A new book by Alan Sepinwal titledSaul Goodman V. Jimmy McGill: The Complete Critical Companion to Better Call Saulrevealed that creator Vince Gilligan faced a shocking request from an AMC executive.
It was to cut the shady lawyer Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad. Peter Gould, one of the writers at the mega-hit show, claimed this in a chat with the author of the book.
He recalled during the writing forBreaking Badseason 2, an AMC executive asked the showrunner to drop the character.
"Well, I'll tell you, personally, 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," he recounted.
"Grounded in its own way, let's put it that way. And, my fear was actually enhanced when we had our first notes call with an executive who will remain nameless. Vince 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?" the writer continued.
But Vince defended Saul Goodman's addition. "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 thatepisodeout," Peter concluded.