Better Call Saul was supposed to be a joke: How Breaking Bad creators turned a throwaway idea into a cult classic show

While it is rare for a spin-off series to recreate the magic of the parent series, Better Call Saul is certainly an exception.

Born out of Breaking Bad's groundbreaking success and popularity, the prequel spin-off series explored the origins of Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) before the parent series, when he was still an aspiring lawyer, Jimmy McGill.

Bob Odenkirk left his mark on creator Vance Gilligan and producer Peter Gould when he was cast as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad Season 2. Throughout the show, he acts as consigliere for the methamphetamine cooks Walter White and Jesse Pinkman and legally helps them build their drug empire.

Breaking Bad's success eventually paved the way for Better Call Saul, which explored Goodman's origins as an aspiring lawyer and his moral deterioration over the years.

While it's hard to believe, the idea for Better Call Saul initially started as a joke in the Breaking Bad writers' room, which was eventually shaped into a cult classic show.

More on this in our story.

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Better Call Saul: How did the Breaking Bad creators turn a joke into a classic show?

Starting as a Breaking Bad prequel spin-off series, Better Call Saul had a lot of pressure, which it handled well and became a critical success, much like its predecessor.

However, it's shocking to learn that the spin-off series actually started as a joke in the writers' room, initiated by none other than Gilligan and Gould.

In an interview with Uproxx, Gilligan revealed that Saul Goodman's origin story was initially just a throwaway idea:

''It started as a joke. It really did.''

He added:

''We’d come up with some great term or phrase and we’d laugh about it in the writer’s room. And then we’d say, 'You know, when we’re doing the Saul Goodman show we’ll be able to blah, blah, blah, blah.' And we made that comment so many times that it started to dawn on us that it wasn’t a lark; there was truth to it. It was not just a joke, but a potentially good idea.''

While the 'Saul Goodman show' was initially a way for Breaking Bad's writers' room to throw away story ideas, the idea eventually started to take form, and the rest is history.

It was also revealed that Odenkirk was initially cast as a guest star for only four episodes. Saul Goodman would have given some much-needed legal advice to Walter White and Jesse Pinkman on their drug business and would have moved out of the show.

However, both Gilligan and Gould were impressed by Odenkirk's acting, and people responded positively to his character, which further paved the way for Better Call Saul.

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Better Call Saul was initially perceived as a half-hour sitcom

Since Better Call Saul is equally intense in its storyline as Breaking Bad, it's hard to believe that the show was initially perceived as a comedy.

After Gilligan and Gould were confident that they would create a show around Saul Goodman, and they discussed this idea with Sony and AMC, they struggled with the concept, as Gilligan discussed:

''Peter and I are thinking, 'What does this thing look like? Is it a half-hour long? Is it an hour long? Is it a flat out comedy? Is it some legal version of ‘Dr. Katz' where, what’s the name of that show?'''

After struggling for a while, they decided on a comedy series where Saul Goodman would provide legal advice to different comedians, and that Better Call Saul would have looked entirely different.

However, both Gilligan and Gould decided that they were not comfortable with comedy, and the prequel spin-off series started to take form, as Gould revealed:

''A lot of the challenge with figuring out what the show was figuring out Saul. Vince has this phrase I really like it’s, “What’s the itch he can’t scratch?”

While the creators certainly had their ups and downs with the Saul Goodman show, the spin-off series is now considered a cult classic, much like Breaking Bad.

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Also Read: Breaking Bad: This one line proves that Walter White never really broke bad