I reviewed tonight’s episode of Better Call Saul over here, but if you want some behind the scenes scoop on the hysterical scene that gave “Cobbler” its title, that’s coming up just as soon as the cupholder’s metric…
So, yes, now we know what the Hoboken Squat Cobbler truly is, and we have Bob Odenkirk to largely thank for it.
In the original version of Gennifer Hutchison’s script, as Saul co-creator Peter Gould recalls, “There weren’t as many names. In fact, I don’t know that we named it at all. I think (Jimmy) just said, ‘He sits in pies.'”
Saul isn’t a show that allows for much improvisation, but on the first day of shooting the second season premiere, Odenkirk pulled Gould and Vince Gilligan aside and, as Gould recalls, praised the episode 2 script, and then, “He pitched the idea: ‘Sex acts all have a name. Shouldn’t there be a name for this thing?'”
From there, the Saul writers went to town dreaming up alternate names for the Cobbler – “Full Moon Pie,” “Boston Cream Splatt,” “Simple Simon the Ass Man,” etc. – which Odenkirk had a field day delivering.
“On this show, he mostly is a performer,” Gould said of his leading man, “but every once in a while, you see that he really is one of the great comic minds of our time. That was an example of Bob giving us a direction that we ran with, and then he ran with it in performance. And I just love it. I have to say, that was an interesting evolution of that scene. I’m really proud of it.”