‘Breaking Bad’: The Owners of Walter White’s House Protect Their Roof From Pizzas By Sitting Outside With a Shotgun
Breaking Bad’s Walter White once threw a pizza onto his roof in a fit of frustration. Notably, an unsliced pizza. The scene became a touchstone for many fans of the series, which has an incredibly wide and devoted fanbase. Unfortunately for Francis and Louis Padilla, owners of Walter White’s home on Breaking Bad, fans may be a little too devoted to the scene. So much so that they’ve taken to chucking pizzas onto the home’s rooftop — and the owners have had enough.
‘Breaking Bad’: Walter White’s house owner is sick of pizza
Breaking Bad fans are committed, and it’s easy to see why — the show is incredible. Unfortunately, some fans have taken that commitment to the next level, imitating Walter White’s astonishing pizza freak out.
Suffice it to say, the actual owners of Walter White’s home are sick of seeing pizzas on their roof.
“We’ve had pizzas on our roof. We’ve had pizzas on our driveway; pizzas until we’re sick of looking at pizzas,” Francis Padilla told NPR. The homeowner added that she’s even suggested she’d try to deter would-be pizza Olympians with a shotgun.
“I’ll sit outside with a shotgun in a rocking chair. You know, like Granny from Beverly Hillbillies,” she added.
Things got so bad that the family elected to begin construction of a six foot tall iron fence around their property in order to prevent additional pizza tossers. Unfortunately, the fence hasn’t been enough — people continue to try anyway.
“They still try to throw pizzas even though she’s got a gate, she’s got signage. We joke that it’s kind of military-hardened now. Pizza-hardened. Even to this day, people still try to do it. They even try to climb the gate now,” said Frank Sandoval, owner of Breaking Bad RV Tours in Albuquerque.
‘Breaking Bad’ writer Vince Gilligan tells fans to knock it off
Breaking Bad writer and creator Vince Gilligan feels for the Padillas, and has since asked fans to please leave the family that owns Walter White’s house alone.
“There is nothing original or funny or cool about throwing a pizza on this lady’s roof. It’s been done before. You’re not the first,” Gilligan told fans during an episode of the Better Call Saul Insider Podcast.
“If you see anyone acting like an a—hole, well, I’m not saying go after them personally or anything, but maybe take down their plate number. Something within reason,” he added.
The actor behind Mike Ehrmantraut, Jonathan Banks, had a warning for would-be pizza tossers.
“If I catch you doing it, I will hunt you down. If you’re a kid and you’re doing that, straighten your a** up, man, because it’s not cool,” he added during the podcast.
The unsliced pizza received plenty of attention
Although the Padillas may be suffering a frustrating fate thanks to Breaking Bad and Walter White, Venezia’s Pizza — now Gino’s NY Style Pizza — flourished at the time. Unsliced pizzas were ordered for the show, given that Walter White had to toss the pizza onto the roof.
Later, the show featured the unsliced pizza again during a scene at Jesse’s party. There, Badger explains that the pizza is uncut as a gimmick.
“This place, they don’t cut their pizza and they pass the savings onto you,” he tells Jesse, calling the process “democratic.”
“After that episode aired, we were getting calls from all over asking us why we don’t cut our pizzas, and asking, do you cut your pizzas? It was a great gimmick to have,” reads the pizza parlor’s website.
