Trivia / Better Call Saul

• Acting in the Dark:
  • The first few episodes were shot before the crew decided to turn Chuck into an antagonist, so for the first few episodes Michael McKean acted as though Chuck truly was supportive of Jimmy. It's an accidental example, but if anything it makes the eventual twist more effective.
  • Kim's past and much of her internal life remains untold, especially at first. Thus Rhea Seehorn was working on very little, and many of her suppositions about Kim's character were taken up by the writers.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • The creators gave Tony Dalton a lot of freedom with Lalo, as he wanted to portray the character as different from the stereotypical Cartel and Salamanca family members. This resulted in Lalo's far more calculating approach and charming and jovial demeanor that only enhanced his menacing presence.
  • Kim was originally going to be Jimmy’s moral side, but Rhea Seehorn did a secret grin at his antics in episode four, and the writers responded by giving Kim more to do. She also made sure that Kim loved and wanted Jimmy as much as vice versa, and it’s not just something she does grudgingly. She was also the one who decided Kim should wear the same pair of earrings and triangle necklace, which then turned into the only connection she ever had with her mother, as well as Kim struggling in terms of femininity and poverty still on her mind.
  • According to Vince, they made Chuck a resentful tragedy from episode five because Michael McKean had played the original “supportive but troubled/helpless” intent with such a self-righteous, dominating, imposing edge that they enjoyed. The same thing happened in reverse with Patrick Fabian, playing Howard as actually sincere despite Jimmy assuming him to be the bad guy.
  • McKean and Odenkirk talked a lot between themselves about Jimmy and Chuck's complicated history, and what that family was like ^note a lot of jealousy about their mother, Chuck unfairly parentified, Jimmy even as a child desperate for Chuck's approval, and a lot of the details went into both how they played it and what was said (and left unsaid) onscreen.
  • Mike's backstory was partly inspired by Banks and Vince having a conversation about the little girl he gave the balloons to being his granddaughter, not his daughter, and "however Mike lost his soul, it has something to do with his son."
  • The desert glaring in when Jimmy has his bingo breakdown in "Marco" was Bob's idea.
  • It was Giancarlo's idea, when they wanted to reveal that Gus was returning, to do a commercial for Los Pollos Hermanos in preparation for season three.
  • The bird drawings in Kim's apartment were actually done by Rhea (and was the only "Kim thing" she took to Florida with her), and the storyboards Jimmy does in "Expenses" were drawn by Bob.
  • McKean came up with the idea of Chuck checking his pulse (and also the hand shake when he’s feeling pain, usually when he’s trying to suppress guilt), as “he’s looking for the tumour that will explain everything”.
• Actor-Shared Background: Jimmy is from the Chicago suburb of Cicero, Illinois. Bob Odenkirk was born in Berwyn, Illinois, which is right next door, and raised in Naperville which is a bit further west, but still on the same Metra commuter rail line as Cicero and Berwyn. Jimmy and Bob share the exact same background, at least geographically. He actually stepped in to correct a reference to the specific neighborhood Jimmy would run his cons at in the first episode. The character and the actor are also both of Irish-Catholic descent, and have very poor singing skills, despite the fact that they love trying to do so anyway.
• Approval of God:
  • Near the end of the show, a fan made a website for HHM as a form of fan art. Patrick Fabian responded by "hiring" the fan in question, signing it "HH" with a Hamlindigo blue heart emoji.
  • A fan named Matt Talbot became well-known among the creators of the show for his fan-made posters of each episode, starting all the way back with "Uno" in 2015. Not only did Peter Gould reveal that all his posters were hung on the wall at the office, but after he published the poster for "Saul Gone", Bob Odenkirk himself asked Matt if there'd ever be a book of his work.
• Ascended Fanon: After The Reveal that Lalo and Howard are buried under the superlab, Peter Gould was happy to confirm the new canon that the fly in the titular Breaking Bad episode was either Lalo and/or Howard annoying Walter.
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • The creators regretted just how much Saul was a sleazy, misogynistic, sex pest in Breaking Bad, and didn't even really even want to try lining that up with Jimmy, making it more of a Saul-only thing.
