Few television spin-offs have earned the same level of acclaim as ‘Better Call Saul’. What began as the story of ‘Breaking Bad‘s flashy criminal lawyer evolved into a six-season character study that many fans believe matched, or even surpassed, its predecessor.
What makes the show’s success even more remarkable is that Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould never set out with a grand plan for Saul Goodman. Years before Jimmy McGill‘s tragic journey reached television screens, the idea existed as nothing more than a running joke inside the ‘Breaking Bad’ writers’ room.
A Writers’ Room Joke in ‘Breaking Bad’ Slowly Turned Into A Real TV Series
As ‘Breaking Bad’ grew darker with each season, the writers found themselves relying on humor to balance the emotionally heavy material they worked on every day. Looking back in a 2022 interview with Collider, co-creator Peter Gould explained that the increasingly bleak story had the opposite effect behind the scenes.
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Gould said “the darker the show got, the bleaker, more cancerous and death-y it got, the more giddy we got in the room,” describing the habit as “a sort of pendulum effect.” Whenever someone pitched an idea that felt too funny or too ridiculous for Walter White’s story, the team would jokingly say they should save it for a hypothetical Saul Goodman spin-off instead.
The joke wasn’t limited to the writers’ room. Bob Odenkirk later recalled that crew members embraced it as well because Saul Goodman was such an over-the-top character. During the filming of his very first ‘Breaking Bad’ episode, people would jokingly yell, “Save it for the spin-off,” or remind everyone not to damage Saul’s office because they would need it later.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Gilligan said the joke eventually stopped feeling like a joke. He admitted that they mentioned the idea so often that they started wondering whether they should actually make it. By the time ‘Breaking Bad’ ended, Gilligan and Gould had officially pitched the series to Sony and AMC.
The ‘Better Call Saul’ Creators Originally Thought It Would Be A Sitcom
Even after the project received the green light, Gilligan and Gould hadn’t settled on what kind of show ‘Better Call Saul’ would become. Gilligan later admitted they sold the series without fully knowing its format and initially imagined it as a half-hour comedy rather than an hour-long drama.
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They even discussed making a legal sitcom inspired by ‘Dr. Katz’, with a different comedian appearing each week as one of Saul Goodman’s clients. But the more they explored the character, the more interested they became in the man hiding behind the loud suits, fake confidence, and comb-over.
That shift transformed the series into the story of Jimmy McGill, an ambitious lawyer constantly struggling between doing the right thing and taking the easier path. Instead of delivering a straightforward comedy, ‘Better Call Saul’ became a slow-burning tragedy that charted one of television’s most compelling moral declines.
Ironically, the spin-off itself began with another joke. Gould recalled that when Odenkirk first appeared on ‘Breaking Bad’, the actor assumed Saul Goodman would be killed off quickly because he seemed like a disposable character. Gould jokingly replied that the production had spent too much money building Saul’s office set to use it for only one episode. Years later, that offhand remark proved surprisingly prophetic as the character went on to headline one of television’s most celebrated prequels.
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