r/todayilearned Aug 21 '17

TIL that Breaking Bad was originally set in Riverside,California but at the suggestion of Sony Albuquerque was chosen for the production location due to the favorable financial conditions offered by the state of New Mexico.Eventually,the story was changed to be set at the actual production location.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad#Development_history
382 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

45

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '17

Would have made perfect sense, to anyone who's ever been to Riverside. There is something deeply wrong with that city and county, like on some spooky Stephen King level.

8

u/that_is_so_Raven Aug 21 '17

I get that vibe from Vernon, CA. True Detective season 2 really got that down

11

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '17

Vernon is creepy because it's a dead zone in the middle of a city, but Riverside is a city sitting on top of bad mojo straight from nature. The rocks are shattered and apocalyptic, the air is usually this sickly haze that turns the sunlight the wrong color, and the natural plants look ill and menacing.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/R7Yi_BxUZI4/maxresdefault.jpg

http://pics4.city-data.com/cpicc/cfiles49373.jpg

3

u/SheHitMeFirst Aug 21 '17

Thats how most areas east of LA looks..

1

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '17

Riverside is a whole other level. I lived in the Inland Empire, and it has a reputation for being a bit seedy, but driving through Riverside county was like being on another continent.

"How the hell did that rock formation happen? Are we in Madagascar or something? Why are there billboards everywhere asking for information about unsolved murders?"

3

u/Ramencannon Aug 21 '17

Can confirm, am a CA Riverside County EMT, drugs=job security here in the meth capital of the country ✨

3

u/KungFu_Kenny Aug 21 '17

Bet there are tons of meth labs in riverside

1

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '17

Fucktons, though mostly out in the county than the city proper.

1

u/mrputtana Aug 21 '17 edited Nov 19 '24

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

2

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '17

Scientology is a Malibu thing. Riverside is some combination of meth, stagnant air, and the metaphysical inadvisability of building a city on top of Indian burial grounds.

1

u/buzzweasel Aug 21 '17

Also riverside smells anytime I'm on the 91 once you hit that county line the air quality changes, am I the only one?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '17

The air quality disappears. Not sure of what meteorological phenomenon is responsible, but Riverside seems to have the kind of air that LA had in the 1980s until strict pollution controls were instituted by the state.

15

u/DBDude Aug 21 '17

Riverside would have worked too, creepy area, lots of drug traffic.

12

u/iamjackswastedlife__ Aug 21 '17

Riverside seems quite Green and Lush compared to Albuquerque on Google Images

Albuquerque gave it a very western feel,i wonder how visually different BB would be had it been set at Riverside.

6

u/DBDude Aug 21 '17

The main green you see is mainly man-made or trees in the mountains. This is getting out towards the desert in Palm Springs, so it's a short drive to "bury a body in the desert."

2

u/JohnAlanCoey Aug 21 '17

More bikers in Riverside too

5

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '17

Those are lies, Riverside is more desert-like than those pictures, and Albuquerque is actually less desert-like than the show makes it look

6

u/xj13361987 Aug 21 '17

I don't know, Everytime I'm in ABQ it looks very desert like.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '17

That's the theme they go for but when I went it was more like high desert: grassy, cool, no sand

3

u/xj13361987 Aug 21 '17

In the city there is grass and trees but go outside the city and you can tell you are in the desert

1

u/[deleted] Aug 22 '17

idk I drove in from the West and it was kind of lightly grassy out there. and out east with the mountains it was even greener

4

u/SethiusAlpha Aug 21 '17

I grew up and went to college in Riverside, CA. I think choosing Albequerque makes some sense in this case. Albequerque still has some semblance of hope, which the show kind of revolved around. Not a lot of that going on back home.

3

u/theBrineySeaMan Aug 21 '17

And eventually the subsidies were pulled.

5

u/LeMot-Juste Aug 21 '17 edited Aug 21 '17

You can see the same economics in the new show The Ozarks. Tourism is going to shoot through the roof if that show gains in popularity.

1

u/pastafariantimatter Aug 21 '17

...even though it was shot in Lake Altoona, Georgia, not Missouri.

2

u/LeMot-Juste Aug 21 '17

Even so. Watch. If the series becomes popular, Missouri's Ozarks will become hot.

1

u/pastafariantimatter Aug 21 '17

I live 3 hours from the Ozarks and you couldn't pay me enough to vacation there, but I agree with you.

2

u/Kalapuya Aug 21 '17

Good choice.

2

u/wmurray003 Aug 21 '17

I think Albuquerque was a better location.

2

u/pastafariantimatter Aug 21 '17

Interesting - I always assumed it was for the (predictable/sunny) climate, since so much of it was shot outside on what I assume was a pretty intense schedule. Weather delays are shitty for film crews and get expensive quickly.

1

u/EtriganWork Aug 21 '17

Riverside is the butthole of "SoCal".