This document analyzes how food, specifically bacon, is used in Breaking Bad to illustrate the transformation of Walt's family over his three birthday breakfast scenes. In the first scene, Skyler happily serves veggie bacon. By the second, she is reluctant and depressed. In the third, Walt eats alone with a new identity. The document also provides other examples of how food scenes and merchandise reveal details about the characters and their states. It argues that food is a prominent symbolic resource in many TV shows and worth analyzing closely.

1. Why „the bacon“ matters
(some few examples)
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2. The family„s transformation illustrated in Walt‟s three
birthday breakfasts
First birthday
breakfast
Second birthday
breakfast
Third birthday
breakfast
From episode
01:01, Pilot
Skyler writes 50 in veggie
bacon on Walt‟s plate.
Light, humorous
atmosphere.
From episode
05:04, Fifty
One
Flynn and Walt pressure
Skyler into writing 51 on
Walt‟s plate – because it‟s a
tradition. She is reluctant.
Humorous to Walt, Flynn
and the audience - but not
to Skyler.
From episode
05:01, Live
Free Or Die
Walt is alone in a public
restaurant, sick and with a
different name. This time
he gets his plate of bacon
and eggs handed to him by
a stranger – and has to
write 52 himself. Tense
mood.
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3. The family„s transformation illustrated in breakfast scenes
(continued)
Walt
Skyler
Flynn
Depressed, meek
Lovingly serves
veggie bacon for
health reasons
Teenageryprovoking to both
parents
Second birthday
breakfast
Dominant, very
self-confident
Depressed,
trapped, couldn„t
care less about
cholesterol
Teenageryprovoking to his
mom, idolizes his
dad
Third birthday
breakfast
“Stone-faced”,
alone, away from
non-existent
home
- Gone -
- Gone -
First birthday
breakfast
3

4. Other completely random Breaking Bad examples
Los Pollos Hermanos and
meth mass-production
parallel
Various other breakfast scenes
illustrating the different states
of the family
 Episode 02:04 is completely
structured around the
different breakfasts
The increasingly awkward
family dinners with Hank and
Marie
Jesse„s drug addiction and his
fondness for funyons
Lydia and her (eventually
fatal) tea habit – what does the
way she first orders hot water
tell us about her?
4

5. Examples of food-related paratexts for Breaking Bad
(because: there are so many of them)
Los Pollos Hermanos
merchandize and meth
candy
Meme about Flynn„s love
for breakfast food. (He
did have to eat a lot of it).
Puns about Walt and
Jesse being cooks („kiss
the cook“)
#AwkwardGuacamole
Blue meth donuts,
increased table-side
guacamole sales etc.
Heisen-Brr-g Crunch
5

6. The same goes for Parks and Reacreation

7. Examples of food-related paratexts for Parks and Rec
(really, there is more)

8. My point is: food and appetite is probably just as prominent as semiotic resources in many other
TV shows. And if food is prominent in so many (para)texts, there is understanding to gain by
making it prominent in some of our studies as well. And also: it‟s fun.
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9. Image Sources
•
Slide 2: Screenshots from Breaking Bad,
Episode 01:01, 05:04 and 05:01. Copyright
Sony Pictures/AMC Networks
•
Slide 4 (from left to right): 1, 2, 3
screenshot from episode 02:04, 4, 5, 6
•
Slide 5 (from left to right): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
•
Slide 6 (from left to right): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9
•
Slide 7 (from left to right): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9
•
„Title“ image (on the right)
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