Breaking Bad - Vince Gilligan Interview

What do you think is your achievement in Breaking Bad? What’s the importance of that show in TV history?
Vince Gilligan: Well, I’d love to think – it’s probably not for me to answer whether there’s an importance in TV history, since I’m so close to it. But if there is, it’s our attempt to tell a story that centers on constantly changing character. TV, it seems to me, does very well by protecting by protecting its franchise. M*A*S*H, an absolutely wonderful TV show, kept an 18-month war going for 11 years, and that’s what TV does very well. It keeps [Gunsmoke's] Marshall Dillon out there on the main street gunning down the bad guy week in and week out, and it keeps its characters in a self-imposed stasis. That’s what TV does, and that’s a good thing because as a viewer, you like to be able to visit with your favorite characters week in an week out for years on end.
But it seemed to me that the one thing that was missing in that equation as far as TV shows went, was the idea of growth and change within a character’s life. I think what Breaking Bad brings Is fundamental transformation of its main character. To that end, the mandate here has always been, take our hero and turn him into a bad guy throughout the life of the series. So I think a different brand of storytelling in that sense is what we’ve hopefully accomplished, and may help point the way to telling stories on TV that don’t exactly involve the time-honored way of protecting the franchises, protecting the stasis of the characters.

Source: Full interview @ The Hollywood Reporter