Shout Out / Better Call Saul

• When Howard makes Kim work doc review as punishment Jimmy calls it being "sent to the cornfield" a reference to the creepy omnipotent child in the famous Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life".
• Jimmy says "Heeeeeeere's Johnny!" twice in "Nacho". Interestingly, both instances are used in different contexts and reference separate works.
• Jimmy has a crap yellow car with one red door, similar to Simon's shitty Fiat from The Inbetweeners.
• Jimmy calls two skaters who try to pull a Staged Pedestrian Accident on him Starlight Express.
• Jimmy calls the two skaters "Frick and Frack", a label for a figure skating team of two brothers from the early 20th century.
• When meeting with Hamlin in his boardroom in "Uno", Jimmy quotes a line from Ned Beatty in Network (as a bonus, he's also addressing someone named Howard from the opposite end of a conference table).
• Jimmy's Hard-Work Montage in Episode 2 is a near-copy of a scene from All That Jazz, down to the music and Jimmy saying "It's showtime, folks!" at a mirror.
• Jimmy's howl, used as a signal for Marco to get ready, is styled after the opening of Deep Purple's Hush.
• Wanting to speak alone with Mike, Jimmy dismisses two male cops by calling them Cagney & Lacey.
• Jimmy begins promoting himself at a nursing home, including clothing patterned after the titular character of the TV series Matlock.
• In "Bingo", an elderly woman informs Jimmy that she has two cats; Felix and Oscar. Felix always washes himself but Oscar doesn't.
• Jimmy describes the Kettlemans' situation as 25th Hour starring Ned and Maude Flanders.
• Jimmy asks the two bodyguards in "RICO" if they're making Soylent Green when they stop him from going into the nursing home.
• Kim invites Jimmy to watch Evil Dead with her.
• Kim is evidently a fan of classic horror movies, as she also asks Jimmy if he'd like to watch Kurt Russell in The Thing.
• Mike is called Uncle Fester by a would-be coworker on a job. The man is named after Walter Sobchak. Not only that, but he's played by Steven Ogg and packed to the wazoo with guns, a reference to his most famous role.
• "We can Erin Brockovich the shit out of this case!"
• At the end of "Marco," Kim calls Jimmy and begins the conversation by asking if this is Ferris Bueller and how his day off is going."
• During the opening flashback of "Marco" when Jimmy tells Marco he's moving to Albuquerque, he mentions Bugs Bunny and the Roadrunner.
• Did anyone notice that the mailroom had a Bert and an Ernie?
• "What did you eat for dinner, the whole roast beast?"
• Jimmy names the fake dictatorship involved in a Nigerian Prince scam he was running Uqbar Orbis.
• Kim asks if Jimmy plans to take up Walking the Earth "like Jules in Pulp Fiction," ironically referencing a scene that itself is a Shout Out to Kung Fu (1972).
• "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. McGill!"
• When Mike is pretending to be oblivious about hitting Tuco's car in "Gloves Off", Tuco likens him to Mr. Magoo.
• Jimmy after seeing the bruises and cuts Mike got from Tuco:
  Jimmy: Whoa whoa whoa, what happened to you? *beat* Never mind. First rule of Fight Club, right?
• In "Nailed," Jimmy and his amateur camera crew are shown crossing the street Abbey Road Crossing style.
• Jimmy comes across some con man, Henry Gondorff from Chicago.
• There are several Actor Allusions to Bob Odenkirk in the form of shout-outs to Mr. Show With Bob And David:
  • One of the lines Jimmy tried when filming his video directing commercial,"Jimmy is my name, advertising is my game", paraphrasing the way Larry Kleist answers phone calls.
  • In "Coushatta", Jimmy puts on a Deep South accent while impersonating a New Orleans pastor. It's the same voice Bob used for the recurring Mr. Show character Senator Tankerbell.
  • In Alpine Shepherd Boy, one of Jimmy's clients is a wealthy eccentric who wants to secede from the United States. An episode of Mr. Show centred on the show itself attempting to secede from the United States.
