Breaking Bad Once Came This Close to Being Canceled, But Was Saved By a Strike

Summary:

• Breaking Bad had a difficult fate – first showrunner Vince Gilligan could not get the project on the air, and then AMC almost canceled it after the third season.
• Due to the 2007 WGA Writers strike, Gilligan was only able to complete seven episodes instead of nine, which would have seen Jesse die and Walter fully transform into Heisenberg.
• The cancellation of two episodes forced Gilligan to rethink the character development, which made Walter's transformation slower and more reasonable, and Jesse was not killed off, ensuring the future success of the show.

A man with a mustache is standing in the middle of the desert, wearing ridiculous shorts and a green shirt. There are two dead bodies in the van behind him, he himself is holding a gun, and somewhere in the distance you can hear sirens approaching.

Isn't this the best way to start a drama series? As it turns out, yes.

Breaking Bad Was Saved by 2007’s WGA Writers Strike

Breaking Bad started with one and a half million viewers and ended with ten million. It's no secret to fans of the show that for a long time, Breaking Bad's creator, Vince Gilligan, couldn't get Breaking Bad on the air.

In the end, however, the show was bought by AMC, and the story of one of the greatest shows of our time began.

But not only could Breaking Bad never happen, it was almost canceled after the third season – a blatant decision by AMC, considering how exciting Breaking Bad turned out to be. The cancellation of the show was saved by an unexpected factor – the WGA Writers Strike of 2007, which lasted one hundred days.

Vince Gilligan Almost Killed Jesse in Season 1

The original plan was to end the first season by killing Jesse. But the show came out at the perfect time. Due to the strike, Vince Gilligan was only able to complete seven episodes instead of the planned nine. And it was in those two remaining episodes that Jesse was about to meet his end.

However, Gilligan himself later claimed that he had realized much earlier that Aaron Paul should not be allowed to leave Breaking Bad so easily.

In any case, the strike helped the show become a hit – in the two episodes that never happened, Walter White would have already completed his transformation into the drug genius Heisenberg.

With the episodes scrapped, Gilligan and the rest of the Breaking Bad writers decided to change their approach and go with a slower pace, allowing Walter and his dark side to emerge gradually.

And it's unlikely anyone regrets that decision now, as the show would never have become a legend if it had rushed the plot and killed off Jesse.

Breaking Bad Was Later Picked Up by Netflix

In 2010, AMC indicated to the showrunner that Breaking Bad would likely not make it to a fourth season, and the show's distributor began looking for a new home for the project.

After learning that there were a number of networks that wanted to have the show in their hands, the executives at AMC took pity on the project and renewed it for a fourth season.

At the same time, the first three seasons of Breaking Bad appeared on Netflix, which increased the audience, and you already know what happened next (it became legendary).