9 Take This Job & Love It
Heisenberg and the
HARKNESS
T
he life of a writer is, more often than not, a solitary one. Peter Gould ’78 P’18 understood that existence firsthand, spending the better part of his early career chained to his desk – first by writing screenplays for independent and big studio flicks and, later, scripts for HBO. One such HBO-intended effort, a pilot for a dark procedural about the IRS, attracted the notice of Vince Gilligan. Before long, Gould’s life – and writing process – would change forever. Gilligan was on the hunt for staff writers for his upcoming series, Breaking Bad, and was sure that Gould would be a perfect addition to the team. Gould was invited to view the Breaking Bad pilot and was blown away by what he saw. “I couldn’t believe how well the characters were drawn,” he recalls, gushing. “And I was really impressed with Vince’s shooting style; it was far more cinematic and visual than anything else on television.” Gould couldn’t sign on fast enough. A few months later he was in a roomful of other talented writers, all intent on chronicling the twoyear downward spiral of Walter White, a mildmannered high school chemistry teacher, husband, and father, who becomes a notorious methamphetamine kingpin known in the underworld as Heisenberg. The man’s transformation is total and uncomfortably plausible – and the product of countless hours of discussion and debate in the writers’ room. “This was my first foray into series television. It was the first time I ever wrote anybody else’s characters,” Gould explains. “And it was the first time I was ever in a room with a bunch of other writers trying to figure out a story. It felt right to me, though. I enjoyed the give-andtake, the exploration of an idea, and the opportunity to look at a situation from every angle.”
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t h e l aw r e n t i a n
Peter Gould ’78 P’18 cooks up high-quality television.
D Peter Gould’s University of American Samoa sweatshirt is the (fictional) alma mater of Better Call Saul's Saul Goodman. Gould used a certain prep school's seal as inspiration for the design.