Battle Creek: Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad follow-up was conceived over a decade ago

“It’s embarrassing to note that I’ve never actually been to Battle Creek, Mich.,” laughed Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad) last summer at a press conference introducing his new series Battle Creek. “I am fascinated by the name because it’s such a great name, because it’s got the word ‘battle’ in it.”

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Despite Gilligan not having been inspired by the city because of a visit, Battle Creek manages to capture the ambience of a hardscrabble small town. The drama follows mismatched law enforcement officers (Josh Duhamel and Dean Winters) with polar-opposite views of the world, who work to clean up the streets of the title city. Janet McTeer and Kal Penn also star in the series, which is co-executive produced by David Shore (House). Gilligan says he first came up with the idea for the show over 12 years ago, and touched on how the success of Breaking Bad probably made it more likely for this project to be resurrected.

“Not even remotely did I see the success of Breaking Bad,” Gilligan said. “Man, 12 years ago, I thought I’d be lucky if I’m not living in a mobile [home], in half of a double-wide with the other half still with the plastic taped up. I mean, I did not see it coming. It was just a wonderful, wonderful lottery win on my part.”

Time will tell if Battle Creek gives Gilligan another win.

Battle Creek airs on CBS Sundays at 10pm ET/PT beginning March 1. The series premiere will be rebroadcast March 7 at 8pm ET/PT.

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Dean Winters and Josh Duhamel in Battle Creek: Robert Voets/CBS ©2014 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.