Happy Birthday, Bob Odenkirk! The comedian and actor known best for playing Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul turned 60 on October 22nd. Back in August, Better Call Saul aired its final episode, and Odenkirk said goodbye to the character he began playing in 2009. The actor also had a big health scare last year when he suffered a heart attack on the set of Better Call Saul, but he’s doing well and has since joked the experience was more traumatic for his co-stars than himself. In honor of Odenkirk’s 60th, many of the folks involved with Better Call Saul took to social media to celebrate his special day.
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“Happy birthday to this rock star! So glad you’re on the planet & in my life. Love you @therealbobodenkirk!!!” Rhea Seahorn wrote. You can view her post below:
“Happy Birthday Maestro!!!! Love you Bob!” Giancarlo Esposito posted.
“Of Course We’re Happy!!! It’s @therealbobodenkirk birthday today!!! Send some Birthday Love his way today!!!!” Patrick Fabian wrote.
“Happy birthday to our @mrbobodenkirk!” Michael McKean tweeted.
“Happy birthday to the MAN!Have a great one, @mrbobodenkirk!!” executive producer Peter Gould wrote.
Did Better Call Saul Originally Have a Different Ending?
Better Call Saul followed Odenkirk during the events before and after Breaking Bad. Warning: Spoilers Ahead! In the series finale, Saul/Jimmy finagles a deal that would only land him seven years in prison, Saul ends up further confessing to his involvement in Walter White’s empire and gets a sentence of over 80 years. The series ends with Saul’s ex-wife, Kim Wexler (Seehorn) showing up at the prison as his lawyer, and they share a touching final moment. After smoking together as they did in the show’s first episode, Kim leaves and passes Saul in the yard. He does some finger guns to her, which is something both characters had done previously in the series. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Seehorn revealed they shot different versions of the ending.
“Well, we shot a couple of different iterations — including ones where she shoots finger guns back at him. It was very small and not animated or with a smile, but still – in the end, Peter decided that it looked too much like they were saying, ‘Kim is back in the game,’ and we really didn’t want to give that impression. That moment between them, to me, is much more about the acknowledgment of their bond, that is still there, and the part of their relationship that was true,” Seehorn explained.
“It’s very purposely left to interpretation,” she added. “Is this him just saying, ‘Man, we had a great run and it’s okay?’ Or is it him saying, ‘We’re still great together. And we could still do something together. We could still legally do something together.’ [Laughs] I took it to mean that he was saying, ‘I still believe that we have a relationship.’ In whatever capacity that is. Even though the finger guns are representative of the beginning of this horrible downfall scam with Hamlin, for me, in the moment – because he does it in a very different way – it felt like, ‘There is still something great about us. Not everything about what we were together is bad. There’s something great about the two of us together.’ And I took her look to him to be an acknowledgment that it’s true, even though she’s not ready to say what that means.”
Happy Birthday, Bob!
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