On the penultimate episode of “Breaking Bad,” titled “Granite Slate,” crooked lawyer Saul Goodman told Walter White he was leaving the criminal life behind.
“If I’m lucky, a month from now — best-case scenario — I’m managing a Cinnabon in Omaha,” said Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk.
When Goodman returned, 16 months later, in the spinoff “Better Call Saul,” Goodman was indeed managing a Cinnabon. Whether it was the best or worst-case scenario for Goodman is unclear, but it’s worked out great for AMC and Cinnabon. The beloved cinnamon-bun chain has teamed up with AMC’s “Better Call Saul” since the show’s start, resulting in one of the most unique television business partnerships in recent memory.
As we look forward to the Season 3 premiere of “Better Call Saul” Monday, we spoke with a Cinnabon executive about how the unlikely partnership happened. It’s a take as twisty and multilayered as — well, you know.
Odenkirk’s line about Cinnabon in “Granite State” caught the attention of the mall foodcourt staple’s opportunistic social media team. Eleven minutes after the closing credits, the clever Cinnabon social gang tweeted Odenkirk. “When you’re ready,” they wrote, with a link to the Cinnabon Careers page:
Well, apparently executive producer Melissa Bernstein was ready — several months later. Bernstein reached out to Cinnabon to share news that they were creating a Saul-centered spinoff, said Jill Thomas, vice president of Global Marketing for Cinnabon. (Saul still goes by the name Jimmy McGill in the prequel, for reasons we’re not going into here.)
Peter Gould, the co-creator of “Better Call Saul,” has said that the original Cinnabon line was a “throwaway” — that is, until the tweet. And since you’re wondering (like we were), it turns out that no, Cinnabon wasn’t insulted by the hopelessness of Goodman’s reference.
“If you truly understand the character you know that no matter where he is, it’s a purgatory for him — because he isn’t able to be his true self,” Thomas told us. “Even if he was in a high-rise in a big city he would still be in Hell. So we never saw it that way at all, and never second-guessed our participation.”
Poor Jimmy. Or should we call him “Gene”? After all, that’s what Cinnabon does — and that’s the alias under which Odenkirk actually trained.
Oh, did we not mention that? The sketch comedy legend actually worked at a Cinnabon, and did the whole thing “in character as ‘Gene,'” Thomas said. Odenkirk was coached up by the airport staple company’s most tenured corporate employee, Deb Rowley, who started her career as the very first Cinnabon bakery manager in Seattle, Washington, in 1985.
“Bob went through significant training as any bakery employee would, although he had private lessons,” Thomas explained. “He has shared that it’s a great source of pride that he knows how to make a ‘real, authentic Cinnabon.'”
At this point we should point out that no money has exchanged hands to or from either side of this deal, further making it a unique sponsorship. This season, “Saul” (Gene/McGill/Odenkirk/AMC) and Cinnabon are taking their relationship to the next step.
First, they’ll do so with (very minor spoiler alert) a new Cinnabon sequence, which viewers will see shortly. We asked Thomas how much is in the can.
“Extensive footage was filmed over several days, but it has been edited down to approximately three minutes in the first episode of each season. This season it seemed to us that it was more substantial than in past years. But we are not ‘in the know,’ just fans of the show so we are only speculating — which is fun!”
And on the promotional side, the bakery got to drop a fresh Season 3 preview to fans, and is also giving away Saul’s briefcase stuffed with cash and other “personal belongings.” Plus, Cinnabon is handing out free BonBites from 5-7 p.m. today, linked to tonight’s premiere. Sweet deal, indeed.
"Better Call Saul" inhabits the same sad Albuquerque underground as "Breaking Bad," so it's natural that characters in the AMC shows would overlap. Ready to see how? (Spoiler warning: This gallery contains lots of details about both shows.)
Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) He's the main character in the new series, so of course we need to include Slippin' Jimmy. Goodman appeared in 43 of 62 "Breaking Bad" episodes as Walt and Jesse's criminal lawyer, with an emphasis on "criminal." This season, Jimmy finally starts to practice law as Saul Goodman, complete with an upgraded wardrobe.
In flash-forwards, we see that Jimmy/Saul lives long enough to become a paranoid, balding Cinnabon worker. Free icing? Could be worse.
Don Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis) He walks! Hector -- the uncle of Tuco Salamanca -- had a wheelchair in "Breaking Bad." But the old man who was constantly ringing his bell to communicate was a real crimelord in his younger, more virile days, which "Better Call Saul" shows.
In "Breaking Bad," Hector takes out Gustavo Fring (pictured) with a crazy suicide bomb, avenging the deaths of his OTHER nephews. We'll get to those guys soon.
Ken (Kyle Bornheimer) Here's one of those deep pulls that we alluded to earlier. In "Breaking Bad," obnoxious Ken inadvertently helped Walter White break bad, and his mode of transportation suffered the consequences.
First, Ken stole Walt's parking space at a bank, while bragging on his bluetooth. Later, the loudmouth continued his boastful, irritating behavior. So Walt blew up his car, as chemists do.
In Season 2 of "Saul," Jimmy and Kim trick Ken into buying them a ton of expensive tequila shots at a swanky bar. The stock broker with "KEN WINS" on his BMW license plates tends to lose a lot in this universe.
Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) After being teased at the end of Season 2, The Chicken Man and “Breaking Bad’s” biggest adversary shows up in the second episode of season 3. After a humorous scene where he’s cleaning up right next Jimmy eating at Los Pollos Hermanos (Saul and Gus never actually met each other in “Breaking Bad”), we see Fring is not yet the drug kingpin he is in “Breaking Bad.” But throughout the first four seasons, we see how Mike will eventually become Gus’ fixer and get a lot more on the rivalry between Fring and the Salamancas (as fans of both shows know, it doesn’t end well for either).
We also see Fring lay his eyes for the first time on the industrial laundromat that will be known to “Breaking Bad” fans as the Super Lab where Walt and Jesse cook for him.
Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz) Tuco's surprise appearance in Season 1 of "Better Call Saul" set the tone for even more exciting, unspoiled villainous returns. And then legs got broken, badly, because Tuco is a complete madmen.
Currently, Tuco is doing prison time, thanks to Mike. But he'll be out soon enough ...
In "Breaking Bad," the ruthless Tuco had worked his way all the way up to drug kingpin level. He, Walt and Jesse had some rough and tumble meetings before Tuco himself met his demise with a Hank Shrader bullet through the brain.
Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) OK, OK, we know -- another obvious one. But you can't make this an all-encompassing list sans Mike.
Mike and Jimmy/Saul work together in both series, though their relationship remains rocky at best. Early on in "Better Call Saul," the two meet at a local courthouse, where Jimmy is a public defender and Mike works the parking lot.
Leonel Salamanca (Daniel Moncada) One of the killer "cousins," who are really twin brothers. (They're cousins of Tuco's, and nephews of Hector's.)
The boys are dangerous, bloody, all-business hitman for the Juarez drug cartel. They're sharp dressers and have ever sharper axes. Both brothers get snuffed out as a result of a classic Hank firefight during "Breaking Bad," though this one lives long enough for one last-gasp badass hospital moment.
Domingo "Krazy-8" Molina (Max Arciniega) A more grown-up Krazy-8 was actually the first person Walter killed in "Breaking Bad," though he hemmed and hawed over it for a while, almost freeing his violent prisoner.
In "Saul," Molina comes across quite convincingly as a younger, more innocent version of himself, still new to the drug game and working at his dad's store. In a half-decade or so, he'll be choked to death with a bicycle lock in Jesse's aunt's basement. He's also Jimmy/Saul's first step into becoming the criminal underworld's go-to attorney.
Lawson (Jim Beaver) Everyone's favorite weapons dealer sells Walt the gun he uses to mow down a whole lotta neo-Nazis. He also turned up on "Better Call Saul" to offer several rifles to Mike... though, to Lawson's surprise, Mike took a pass.
Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Laura Fraser) We all know how she takes her tea by now, which would ultimately be Lydia's demise.
During the "Breaking Bad" days, Lydia tried to get Mike to kill a laundry list of Gus Fring's associates. When he refuses, she tries to have Mike killed. Bad move.
Lydia and Mike first meet in "Better Call Saul," when Gus sets him up with a paycheck at her Madrigal Electromotive. They don't get off to a great start.
Huell Babineaux (Lavell Crawford) A very svelte-looking Huell (Crawford lost 130 pounds since the end of “Breaking Bad”) pops up in the fifth episode of season 3, “Chicanery,” inadvertently bumping into Chuck during a recess during Jimmy’s bar hearing. In a gut-punching reveal, we find out that Jimmy hired Huell to plant a fully-charged battery on Chuck, which reveals his illness to be in his head and helps Jimmy avoid getting barred forever for practicing law.
Hey wait a minute, didn’t we see Huell do that move before…?
Don Eladio Vuente (Steven Bauer) "The Winking Greek" was the boss of the Juarez Cartel -- that is, until he took a shot of Gus Fring's Zafiro Añejo tequila during the "Breaking Bad" days.
Back during the "Better Call Saul" timeline, Eladio was a total jerk to Hector, who years later was used as a prop to take out Fring.
Francesca Liddy (Tina Parker) Before she was Saul Goodman’s personal secretary, Francesca served as the receptionist for Wexler McGill. She unfortunately gets laid off when Jimmy and Kim decide to sublet the office during Jimmy’s enforced year-long sabbatical from legal work. Jimmy promises to hire her back when he can practice law again, and we all know how that turns out.
Gale Boetticher (David Costabile) In the third episode of Season 4, Gus pays a visit to Gale at his chemistry lab on the University of New Mexico campus (with the scene evoking memories of another chemistry teacher), which ends with Gale urging for Gus to allow him to produce higher-grade meth in his lab. Gus declines, saying Gale is meant for “better things.”
We’ll find out in “Breaking Bad” that those “better things” aren’t really all that better.
Ed Galbraith (Robert Forester) A voice cameo for Ed, better known as the Vacuum Cleaner store operator that helped Saul disappear into his post-"Breaking Bad" life as Gene Takovic.
After Gene gets made, he phones in Ed to help him disappear again (at double the price), before deciding to take matters into his own hands.
Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) As Jimmy/Saul gets further into bed with the criminal underworld, we figure it was only a matter of time he crossed paths with Albuquerque's most famous DEA agent.
Norris is certainly the most prominent "Breaking Bad" alum to re-appear on the AMC prequel, having starred in 60 of the show's 62 episodes.
Steve Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada) What, you thought Hank would show up without his trusted partner?
Peter Schuler (Norbert Weisser) Schuler only appeared in one scene in "Breaking Bad" but it was a pretty memorable one.
The executive for Madrigal Electromotive GmbH, the parent company of Fring’s Los Pollos Hermanos (and financial benefactor for his meth operation), kills himself with a portable defibrillator after police arrive to question him about his longstanding ties to the Chicken Man.
In “Better Call Saul” we find out he was never that calm and collected.
Honestly? We're most worried about people who turn up on "Better Call Saul" but not "Breaking Bad." Does that mean they went straight and avoided grim "Breaking Bad" fates? Or that they didn't survive "Better Call Saul"? Kim Wexler, let us know you're okay.
A few ”Better Call Saul“ faces are familiar, but others are very deep pulls
"Better Call Saul" inhabits the same sad Albuquerque underground as "Breaking Bad," so it's natural that characters in the AMC shows would overlap. Ready to see how? (Spoiler warning: This gallery contains lots of details about both shows.)
AMC