  • In "Pimento" Sobchak dismisses Mike as "a third wheel without a piece". In "Wine and Roses" Jimmy also makes reference to the Third Wheel sketch while jokingly flirting with ADA Khalil: "Brunch? With just you and me, right? I mean, won't the big fella here feel like a third wheel?"
  • ...and of course, in "Wexler vs McGill", fellow Mr. Show alumnus Jay Johnston makes an appearance as Kevin Wachtell's father Don.
  • Erin Brill is played by Jessie Ennis, daughter of Mr. Show's own John Ennis. She also appeared in Mr. Show when she was just four years old.
• "Klick" features another Actor Allusion, in the form of a commercial for The Garden Weasel, which airs right after Jimmy's commercial. While this may be an Animal Motif for Jimmy, "The Garden Weasel" is also the title of the first episode of The Larry Sanders Show, which features a plug for the garden tool. Bob Odenkirk played Larry's agent, the charismatic sleazeball Stevie Grant. On a rewatch, Grant now appears to be something of a proto-Saul.
• "Plan and Execution": Yet another Actor Allusion comes in the form of an exchange between Howard and Lalo. "Who are you?" "Me? I'm nobody" is an almost verbatim quote of the opening lines of Bob Odenkirk's action film, Nobody.
• Chuck's courtroom breakdown in "Chicanery" is an homage to The Caine Mutiny, one of Vince Gilligan's favorite films. The three judges in the show wear the same expressions as the judges in the corresponding film scene. The movie was also featured in an episode of Breaking Bad.
• In the beginning flashback of "Nacho", Jimmy tells Chuck that one thing he knows about Albuquerque is that "Bugs Bunny should have taken a left turn there."
• "Quite a Ride" features the same cover of "Street Life" that appeared in Jackie Brown. One of the film's stars, Robert Forster, appeared in Breaking Bad, and the episode starts with a flashforward of Saul calling the character, though he doesn't appear.
• Jimmy wears a Jimmy Buffett t-shirt in his con during "Wiedersehn".
• In "Amarillo", Kim and Jimmy watch Ice Station Zebra. The name clearly resonates; a couple of episodes later in "Bali Ha'i", the cheque they con out of the man in the bar is made out to 'Ice Station Zebra Associates'.
• In "Switch" Jimmy spies a man sitting by the hotel's pool with his much younger trophy wife and identifies him as a potential mark. Jimmy's target is wearing a blue terry towelling onesie, identical to the one worn by Sean Connery's James Bond in a poolside scene in Goldfinger.
• From some very familiar-looking wide shots◊ to the white t-shirt on Jimmy's head, "Bagman" is one big homage to Lawrence of Arabia. Vince Gilligan had even considered hiring the same camera lens that was used for the 1962 epic, but was too afraid of breaking it.
  • Jimmy's horrific sunburn in "Bagman" may have been foreshadowed in "Marco", when Jimmy returns to Cicero looking surprisingly pale for someone who has spent a decade under the New Mexico sunshine:
    Marco Pasternak: "Well I’m just saying I don’t see any color. I mean, 10 years in the desert, you should look like Anthony Quinn in Lawrence of Arabia. "The Turks pay me a golden treasure…"
    Jimmy McGill: "...yet I am poor…"
    Marco Pasternak: "...because I am…"
    Both: "...a river to my people!"
• "Carrot and Stick" contains a shot of Jimmy looking up at the inflatable Statue of Liberty, framed to look like the famous shot of George Taylor at the end of Planet Of The Apes (1968).
• "Plan and Execution" features a shot from underneath a running shower head, then later a shot of Lalo in the doorway of Kim and Jimmy's apartment. These shots are similar to two particular shots in the film Psycho (1960).
• "Breaking Bad": Gene identifies an obnoxious man in a bar as a potential mark. A close-up of his driver's license later reveals his full name to be "Alfred Hawthorne Hill", which is the birth name of comedian Benny Hill. Alfred's insistence on slapping Gene on the head is also a reference to one of Benny Hill's signature moves.
