How We Broke Bad [with Bryan Cranston] | S2E6 "Aldrin Justice"
How We Made Your Mother
Audacy & Josh Radnor and Craig Thomas
4.8 • 922 Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2025
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Season two, episode six of How We Made Your Mother features a special guest: the legendary Bryan Cranston, who joins Josh Radnor and Craig Thomas to revisit his first appearance as Hammond Druthers in “Aldrin Justice.” Cranston reflects on taking the role right after Malcolm in the Middle ended, how he almost didn’t get Breaking Bad if Fox had ordered another Malcolm season, and how one X-Files episode led Vince Gilligan to cast him as Walter White. The three dive into acting lessons, career timing, and luck—plus Cranston’s thoughts on confidence, craft, and why good writing is the only thing worth chasing. They talk about the hidden humanity behind Druthers’ egotism, the joy of unhinged characters, and Jane Seymour’s hilarious turn as the original “cougar.” Josh and Craig share behind-the-scenes stories about the episode’s writing, Lily’s “karma police” subplot, and early uses of the word “cougar,” while reflecting on jokes that don’t hold up and the importance of owning creative missteps. The conversation closes with thoughtful discussions about teaching, artistry, and the strange, lucky chain of moments that connect How I Met Your Mother to Breaking Bad.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One thing we always get asked, whether it's how I met your mother, whether it's breaking bad. |
| 0:07.0 | The question we always get asked is, did you know it was going to be a hit? |
| 0:11.0 | You knew it was going to be a hit? |
| 0:13.0 | No one ever knows. |
| 0:15.0 | But what you do know and what I knew about how I met your mother is that it was good. |
| 0:21.6 | I'm alone. |
| 0:22.6 | What a pity I won't be soon in New York City when I see you. |
| 0:33.6 | Please permit me to tell you everything in New York City. |
| 0:40.3 | Hello and welcome to another episode of How We Made Your Mother. |
| 0:45.3 | I'm Josh Ratner. I played Ted Mosby in a TV show called How I Met Your Mother from 2005 to 2014. |
| 0:53.3 | We did 208 episodes of that show. |
| 0:56.4 | Craig Thomas is the co-creator of that show. |
| 0:58.8 | He is here with me as always. |
| 1:00.0 | Hello, Craig. |
| 1:01.0 | Hello, Josh. |
| 1:02.0 | It's great to see you, as always. |
| 1:05.1 | Same, but today's a little extra special. |
| 1:07.5 | Extra special. |
| 1:08.1 | I'll tell you these special episodes these special episodes keep getting specialer |
| 1:11.2 | and specialer. And we're just delighted over the moon today to have Mr. Brian Cranston joining us. |
| 1:19.5 | Hi, Brian. Josh, how are you? Craig? How you doing, bud? Great. We're great. We're so happy to see you. |
| 1:26.9 | It's always, it's always great to see you, |
... |
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