  • Seeing the reaction Breaking Bad characters got just because Walt hated them (Gretchen and Elliot mainly) was part of the reason why the writers - according to the Alpine Shepherd Boy commentary - did the twist for Howard and Chuck in the first place, as well as making it clear that Chuck isn't saying the wrong things about the future Saul Goodman, he just can't admit he's causing his prophecy to happen in the first place.
  • Saul was treated as Fashion-Victim Villain in Breaking Bad, and was the only flamboyant guy so meant to be emasculating. Gould mentioned that everyone actually likes the Jimmy/Saul suits now, and his fashion sense (as well as feminine side) is treated with more affection, with only Walter White complaining about him having clothes in his bags instead of tools, and treating him like a Sissy Villain.
• Billing Displacement: Michael Mando is credited as a main cast member on the first season despite the fact Nacho only appears in four out of ten episodes.
• California Doubling: Much like Breaking Bad, the show is set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. However, New Mexico also doubles for other settings, and scenes set elsewhere are generally shot at night or black-and-white to hide this.
  • Everything set in Omaha, Nebraska was actually filmed in Albuquerque: Saul's Omaha house is actually at the corner of Cutler Avenue and Vasar Drive in east Albuquerque, and the Cinnabon is one at Albuquerque's Cottonwood Mall. Marion's house is also only a few blocks away from the Pinkman family household from Breaking Bad. Fake snow was put all over the locations to disguise all of the locations.
  • The Philadelphia bar where Mike meets the corrupt cops who killed his son is actually the Two Fools Tavern on Central Avenue.
  • Scenes in Cicero, Illinois with Marco are also filmed around the Albuquerque area. In the cases of both this and the Philadelphia flashbacks, they were shot at night to hide any evidence of Albuquerque.
  • Kim Wexler's scenes in Florida were also shot in New Mexico and Los Angeles; with several palm tree props put up to emphasize the tropical setting Kim lives in.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • A season 4 flashback in "Winner" allows Michael McKean to show off his excellent singing skills, previously showcased as a part of Spinal Tap.
  • Fellow Spinal Tap alumnus Ed Begley Jr. also gets to show off his blues guitar skills in "Cobbler".
  • All the artwork in Kim's condo were actually pieces by Rhea Seehorn, who studied painting, drawing and architecture before pursuing acting.
  • Inverted with Bob Odenkirk: In the Better Call Saul Insider podcast Vince Gilligan states that "Bob is known for two things in the comedy world: bad British accents, and a complete inability to sing" and that the writers were keen to utilise both of these "talents". Hence Jimmy putting on a bad British/Irish accent when pretending to be his own secretary, and numerous instances where he sings appallingly.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Ed Begley Jr. auditioned for Chuck McGill, but ultimately got the role of Cliff Maine. Vince Gilligan noted that it was a tough decision to pick between Begley and Michael McKean for the role of Chuck.
• Colbert Bump: Several songs have seen their popularity go up due to being used on the show, like "Mi CuCu", "Waltz Across Texas," "Find Out What's Happening," "Address Unknown", and more.
• Creator Backlash: While they think it eventually worked out for the best (as it establishes what Kim will not tolerate i.e. being Locked Out of the Loop), the scene in "Amarillo" where Jimmy pretends to her the Cliff conversation went fine, bothered the writers so much they were nearly going to cut it.
• Creator Breakdown: As much as Bob loves Jimmy, McWexler and the show, he's confessed that living for so long in a guy who is so traumatized, so desperate for love and emotionally so much younger than him felt like a complete beatdown. The fact that he had to wallow in dad-related abandonment trauma for so long also didn't help. The next project, Lucky Hank, still had drama, but was quite a bit lighter.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • Even after the finale, where Jimmy comes back to himself, and says out loud that the Saul persona was him running away, you can find plenty of articles that act like “Saul” is Jimmy’s real identity. The writers themselves said he was still hanging on to being Jimmy until Kim left.
  • This article considered Kim the victim of Jimmy like Skyler is with Walter White, and ends the take with at least Sky could stand up to her husband. All this ignoring the fact that Kim mostly leads in her relationship with Jimmy, they adore each other even if they are toxically co-dependent, and if he acts like a projecting asshole with her, she very easily tells him where to go and he'll genuinely make up for it.
