The Writer’s Guild strike was a “godsend” for Vince Gilligan.

As Breaking Bad entered planning and pre-production at full steam, Vince Gilligan realized he had a problem. The scripts for the first season would not be ready by the scheduled date, resulting in a halt to production that could have costly repercussions. He told Esquire that while he was performing his on-site showrunner duties, his talented writing team tried to work through the remaining episodes in Los Angeles, but still failed.

It was an ironic stroke of luck that the start of the writers’ strike gave them the unexpected break they so desperately needed. Speaking to Esquire, Gilligan revealed, “Around the time we were going to close for lack of scripts, which could well have been the death knell for the series in those early days, the WGA went on strike, saving my job.”**, for which I will forever be grateful.” This gave the crew a mandatory stopping point, while also providing a chance to catch their breath. It even saved the show from having to cut production costs or default, which could have jeopardized the future success of Breaking Bad.

Who would have thought that two seemingly separate events would have such an intricate connection? Luckily, the timing worked out perfectly and gave the world the popular and explosive series.