'Breaking Bad' writer says show creator Vince Gilligan would visit the show's set just 'to watch stuff blow up'

• "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan's attention was "scattered" on the show's set, said a writer.
• Patty Lin said in her new book it was "impossible to get any work done" on scripts as a result.

"Breaking Bad" became a pop culture phenomenon in the 2010s as viewers fell in love with the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his evolution from a high school science teacher to a powerful drug dealer.

The drama is now considered one of the best TV series of all time, but according to a former producer and writer who worked on its first season, the writers experienced some teething pains in its early days.

Patty Lin, who has also written for "Freaks and Geeks" and "Desperate Housewives," described some of the challenges she says she experienced with the show's creator, Vince Gilligan, in her new book, "End Credits: How I Broke Up with Hollywood."

"We spent most of our time chasing Vince to various shoot locations, trying to steal a few minutes with him to break stories," writes Lin.

"Onlookers probably wondered why we were walking around the neighborhood carrying a big corkboard—the Traveling Board, as we called it," she continues. "But it was impossible to get any work done with Vince's attention so scattered."

Lin goes on to say: "He didn't always need to be on set. Sometimes he went just to watch stuff blow up. We once wasted half a day at a gas station, waiting for Walt to blow up some guy's car. I dig explosions as much as the next pyromaniac, but come on… We had work to do."

Representatives for Gilligan and AMC didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Per Lin's recollection, the show's writers were required to be on set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in case the "Breaking Bad" cast and crew needed to check something in the script.

"We worked every day that month, including weekends. But we were more on call than actually working — worse in some ways. The stress started getting to me," she writes.

On IMDb, Lin is credited with writing the fifth episode of "Breaking Bad" season one, "Gray Matter." She produced six episodes of the first season.