Spin Off From The Herschel Thread...

If Dale had not chosen to leave when Darabont did, would Herschel still be around for the prison? Would he have another role to play? He has medical training so there are many ways that he's an asset w/o being the cool headed advisor. This kinda spans S2 and S3 so I hope it's OK to put it in the S3 forum. If not, move it over to S2 please.

Good point. No. I think he would have died for Maggie/Beth's developement.

I think if Dale would have stayed in, Hershel would be dead by now. He basically took over for him.

I think he'd have either a) died in the finale of season 2 which is the more likely option or stayed around being the medic of the group and he'd have died early on in Season 3

Admittedly, though, as much as I liked Dale, I much prefer Hershel.. I have enjoyed his presence a lot and his being the voice of reason, while Dale's constant shocked face, his mind reading skills and his ranting about morality got slightly annoying at points. And Scott Wilson is just one hell of an actor, I tell you. DeMunn did an amazing job, too, but it's just... Scott Wilson, man.

Yeah, I agree w/ all three of you. Herschel would be a goner. I never 'hated' Dale but it did irritate me that he didn't come clean w/ Rick about Shane killing Otis directly or about the gun pointed at Rick's back S1. Herschel would have spilled and maybe made Rick keep a closer eye out for Shane's unravelling at least.

And both are good actors but Herschel's character is far less annoying so I'm glad Dale bit it. Just wish it had been via Shane, rather than a walker.

I think that I've Jeff DeMunn (Dale) did not choose to leave the show, both he and Hershel would still be here. Dale minus one leg of course. That being said, I would then expect Hershel to Dale would then live on to fulfill his role in the fear the hunters arc.

I'm pretty certain Hershel was initially going to be killed off during the finale, but Mazzara did a u-turn after Jeff decided to leave, thus meaning he acquired Dale's story instead. I wish Dale was still around but I've loved Hershel more and more since he snapped out of it and realised the dead aren't gracious.

I remember Glen Mazzara saying that Dale was originally supposed to find Hershel's body in the field rather than a cow. Maybe that means that Dale would have survived past that scene while Hershel had been the one killed. Scott Wilson (Hershel) confirmed this in interviews too, saying he had already been told he was going to be killed off, but then seeing he actually survives after getting the scripts. As has been said, Dale's actor had actually wanted to quit the show, so maybe they reworked that scene to have Dale killed instead.

I think it actually worked out for the better this way, since Dale's death was more shocking than if it had been Hershel. I think more people seem to like Hershel better than Dale, as well.

actually it was suppoused to be jimmys body instead of the cow.

actually it was suppoused to be jimmys body instead of the cow.

Oh yeah, that's right, my bad. But I do know Scott Wilson was told he'd be killed off, and that Randall was supposed to have escaped and killed him. They said they scratched that idea later on because it "didn't advance the story."