  • Bob Odenkirk admitted on Hot Ones (and other places) that playing Jimmy and his various issues was exhausting - while Saul is a one-note clown and easier - but that he still loves the guy and will be his best role. Cue breathless articles claiming Creator Backlash.
• Diagnosis of God:
  • It’s never actually said in the show, but the shooting scripts state multiple times that Jimmy/Saul/Gene has untreated PTSD.
  • It's also been mentioned a few times (by writers and Odenkirk) that Jimmy's had difficulties with fractured identity ever since he was a kid, and will dissociate when bad shit happens, though they've also reassured that he's okay and managing by the time Kim comes to see him in jail, and will continue to.
  • Gennifer Hutchison discussed in season two that Kim is suffering from depression and has been for a while, no matter how much she tries to hide it. It doesn't exactly get better for her until her big despairing but cathartic cry on the bus four seasons later.
• Directed by Cast Member: Season 6 Episode 4 is directed by Rhea Seehorn and Episode 6 by Giancarlo Esposito.
• DVD Commentary: The Season 1 set includes an alternate commentary track for "Bingo" featuring Julie Ann Emery and Jeremy Shamos reprising their roles of Betsy and Craig Kettleman, respectively. The track is forty-seven minutes of the Kettlemans lecturing about profanity in the dialogue, putting down Jimmy at every opportunity, Craig making really stupid observations (when Chuck mentions the transformer outside his house, Craig thinks he's talking about the movie with robots), and Betsy repeatedly exhibiting Stepford Smiler Control Freak tendencies.
• Dawson Casting: Heavily used in the 2002-2004 timeline and even more so in the flashbacks to before this. This is, of course, unavoidable due to the series being a prequel. However, there are a few cases where the actor is older than the character despite not appearing in Breaking Bad.
  • Jimmy is 42-44 during the series. Bob Odenkirk was 52 when filming the first season and 58 when filming the last. Extensive makeup, wigs, and Digital De-Aging are used to make Odenkirk look closer to 40 than 60, but Odenkirk himself also pulls off the look convincingly. Flashbacks stretch as far back as to Jimmy in his late twenties. These are slightly less convincing, but they're still excusable since the only other option would be to have a different actor portray him, which would be even more distracting.
  • Chuck is in his late fifties (as the dialogue when he's admitted to the hospital in "Klick" makes clear), but Michael McKean was 66 when the first season was shot. It's suggested that Chuck's increased age is the result of the stress of the job. It also works to show why Jimmy had so much respect for Chuck: he worked hard until his hair turned grey, and didn't fall for the same pitfalls that affected their father.
  • According to their driver's licenses in "JMM", Jimmy was born in 1960, making him two years older than Bob Odenkirk; while Kim was born in 1968, making her four years older than Rhea Seehorn.
  • Mike is in his late fifties. Jonathan Banks was 67 when the first season was filmed and 75 by the time the show ended. Unlike Jimmy and Chuck, the cast and crew make no attempt to hide this (though in fairness he doesn't look that much older than he was when he first was playing the character), and Mike is referred to and portrayed as an old man considerably more than in Breaking Bad.
  • Gustavo Fring is supposed to be in his late 40s/early 50s. Giancarlo Esposito was 57 at the time of season 3's filming, and the wrinkles on his face are very obvious. In season 5, many of his scenes show his face partly obscured by darkness to disguise his aging.
  • Tuco looks significantly older than he did in Breaking Bad, despite it being 6 years earlier.
  • Huell generally looks younger due to Lavell Crawford's newfound fitness (similar to Bob Odenkirk), but in Season 4, he looks somewhat older due to grey hair.
  • Downplayed with Mark Margolis as Hector Salamanca; while Margolis was 76 during Season 2 despite Hector being in his mid-60s, he actually does look younger than he did in Breaking Bad, where Hector was made up to look much older and more decrepit than Margolis did in real-life.
  • Interestingly, Kim is also a case of this (especially in later seasons) having a similar age gap with Jimmy as her actor does with Odenkirk despite not being in Breaking Bad. Rhea Seehorn was 42 when the first season was filmed while Kim was 34. It has been suggested by fans that the casting of Rhea Seehorn was partially in order to not make the difference in age between Kim's actress and Bob Odenkirk as noticeable.
