First They Were On Seinfeld Then Yadda, Yadda, Yadda — Now They’re on Breaking Bad

If you’ve ever been a fan of Seinfeld you’ve noticed a huge list of actors who got their start on the show about nothing, but maybe none more so than the future stars of Breaking Bad…

If you’ve ever watched Seinfeld (and by now who hasn’t?), there’s a startling amount of well-known actors and actresses who got their first big break alongside Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer.

The show about nothing is literally a hodgepodge for stars of tomorrow who got their start as one of Jerry’s girlfriends, one of George’s girlfriends, and sometimes even playing a clown.

While the list of guest stars that you’d recognize is about a mile long from House‘s Lise Edelstein (“I feel full after the Risotto”) to Terminator‘s Thomas Dekker (“Can he hit two homeruns?”), there is one startling coincidence when digging through the catacomb of Seinfeld episodes.

It appears that about half of the cast of Breaking Bad started out on the show about nothing!

First up, there’s dentist to the stars himself Tim Whatley aka Bryan Cranstan aka Walter White aka Heisenberg.

Sure enough, Cranston got his break on Seinfeld where he appeared for several episodes as Jerry’s friend Tim Whatley. Who could forget how he chewed on Jon Voight’s pencil or invited Newman to the Super Bowl with him?

Of course we can’t forget how he converted to Judaism simply for the jokes or that he may or may not have had sex on top of Jerry’s lifeless body with one of his nurses while the comedian was passed out during a dental procedure.

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We then move onto Walter’s wife on Breaking Bad, Skyler White aka Anna Gunn, who first appeared on Seinfeld as Jerry’s girlfriend Amy.

She was no fan of Jerry’s hot apartment, so he had to get a very large air conditioner to make sure she was comfortable, but on top of everything she was cheating on him with his cousin Jeffrey! Okay, really she wasn’t—George didn’t have his glasses and despite his excellent squinting when he thought he saw Amy kissing Jeffrey, it was actually a police officer kissing a horse. Simple mistake right?

From Mrs. Heisenberg we then move to Walt’s attorney extraordinaire Saul Goodman, who appeared on Seinfeld as Elaine’s almost doctor boyfriend Ben. While he almost let a cook from the coffee shop die because he’s not really a doctor, he ultimately breaks up with Elaine when he finally gets his medical license because the dream of becoming a doctor is breaking up whoever you’re with at the time and finding someone better.

In some ways, Odenkirk’s turn as Ben was a good preview for Saul Goodman after all!

Other actors that crossed over from Seinfeld to Breaking Bad include Nigel Gibbs, who had a very brief part in the hit comedy series and then became a detective on Breaking Bad.

Also, Larry Hankin made appearances on both, as well as Mark Harelik, and Jessica Hecht as well.

There’s a great fan made video below showcasing all of the Breaking Bad stars as they were in Seinfeld before cooking up Blue Sky. Check it out below:
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