Uncannily anticipa ted a national mood … Breaking Bad (Jesse Pinkma n and Walter White at front centre). Photograph: Frank Ockenfels/AMC It was an all-time record hot day in the San Fernando Valley. On West BurbankBoulevard, lined with offices and strip malls, the air shimmered; people took pictures of their cars' temperature displays: 110, 112, 116. In an anonymous building across from an AutoZone, the lobby directory showed the offices of a private eye, a dental supply company, a handful of financial companies, and, in suite 206, something blandly mysterious and vaguely sinister called Delphi Information Sciences Corporation. The plastic nameplate on the suite's door did little to illuminate the nature of what such a corporation might do. Certainly it offered no clue that behind the door, under the dropped ceilings, the fluorescent lights, and the hum of air- conditioning in this one-time data services office, was the most coveted workplace in Hollywood: the Breaking Bad writers' room. It was so not only because Breaking Bad was arguably the best show on TV, but because its creator and showrunner, Vince Gilligan, was known as a good man to work for – someone who managed to balance the vision and microscopic control of the most autocratic showrunner with the open and supportive spirit of the most relaxed. He was a firm believer in collaboration. "The worst thing the French ever gave us is the auteur theory," he said flatly. "It's a load of horseshit. You don't make a movie by yourself, you certainly don't make a TV show by yourself. You invest people in their work. You make people feel comfortable in their jobs; you keep people talking." In his room, he said, all writers were equal, an approach that he insisted had less to do with being a Pollyanna than with pure, selfish practicality. "There's nothing more powerful to a Inside the Breaking Bad writers' room: how Vince Gilligan runs the showAs excitement mounts ahe ad of the finale of hit US TV show Breaking Bad, Brett Martin sits in as showrunner Vince Gilligan and his writing team tease the much-acclaimed drama into life Brett Martin The Guardian, Friday 20 September 2013 14.09 BST Difficult Men: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad by Brett Martin Buy the book