  • For their two episodes in season 5, Hank Schrader and Steve Gomez get this. It's not really noticeable on Dean Norris, but it's more noticeable on Steven Michael Quezada, who noticeably has the goatee that Gomez sported from Breaking Bad season 4 onwards rather than the clean-shaven look he had in seasons 1-3, probably to hide the aging.
  • By the time of their cameo, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul were 66 and 42 respectively, even though their appearance in "Breaking Bad" takes place during the original show's second season where Walt is 50 and Jesse is in his early 20s. It's not incredibly visible on Walt (in part because of the ski mask hiding his unshaved head), but Jesse looks and sounds decades older than he did before, much like he did on El Camino. That said, Paul does manage to sound a bit younger when playing Jesse in "Waterworks".
• Defictionalization: In something of an Insult Backfire, the show is popular with lawyers. While the character of Saul Goodman was inspired by real life Ambulance Chasing lawyers, many of those real life lawyers are now being inspired by the character, with some even putting "Better Call..." before their names on their billboard ads.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • According to Michael Mando, Nacho's tears in his final scene with his father were not entirely acting; Michael had lost his own father only a few months prior, and some of the grief naturally boiled over during filming.
  • Rhea Seehorn was genuinely uncomfortable and miserable in the outfits that Kim Wexler wears while in Florida, allowing her to really sink into Kim's depressed Shrinking Violet persona while portraying her.
• Fake American:
  • Irish Kerry Condon as Stacey Ehrmantraut.
  • Canadian Cara Pifko as Paige Novick
  • Scottish Brit Laura Fraser as Lydia Rodarte-Quayle
  • Michael Mando, a French Canadian of Mexican descent, plays Nacho Varga, a Hispanic-American.
• Fake Nationality: Some actors who play Cartel members on the show don't have Mexican ancestry. The only one who does is Tony Dalton (Lalo).
  • Luis and Daniel Moncada (Honduran immigrants to the US) as Leonel and Marco Salamanca.
  • An American of Ashkenazi Jewish extraction, Mark Margolis plays Hector Salamanca.
  • Cuban-American Steven Bauer as Eladio Vuerte.
  • Andrea Sooch, the actress playing Werner's German widow, is originally from Hungary.
  • Casper, one of Werner Ziegler's construction crewmen from Germany, is played by the Serbian Stefan Kapičić.
• Improv: In Breaking Bad actors read the scripts verbatim, something Bob Odenkirk, as a comedy writer and performer, was unused to. In the prequel show, he was given more opportunities to improvise, mainly in scenes where Jimmy is talking to clients and Sandpiper Crossing residents.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Vince Gilligan has mentioned a few times that they have to get Bob Odenkirk either running slower or looking out of breath/like he's struggling, because he’s in really good shape and Jimmy isn't meant to be. The same thing goes for Howard in "Witness", as he had to tell Fabian to make trying to climb over the wall look hard.
• Lying Creator: Writer for the show Thomas Schanuz stated before the mid-season finale of Season 6 that it "wasn't filmed as a traditional cliffhanger". Which may have been true insomuch as it was not the original intention to split the season in two, but it doesn't change the fact that Howard gets executed by Lalo, in front of Jimmy and Kim right at the end of the episode.
• Meme Acknowledgement: There's a common fandom joke of how all the Cerebus Retcon in the show has made every moment of Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad painful. The commentary for "Wine and Roses" half-teasingly (because it depresses them too) apologizes for it.
• Method Acting:
  • Giancarlo Esposito has a history of scaring crew members on the set of this show because he stays in character from the moment he arrives on set until he's gone, leading to some accidentally creepy moments (such as when he told a nervous costumer "I won't do anything you aren't expecting").
  • As someone who hadn’t done a lot of dramatic work, Bob’s mentioned that having to play Jimmy's need to please and abandonment complex required dredged up feelings from his own life, and it could be exhausting. Method Acting: The feelings of abandonment he had from being parentified at such a young age also informed how desperately Jimmy always craves Chuck's affection, no matter how many times the character claims otherwise.
  • The actors for the Kettlemans went out shopping together so they could get that rapport as an actual couple.
