“Breaking Bad” is one of the best showcases for how comedy actors can go dramatic. Part of the show’s legend is how lead Bryan Cranston, then best known as the goofy dad Hal on the sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle,” played against type as Walter White/Heisenberg, a cancer-stricken chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin. Supporting Cranston’s dramatic turn was Bob Odenkirk as slick and sleazy lawyer Jimmy “Saul Goodman” McGill. Odenkirk turned what was supposed to be a three/four-episode guest role into a regular gig, which lasted even further for the spin-off “Better Call Saul.”
Odenkirk was almost exclusively a comedy writer/actor before “Breaking Bad.” He first broke out writing sketch comedy for “Saturday Night Live” and “The Ben Stiller Show” in the late ’80s/early ’90s. Then, of course, his star rose enough to where he and fellow comedian David Cross created their own sketch show: “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” running for four seasons/30 episodes on HBO from 1995 to 1998.
Since the typically absurdist “Mr. Show” aired on cable, it has the freedom to get edgier than “SNL” (like using a certain set of seven words in dialogue). This is a show with a sketch about descendants of Holocaust survivors getting Hitler clones as servants for reparation!
Odenkirk recently filmed a video with People Magazine reflecting on the different periods of his life, including making “Mr. Show” and playing Saul. “[‘Mr. Show’] was just the greatest gift I ever had,” he declared. “All my life I dreamed of doing sketch comedy, I loved ‘Monty Python’ since I was 11, and I finally got to do it on ‘Mr. Show’ the way I dreamed of doing it.”
While it may have felt like a peak at the time, Odenkirk’s career was still destined for even greater things. He didn’t audition to play Saul because he wanted to take his career in a new direction, though. The “Breaking Bad” writers were “Mr. Show” fans and offered him the part. In the People video, Odenkirk listed three groups he thinks were the biggest fans of “Mr. Show”: touring rock & roll musicians, 12 year olds, and writers who appreciated the show’s wit.
“‘Mr. Show’ was watched avidly in the ‘Breaking Bad’ writers room, I think, as a break from the intensity of that show, they would go, ‘Let’s watch a sketch.’ So they knew me and my work, and when they hit upon this character of Saul Goodman, they immediately thought of me as a possibility.”
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Bob Odenkirk, from Mr. Show to Better Call Saul
Bob Odenkirk and David Cross on promo poster for Mr. Show With Bob and David – HBO
When Odenkirk was offered the role of Saul, he was unfamiliar with “Breaking Bad.” He asked a friend/writing partner about the offer; they explained it was “the best show on TV” and encouraged him to say yes, and he did. As Odenkirk noted in the People video, “Breaking Bad” wasn’t initially a huge success (hence him not even knowing about it at first). It took Netflix to give the show a boost in viewership, so by season 5, everyone alive knew it was indeed the best show on TV.
Odenkirk described the experience as like a (paid) “acting school.” “I couldn’t believe they were entrusting me with this thing that wasn’t broad comedy, and I had a great time, and I learned about acting from acting opposite Bryan Cranston, mostly,” he recounted. The lessons paid off. Odenkirk proved, time and time again, on “Better Call Saul” that he could now carry a dramatic show even without Cranston helping him out.
2015 didn’t just see “Better Call Saul” debut, though. That year, Odenkirk also reteamed with Cross for a new sketchy comedy show on Netflix: “W/ Bob & David.” Odenkirk described that series as a secret fifth season of “Mr. Show.” Will he make a delayed return to Saul, eventually, too? He doubts that, considering “Better Call Saul” ultimately left Jimmy in prison.
“I feel the writers gave Jimmy McGill an opportunity to be sort of brutally honest about who he was and how he understood himself, and that was a gift,” Odenkirk said of the show’s “Crime and Punishment” style ending, where Jimmy admits his sins and accepts incarceration as just recompense.
Bob Odenkirk started acting by playing characters for only two-five minutes at a time in comedy sketches. Yet his greatest achievement (so far) has been playing a single character for 13 years of TV, telling a man’s life from beginning to end (if out of order), and all with a perfect conclusion.
“Mr. Show With Bob and David” is streaming on HBO Max.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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