Bob Odenkirk Saved Carol Burnett’s ‘Better Call Saul’ Character from Being Killed: ‘I Refused’
Bob Odenkirk is taking the credit for Carol Burnett living another day on “Better Call Saul.”
The Emmy winner teased that he threatened to “walk” off production of the sixth and final season of “Better Call Saul” if her character was killed.
Burnett joined the AMC series as the mother of a cab driver whom Saul targets for a scam.
“They rewrote this scene exactly how I wanted it, but not how your so-called good friend ‘Better Call Saul’ executive producer Vince Gilligan had written it,” Odenkirk said during NBC special “90 Years of Laughter + Love,” in honor of Burnett’s 90th birthday (via Entertainment Weekly).
Odenkirk continued, “Carol, there’s something that you should know: Vince wanted my character to kill you in that scene. Look at him, he’s shaking his head. His exact words to me were, ‘Saul ends up killing Carol Burnett.’ And if I remember correctly, he didn’t say, ‘Kill Carol’s character,’ he said, ‘Kill Carol Burnett.’ But I refused, and I told him I’d walk.”
Odenkirk added, “Carol, I was willing to risk my career and never working in this town again. Because I didn’t want little children who watched our show — and I hope many of them did — to see me on the street and say, ‘Mommy, that’s the man who killed Carol Burnett.’ That’s all I wanted to say. That I’m your real friend and Vince is not. And one more thing, Vince and I, and everybody on our show, we think you’re the greatest.”
Burnett told Vulture that she knew Gilligan through “The X-Files” after her daughter Carrie was cast in an episode.
“He said she was his favorite guest star on ‘X-Files,’ so that’s what we talked about when I first met him,” Burnett said. “And then I was a big fan of ‘Breaking Bad,’ and at one point we were having dinner with him and his wife, Holly. I was telling him how much I love ‘Better Call Saul.’ And he said, ‘I may write something for you.’ I said, ‘I don’t care if it’s a sentence — I’ll be there.’ And so they wrote this part for me.”
She added, “I was there for two months in New Mexico and just loved everybody. It was a family.”
Comedy legend Burnett will next star in upcoming Apple TV+ series “Palm Royale” alongside Laura Dern, Kristen Wiig, and Allison Janney.