Vince Gilligan Recalls the Test Screening Nightmare That Made Him Avoid Audience Testing Forever
The creator of the new Apple TV sci-fi series Vince Gilligan is riding high thanks to the early love for his great new show Pluribus, but he recently looked back on a much rougher moment in his career.
During a conversation with Sony, the filmmaker opened up about the experience that convinced him audience test screenings were not for him.
It all goes back to his early 2000s The X-Files spin off The Lone Gunmen, which he helped craft long before Breaking Bad ever entered the picture.
Gilligan admitted that even though he cared about The Lone Gunmen, the test screening process quickly became an ordeal. He said:
"We had a spin-off show of The X-Files called The Lone Gunmen, which I was very proud of, and I still have a soft spot for it. I had to sit through audience testing on the first episode of that show, and I swore on the graves of my forefathers, I will never freaking do that again."
Viewers were handed a device that let them turn a knob to the right if they enjoyed a moment or to the left if they didn’t. Things went off the rails when a character vomited into a golf bag. Gilligan explained:
"There's a scene where one of the characters gets sick and throws up in a golf bag, and all the needles went [to the left]."
The punchline came later when the audience was asked whether they thought it was funny. One viewer looked straight toward the two way mirror where Gilligan was sitting and said, "Well, it's no Will and Grace."
Despite the rough feedback, The Lone Gunmen debuted in 2001 with a story centered on secret government activities and corporate crime rather than aliens or paranormal threats. Critics responded well, but the show survived only thirteen episodes before Fox pulled the plug.
That turbulent test screening stayed with Gilligan for years. As Breaking Bad inched toward release in 2008, he couldn’t bring himself to relive the experience. Gilligan said:
"When Breaking Bad came along, I said, 'If you guys are going to test this, don't tell me about it. I want the tree that fell in the forest. I don't want to know anything about it.' Apparently, they did test it. They never even told me the results."
Looking back, he clearly never needed to stress. Breaking Bad became one of the most acclaimed series ever made, ran for eight seasons, won awards across the board and cemented Gilligan as one of TV’s most influential creators.
Now he is enjoying another exciting chapter with Pluribus, which has earned glowing reviews and a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score. Fans are already hooked on the show’s twisty storytelling and ambitious sci fi mysteries.
Pluribus is streaming on Apple TV with new episodes arriving each week.