Vince Gilligan and Toby Tyler, it seems, have more similarities than meets the eye. Of course, Gilligan did not have to leave home to find happiness — he had only to convince the right people (namely AMC and Sony) he had an idea for a TV show (BREAKING BAD) that could be produced for next to nothing and that America would fall in love with from the git-go.

The title, BREAKING BAD, by the way, is street talk for raising hell.

Toby Tyler had his own set of problems, however. Based on a children’s novel written in 1880 by James Otis Kaler, it is the story of a young lad who runs away from his foster home because he thinks his Uncle Daniel and Aunt Olive do not want him anymore. True, he runs away and joins the staff of a circus.

Toby believes Harry Tupper (an evil candy vendor who is the high school chemistry teacher Walter White on BREAKING BAD?) when he tells the youngster his aunt and uncle no longer love him nor want him back, so Toby, in defiance, joins up with the circus, which has conveniently come town.

Tyler soon finds circus life is no bag of fun and is reduced to selling snacks under the big top. He scores a much bigger role, however, when Ajax (uncle Hank Schrader), a showman, horseman, and good guy non-parallel, suffers a tragic accident (?). Toby Tyler, with the assistance of Mr. Stubbs (a chimpanzee that has befriended him; now who comes to mind?) takes over for Ajax and becomes a star.

Do you begin to see the similarity on BREAKING BAD between the venerable (a protagonist, first) and treacherous (antagonist, later) Walter White and Hank (Ajax) — as well as Mr. Stubbs and Jesse Pinkman?

Of course, it goes on and on. An elephant and a ferocious tiger become the artistic ad for circuses, and a one-eyed ratty stuffed animal, a scruffy teddy bear, comes to symbolize Walter’s empire (especially when his missing eye is found in Walter’s pool filter).

Sony Pictures wanted the series shot in California. AMC wanted it in Albuquerque, New Mexico (it was cheaper; the cost per episode was about 3 million). The entire movie version of TOBY TYLER, or TEN WEEKS WITH A CIRCUS, filmed by the Disney Studios in 1959, made little more in box-office receipts, in the U.S. and Canada, than $3,000,000.

The point is, Vince Gilligan says his inspiration was THE TWILIGHT ZONE, an American science-fiction series created by Rod Serling (Gilligan’s idol), which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1950 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated stories of paranormal, futuristic, Kafkaesque, and otherwise disturbing or unusual events. Each story, a la BREAKING BAD, typically featured some sort of plot twist — and a moral.

It goes without saying that James Otis Kaler would have been, had he been available, an undeniably great adjunct to Vince Gilligan’s writing staff.

Obviously, that is not possible, since the original novel was written in 1880; Kaler was already thirty-four (he died in 1912). But that does not mean that I am unavailable.

The spin-off, inked as BETTER CALL SAUL and starring Bob Odenkirk has, to my knowledge, no completed scripts, and is still relegated to Gilligan’s imagination. I think.

I will take this opportunity to propose an alternative: THE WALTER WHITE, JR. STORY, or 16 EPISODES of BREAKING GOOD. Just think. The story of a young victim of cerebral palsy with an inheritance of several million dollars with which to use for the good of mankind! Just think. With a mother like Skyler White, and a lawyer like Saul Goodman (a very funny episode in which RJ Mitte hires him against Skyler and her sister Marie’s advice is already conceived) — this has to be the spin-off AMC has been looking for.

Because Vince Gilligan is in California and I am in Georgia means nothing — what with emails and fax machines at our disposal collaboration is entirely feasible.

Bill O’Reilly and his co-author made 10 million dollars together with their book. There is no reason why Gilligan and I cannot come to a similar working agreement.

Bet I could with RJ Mitte.



Robert A. Mills
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