Better Call Saul's Jimmy McGill Seeds Were Planted In A Classic SNL Character
Decades before Better Call Saul first aired, the seeds for the show’s main character Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) were planted in a classic Saturday Night Live personality. Jimmy shares similarities with a character Odenkirk wrote for SNL nearly thirty years ago: Matt Foley (Chris Farley), a crass, over-caffeinated motivational speaker who lives in a van down by the river. At first glance, Foley seems a far cry from Jimmy, but the SNL character’s origins demonstrate that he has more in common with Better Call Saul’s leading man than first meets the eye.
Better Call Saul is a spin-off prequel of the highly successful Breaking Bad series. It follows quick-witted defense attorney Jimmy McGill before he adopted the pseudonym “Saul Goodman” (a play on the catchphrase “It’s all good, man”). Jimmy works as a public defender in Albuquerque but struggles to make ends meet, living in the shadow of Chuck McGill (Michael McKean), his older brother and well-respected partner in an established law firm. Down on his luck and desperate for a break, Jimmy creates a hit-and-run scheme to make some fast cash, only to have his plan backfire and leave him in the crosshairs of an extremely violent cartel figure. Jimmy’s goal to become more like his successful brother suddenly becomes far more complicated as he is drawn further into Albuquerque’s dark criminal underworld, increasingly endangering him and those close to him.
Related: Better Call Saul Explains A Breaking Bad Gus Fring & Walter White Mystery
Jimmy McGill’s story is undoubtedly more dramatic than Foley’s, but they share a similar “underdog” characteristic. On Saturday Night Live, Foley would motivate by shock, storming into a living room, very caffeinated, and addressing two hip
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