Some of you might be wondering why FX would turn down a show that's dark tone would have fit so perfectly with its then line-up of shows such as The Shield, Nip/Tuck, and Rescue Me. Well, wonder no more, as FX President John Landgraf explained the logic behind the network's decision in a recent radio interview -
"We had three dramas with male antiheroes and we looked at that script and said, ‘Okay, so here’s a fourth male antihero. The question was: ‘Are we defining FX as the male antihero network and is that a big enough tent?"
So, the basic reasoning here is that Breaking Bad was just too much like FX's other series of the time, and the network didn't want to be typecast as only supplying one type of show. This statement becomes a bit ironic in hindsight when you consider shows like Sons Of Anarchy, and Justified that have premiered on FX since they rejected Breaking Bad. You can't tell me that the lead characters on those shows aren't very much anti-heroes. It could even be argued that Louis C.K. is kind of the "anti-hero" of Louie as well.
Landgraf continued - "Look, it was a wonderful script. If I had known Vince Gilligan was going to be one of the best showrunners in television, and Breaking Bad was going to be literally one of the very best shows in television, I would have picked it up despite the concept. But the truth of the matter is anybody who does what I do for a living, who’s honest, will tell you that you’re making decisions based on too little information all the time, and you make good ones and you make bad ones."
Now, that seemed like a pretty honest answer. You win some, you lose some. I have no doubts that FX stills feel regret about the choice they made, but hey, they ended up doing well for themselves even without Walter White.