  • As stated on the “Klick” commentary, Bob helped Michael out in the ending by asking what would it feel like if he (not Chuck) had actually lost his mind.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: The show could have been a wacky comedy about Saul never wanting to go to court, until it was made into a tragedy about Jimmy McGill with the Driving Question "what problem does becoming Saul Goodman solve". They also only realized the answer in season three, and apparently having to break down Jimmy very slowly to make him Saul, depressed even them.
• No Stunt Double: For the scene where Chuck rips the wires out of his walls before he kills himself, 69-year-old Michael McKean spent four days tearing the set to the ground himself, all of which is very physically demanding on its own without even considering his age.
• On-Set Injury: According to the "Witness" and "Winner" commentaries, Odenkirk has a habit of getting so into scenes (where he’s ripping through Chuck’s house in the former, and the car breakdown in the latter) that he'd injure his hands. There's also "Bagman" where he didn't wear earplugs like he should for the shootout-gun noises, and his heart attack in "Point and Shoot".
• The Other Darrin:
  • Kaylee Ehrmantraut and her mother, Stacey, were recast from Breaking Bad. Kaylee is a necessary use of Time-Shifted Actor due the character's age. She is played by three different actors over the course of the first five seasons.
  • Jeff, the cab driver antagonizing Jimmy in the Omaha storyline, is played by Don Harvey in Seasons 4 and 5 and by Pat Healy in Season 6. This is because Harvey had since been cast in 'HBO's We Own This City and couldn't be released from his contract.
  • In the Japanese dub, Mike Ehrmantraut was voiced by Kinryu Arimoto, reprising his role from "Breaking Bad", but passed away in 2019 due to esophageal cancer. Takayuki Sugo took over once the forth season was being dubbed.
• Production Posse: Bob Odenkirk and Michael McKean had known each other well enough for McKean to cameo in an episode of Mr. Show as a law professor. Fellow Mr. Show cast member Jay Johnston appears in a cameo in season 5 in an old Mesa Verde commercial as Kevin Wachtell's father. Another Mr. Show alumni, John Ennis, appears in season 6 as an actor Kim and Jimmy hire for a scam.
  • John Ennis' daughter, Jessie Ennis, plays Erin Brill. As she also appeared in Mr. Show at the tender age of four, she is technically a part of the posse.
• Promoted Fangirl: Carol Burnett admitted that she loved watching Better Call Saul while it was airing, and was thrilled to take a part in it for the last four episodes of the series.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Odenkirk had a difficult relationship with his dad, who seemingly would cause a lot of harm without realizing it, from losing money to disappearing randomly, and they never got to reconcile, and issues over that affect how he plays Saul/Jimmy.
  • Both Odenkirk and Gould have had guns pointed at their heads by people wanting their money, and the former gets reminded of that every time Jimmy gets a gun in his face.
  • Both Rhea and Bob were sick while filming "Expenses" (Bob not helped by changing outside in January), and as the commentary takes note of, it just makes Kim and Jimmy sound even more like they're suffering under the weight of everything.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Lydia Rodarte-Quayle does not appear in season 6 as COVID travel restrictions prevented Laura Fraser from flying to Albuquerque from her home in Glasgow.
• Role Reprise: Nearly everyone who appeared in Breaking Bad returns to this show as their characters from that show. This includes major characters such as Bob Odenkirk as the titular character, Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut and Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo Fring, to even smaller roles such as Raymond Cruz as Tuco Salamanca, David Ury as Spooge and Lavell Crawford as Huell Babineaux.
• Schedule Slip:
  • Work on Season 5 was postponed a full year so that the Breaking Bad sequel film El Camino could be shot.
  • The 6th and final season was set to begin production in 2020, but was suspended due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and then further delayed by Bob Odenkirk's heart attack midway through production. The season premiered on April 18th, 2022.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Only one episode title in the first season does not end with an "o" as part of the Idiosyncratic Episode Naming theme: "Alpine Shepherd Boy." It was originally going to be called "Jello" after the desserts Jimmy places his ads on, but Kraft Food has a copyright over the name.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting:
  • Raphael Sbarge, who plays Jimmy and Chuck's dad in "Inflatable" really does look like a younger version of Bob Odenkirk. So does Michael McKean in Clue.
