ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Filing up the steps into the vintage recreational vehicle, a group of tourists from half a dozen U.S. states and Spain settle in among a faked-up meth lab of saucepans, glass jars and ventilation tubes, framed by familiar-looking hazmat suits and respirators. Tour guides Frank and Jackie Sandoval make sure their charges are all seated and then hit the gas.
“Welcome to the ‘Breaking Bad’ experience tour,” said Frank, who had a nonspeaking role as a DEA agent in the hit show, before leading the tourists in belting out the catchphrase of its meth cooking co-lead, Jesse Pinkman: ”Yo, bitch!”
The AMC show, which traced the transformation of high school chemistry teacher Walter White into a murderous drug lord, aired its last episode in 2013, but the tour company is among a number of local businesses in the city where it was set and filmed that are still experiencing a rush to their bottom line from its runaway success.
“There's a whole ‘Breaking Bad’ economy” in Albuquerque, said Jackie, rattling off a list of businesses cashing in on the multiple Emmy-winning show, among them three rival firms offering location tours, hotels providing show-themed packages, a brewery making tribute beers and a shop selling rock candy that was used as a stand-in for White's meth in the show.
Over its five seasons, “Breaking Bad” won 16 Primetime Emmy Awards and an audience of millions around the world. The show's darkly compelling storylines, ready availability on Netflix and spinoff series “Better Call Saul” have together combined to give the darkly comic show a robust afterlife in the city.
“‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’ and all the filming activities have been very generous to Albuquerque,” said Tania Armenta of the Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau, which features a list of show-related local businesses on its website. “I really don't see any indication right now in the next few years that it’s going to ease off much,” she added.
In an indication of the show's continuing appeal, the Sandovals started their business in April last year, six months after Breaking Bad's final episode aired. Their tour, featuring more than a dozen locations from the show, quickly became a hit of its own with visitors from across the U.S. and Canada, and as far away as Australia, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain and even Zimbabwe. They have since added locations used in “Better Call Saul.”
Also thriving is the rival ABQ Trolley Co., which offered its first show-related tour just as the show's season five hit the air in 2012. "Initially we thought we would do one ‘Bad Tour’ ever, but it sold out in a couple of days. We added a second tour and that sold out in a day. We added a third tour and that sold out in two minutes. So we knew we had something, so we've been adding more and more ever since,” said Jesse Herron, who runs the firm with Mike Silva. The pair last month added a tour of locations from “Better Call Saul,” which is expected to begin shooting a second season here in coming months.
Debbie Ball
owner, The Candy Lady
Visitors who packed into the Sandovals' RV one recent Saturday said they were drawn to the show by its compelling storylines — particularly the narrative arc of its everyman lead, Walter White, the cancer-stricken chemistry teacher played by actor Bryan Cranston who morphs into ruthless methamphetamine kingpin Heisenberg in a bid to pay his medical bills and safeguard his family's future.
“It seemed so true that this high school chemistry teacher who was brilliant would do what he had to do for money,” said Debbie Barbe, a visitor from Oklahoma. Like several others touring the Albuquerque locations, which included the suburban house that doubled for White's home and the car wash where he and his wife Skyler laundered their drug millions, Barbe said she had come to the show late and caught up on Netflix. “I just heard people at work talking about it ... and so I just started watching it, and I would binge-watch show after show after show to get caught up,” she said.
Others on the tour had their own favorite characters, among them Pinkman, the addict portrayed by Aaron Paul, and Saul Goodman, the attorney played by actor Bob Odenkirk whose desperate hustle to make a living from a string of legal ruses is now the subject of the AMC prequel series.
“It's a fun show to watch as a lawyer, because we've all been through that, trying to look for business, and trying to figure out where your next dollar's coming from,” said Bill Keiler, an attorney from San Antonio, chatting after a brief tour stop at Day Spa & Nail, which doubles as the law office for Goodman's character in the show.
The boost from the show's vigorous afterlife on Netflix and renewed interest from spinoff “Better Call Saul,” is carrying over to other businesses in Albuquerque, among them Guerilla Graphix, a design studio that developed a range of merchandise inspired by the two shows, including aprons emblazoned with the iconic image of Heisenberg in dark glasses and a pork pie hat and “Better Call Saul” T-shirts.
“‘Call Saul’ has reinvigorated it completely," said designer Brian Bailey, at the firm's shop in Old Town Albuquerque. “It has all these nods to the old people … all these jokes… and people say ‘I wasn't sure about ‘Breaking Bad,’ but maybe now I'll double back’” and check it out, he added.
A few yards up the street, the Candy Lady store owned by confectioner Debbie Ball continues to do a roaring trade in dollar "dime bags” of rock candy that were used as a stand-in for White's meth in the first two seasons. In 2013 she added Breaking Bad-inspired T-shirts and a limo tour of locations.
“It's made such a difference,” she said of the show and the stream of visitors in its wake, who on a typical day account for a quarter of her business, and sometimes as much as half. “All these people come in and they buy up to 10 bags [of rock candy], T-shirts or whatever … it's still very good for me.”
Regardless of how long the rush lasts for Albuquerque businesses, Ball said she would carry on making the brittle candy in the kitchen of her store regardless. “I'm going to continue to cook,” she said with a laugh. “I'm too old to quit.”
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