Lesser-Known Facts About ‘Breaking Bad’

5 minute read

By Kale Havervold

In case you haven’t noticed, people love Breaking Bad. Whether you are a fan who has watched since the very beginning or someone who just recently picked up the show, there exists some hidden facts and cool information about the show that you won’t likely know.

From hidden meanings to unaired ideas, this article will go through 10 things that even the rebid fans of Breaking Bad likely will not know. Beware, this article may contain spoilers.

10. Tuco and His Uncle Were Originally Planned to Have Much Bigger Roles

Originally, Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad, had plans for Tuco and Hector to have much bigger roles in the show.

Since Raymond Cruz played the role so well, Gilligan wanted Tuco to be the main villain for the entirety of season two. Unfortunately for Gilligan, Cruz had prior commitments to The Closer and thus couldn’t stick around. That led to Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) having a bigger role.

For Hector, he was originally supposed to be the big villain in the series. However, the great performance of Esposito led the writers to pencil Gus in as the main villain in the show.

https://patricksponaugle.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/breaking-bad-season-2-complete-hdtv2.png Source: I Can't Possibly Be Wrong All the Time Source: Screenshot via Sony Pictures Television

9. The Significance of the Series Finale Title

The series finale is titled “Felina”. Knowing Breaking Bad and their writers, there is some important meaning or reasoning for why it is titled this way. There are two theories that could explain the name choice.

The first theory is that the title is simply an anagram for the word “Finale”. However, this lacks the creativity we expect from the writers.

The theory that seems more likely is obvious when you break down the word into its chemical elements: Fe, Li, and Na or Iron, Lithium, and Sodium. If you breaking it down even further, the title can mean blood, meth, and tears. Now that seems more like something that the writers could have done on purpose.

https://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2013/09/felina-breaking-bad-finale.html Source: Awesomely LuvvieSource: Picture via Awesomely Luvvie

8. One Scene Made Bryan Cranston Break Down for Real

Walter White was involved in many heartbreaking scenes throughout the series. Only one scene takes the cake as it actually made actor Bryan Cranston cry for 15 minutes after filming. The scene in question is where Walt watches Jane die.

The reason this scene affected Cranston so much is that, in his words, his real daughter’s face took the place of Jane’s in that scene. Obviously that hit very deep.

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/09/breaking-bad-bryan-cranston-season-2-jane-death-1202006078/ Source: IndieWireSource: Screenshot via Sony Pictures Television

7. It Was Rejected by HBO

That’s right. Before Breaking Bad became an absolute smash hit for AMC, it was pitched to HBO. Uninterested with the show, HBO rejected it. The channel didn’t see the future potential of Breaking Bad. So, you can bet executives get riled up every time they see it mentioned, which is a lot.

Any way you slice it, HBO messed up. As such, you can bet that they will be observing future TV pitches a little more closely. Just to make sure they avoid another gigantic mistake like this.

http://www.rezxmag.com/casting-call-hbo-looking-for-first-nations-extras-in-saskatoon/ Source: Rezxmag.comSource: Logo via WarnerMedia

6. Walter White is Real

While nobody has gone to the level of Bryan Cranston’s character in the show, a couple of struggling educators have actually been arrested for doing things similar to Walter While. This includes manufacturing meth and selling it to students. In fact, a Boston teacher with cancer named Stephen Doran was caught dealing meth, which is eerily similar to Walt’s situation.

Perhaps the most striking case of life imitating art occurred before Breaking Bad was even on television. In 2008, an Alabama man earned a place on the state’s Most Wanted list thanks to his thriving meth business. He was neither a teacher nor a cancer sufferer but, you guessed it, his name was Walter White.

https://attackofthefanboy.com/news/fan-recreates-iconic-breaking-bad-scenes-in-grand-theft-auto-v/ Source: Attack of the FanboySource: Picture via Sony Pictures Television

5. Cranston Got a Tattoo

Now, Bryan Cranston doesn’t really strike us as the type of guy to get a tattoo out of nowhere. But that is just what happened the night after the final scene of Breaking Bad was shot.

After a drunken night at a local bar with the crew, Cranston decided to get a small tattoo of the Breaking Bad logo on his finger, much to his wife’s disgust. It makes sense though, as this was without a doubt Cranston’s best performance of his career.

4. Jesse Was Nearly Killed Off in the First Season

In a podcast interview, Vince Gilligan shed some light on some original ideas for the show that never got okayed. That list contained a pitch that included Jesse Pinkman being killed off in season one. Of course, the execs hated it so it never made it into the script.

The basic outline of that scenario was that Jesse would be killed by a drug lord. This would lead Walt to kidnap and torture the kingpin in his basement. Though the idea sounds interesting, we are extremely glad that they decided to have Jesse survive until the end as he became one of the most important characters in the show.

Source: Screenshot via Sony Pictures Television

3. Props From the Show Sold for a Hefty Sum

After completion of the show, Breaking Bad had an auction to sell some of the famous props from the show to fans all over the world.

No surprise, the auction was a massive success. In total, the auction raised grand total of almost a million dollars.

Some of the items sold were:

http://hiconsumption.com/2013/09/breaking-bad-props-auction/ Source: Hiconsumption.comSource: Picture via ScreenBid

2. Literally Anyone Could Have Been Killed Off

One thing that was particularly great about Breaking Bad was that you never had any idea what was going to happen or who it was going to happen to. Vince Gilligan has never shied away from the fact that the show’s specifics were always changing and things weren’t always set in stone until right before the shoot.

While this freedom helped a lot during filming, it means that there were also a lot of ideas that never got fully explored. In fact, Gilligan said that no one was completely safe in the writers’ room — not even baby Holly.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/tvs-top-tots-breaking-bads-630072/1-holly-white-on-breaking-bad Source: Hollywoodreporter.comSource: Screenshot via Sony Pictures Television

1. Only Two Main Characters in the Entire Show Never Met

For most of Breaking Bad, there was a large distance between Walt’s criminal life and family life. In fact, the two never really collide until the fifth season. By then, viewers had a ton of knowledge on both sides of Walt’s double life.

Despite Walt’s double life eventually being discovered, his partner Jesse and his son, Walt Jr., never actually meet. In fact, they are the only two main characters in the show to never meet one another.

It’s crazy to think that two characters knew and loved for so many seasons never even shared the screen together.

Source: Picture via Sony Pictures Television

Kale Havervold

Contributor

Kale Havervold has been writing about video games, movies, tv and more for Goliath since 2015.