  • Beth Hoyt, who plays Kim's mother, looks almost like a duplicate of Rhea Seehorn.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot:
  • Gene's call to Ed the Cleaner in the flashforward of the Season 5 premiere was going to be one-sided without actually bringing Robert Forster back, but when Vince Gilligan brought him in for El Camino, the show's crew decided to take the opportunity to have him also film the scene for them. This ended up being quite fortuitous with his death on the same day as the release of El Camino, allowing a final appearance in the franchise months later.
  • "Switch" came around because in the Season 1 finale, the editing team took out Jimmy actually turning around, and so the writers could insert the Davis and Main scene. Also, they figured out that Kim and Chuck were the two poles in Jimmy's life, and he wouldn't just leave her in the lurch.
  • The Cold Open for "Hero" was written as an afterthought, because the episode was running short, and Vince was very glad as it set up "Marco".
  • Though Raymond Cruz agreed to reprise his role as Tuco Salamanca for this series, he still didn't want to portray the character for longer than necessary due to his discomfort with playing an Axe-Crazy drug-addled psychopath. As such, Nacho and Mike pull off a successful scheme to get Tuco Put on a Prison Bus so that Cruz could once again exit the franchise early on.
• Star-Making Role:
  • Obviously not for Bob Odenkirk or Jonathan Banks, who already have Breaking Bad cred to their name. But it's this for Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, and Michael Mando. Seehorn was best known for her role on the short-lived and forgotten sitcom Whitney, and Mando for a voice acting part in Far Cry 3 that didn't exactly increase his profile and on Orphan Black, a show in which all the hype went to Tatiana Maslany and none to the rest of its cast. Fabian had bit parts and minor roles in Xena: Warrior Princess, Saved by the Bell: The College Years, Veronica Mars, and Desperate Housewives.
  • Tony Dalton was already a well-known veteran actor in Mexico at the time, but had little luck in American productions until this.
• Tom Hanks Syndrome: Bob Odenkirk and Michael McKean were well-known comedy actors (Saul Goodman himself was just meant to be comic relief for three episodes), and not only proved their worth in dramatic scenes, they thought up the bleakest parts of the Chuck/Jimmy relationship themselves.
• Throw It In!:
  • According to the insider podcast, in "Uno", the windshield of Abuelita's car wasn't supposed to shatter when Cal hit it. Vince Gilligan didn't want the stuntman to suffer having to do it again, so he kept the take.
  • Jimmy knocking over the lamp at the end of "Mijo" was unscripted.
  • According to Gordon Smith, Lalo calling Jimmy a chichifo (essentially a gigolo who sponges off their partner) was Tony Dalton's idea.
  • According to Vince Gilligan, when Nacho flees the Cousins in his car in "Carrot and Stick", the camera wasn't supposed to shift; the goal was for the cousins to emerge into the frame and then pass by it to the side. The camera was jostled during the stunt and Daniel and Luis Moncada simply kept going, resulting in the memorable shot of the Cousins walking straight towards the camera instead. Gilligan called it a happy accident that he couldn't help but keep in.
  • Carol Burnett was the one to come up with Marion saying "I trusted you" to Viktor in "Waterworks".
  • Michael McKean improvised the deflating in “Sabrosito” when Jimmy is forced to apologize and adds in a “no matter how I was provoked”, clearly feeling terrible but unable to admit it. Earlier on, it was Bob and Rhea’s choice to make the “thank you seriously/you’re welcome” as soft as possible.
  • In “Rebecca”, after Kim says her “I save me” line, they didn’t want to have it just be Jimmy feeling rejected, so Bob added in a look of Jimmy actually feeling proud of Kim for her independence.
• Trolling Creator:
  • Gould and Gilligan eventually revealed there were never any plans to kill Kim off, and all their "you should be worried about her" related to her own emotional state and gradual downfall. Bob also believes that if Kim had actually died, Jimmy would have straight up killed himself.
  • As discussed on the Witness podcast, while everyone knew that Fring was back, they wanted to drag it out, so that's why there was so long focused on Jimmy while Gus was blurry in the background.
• Troubled Production:
  • The sixth and final season was delayed for almost a year due to COVID-19 restrictions in New Mexico. And several months into resumption of filming, around the completion of "Point and Shoot", Bob Odenkirk suffered a near-fatal heart attack and has since stated that he would have died if Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian hadn't been around to alert a medic. The heart attack was a contributing factor in the decision to split the season into two.
