LOS ANGELES – Ward Cleaver had it all — until he didn't. In the course of one fateful week, he lost his job, discovered his wife's affair with the milkman and learned he had terminal lung cancer. Reeling from the tragic chain of events, Ward hit the brandy bottle. Hard. He began selling doobie to the neighborhood kids. Bundles of cash were found stashed under the lid of the BBQ grill. And then, one day, Eddie Haskell went missing. ...
Pitching a dark version of "Leave It to Beaver" would have been unthinkable a decade ago. But in the contemporary world of cable, where viewers are encouraged to root for serial killers, coldhearted admen, bloodthirsty bikers or meth-dealing teachers — as in "Breaking Bad," which begins its final run Sunday — this is practically a no-brainer.
"I think we like to see somebody portray the worst in us that we've either felt or wanted to express. It's kind of liberating," said Nelson McCormack, a veteran TV director whose credits include "Boss," a series about a corrupted politician. "You watch Kevin Spacey being ruthless in 'House of Cards,' and you think back to a situation where you wanted to say the exact same thing with that kind of elegance and prowess."
Rooting for the bad guy is nothing new. Think: Warner Bros.' 1930s gangster flicks, or even William Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth.
Now it's TV's turn.
"It's just a younger medium," said Patty Jenkins, whose credits include the feature film "Monster" and the Emmy-winning pilot of "The Killing." "With all these art forms, you start off with a juggling street performer who has to work his way into the circus tent. Movies always had a captive audience, so they were able to do deeper, more complex things.
"Television was always about 'Look at me now! Look at me now! Now go away!' That's starting to change."
Turning Mr. Chips into Scarface
Nowhere is that more evident than in "Breaking Bad," which airs the first of its eight final episodes Sunday.