TV SERIES · 2015–2022 · USA
Better Call Saul
- Created by
- Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould
- Network
- AMC
- Seasons
- 6
- Episodes
- 63
- Studio
- Sony Pictures Television, Gran Via Productions, High Bridge Productions
39 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
Six years before Saul Goodman meets Walter White. We meet him when the man who will become Saul Goodman is known as Jimmy McGill, a small-time lawyer searching for his destiny, and, more immediately, hustling to make ends meet. Working alongside, and, often, against Jimmy, is “fixer” Mike Ehrmantraut. The series tracks Jimmy’s transformation into Saul Goodman, the man who puts “criminal” in “criminal lawyer".
Summary: TMDB
All facts (39)
- #001
Saul Goodman was introduced in the second season of Breaking Bad, in an episode also called "Better Call Saul".
- #002
Bob Odenkirk had not watched Breaking Bad before he first played Saul Goodman.
- #003
Saul Goodman was planned for only four episodes of Breaking Bad, but the character developed well beyond the staff's original plan and became central to the series.
- #004
As Breaking Bad went on, Saul Goodman grew more popular with viewers; Bob Odenkirk suggested this was because the character is "the program's least hypocritical figure" and "is good at his job".
- #005
Vince Gilligan, the creator and developer of Breaking Bad, and Peter Gould, who wrote the episode featuring Saul Goodman's first appearance, began considering a Saul Goodman spinoff as early as 2009.
- #006
Peter Gould said the Breaking Bad team had weighed several "what ifs" during the series, including an Emmy win or whether viewers would buy "Los Pollos Hermanos" T-shirts, and that the spinoff idea was initially treated as a thought experiment once those events occurred.
- #007
While filming the Breaking Bad episode "Full Measure", Vince Gilligan asked Bob Odenkirk what he thought about a spinoff.
- #008
In July 2012, Vince Gilligan publicly hinted at a spinoff, saying he liked the idea of a lawyer show whose main lawyer would do anything to stay out of court, including settling on the courthouse steps.
- #009
Better Call Saul was confirmed to be in development by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould in April 2013.
- #010
In July 2013, before the second half of Breaking Bad's final season aired, Vince Gilligan said that he and Peter Gould were still working out ideas for the Better Call Saul spin-off, and that a deal had not yet been made.
- #011
Netflix was among many distributors interested in Better Call Saul, but a deal was ultimately reached between AMC and Sony Pictures Television, the production company behind Breaking Bad.
- #012
As Sony and AMC began committing to a spinoff, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould developed its concept, initially considering a half-hour format in which Saul would meet various clients, including celebrities in guest roles, at his strip mall office, similar to Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.
- #013
Gilligan and Gould abandoned the half-hour concept because they did not know how to write for that format, and instead planned for hour-long episodes.
- #014
Vince Gilligan described Breaking Bad as 25-percent humor and 75-percent drama, and speculated that Better Call Saul would reverse that ratio; Bob Odenkirk called the first season of Better Call Saul 85 percent drama and 15 percent comedy.
- #015
Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould initially doubted that Saul Goodman could sustain a series on his own, with Gilligan describing the character as "great flavoring" rather than the substance of a show.
- #016
The creators came to see Saul Goodman as a man who had accepted himself during the Breaking Bad timeframe, which led them to recognize the potential in telling the story of how he became that person.
- #017
Although Better Call Saul features several lawyer characters, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould intended it as a crime show with legal elements rather than a legal show.
- #018
To research the legal material, the Better Call Saul writers consulted real lawyers and observed cases at Los Angeles Superior Court, where they noticed that much of the activity consisted of downtime while waiting for others to act.
- #019
Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould served as co-showrunners of Better Call Saul from the start of the series.
- #020
Thomas Schnauz and Gennifer Hutchison, both former writers on Breaking Bad, joined the Better Call Saul writing staff, with Schnauz as co-executive producer and Hutchison as supervising producer.
- #021
Bradley Paul and Gordon Smith, a former writer's assistant on Breaking Bad, were also part of the initial writing staff of Better Call Saul.
- #022
Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould deliberately kept Better Call Saul's plot flexible, having learned from Breaking Bad about foreshadowing without writing the foresight. They had no firm plan for where the series would end up beyond its connection to Breaking Bad.
- #023
Gilligan and Gould initially felt pressure to move Jimmy McGill quickly toward Saul Goodman because they had committed to the Better Call Saul title, but while writing they concluded they did not want to reach Saul Goodman, calling that the tragedy.
- #024
Rhea Seehorn's first-season performance as Kim Wexler influenced Better Call Saul's direction, leading the writers to focus more on the Jimmy–Kim relationship from the second season and to slow Jimmy's transition into Saul Goodman for the rest of the series.
- #025
Gilligan compared the effect of Seehorn's performance on Better Call Saul's storyline to the impact Aaron Paul's acting had on Breaking Bad's eventual storyline.
- #026
In writing Better Call Saul, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould recognized that the series would overlap with Breaking Bad and had ideas for characters they might include, such as Gus Fring, without a set timetable in the show's development.
- #027
Where possible, the writers of Better Call Saul included minor Breaking Bad characters in smaller parts or as Easter eggs for fans.
- #028
Gilligan preferred to include major Breaking Bad characters such as Walter White or Jesse Pinkman in Better Call Saul only if it seemed realistic and satisfactory to both the production team and the audiences.
- #029
Better Call Saul's "brain trust" of script coordinators Ariel Levine and Kathleen Williams-Foshee checked every script to preserve continuity with Breaking Bad.
- #030
As part of that continuity work on Better Call Saul, the script coordinators tracked minor character traits and made sure small details carried over from Breaking Bad stayed correct.
- #031
Vince Gilligan stepped away from the Better Call Saul writing staff early in the third season so he could work on other projects, leaving Peter Gould as the sole showrunner.
- #032
The shift to Peter Gould as sole showrunner of Better Call Saul had been planned since the series debuted.
- #033
Peter Gould brought Vince Gilligan back into the writers' room for Better Call Saul's sixth and final season, saying it was wonderful to have him there so they could finish the show they started together; Gilligan had also expressed a desire to return during the final season.
- #034
Bob Odenkirk was confirmed to reprise the role of Saul Goodman in the starring role when Better Call Saul was first announced, with his character introduced as lawyer Jimmy McGill.
- #035
In January 2014, it was announced that Jonathan Banks would return as Mike Ehrmantraut, his Breaking Bad role, as a series regular on Better Call Saul.
- #036
Michael McKean joined the cast of Better Call Saul as Chuck McGill, the older brother of Jimmy McGill. McKean had previously appeared as a guest star in an episode of Bob Odenkirk's Mr. Show and in Vince Gilligan's X-Files episode "Dreamland".
- #037
Rhea Seehorn auditioned for and was cast as Kimberly "Kim" Wexler in April 2014. Her character was described as a prestigious attorney whose hard life is complicated by romantic entanglements with someone else at the firm.
- #038
Patrick Fabian was cast in May 2014 as Howard Hamlin, a Kennedy-esque lawyer who is winning at life.
- #039
Michael Mando was cast as Ignacio "Nacho" Varga, a smart and calculating criminal, after impressing Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould with his audition tape and screen test. The character had been mentioned but not seen in the Breaking Bad episode "Better Call Saul".
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Better Call Saul — Wikipedia
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