Breaking Bad was not originally set in Albuquerque, New Mexico

If it weren’t for “Breaking Bad,” Albuquerque, New Mexico would still be best known in popular culture as the site of Bugs Bunny’s wrong turns. If you’ve been sleeping comfortably under a rock, “Breaking Bad” is about Albuquerque science teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who uses his chemistry skills to cook meth after he is diagnosed with cancer. Because the show was set in the southwestern US, the story made a semi-frequent dip into Mexico itself and many of the series’ criminal subplots and characters had ties to fictional drug cartels. (In real life, Albuquerque is about four hours north of the Mexican border.)

With more than 500,000 residents, Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico. This is definitely a big fish in a small pond situation; the state has a vast land area but a sparse population of about 2 million. (It ranks 37th out of 50 in population for all U.S. states.) Why set a television series there compared to better-known regional neighbors like Dallas, Texas or Phoenix, Arizona? It was all about the money.

As showrunner/creator Vince Gillian has explained several times, he originally conceived of “Breaking Bad” as being set in Riverside, California. During production, Sony decided that the series should be shot in Albuquerque instead to take advantage of a generous 25% tax credit for film and television production in New Mexico. Gilligan agreed, thinking it was too good a deal to pass up, and rewrote the series’ setting. As he once explained to Vulture:

‘It’ll be great. All you have to do is change the license plates and call it California.” I said, ‘No, we’d be shooting in a city where we could never look east.’ We should always avoid the Sandia Mountains! That’s why we changed the setting to New Mexico.”

It was announced that “Breaking Bad” would be shot in New Mexico in 2007 as the second major project for the newly opened Albuquerque Studios. At the time, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez commented on the news, saying, “I’m particularly pleased with ‘Breaking Bad’ (shot here) because it’s set in Albuquerque and that kind of recognition is priceless.”

Riverside is slightly smaller than Albuquerque (about 300,000 residents), but is also only about 50 miles from Los Angeles. The New Mexico setting of “Breaking Bad” complements the show’s Western highlights (such as the train robbery in “Dead Freight”). Unlike Riverside, Albuquerque can still be a frontier in the 21st century.

Gilligan admitted to Slant in 2010 that he hadn’t even thought about cartel storylines when he first performed “Breaking Bad” at Riverside. While he felt Walt’s “own meth business” could credibly have sprung up in all fifty states, the series’ Southwestern setting didn’t hurt either:

“Once we got the ball rolling on our series, in (2005-2010), news of drug violence in many cities and towns along the southwest border became increasingly prominent in the national news, so we ended up including it. It helped at the time, I’m sure our story was set in Albuquerque, which is only about 220 miles from the border. So we got a little “lucky” with that element of storytelling.

Of course, many real Albuquerque locations came to the show. The White family home is a real house in suburban ABQ (although the show uses a fictional address) and Los Pollos Hermanos is actually a real Twisters restaurant.

While production of “Breaking Bad” took place locally in New Mexico, the writers’ room was located in Burbank, California. That meant each of the writers had to make a little trip when they traveled to visit episode sets or even direct. (Not that this stopped the writers of “Breaking Bad” from delivering a perfect product.)

Yet Gilligan has claimed that he “taught Albuquerque to love” (via Slant). The prequel/sequel “Better Call Saul” and the epilogue film “El Camino” were also shot on site and at Albuquerque Studios. Gilligan’s upcoming sci-fi series for Apple TV+ (with the working title “Wycaro”) has nothing to do with “Breaking Bad,” but it stars former Kim Wexler actor Rhea Seehorn and is, surprisingly, also set in Albuquerque. The city might as well put Gilligan on the payroll as head publicist at this point.