If there’s one lesson from the moral and ideological world of “Better Call Saul,” it’s its equally contemplative parent series, “Breaking Bad,” and details can matter. To paraphrase the character Mike who appeared in both series, we find ourselves at the end of the road, not necessarily conscious of where it started.
The power of accumulated history was baked into the premise of “Better Call Saul,” which ended after six seasons on Monday. Following the credits of Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), taciturn and principled fixer Mike (Jonathan Banks), and his cranky drug lord boss Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) — “Breaking Six years before the famous events of Bad’s, he went out of his way to reinforce the concept of fate in the story. It was filled with ominous hints, callbacks, and omens that prompted one to scrutinize its every frame.
Behind the scenes, members of the show’s writing staff were similarly obsessed. , was part of a group of staff who acted as the show’s institutional memory. Working closely with a team of writers, assistants, and producers, and led by showrunner and co-creator Peter Gould, Levine and Williams-Foshee worked on the show or its predecessor.
Speaking to The Times on Tuesday, the day after the ‘Better Call Saul’ finale, they’re resolving a puzzling storyline question (what happened to Saul’s ex-wife?) that contradicts ‘Breaking Bad’. We talked about making choices and staying one step ahead of Reddit detectives.
How long have you been in each role?
Kathleen Williams-Fossey I’ve been the Script Coordinator since Season 3, and briefly worked as an Assistant Writer for Seasons 5 and 6.
The end of “Better Call Saul”
The ‘Breaking Bad’ spin-off has ended its run after six seasons.
Ariel Levine I started working as a post-production assistant in season 1, a writer’s production assistant in season 2, a writer’s assistant in seasons 3-5, and a staff writer in season 6.
In the writer’s room, how did you keep track of all the history when you were trying to create a new story?
Levine In the room, figuring out what you can and can’t do, or what you should and shouldn’t do, was largely the writer’s assistant’s job. When I was a writer’s assistant, Kathleen and I created this living document with all the established facts and characters in both “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.” I was using So if in “Breaking Bad” Saul said, “I know she’s been divorced three times,” it would be there.or for Gail [a meth cook in “Breaking Bad” played by David Costabile] I had a resume that came up in one shot in one episode and said he went to a certain college, and that would be there too. At any given moment, we spoke up and told everyone what was known about it.
How long is this document?
Levine [Checking her computer.] The final version was 52 pages.
Williams Fossey it was beautiful.
Levine We expanded it into a spreadsheet called the Gillaverse Mega Timeline. [after Vince Gilligan, the creator of “Breaking Bad” and co-creator of “Better Call Saul”] Then I made the individual documents smaller for all the recurring characters.
How many times did the two of you watch “Breaking Bad” together?
Levine all the way through? seven. But there are individual episodes, such as one introducing Saul and another entering Gus and Salamanca’s relationship. [collaborators in a cross-border drug cartel] I easily watched it 20, 25, or more times.
Williams Fossey I’ve watched it through to the end at least 5 times, probably more.when [“Saul”] During production, I was watching scenes from “Breaking Bad” every day.
How did you deal with story decisions that might conflict with those established in “Breaking Bad”?
Levine We always wanted to be as consistent as possible, but reserved the right to decide that something we saw in “Breaking Bad” could have gone wrong. We decided to do what we felt would help this story. Saul’s diploma on “Breaking Bad” stated that he graduated from the University of Samoa in his 1986. There is a scene deleted from the show where he says he has a second ex-wife, and he has a total of three ex-wives. We actually include a flashback scene to one of his previous marriages It seemed like too much to introduce a whole new character. [Saul’s true love, played by Rhea Seehorn] get married in court
Williams Fossey Because in a way it makes sense that not everything adds up. He riffs constantly. that’s part of him.
What was the hardest needle to thread between the two shows?
Williams Fossey I think Gus and Super Lab took the most time and reasoning. [a giant underground meth operation that figured heavily into the plot of “Breaking Bad”]We wanted to show how Gus and Mike worked together to make that happen, but it’s clear that the lab was only recently completed in the Breaking Bad timeline. Beyond just explaining how much time and effort went into building the lab, we decided that at some point something stopped and we had to essentially start over.
Reddit fan No detail or perceived failure goes unnoticed. Were there any oversights that bothered you?
Levine Usually what bothered us was something we didn’t know or weren’t around. Dates were a big issue. During production, I was always shouting, “Don’t show me the calendar!”