Breaking Bad but due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike only seven episodes were filmed. It ran from January 20 to March 9, 2008. A struggling high school chemistry teacher, Walter White (Bryan Cranston), is diagnosed with inoperable, advanced lung cancer. On a ride-along with his DEA agent brother-in-law Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), Walter sees a former student of his, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), fleeing the scene of a meth lab. He later contacts Jesse and devises a scheme to become partners in an attempt to combine their skills to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, with Walter cooking the product and
Breaking Bad trust in Walter and asks Gale to take over the lab. He orders his henchmen to kill Walter and Jesse, and Walt convinces them to let him call Jesse. Instead of luring Jesse to the lab to be killed as he had promised, Walt instructs Jesse to kill Gale so that Walt and Jesse will be Gus's only trained meth cooks, and Gus will have to keep them alive. On June 14, 2010, AMC announced "Breaking Bad" was renewed for a fourth, 13-episode season. Production began in January 2011, the season premiered on July 17, 2011, and concluded on October