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Initially commenced as a dark comedy, asBreaking Badprogressed, Vince Gilligan’s creation would cement itself as one of the best crime dramas in the medium. But while at the core, Walter White’s story can easily be associated with a tragedy, given his fall from grace, even in the latter seasons, the show maintained its comedic chops, especially with the character of Saul Goodman.
But following the release ofBetter Call Saul,which is on par if not better than its predecessor, it’s easy to see Saul as a tragic hero, as his Saul Goodman facade only served as his way of coping with the events ofBCS. However, per Gilligan and Peter Gould’s original plans, the spin-off was originally pitched as a sitcom.
Better Call SaulWas Originally Intended To Be 70% Comedy
While discussions regarding a Saul Goodman spin-off began very early into the lifespan ofBreaking Bad,Vince Gilliganrevealed that they initially planned it as a half-hour sitcom. Elaborating on their initial plans for the spin-off, which would become one of the most acclaimed dramas on TV,Peter Goulddetailed (viaAwards Daily) that they originally approached it as“70% comedy and 30% drama”, as opposed toBB‘s“70% drama and 30% comedy”.
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Moreover, Gould added he was more comfortable with making it an hour long instead, and expressed that one would be foolish to not incorporate any comedy elements withBob Odenkirkin the lead. But as the story goes, they weren’t quite successful in achieving those goals.
There was even talk at the beginning of doing the show as a single camera half hour. I was always more comfortable doing an hour because I have too much respect for comedy people to think that I can do that.
When Better Call Saul started off, the thing that we said to AMC and Sony was Breaking Bad was 70% drama and 30% comedy and Better Call Saul was gonna be 70% comedy and 30% drama. We were unable to achieve those ratios as anticipated
AlthoughBCSdoes have its fair share of hilarious moments, most stemming from Jimmy McGill’s unorthodox antics in the legal business, what we ended up getting was a crime drama of the highest caliber.
Vince Gilligan Hoped To Rip OffDr. KatzforBetter Call Saul
When Gilligan and his collaborators initially got Sony and AMC on board with the idea ofBCS, they weren’t exactly sure how to tackle it.Gilliganexplained they initially intended to rip off “Dr. Katz“, which would have seen Saul defending a peculiar comic figure each week.
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But with no experience in penning straight-up comedy, the idea was eventually scrapped in favor of a show more in line with its predecessor (viaEntertainment Weekly).
We sold it to Sony and AMC without knowing what it was. We thought it might be a half-hour sitcom. We thought about ripping off ‘Dr. Katz.’ Week in and week out famous comics would come in with their legal problems. But we knew nothing about writing straight-up comedy.
Even though the concept of Saul pulling off different shenanigans to defend his clients in a sitcom setting does sound peachy, given how much depthBCSadded to his character and theBBuniverse, fans certainly won’t complain.
Better Call Saulis available to stream on Netflix.
Santanu Roy
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2539
Santanu Roy is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on movies, with over 2,000 articles under his belt. He has been pursuing a degree in Animation and possesses a deep love for the medium of animation. Having spent the better part of the last two years pumping out articles for FW, Santanu excels at covering movie analysis and news surrounding Pixar, DCU, DreamWorks, and Batman’s cinematic legacy.With psychological thrillers and intimate slice-of-life dramas ranking among his favorite genres, Santanu is a big admirer of Luca Guadagnino, Shane Black, Park Chan-wook, and Brad Bird.
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Bob OdenkirkPeter GouldVince Gilligan