  • "5-0" was plagued by weather problems, meaning it was taking longer than usual for the outside scenes to happen, and Banks caught bronchitis. The cab and cop car moments had to be in front of a green screen.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: After Walt and Jesse destroy the underground lab in Breaking Bad, investigators note that two bodies were found there, unidentifiable due to the fire. After the events of "Point and Shoot", some fans claimed that the line is referring to Lalo and Howard, both buried beneath the lab. However, in the context of Breaking Bad, the investigators are clearly referring to the two henchmen Walt shot while rescuing Jesse, and "Waterworks" later confirms that Howard's body was never found.
• Wag the Director:
  • Joked about by Bob Odenkirk in one of the early press releases, as his only ask for the show was for Jimmy to be The Chew Toy. He realized he'd got his way when episode two had him kneeling for about two days of shooting in the desert.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Bob Odenkirk originally refused to reprise his role as Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman for this show, as he felt too overly invested in his family life at the time, and didn't want to be constantly commuting from LA to New Mexico. Thankfully, Odenkirk's son overheard him talking on the phone and pointed out that he would be disappointing a lot of people, including his friends if he didn't take the job, which finally encouraged Odenkirk to do it.
  • One of the original pitches for the show was a half hour comedy with Saul in his office and wacky clients. Jimmy was also far more of a Saul-like jerkass in early iterations, at one point literally crashing into an ambulance after chasing it. Another version would have him always trying to avoid being in court as he's actually not that good at being a lawyer.
  • An early version of the script for the first episode would have had Jimmy end up at Hamlin's house after the Staged Pedestrian Accident scheme goes awry. But then the writers thought, "Who is the worst person that Jimmy can encounter who's hard to reason with?" and that's why they chose to have the victim be Tuco's grandma.
  • The Michigan Avenue reference in Jimmy's motivational speech where he's recruiting the skateboarders originally was going to be a reference to Lower Wacker Drive. But in the insider podcast, Bob Odenkirk, himself a Chicago native, notes that he told the writers to change the script, saying "I loved seeing Lower Wacker, but… no one would notice you down there besides a couple loading dock workers, and they’d kick you in the face."
  • The flashback in "Inflatable" of Jimmy working in his father's store was actually shot for season 1. However, it got shelved for time. However, placing it where it is in season 2 made it more effective, to show how much truth there was to Chuck's heart-to-heart with Kim.
  • Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould revealed in interviews that they considered having Marie Schrader be the X-ray technician who ran the scan on Chuck, but decided against it because it would be too distracting. She does appear in the Series Finale, where she directly confronts an incarcerated Saul Goodman for his involvement in Heisenberg's empire, and witness's Jimmy's trial alongside Steve Gomez's widow.
  • Bryan Cranston turned down an offer to direct an episode, since he was having so much fun getting to just be a regular unspoiled fan of this world like the rest of us. While he didn't get into the director's chair, Cranston did get involved in the show by reprising his role as Walter White during some Breaking Bad flashback scenes in the final few episodes.
  • Howard Hamlin was actually supposed to be a primary antagonist early on, not just a decoy for Chuck.
  • "Fall" was going to end with a cliffhanger of whether Kim survived her car crash, a major concern with the fans from the beginning due to her complete absence from Breaking Bad. The crew ended up deciding this would be too cruel even for them.
  • The crew wanted to put a more detailed depiction of Ed the Cleaner creating "Gene" toward the end of the show, which was sadly prevented by Robert Forster's death.
  • Sobchak's return in Season 5 was meant to be the reintroduction of Patrick Kuby given some of the dialogue he has, but Bill Burr had to decline due to a personal matter. Though Saul does question about Kuby during a telephone call with Francesca later on, the character himself never appears during the events of Better Call Saul.
  • Vince Gilligan was opposed to Peter Gould's idea of introducing Lalo to the show (which he had been hoping to do since all the way back in Season 1), preferring to keep Saul's terrified mention of him in Breaking Bad a Cryptic Background Reference. Vince was eventually won over by Tony Dalton's performance and claims to now be "embarrassed" for having been against it.
  • Lydia was planned to appear in Season 6, but Laura Fraser was unable to come to the United States to film her scenes due to COVID restrictions.
