{"id":2071137,"date":"2025-10-05T23:57:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T23:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2071137"},"modified":"2025-10-05T23:57:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T23:57:02","slug":"bob-odenkirk-landed-his-breaking-bad-role-thanks-to-this-beloved-hbo-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/bob-odenkirk-landed-his-breaking-bad-role-thanks-to-this-beloved-hbo-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Odenkirk Landed His Breaking Bad Role Thanks To This Beloved HBO Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“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\u00a0was supposed to be a three\/four-episode guest role into a regular gig<\/a>, which lasted even further for the spin-off “Better Call Saul.”<\/p>\n

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,”<\/a> running for four seasons\/30 episodes on HBO from 1995 to 1998.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> in dialogue). This is a show with a sketch about descendants of Holocaust survivors getting Hitler clones as servants for reparation!<\/p>\n

Odenkirk recently filmed a video with People Magazine<\/a> 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.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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“‘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.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read more: The 20 Best HBO Shows Of All Time, Ranked<\/a><\/p>\n

Bob Odenkirk, from Mr. Show to Better Call Saul<\/h2>\n
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