I actually enjoy watching the zombies demolish Collinwood. I don't know why; there's just something about that sequence that rings my chimes (as we used to say in the early Bronze Age when the show originally aired). It was an impossible scene to stage, particularly given that the sets slated to be "destroyed" were going to be needed, probably for the very next day's taping, so I thought what the productiion crew came up with was actually rather imaginative.
As I stated before, I've always been a zombiephile, as much as I'm a vampirephile. When
Night of the Living Dead came out, I so wanted to see that movie, but my mom wouldn't let me, including through several releases. The Roger Ebert article (who actually loved the movie) had gone pre-internet "viral" and ended up in the
Reader's Digest, chastising the lack of control over ratings when he saw small children at a matinee who were traumatized (and helped lead to the current maturity ratings we now have for movies). That convinced her not to allow me to see it. I finally did, in my high-school years in the early seventies, at a midnight showing.
So, I loved the zombie decimation of Collinwood (in my pre-seeing NotLD years). I loved seeing them tear the place apart (including the "blooper" where one zombie tosses a piece of cloth on another zombie's head - the latter zombie just ripped it off and kept right on decimating). But it would've been even better if we had seen more characters. I could picture Liz, feeling angst and guilt after someone had taken control of her, barricading herself and David and Hallie in a room as the things pounded down the door. They could cut away after that if the results would've been too horrifying. And also have Carolyn and Quentin, also in guilt and angst, watching it all before escaping.......and escaping into madness. It would've been great.
But that still doesn't answer the question I asked before: what happened afterwards, including to the zombies? Were they still prowling about? Did they collapse after you-know-who sent them on the rampage? Did the sheriff and his officers dispatch them with a bullet to the head? Did they end up working for the IRS? What? They could've done a few scenes or episodes, interspliced with Julia's escape to you-know-where, showing why Collinwood became such a place of terror to the populace and what had happened to Carolyn and Quentin. Both went macadamian, and watching how they were treated and whatelse erstwhile happened to them would've been a treat.
Gerard