  • Had the writers went with the original draft of "Felina", Gene Takavic would've been managing a Hot Topic rather than a Cinnabon.
  • According to Thomas Schnauz, one early idea for Jimmy and Kim's plot against Howard was to bring back the skateboarder twins from Season 1, having Howard think he hit and killed one of them.
    • Another idea around this plot was to feature Howard as another hostage of Lalo alongside Kim and Jimmy, but writers decided that his death would work better for a remaining plot.
  • The "Ray of Hope" Ending could have been a Downer Ending, as Jimmy’s reunion with Kim was going to be in the courthouse, and it would end with him alone and scared of prison. Gould thought that was far too cold, so put in the prisoners cheering him so the audience would know he’d be looked after in jail, and ended it on the implication that while it would be hard for them, Jimmy and Kim's relationship will continue.
  • In an interview with Schnauz, he talked about a flashback idea they had with Jimmy acting up as a kid and getting kicked out of school. He's sad and upset, walking out with his dad, until he hears his ex-classmates chanting his name and he smiles.
  • Nacho was originally going to have a more antagonistic role towards Jimmy, even being planned to be the Big Bad of Season 1. This eventually changed after it was decided that Chuck would be a better opponent for Jimmy to face, resulting in Nacho's character development slowing down to accumulate over later seasons.
  • Bob Odenkirk has stated that if he had died of his heart attack, he would have liked the show to carry on with someone else replacing him so they could finish the story. That said, everyone else was pretty adamant that they would have just cancelled the show in that case.
  • The house Jimmy and Kim looked at in Season 5 was originally going to become Saul's mansion in the Flash Forward scenes in Season 6. The location ended up changing because the crew couldn't film at the original house again.
  • There was consideration of having a flashback to one of Jimmy's ex-wives, but everyone got so invested in his relationship with Kim that it was nixed.
  • The original courtroom confession was originally a lot more tearful on Jimmy's part, but after two days of shooting it, Bob asked to do it a lot more contained. It still has emotion and it still is talking to Kim about his actual trauma and shit he's done, but felt like far less self-pity.
  • While the finale makes it pretty clear already that he’ll be getting out pretty soon, the original script made it rather anvilly foreshadowing that everything will be fine for them.
  • Kim was originally going to return Jimmy's finger guns gesture when he's imprisoned in the series finale, but Peter Gould cut it from the scene because he realized it would imply that Kim was going to return to her criminal ways instead of work on the straight and narrow once again.
• Word of Gay:
  • Gus Fring was confirmed as gay by Peter Gould shortly after "Fun and Games".
  • Patrick Fabian describes Howard as "a little gay in his heart." Whether that's a flippant remark or an indication of him being LGBT will depend on your interpretation, especially since he's almost never presented in a personal environment in the series outside of later revealing that his marriage to Cheryl has fallen apart.
  • The creators put Marco on the same level as Kim, calling Jimmy’s scamming and partnership with both of them "a love story".
• Word of Saint Paul: According to Betsy Brandt, Jimmy admitting to his misdeeds and acknowledging his complicated relationship with Chuck inspired Marie to reach out and repair her relationship with Skyler sometime after the series finale.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants:
  • Just like Breaking Bad, very little of the show was planned ahead at the start. Most noticeably, Jimmy appears ready to go full Saul Goodman at the end of Season 1, which the crew then decided should take a while longer, forcing them to spend the entire Season 2 premiere dialing it back. The first half of Season 1 was also written under the assumption that Chuck was genuinely supportive of Jimmy before they came up with the twist to his motivation.
  Gould: Our first thought was that he would be Saul Goodman as we knew him on Breaking Bad by the end of the first season, and then it would be all about Saul Goodman wheeling and dealing for subsequent seasons. And what we learned was, there was a lot more to say about Jimmy McGill. So we had no specific feeling about how it was going to end, or even just the shape of it for a couple of seasons—and it was worrying. And then I think in Season 4, we started getting an idea. And then in Season 5, the clouds parted, and we started understanding where we were going.
  • Gordon Smith in season five added on that while the Driving Question was always "what problem does becoming Saul Goodman solve", they initially didn't figure that Chuck would be so important (Kim too, but for different reasons), and the superficial sleazeball that was Saul came from so much grief and trauma.

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