From Walter White and Jesse Pinkman to Saul Goodman and Mike Ehrmantraut, it goes without saying that Breaking Bad (and by extension Better Call Saul) has some of TV’s greatest characters. But one of these characters only existed thanks to the interference of the last thing you would’ve expected: How I Met Your Mother.
A lot of guest stars have appeared on HIMYM over the course of its nine-season run and one of those stars happened to be Bob Odenkirk, who plays the one and only Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. However, this caused a bit of a scheduling conflict between the various shows Bob was on.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Bob revealed that he was actually scheduled to appear on HIMYM at the same time he was supposed to hang out with Walter White, and the adventures of Ted Mosby ultimately won out. In hindsight, Barney is probably the more entertaining guy to chill with than Walt.
Since Breaking Bad desperately needed Saul for what they had planned, Bob said the writers quickly created a new stand-in character in order to get the required information across. This new character? Mike Ehrmantraut.
“I promise you I thought I was up for three episodes of Breaking Bad — well, they wanted me for four, but I could only do three ’cause I was in How I Met Your Mother.
“They actually added the character of Mike because I couldn’t make that fourth week, and they needed another character to get that information across, so that’s amazing right there.”
Who would’ve thought that a scheduling conflict would ultimately lead to one of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul‘s most important characters?
If it weren’t for Mike Ehrmantraut, Breaking Bad would’ve been a wildly different show due to the his vital role in Walter White’s descent. Hell, there’s a possibility Better Call Saul wouldn’t exist had Mike to been hastily cobbled together in the writer’s room due to a last minute panic.
So let’s give a massive thanks to HIMYM because it meant Ted’s long-winded story about how he met his wife ultimately finished on a happy ending rather than the titular mother’s death.