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Posted in: AMC, TV | Tagged: better call saul, breaking bad
Better Call Saul: Gene Takavic, Hot Topic Manager? It Almost Happened
Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould revealed that "Gene Takavic's" career path nearly landed him at Hot Topic and not Cinnabon.
It was the scene in the penultimate episode of Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad that set the stage for Saul Goodman/Jimmy McGill's (Bob Odenkirk) future. In S05E15: "Granite State," Saul and Walt (Bryan Cranston) are awaiting their new lives, courtesy of Ed (Robert Forster) and the vacuum repair shop. In the midst of an increasingly intense exchange over whether or not Saul is going on his own or joining Walter – one cut short by Walter's health offering "Heisenberg" a reality check – Saul foreshadows what his future holds heading into Gilligan and Peter Gould's Better Call Saul. "If I'm lucky, a month from now, best case scenario, I'm managing a Cinnabon in Omaha," Saul shares, with his "best cast scenario" becoming a reality for "Gene Takavic" (Saul/Jimmy's new identity).
But thanks to social media and a creative team that loves to share lots of really great behind-the-scenes stuff with the fans, Gould revealed that "Gene" almost ended up working for an entirely different franchise. On the social media service Bluesky, Gould posted an excerpt from the script draft for "Granite State" that would've seen Gene shilling leather studded bracelets and pop culture t-shirts instead of tons of pastry goodness. In an early draft, Saul originally revealed to Walter that, "From here on out, I'm Mr. Low Profile — just another douchebag with a job and three pairs of Dockers. I mean, a month from now, best case scenario, I'm managing a Hot Topic in Omaha."
So why the change? "In fact, we found out that Hot Topic was carrying [Breaking Bad] stuff, and we didn't want to make it look like a cheap promo. So Cinnabon it was! (And they had no idea about it until the episode aired)," Gould explained in his response. When a fan noted that Cinnabon was a much funnier word to work with, Gould agreed – and noted that the company appreciated the unexpected advertising. "Couldn't agree more! And the Cinnabon folks were super-generous to us," he added.
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