Breaking Bad writer and Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould has now produced an interesting bit of Albequerque criminal ephemera, hopping on Bluesky this week to show off the original draft of a script from Breaking Bad that had surprisingly huge knock-on effects for Saul: The decision to change Saul Goodman's post-Walter White fate to working at a Cinnabon, as opposed to his original destination, Hot Topic.
This is one of those bits of TV serendipity that always remains just a little surprising to us: In multiple versions of this anecdote (which he's brought up a few times over the years) Gould notes that while he and some of the other writers had really pushed for Cinnabon as Saul's final destination—he's too nice to come out and say it, because Cinnabon ended up being pretty good to the Saul producers, but there's an inherent lack of dignity at play—the powers that be wanted Hot Topic for some reason, instead. Which, yes, is spelled out in black and white in the draft page, from penultimate Breaking Bad episode "Granite State." (Gould notes that series creator Vince Gilligan finally relented after realizing that Hot Topic was selling Breaking Bad merch at the time; he didn't want the illusion of product placement.) (Ironically, we can personally confirm that the prominent use of Cinnabon in Better Call Saul—including its use in a tense and riveting heist—made us crave the ever-loving fuck out of a Cinnabon on more than one occasion.)
We call this serendipity simply because, as far as mall-based brands go, Cinnabon feels much better suited to an eternal Omaha purgatory than Hot Topic. Possibly, it's just that Hot Topic managers don't have to wear sad little hats that show off their combovers, although we would have loved to see how Gene Takavic would have dressed his nametag up with Fortnite characters and other such age-inappropriate flair.