• Lalo Salamanca is named after composer Lalo Schifrin, who has several fans among the writers. Schifrin's piece Jim On The Move features in the episode "Nippy".
• The Nebraska scenes are in black and white, just as the film Nebraska!, featuring Bob Odenkirk, is also in black and white. The film also features Devin Ratray, who plays Alfred Hawthorn Hill in "Nippy".
• The cab driver and his mother are respectively named Marion And Jeff.
• Jimmy's end shares a lot with Crime and Punishment, because as much as he claimed he didn't care about anything, he was tormented by what he'd done and ran away from it, but finally confesses and gets a jail sentence, yet also healing from trauma and getting Kim back, with a chance to get out early if he's consistently good.
• The show contains numerous shout-outs to The Big Lebowski, some of which have been confirmed as deliberate by Word of God:
  • "Nacho": Jimmy is defending a client accused of the armed robbery of a liquor store. Of all the bottles he could have used as a weapon he reached for a bottle of Kahlua, an essential ingredient of The Dude's beloved White Russians.
    • Jimmy correctly deduces that The Kettlemans "kidnapped themselves", just as The Dude deduced Bunny Lebowski kidnapped herself in a bid to extort money from her husband.
  • "Pimento": One of Mike's would-be accomplices is named Sobchak and, like his namesake, is a camo-wearing gun-nut.
  • "Sabrosito": One of Jimmy's clients mentions their dog eating the furniture. The breed? A Pomeranian. Whether or not it has papers is not disclosed.
  • "Bali Ha'i": Jimmy struggles to get to sleep in his fancy new corporate apartment. The ways he tries to amuse himself include using the apartment's decorative straw balls and some bottles to fashion a makeshift tenpin bowling alley.
  • "Rebecca": The montage of Kim making phone calls to try and woo a new client is soundtracked with A Mi Manera, the Gipsy Kings' Spanish language cover of My Way. The Big Lebowski famously features the Gipsy Kings' Spanish language cover of Hotel California.
  • "Off Brand": One of the businesses Jimmy tries to offload his advertising airtime to is a carpet shop. While talking to the owners we see a roll of carpet on display in the foreground, with a novelty design featuring bowling balls and pins.
  • "Slip": Another mention of tenpin bowling:
    Jimmy McGill: "You can go to your wife. You can explain to her you're about to lose your job, your pension, and whatever pinhole of a reputation you've got at the bowling alley on Glow-ball Sundays."
  • "Breathe": The scene where Jimmy arrives at Neff Copiers for his interview is a homage to the scene where The Dude visits Jeffrey Lebowski for the first time. Jimmy is given a brief tour where he is shown photos of the beneficiaries of Neff's philanthropic activities, not unlike Jeffrey Lebowski's "Young Achievers". The shelves are also full of bowling trophies, plus one bowling pin. Oh, and the Neff employee's name?
  "There was a clearance issue, we couldn't use Philip Seymour, or Seymour Hoff or Hoffman, so we went with Henry Seymour. But he's SEYMOUR in my script." - writer Thomas Schnauz
  • "Namaste": In the cold open we see Jimmy browsing a thrift store as he looks for heavy objects to throw at Howard's car. He settles on three bowling balls, plus the bag.
  • "Dedicado a Max": Another appearance from Sobchak confirms that he is just as violent and unhinged as his namesake.
  • "JMM": The scene where Gus and Nacho stage an arson attack at Los Pollos Hermanos is soundtracked by Yma Sumac's Chuncho. The scene in The Big Lebowski where The Dude visits Jackie Treehorn's mansion is soundtrack by Yma Sumac's Ataypura.
  • "Nippy": Gene stages an elaborate ruse involving putting up posters for a fictional missing dog. Of course it's another Pomeranian.
  "A lot of us [in the writers’ room] are big Big Lebowski'' fans"- writer Thomas Schnauz

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