AMC
Saul Goodman a.k.a.
Jimmy McGill, a.k.a.
Gene Takavic is a survivor.
Bryan Cranston (left) and Bob Odenkirk in ‘Breaking Bad’.Credit:AMC
(“Lalo didn’t send you?")
Check out the exclusive excerpt below.
Did you expect the character to have any legs?
‘Saul Goodman V. Jimmy McGill: The Complete Critical Companion to Better Call Saul’ by Alan Sepinwall.Abrams Press
Or was he someone who would maybe be around for only half a season?
We thought that Walt and Jesse were going to be working for Tuco.
And now, theyre out on their own.
Bob Odenkirk and Matt Jones in ‘Breaking Bad’.AMC
And one of the basic problems was, what happens if one of your guys gets arrested?
So, of course, weve already got Badger.
And, the thought was, Who would be the lawyer here?
Bob Odenkirk and Michael McKean in ‘Better Call Saul’.Ursula Coyote/AMC
And, at this point Ill speak for myself I didnt fully understand the tone of the show.
I dont think anybody understood it except for Vince.
I think this was Vince feeling out what the show was going to be going forward.
So we came up with this idea of this character.
There were all kinds of crazy pitches like that.
And we were just having fun with the character.
And I remember, Vince came in with the name Saul Good.
And then, one of the other writers said, Saul Goodman.
And then, one of the writers said, What about LWYRUP as a license plate?
And so, these started clinging to each other right away.
Really, his creation was all in service of Walts story.
We werent thinking, Heres an independent character whos going to have a life of his own.
We thought, How does this serve Walts story?
And how is he different from the other characters weve seen?
Hes not violent, obviously.
Did we think he was going to have a future?
Well, Ill tell you, personally, as I was writing the episode, I got very nervous.
Grounded in its own way, lets put it that way.
Could we start again and come up with a different story for this episode?
And Vince said, No.
He was strongly advocating for the script and for the character.
But that was probably the most stressful season of either show, for me, anyway.
I lost a lot of sleep over it.
Theres actually a scene in that episode between Hank and Walt, where Hank talks about his insomnia.
And thats literally lifted from what was going on in my life at that moment.
Although, I had not shot Tuco.
So, I was nervous about letting everybody down, especially Vince.
How did you come to Bob?
Were you looking at a bunch of different people?
Were you primarily considering comedians?
There were a few ideas that were thrown around.
My wife actually made a list for me.
I was telling her about the character and she made a list.
So, again, alternate universe.
Vince and I get on the phone with Bob and Bob says, I know the shows great.
I dont think he would admit he hadnt watched it at that point like most people.
And, he said, How can I do that?
Im not Jewish at all.
Bob was always polite and very nice about it.
But I didnt know if he was going to do it or not.
I remember Bob coming up to me during the shooting of that first episode.
He said, You guys are going to kill me off pretty fast, right?
And I said, Bob, we built this whole set thats your office.
I think you might be around for a little bit.
Because we didnt have the money to build sets that we werent going to keep using.
[With the spin-off ], it was a gradual thing.
I really restrained myself from thinking about it too much, because it seemed too good to be true.
So I didnt want to press my luck.
And I said, Absolutely.
And there were a lot of really special people in that room.
And I didnt feel like I was any more special than anybody else.
So the fact that Vince wanted to work with me on this, it meant an awful lot.
And the fact that we created the character together obviously had played into that.
But even during that final season, we would pitch Saul Goodman getting killed.
And, if it had been the right move forBreaking Bad, we wouldve killed that character.
We wouldve done it in a New York minute.
We wouldve done it right away.
But then, in post, that was when Vince and I started talking more seriously about it.
Hence, Hank kills Tuco.
Excerpt from the new bookSaul Goodman V. Jimmy McGillby Alan Sepinwall published by Abrams Press 2025 Alan Sepinwall
