THE NETWORK REALLY WANTED MATTHEW BRODERICK TO STAR. HBO wasn’t the only network that ultimately said no to Walter White: Showtime, TNT, and FX all passed on Breaking Bad, too, for various reasons. Like the worst meeting I ever had … The woman we pitching to could not have been less interested-not even in my story, but about whether I actually lived or died.” "The trouble with Hollywood-movies and TV-is people will leave you dangling on the end of a meat hook for days or weeks or months on end,” Gilligan said. In a 2011 interview, Gilligan shared that he pitched Breaking Bad to HBO, and that it was “the worst meeting I’ve ever had.” But the “It’s not TV” network wasn’t always so hot on Gilligan.
In 2016, it was announced that Vince Gilligan is working on a limited series about Jim Jones for HBO. LOTS OF NETWORKS PASSED ON IT, INCLUDING HBO.
Regularly cited as one of the greatest television series of all time ( Rolling Stone ranked it number three on its list of the 100 best shows, right in between Mad Men and The Wire), here are 25 things you might not have known about Breaking Bad-which is about to get the big-screen treatment, courtesy of creator Vince Gilligan. And it evolves over time, with each season somehow-and miraculously-managing to top the one before it. But, like all great TV shows, the story is really not that simple. At its most basic level, it’s the story of a soft-spoken chemistry teacher who, after being diagnosed with lung cancer, risks everything he has worked for to make sure his family will be taken care of in the event of his death. Though it didn’t premiere to over-the-top ratings, over the course of five seasons, it morphed into a television phenomenon-thanks in large part to word of mouth and the increasing popularity of binge-watching.
On January 10, 2008, Breaking Bad made its debut.