The series was written and developed by Vince Gilligan. When AMC greenlit Breaking Bad, the network ordered nine episodes to comprise the debut season. During production on season 7, the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike. The strike occurred in early November, 2007, and halted production on the series for four months. The nine-episode order was then cut to seven episodes, which caused Gilligan to rethink how he wanted to shape the series. The writer’s strike had a negative impact on many in the industry, but Gilligan credits it as a “godsend” in an interview with Esquire. If it wasn’t for that strike, Breaking Bad could have turned out much differently.
How The Writer’s Strike Changed Breaking Bad For The Better
There were big moments planned for the final two episodes of Breaking Bad season 1 that, thankfully, never manifested due to the strike. Gilligan toyed with killing off Jesse early in the show’s development but quickly scrapped that idea. Gilligan did, however, plan to kill Hank by the end of season 1, since he wanted to sacrifice one of the main characters, explaining “that’s what the ballsy shows do.” When the season was cut short, Gilligan had a chance to think over Hank’s death, and decided against it, at least for that point in the series.
Gilligan and the rest of the creative team also had time to look at Breaking Bad‘s bigger picture. They realized that they were running out of scripts because they were blowing through big moments too fast. During the strike, the team figured that they should slow down the pace of the series. They also threw out the scripts from the final two episodes planned for season 1, and went in a different direction when developing the follow-up season. Gilligan believed that Breaking Bad wouldn’t have lasted so long if they went with the original plan, thinking it would have been a “less rich experience.”