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‘Breaking Bad’ Makes It To The Smithsonian: Cast Reunites To Donate Props From The Show

By Jean Mendoza
Published on: 22:34 PST, Nov 12, 2015

On Tuesday, The Smithsonian Museum’s National Museum of American History in Washington welcomed the cast of Breaking Bad as they donated props from the series.

Although Breaking Bad ended on its fifth season in 2013, it still remains one of the best television series of all time. In fact, Breaking Bad entered the Guinness World Records as the highest-rated TV series, with a MetaCritic score of 99 out of 100. In addition, the show has garnered several awards, including two Golden Globes, 16 Emmys, eight Satellite awards, and several more.

Breaking Bad tells the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher who turns to cooking meth with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) in order to get the money to support his family after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The series also stars Anna Gunn, RJ Mitte, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, and Bob Odenkirk. Vince Gilligan, who was a writer and producer for X-Files, created and produced Breaking Bad.

On Tuesday, the event was attended by Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Jonathan Banks, Dean Norris, RJ Mitte, and Vince Gilligan, as well as other producers of the show, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Dwight Bowers, the entertainment curator for the museum, said that he courted the Sony executives for three years in order to convince them that props from the show should be housed in the Smithsonian.

“We approached Sony because we felt the show made a real impact on American society, especially with how it dealt with the issue of society’s ambivalence.”

Bowers said that he is glad he was able to convince Sony to donate the props.

“It gives me great pause to think I’m the man who brought crystal meth to the museum.”

Gilligan still can’t believe that props from Breaking Bad have made it to the Smithsonian, but he says that it’s now his favorite museum, taking the place of the Air and Space museum, as USA Today reported.

“I’m sorry to say it, Air and Space Museum, but another has taken your place in my heart. If you had told me there’d be crystal meth in the same museum as the Star-Spangled Banner, Thomas Edison’s light bulb, Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch, and Dorothy’s ruby slippers, I’d have told you you were using too much of Walter White’s product.”

Props donated to the Smithsonian are Tyvek suits, Los Pollos Hermanos cups, gas masks, Hank’s DEA identification card, a Better Call Saul matchbook, and a bag of 99.1 percent pure blue meth, not the real thing, of course.

During the event, Bryan Cranston told his fellow actors that he misses working with them, but said that he doesn’t miss the show. That is because he feels that Gilligan and the others writers created the perfect “beginning, middle, and end to the journey.”

“I said, it feels like we had a beautiful meal. We had an apertif, a nice salad, a beautiful entree, a vegetable side, we had a great dessert and we had a coffee with it and you’re just satiated, and then someone says here’s more dessert. If you dived into that then it almost ruins the experience you had. I don’t know if my personage could take another dessert after the sweet ride that Breaking Bad was.”

Although the props have already been donated to the museum, the public will not be able to see them on display, at least not until 2018. They are scheduled to be featured in an entertainment exhibit in 2018 alongside other items from TV shows including The Wonder Years, Mad Men, Seinfeld, and All in the Family.

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