New“ Better Call Saul” book reveals AMC once asked to scrap Saul Goodman character (exclusive)

Saul Goodman — a.k.a. Jimmy McGill, a.k.a. Gene Takavic — is a survivor. From his first appearance on Breaking Bad in 2009, the flamboyant, scruples-lacking lawyer played by Bob Odenkirk often had to do some fast talking to stay above ground. ("Lalo didn't send you?") And now a new book reveals that execs at AMC — the network that aired Breaking Bad and the later spin-off, Better Call Saul — almost cut Saul Goodman's life short before he ever hit the screen.

In this exclusive excerpt from Saul Goodman V. Jimmy McGill by TV critic Alan Sepinwall (on sale Feb. 4), Saul co-creator and showrunner Peter Gould recalls getting some less-than-encouraging script notes from AMC on the Breaking Bad episode (also titled "Better Call Saul") that introduced Saul Goodman. Though the feedback almost led to what Gould calls "an alternate universe where we had to throw that episode out," once again Saul Goodman survived — and ultimately got his own spin-off from Gould and co-creator Vince Gilligan.

Featuring a complete collection of Sepinwall's critical essays about Better Call Saul, as well as interviews with stars Odenkirk and co-star Rhea Seehorn, Saul Goodman V. Jimmy McGill also unearths behind-the-scenes details about the BCS universe — including one surprising name producers considered to play Saul himself. Check out the exclusive excerpt below.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Excerpt from Saul Goodman V. Jimmy McGill by Alan Sepinwall

ALAN SEPINWALL: When the "Better Call Saul" episode was proposed, what was the concept in the room? Did you expect the character to have any legs? Or was he someone who would maybe be around for only half a season?

PETER GOULD: We were at that point in the show where we were on a course that we had not expected. We thought that Walt and Jesse were going to be working for Tuco. And then, as you know, we found out that Tuco is not available to us.^† So, Tuco is killed early in Season Two. And now, they’re out on their own. We started thinking about what are the problems that you have if you’re a novice drug dealer trying to move all that meth. And one of the basic problems was, what happens if one of your guys gets arrested? So, of course, we’ve already got Badger. And, the thought was, Who would be the lawyer here?

And, at this point — I’ll speak for myself — I didn’t fully understand the tone of the show. I don’t 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. And first, in the room, we had a lot of ideas that were crazier even than what we ended up doing. There was one pitch where, when he got paid, he would put the money into a pneumatic tube that went straight to the bank. 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.

Related: Better Call Saul stars reveal the one scene they wish they could have filmed

Really, his creation was all in service of Walt’s story. We weren’t thinking, Here’s an independent character who’s going to have a life of his own. We thought, How does this serve Walt’s story? And how is he different from the other characters we’ve seen? He enjoys himself. He’s very transactional. He’s not violent, obviously. And all those things came, I think, in the architecture of just where we were in the story. Did we think he was going to have a future? 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. 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?”

Wow.

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 that episode out. And as it was, that season we ended up shutting down briefly, because we ran out of scripts — which never happened again, I’m happy to report. But that was probably the most stressful season of either show, for me, anyway. I lost a lot of sleep over it. There’s actually a scene in that episode between Hank and Walt, where Hank talks about his insomnia. And that’s 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. And both she and [casting directors] Sharon Bialy and Sherry Thomas came up with a list, and Bob was at the top of all of them. I will say, and I’ve never said this before, season six the one name that I remember being mentioned in addition to Bob’s, was actually Michael McKean.

Wow again.

So, again, alternate universe. Vince and I get on the phone with Bob and Bob says, “I know the show’s great.” I don’t think he would admit he hadn’t watched it at that point — like most people. And, he said, “How can I do that? I’m not Jewish at all.” And then, Vince explained that he was masquerading as a Jewish person for the clients, to give him more credibility with the underworld, in other words. Bob was always polite and very nice about it. But I didn’t know if he was going to do it or not. And he did, and I was so excited because of all the people in the room, I was maybe the biggest Mr. Show fan.

Related: Better Call Saul stars pick their all-time favorite scenes

Bob likes to tell the story about how, while filming his first Breaking Bad episode, a guy on the crew said he wanted to be hired for the eventual Saul spin-off. At what point in the making of Breaking Bad did the idea of a Saul spin-off actually become a thing you guys were talking about?

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 that’s your office. I think you might be around for a little bit.” Because we didn’t have the money to build sets that we weren’t going to keep using.

[With the spin-off ], it was a gradual thing. Whenever we came up with something in the room that was just too silly, occasionally someone said, “Well, that’s for the spin-off.” I really restrained myself from thinking about it too much, because it seemed too good to be true. I was having such a great time on Breaking Bad, I felt like you just couldn’t have a better situation. And I also just felt I had been around for a while in Hollywood, and I’d had my struggles. And, the fact that I was on a show that was so great, and it was so rewarding to work with a group and with Vince, it seemed too good to be true. So I didn’t want to press my luck. But then, really, in the final season of Breaking Bad, Vince said to me, “Would you be interested in working with me on a spin-off?” And I said, “Absolutely. Absolutely.” But keep in mind that I was just one of a group of very, very brilliant writer-producers in that room. And there were a lot of really special people in that room. And I didn’t 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. Absolutely. And, if it had been the right move for Breaking Bad, we would’ve killed that character. So, the spin-off couldn’t be real until we had the whole story of Breaking Bad finished, because it’s completely possible that the piece that would’ve made the finale of Breaking Bad work would be killing Saul Goodman. We would’ve done it in a New York minute. We would’ve done it right away. But then, in post, that was when Vince and I started talking more seriously about it.

——
^† Raymond Cruz was on loan from his day job on The Closer, and the TNT cop drama needed him back at work sooner than expected. Hence, Hank kills Tuco.

Excerpt from the new book Saul Goodman V. Jimmy McGill by Alan Sepinwall published by Abrams Press © 2025 Alan Sepinwall

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly