Better Call Saul's Original Sitcom Format Plan Explained By Creator

Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould explains the show’s original half-hour sitcom format plan – and why it was abandoned. Bob Odenkirk debuted as slimy cartel-connected lawyer Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad season 2, and immediately became a fan favorite. So popular was Goodman in fact that when it came time to expand the Breaking Bad universe with a spinoff, Vince Gilligan tapped Odenkirk’s character to be at the center. After six seasons on AMC, the last coming in 2022, Better Call Saul is now regarded as a TV masterpiece in its own right.

Things could have gone very differently for the acclaimed Breaking Bad spinoff however, as Better Call Saul was at one time being considered as a half-hour sitcom, as co-creator Gould explained recently to Awards Daily. Asked about Better Call Saul’s slow shift in tone over the years from lighter toward darker, Gould confirmed that originally, the series was conceived as a straight-up comedy. Check out what Gould said in the space below:

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, but I do like to think that there is comedy there. I think the great thing about putting comedy in drama is that they set each other off. And by the way, you’d be an idiot to have Bob Odenkirk as your lead and not do any comedy. (Laughs). So the nice thing about it is that when you have comedy next to drama, comedy doesn’t deflate the drama, it enhances it. It’s a little bit like peanut butter and chocolate. They’re just better together.

It’s hard to argue with the results that were achieved by making Better Call Saul an hour-long drama with comedy in the mix, as the show became one of the most acclaimed series in recent history, garnering multiple Emmy nominations along the way. But the idea of a half-hour sitcom take on Saul Goodman remains intriguing nonetheless, given the outrageous nature of the character as originally conceived on Breaking Bad, and given the comedic talents of Odenkirk, who was known for comedies like Mr. Show before becoming a serious thespian.

As Better Call Saul was ultimately conceived, not only is it not a comedy about Saul Goodman, but the Goodman character as he appeared on Breaking Bad never actually shows up until the very end, as Odenkirk plays pre-Saul and post-Saul incarnations of Jimmy McGill, the “real” person behind the sleazy Goodman persona. Better Call Saul actually succeeded by not being about Saul Goodman – an unlikely path to crafting a successful spinoff.

What a half-hour sitcom version of Better Call Saul focused on Goodman alone would have looked like is something that will never be known, but it’s unlikely such a show would have achieved the acclaim of the series Gould and Gilligan delivered. TV history is likely better off for Better Call Saul skewing dramatic and dark, with some comedic seasoning, but it’s still intriguing to imagine a purely comical take on brash, scheming, shameless Saul Goodman.

Source: Awards Daily