The Greatest TV Pilots Of All Time

Breaking Bad

The premise of the Vince Gilligan show Breaking Bad is that high school chemistry teacher Walter White turns into a meth dealer when he finds out he has cancer. Of course, the brilliant part about the pilot is that it starts right in the middle of the action, then rewinds to explain those first moments.

The man who leads the series was none other than actor Bryan Cranston, who played Walter White. Gilligan knew he wanted Cranston in the role, but AMC executives were unsure of the choice due to Cranston’s past in the comedic dad role on Malcolm in the Middle. But Gilligan, who previously worked on The X-Files had previously cast Cranston in an episode and knew that he was the one for Breaking Bad saying, “We had this villain, and we needed the audience to feel bad for him when he died. Byran alone was the only actor who could do that, who could pull off that trick. And it is a trick. I have no idea how he does it.”