Cop turned criminal Mike Ehrmantraut, played by Jonathan Banks, is one of the Breaking Bad universe's most enduring and iconic characters. He first appeared in Breaking Bad Season 2, Episode 13, "ABQ," helping a distraught Jesse Pinkman clean up after Jesse found his girlfriend Jane dead. In subsequent episodes, he acted as an advisor to Bob Odenkirk's sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman while also serving as consigliere, cleaner and all-around utility man for Gus Fring's Southwestern drug empire. This work placed him directly in the path of meth kingpin Walter White -- leading to a shaky and often violent alliance that ended in Mike's death at Walter's hands.
When Mike was introduced in the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul, he was working as a parking attendant at the courthouse frequented by Jimmy McGill (who had yet to reinvent himself as Saul Goodman). A former Philly cop, Mike came to Albuquerque in the wake of his son's death to care for his granddaughter and daughter-in-law. His journey from honest citizen to cold-blooded criminal is as compelling as the journeys of Walter and Jimmy... but audiences almost missed ever meeting the character at all.
During his tenure on Breaking Bad, Bob Odenkirk also made several appearances on How I Met Your Mother playing another unsavory attorney: Marshall's tyrannical boss Arthur Hobbs. It wasn't long before a scheduling conflict arose. As a result, the Breaking Bad producers had to pivot and develop a new character. That character was Mike Ehrmantraut, and the rest is Breaking Bad history. In an interview with Rolling Stone right before the release of Better Call Saul, Odenkirk recounted the circumstances leading to Mike's creation:
"I was up for three episodes of Breaking Bad -- well, they wanted me for four, but I could only do three ’cause I was in How I Met Your Mother. They actually added the character of Mike because I couldn’t make that fourth week, and they needed another character to get that information across, so that’s amazing right there. Thank you, How I Met Your Mother."
Odenkirk's role on How I Met Your Mother was not that show's only connection to Breaking Bad. Bryan Cranston appeared on the show as Ted's supervisor, the arrogant and vain Hammond Druthers, during the show's second season -- two years before he assumed the role of Walter White. After Breaking Bad's conclusion, Cranston revisited his role as Druthers in an episode during How I Met Your Mother's final season. As for Banks, he reprised the role of Mike in the 2018 Breaking Bad movie El Camino. He did not, however, make an appearance in the recently released animated Better Call Saul prequel, which focused on Jimmy McGill's younger years.
At the time Odenkirk first appeared on How I Met Your Mother in 2008, no one could have predicted that Breaking Bad would have become the cultural phenomenon that it did. Had Odenkirk known what lay in store for Saul Goodman, there's a good chance that he would have bowed out of How I Met Your Mother and made himself available to the Breaking Bad crew. And while no one would ever turn down the chance for more Saul or any of his other identities, it's safe to say the loss of that character for one episode turned out to be the franchise's gain because it brought Mike into the picture.
All five seasons of Breaking Bad are currently available to stream on Netflix.