Elizabeth Ramos
ENGL 1301
Teresa Trevathan
Dec. 12, 2014
Television’s Best Moments Television has provided many moments where audiences held their breaths, cheered out loud, got up and danced, or sat there and cried. From the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show to the question of “Who shot J.R.?” on Dallas, we have been riveted to the set, watching avidly and discussing what we had seen with others. One series, M*A*S*H, provided one of TV’s best moments with its final episode, titled “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen.” Though this particular episode featured many great moments, the best one would be when Hawkeye Pierce was talking to Dr. Sidney Freedman in a mental hospital. The doctor was trying to discover why Pierce had a mental breakdown, while Pierce was having difficulty in remembering what had happened. Pierce finally recalls that the bus he and others were riding had to pull over to the side of the road to hide from an enemy patrol. Hawkeye yells at a woman to keep her chicken from squawking, fearful that the enemy would find them, only to be stunned when the woman smothers her chicken while trying to keep it quiet. The audience is just as horrified as Hawkeye when he realizes the woman didn’t smother a chicken; she smothered her infant child. This finale episode aired in 1983, and it remained the most watched episode in the history of television until 2010. When looking at modern day programming, the AMC original show Breaking Bad has provided moments on par with M*A*S*H, due to its strong character development, relatable stories, and good versus evil plot. Breaking Bad has had some water cooler conversation worthy moments because of its strong character development. The main character, Walter White, is a meth-cooking, drug kingpin, but he didn’t start out that way. At the start of the series, Walter is a high school chemistry teacher who also works part time at a car wash to make ends meet for his family. He’s presented as a weak, emasculated man, a sort of modern day “everyman.” In the pilot episode, he is celebrating his 50th birthday, and he discovers he has inoperable lung cancer. Because he is certain to die within a few years, Walter fervently wishes to leave something behind for his family, to ensure they will be set financially. He then hatches a plan to cook meth with former student Jesse Pinkman. That starts his descent into immorality. Walter’s wife, Skyler, starts the series as a stay-at-home mom who writes short stories and sells useless junk online. She is Walter’s nagging, strong-willed conscious, urging him and others in the family to always do the right thing. But in spite of her morals, her loyalty to her family and subsequent drive to keep them from harm results in her making immoral decisions. In contrast, Pinkman is a street level thug and meth addict. As the series progresses, we see that Jesse is mostly a good kid, making bad decisions out of the conviction that he’s unlovable. In spite of this belief, he tries to do the right thing time and time again, especially when his decisions affect children, for whom he has a soft spot. Breaking Bad also has relatable stories. Walter White is just stuck. He’s a brilliant chemist, with a genius-level IQ. Yet, in spite of that, he’s stuck teaching high school chemistry to teens who don’t care about the science or want to learn it. He’s stuck in a marriage with no passion and has a disabled child. In spite of doing everything right, Walter’s life is so horribly wrong. As David R. Koepsell wrote in Breaking Bad and Philosophy: Badder Living through Chemistry, “Deep in a never-ended recession, losing confidence with our technical and innovative prowess worldwide, out-paced by competitors, and nervous about the future and what we leave for the next generation, we are all Walter White” (vii). Aside from Walter being the anti-hero, Breaking Bad shows the conflict that we as humans struggle with when it comes to making decisions. In the episode “Phoenix,” Jesse’s girlfriend Jane overdoses on heroin and chokes on her own vomit. Walter, who had come to discuss business with Jesse, sees that Jane is choking and starts to help her. However, he changes his mind and simply allows her to die because she was having a negative influence on Jesse. Though our decisions are not as grave as this one, we still face this inner turmoil over right and wrong. Breaking Bad has a solid good versus evil plot as well, though perhaps the definitions of both terms are rewritten with this show. Good versus evil is a theme that has been present in literature since the beginning of time, but no television show has done a better job with it than this one. In most literature, the bad guy is easily identifiable, such as the guy in the black hat. In Breaking Bad, there is definitely both good and evil, but each side is present in every person. It’s our choices that define which side wins. Walter is good in that he wishes to provide for his family, but he travels down a road that requires him to be evil, such as when he has men in prison murdered (“Gliding Over All”) or when he personally killed a man by strangling him from behind (“And the Bag’s in the River”). Other characters in the show struggle with the same sort of moral dilemmas, and because they are all so relatable, we can’t help but root for them in spite of the evil they perpetuate. Breaking Bad won a huge variety of awards (108), and many of the actors on the show have won awards as well. Bryan Cranston, who played Walter White, won the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series[->0] three times. The series has spawned countless magazine and newspaper articles, several books, and a couple of spin-offs. Many universities are now offering courses on the television show. From the variety of camera shots, to the writing and the acting, the impact Breaking Bad has had on society will last for years. This impact is due to the bounty of great moments within the series, moments that make us gasp, make us cry, and perhaps make us understand ourselves a bit more.

Works Cited
“And the Bag’s in the River.” Breaking Bad: The Complete First Season. Gilligan, Vince, Karen Moore, Dave Porter, Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, R J. Mitte, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, and Raymond Cruz. Culver City, Calif: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2009. DVD.
“Gliding Over All.” Breaking Bad: The Final Season. Gilligan, Vince, Karen Moore, Dave Porter, Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, R J. Mitte, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, and Raymond Cruz. Culver City, Calif: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2013. DVD.
“Pilot.” Breaking Bad: The Complete First Season. Gilligan, Vince, Karen Moore, Dave Porter, Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, R J. Mitte, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, and Raymond Cruz. Culver City, Calif: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2009. DVD.
“Phoenix.” Breaking Bad: The Second Season. Gilligan, Vince, Karen Moore, Dave Porter, Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, R J. Mitte, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, and Raymond Cruz. Culver City, Calif: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2010. DVD.

Koepsell, David R. Breaking Bad and Philosophy: Badder Living through Chemistry. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 2012. Print.

[->0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primetime_Emmy_Award_for_Outstanding_Lead_Actor_in_a_Drama_Series