Bob Odenkirk in ‘Breaking Bad’.Photo:AMC
AMC
Walter Whitecame awfully close to never calling Saul.
Bob Odenkirk’s flashy, less-than-scrupulous lawyer Saul Goodman (a.k.a. Jimmy McGill) became one of the most memorable characters inBreaking Bad, going on to star in his own Emmy-nominated prequel series,Better Call Saul.
But according toBreaking Badproducer andBetter Call Saulco-creator Peter Gould, the character almost never made it onto the screen.
Bob Odenkirk in ‘Breaking Bad’ in 2009.AMC
Gould wrote “Better Call Saul,” the episode ofBreaking Bad’s second season in which Odenkirk’s character made his debut. But even then, he tells Sepinwall, he wasn’t sure Saul would have a future.
Bob Odenkirk and Peter Gould in 2023.Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
“My fear was actually enhanced when we had our first notes call with an executive who will remain nameless,” Gould recalls. “[Breaking Badcreator 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?’ ”
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Gould explained that Gilligan refused to scrap “Better Call Saul,” and the unnamed network exec 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,” Gould says.
Bob Odenkirk in ‘Better Call Saul’ in 2020.Greg LewisSony/AMC/Netflix/Kobal/Shutterstock
Rather than ending up on the scrap heap, Saul quickly became an integral part ofBreaking Bad. Odenkirk was promoted to series regular for the show’s third season, and continued to appear in the show until its 2013 finale. Gilligan and Gould were considering a spin-off for the character well beforeBreaking Badended, and in 2013,Better Call Saulpremiered with Odenkirk starring. The series served as both an origin story for Saul, examining his early years as a lawyer and his gradual corruption, and a continuation of the character’s story following the events ofBreaking Bad.
Odenkirk was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and six Emmys for his performance in the series, which wrapped up in 2022.
source: people.com
