Bob Odenkirk was cast as the Albuquerque-based defense lawyer Saul Goodman in 2008, after receiving a call from Breaking Bad's creator Vince Gilligan (via GQ). However, up until this point, the actor hadn't seen an episode of the AMC show. "I'd seen billboards for Breaking Bad, but I'd never seen [it]. Nobody watched it, you know?"

Eventually, Odenkirk caught up with the hype and started getting into character, including coming up with Saul's comb-over/mullet combo. "[He's] a guy who is fooling himself that he's still kind of young and jazzy and sporty. Like, 'I'm a businessman, but I have fun. Come on, it's not all suits and ties'." 

His role as Saul was far from what the actor had ever done before, to the point where he didn't improvise like he'd usually do. "So, very quickly, I got excited about this acting job on Breaking Bad being pretty much completely different from everything I'd ever done," he told GQ. This vibe continued into his titular role on the spin-off Better Call Saul, which made Odenkirk appreciate the character even more. "It made me happy, it made me smile," he said about filming the pilot. "You know, I liked him more than I ever had."