Way back in 2008, AMC was new to original programming. They had only had one scripted program, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad wasn’t exactly burning it up in the ratings. Even the critics at the time were not completely behind the series yet. So, I’m sure that the marketing department thought they needed to try certain things, things that were not exactly in the spirit of the show itself, things that would come back to haunt Dean Norris years later once the show became the juggernaut that it is.
I can’t even explain this. I stumbled upon it via this YouTube video which had used footage. At first, I didn’t think it was real. I thought maybe Steven Michael Quezada had made it with a lookalike to promote his own local talk show. But nope: It’s real. It’s Dean Norris and Steven Michael Quezada training for the DEA. In a park. On a slide. With dumb grins and cheesy thumbs up.
Honestly, I’m surprised that AMC has kept it on its website this long. There’s a preroll on this video, but trust me, it’s worth suffering through because then, THE REAL SUFFERING begins.
