The comically rich Jeffrey Katzenberg offered Breaking Bad’s creative team $75 million to make 180 more minutes of the show, the Dreamworks Animation CEO said at a conference today. His hope was for 30 six-minute mini-installments rolled out over the course of a month, each of which would cost between 50 and 99 cents. The idea was to create “the best pay-per-view scripted TV event ever,†Katzenberg said. Given how the series ended, though, Katzenberg admits that this is “not a very good idea, as we now know.â€
Hold up, J-Katz! Many of us would happily cough up the cost of a Diet Coke for a peek at what Jesse Pinkman is up to. I know, I know — the show ended. And we have Better Call Saul to look forward to. But BB fans would have paid for deleted scenes or extended cuts or outtakes, too, not just additional narrative minutes. If I could pay 99 cents to see exactly how Walt poisoned Brock, I would.
Breaking Bad aside (as if that will ever truly happen), it’s nice to know that there’s now yet another way for shows to live on. Instead of Kickstarter, just get an individual borderline billionaire to fund your show!