to hear an extremely fascinating discussion of the creative process and how that relates to showrunners and television networks, we have the video for you. It’s intelligent, full of details about cable TV development, and it also features one of the most-opinionated men in the business explaining some recent comments that grabbed headlines all across the country.

We are talking here about “Sons of Anarchy” creator Kurt Sutter, who has created two new and rather lengthy videos explaining why he recently went off on AMC over their role in Glen Mazzara’s departure from “The Walking Dead” after helping the show reach new ratings highs in season 3. It is far more calm than his expletive-laden rant at the network the same day as Mazzara announced his exit, but it also contains much more insight.

We won’t get into every detail that is in the video below, but in general Sutter basically believes that AMC is being controlled by people who are not thinking creatively, and that eventually their continued attempts at undermining showrunners is going to end up causing many of their programs to suffer in the end. He blames the network for “Breaking Bad” ending this coming summer despite getting more and more viewers every season, and he also apologizes to “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, who he claims that he understands more now that he realizes just what happens at the network behind the scenes. (He had originally taken a stand against Weiner for basically forcing his show to shut down production on season 5 until he received a new deal.)

As for creator of “The Walking Dead” in Robert Kirkman (who recently suggested that Sutter should not speak out on issues he knows nothing about), Kurt reiterates his stance that while he is a brilliant artist, he is inexperienced in the world of television and his desire to have his vision recreated on screen has made it even more difficult for Mazzara (and before him Frank Darabont) to do their jobs.

Sutter says in the video that he has learned over time how to get the media’s attention on a certain level, and that he perceives this as a good thing regardless of whether or not they write positive or negative things since it keeps “Sons of Anarchy” in the spotlight. In that regard, he is certainly right; after all, we are talking about his show now, and the writing process for season 6 has yet to even begin.

What do you think about these videos? If you want to see another video showing Sutter look back at “Sons of Anarchy” season 5, be sure to head on over to the link here.

Photo: FX