One of the key figures behind Breaking Bad has revealed that a network executive asked to cut the character of Saul Goodman from the show.
Introduced in the second season of the hit AMC crime drama, Saul (Bob Odenkirk) was an unscrupulous but smooth-talking lawyer who teams up with up-and-coming meth cooks Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul).
The character, and Odenkirk’s performance, proved immediately popular among fans and critics, and Odenkirk would go on to reprise the role in the highly acclaimed spin-off, Better Call Saul.
In a new book about the making of the show, Saul Goodman V Jimmy McGill by TV critic Alan Sepinwall, writer Peter Gould recalled the initial reaction to the character among the network executives.
In an extract by Entertainment Weekly, Gould recalled: “As I was writing the episode, I got very nervous.
“I got scared, because I was worried that we were going to break the show by making a character that was too silly – that he was going to be just too big for what I thought was a very grounded show. Grounded in its own way, let’s put it that way.”
This fear was then “enhanced” in a first “notes call” with one of the network executives, who Gould declines to name.
“[Series creator Vince Gilligan] and I were on a conference call, and the question came up, basically, ‘We don’t like this character. Could we start again and come up with a different story for this episode?’” he revealed.
“And Vince said, ‘No.’ He was strongly advocating for the script and for the character. And, to their credit, the person or persons on the call backed down, because they had to trust Vince. But, you can think about what an alternative universe would be where we had had to throw that episode out.”
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Describing the process that led to Odenkirk’s casting, Gould revealed that the Mr Show star had been the first choice.
Breaking Bad ran for five season between 2008 and 2013. The series won 16 Emmys throughout its run, and is often listed among the greatest TV shows ever made.
Better Call Saul took place both before and after the events of Breaking Bad, and followed Saul Goodman in his old life as aspiring lawyer Jimmy McGill.
