'Breaking Bad' has been very good for Albuquerque

Chris Gray Faust | Go Escape

The yellow cab pulled up to a nondescript, tan rancher in Albuquerque's Loma del Rey neighborhood, staying just long enough for its passenger to snap a picture. As the car drove away, the woman inside huddled over a phone, no doubt posting her photos of fictional drug lord Walter White's home to Facebook.

"This happens all the time," tour operator Jesse Herron says with a laugh. Sure enough, as the cab leaves Piedmont Drive, a black SUV takes its place, filled with more Breaking Bad fans tracking down the show's now-iconic locations.

It's hard to imagine a more unlikely tourism driver than this AMC show. For the uninitiated, Breaking Bad is about White, a chemistry teacher-turned-methamphetamine mastermind. The show features drugs and violence, two things that shouldn't make its setting attractive to tourists.

Yet Albuquerque, once known mainly for its annual International Balloon Fiesta, has benefited from the show, not only from fans who flock to Duke City to visit the locations featured on the cable TV series, but from the steady filming and production work that has propelled the city's entertainment services industry.

As its fifth and final season winds down, the show has given residents something to be proud of, especially since stars Bryan Cranston (who plays Walter White) and Aaron Paul (White's partner, Jesse Pinkman) bought homes and lived in Albuquerque during filming.

"Everyone in Albuquerque, no matter who they are, watches the show," says Herron, owner of the ABQ Trolley Company, which runs a special Breaking Bad tour. In fact, as he's driving, Herron receives a phone call from his 61-year-old mother, who excitedly reports spotting Paul at her neighborhood Trader Joe's.

New Mexico's Hollywood

Breaking Bad is by no means the first Hollywood export to set up shop in Albuquerque.

In 2002, New Mexico became one of the first states to offer tax incentives enticing directors and producers to the region. As a result, the city developed businesses, facilities and a labor force to supply the film industry, says Ann Lerner, director of the Albuquerque Film Office.

"We can support a plethora of looks here," Lerner says. And so it would seem from the roster. Recent movies made in Albuquerque include Johnny Depp's The Lone Ranger, Transformers and The Avengers, which set box-office records worldwide.

In Plain Sight, a series on the USA Network, wrapped its fifth season filming on-site in 2012. Saige Copeland, the American Girl Doll of the Year for 2013, will be featured in a movie coming out this year.

Albuquerque's proximity to Los Angeles is also in its favor; studio heads and A-listers can get in and out in a day if they want.

Every episode of a regular series made in Albuquerque results in $1 million of direct spending, Lerner estimates.

Fictional crime wave

The dark themes of Breaking Bad caused some worry among civic boosters, who disliked associating Albuquerque with methamphetamine.

"The topic of the show is not our favorite thing," concedes Megan Mayo Ryan of the Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau. The CVB didn't promote the show on its website until the fifth season of production.

Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry touts the city's recent drop in serious crime rates and says, "I am confident that viewers have no difficulty distinguishing fiction from reality."

Even upscale businesses see the benefits of having a hit show in town. "The industry is vital to Albuquerque," says Howard Jacobs, manager of the Hotel Andaluz, a historic property that's been turned into a Moroccan-flavored boutique. The show held a wrap party at the hotel, and Vanity Fair conducted a photo shoot with the cast there.

Burquenos make good

A lifelong "Burqueno," Herron is an unabashed fan, and his BaD tour is a hot-ticket.

For $65, the 3½-hour tour makes 13 stops. Must-get photo ops include the homes of Walt, Jesse and Gus; the Crossroads hotel where meth addict Wendy hangs out; Hank's DEA offices; and the car wash where Walt and Jesse launder money.

Perhaps the most popular stop is Los Pollos Hermanos, the fictional fried chicken outlet that drug lord Gus Fring uses as a front. In real life, the building is a South Valley burrito franchise called Twisters. The eatery now attracts so many visitors that manager Jose Rivera set a notebook at the front counter to serve as a guest book.

"People take 30 to 40 pictures a day," Rivera says. "South Korea, Barcelona, France—they come from all over."

Other Albuquerque businesses have found ways to capitalize on Breaking Bad fame. Debbie Ball has made international headlines selling "meth candy"—rock candy shards that look like drugs—out of her Old Town store, The Candy Lady.

Rebel Donut offers a "blue sky" donut with rock candy sprinkled on top. And Great Face & Body sells "Bathing Bad," a line of blue bath salts that promises to "relax away the bad."

The end of the series doesn't mean the end of Breaking Bad tourism, Herron says. New fans find the show on Netflix all the time, and the Sundance channel has picked it up for syndication. Herron, like others in Albuquerque, believes that once the fans show up for Breaking Bad, they'll fall in love with everything else the city has to offer.