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Joanna Quintana
Bought the house in 1973, my parents did. So it's a family owned home since 1973.
Andrew Callahan
So you were, you were a teenager when you first moved into the house?
Joanna Quintana
12.
Andrew Callahan
Oh, so this is pretty much your childhood home?
Joanna Quintana
It is our childhood home. My father's Spanish, so he's from New Mexico, not Albuquerque. So we moved here, bought the house and been ever since. The house itself was. Was a lot of fun because like we would have. We had a ping pong table in the garage. Now if you know what the house looks like, there's that steep driveway. Hit the ball and go running down Comanche. You know, we made our own fun. I was a crazy teen. I used to start the races, streetcar races. I was a flag girl because there was nothing to do. You were too young to go to the bars. There was nothing to do but street racing and hanging out in shopping center parking lots and getting drunk.
Andrew Callahan
That sounds awesome.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah, I never got caught. Just like try and catch me. I still speed 0 to 60 wherever I go. I'm not a slow driver. Went to nursing school, geriatrics, Alzheimer's specialist. Did that for years. I liked it a lot. And unfortunately I'm having to redo my skills because I take care of a parent that has Alzheimer's. My dad. I moved back home three and a half years ago, going on four to take care of him.
Andrew Callahan
A lot of people when their parents approach a certain age, they just put him in a home.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah. Dnr dump and run. And I hate that my parents didn't get rid of me at 18. I am not going to get rid of my parents. You know, they could have. I gave them lots of reasons to. But no, he's my main priority.
Andrew Callahan
Do you feel like some of the harassment that's happened at your house has negatively affected him? There's a wait.
Joanna Quintana
No, I'll flash you off. Night long.
Andrew Callahan
Can I ask you like a couple questions? I just wanted to get a picture. I'm a big fan of the show.
Joanna Quintana
Good Whoopi. Shit.
Andrew Callahan
Oh, whoopee my ass.
Joanna Quintana
I don't. Nobody knows he's inside. He does remember that they used the house for the show. And you gotta realize he's in his own world. So what he sees could not be what I'm seeing. That there are days he can jump into my world and, and remember. And it's like, whoa. You take a step back. Oh God. He's. And you have this false hope. Oh my God, he's cured. He's not. Two seconds later he's back in his world, in the early stages of dementia, you start forgetting. You repeat yourself. Then as you start to progress, you can have bouts of what they call Sundowners Syndrome. That's basically when it gets dark. They get depressed, they get confused, they get agitated, aggravated. They can get violent. Thank God that's not happening. Now, I. And you just have to reassure them, hey, it's okay. You know, you just gotta be there, help them. Because you cannot die from Alzheimer's. People think I died of Alzheimer's? No, you died of complications where you forget to eat, forget to swallow. Normal, daily living, to exist. That's what you die from. Complications due to Alzheimer's. You can't die from losing your memory.
Andrew Callahan
Wow, it must be really fascinating, you having studied that for so long and now having to deal with it on a family level. You know, it's almost like full circle. So let's go Back to, so 1973. You have maybe three and a half decades of normalcy in the house. When did your relationship with the Breaking Bad crew start?
Joanna Quintana
The day they rang the doorbell.
Andrew Callahan
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Andrew Callahan, and you're watching Five Cast, our weekly broadcast here at Channel 5. Here in the United States, it's estimated that one in every 2.5 million people live inside of a famous house. Technically, it should be more. There's 99,000 properties on the National Historic Register. But most of these homes, like Elvis, Graceland, or MLK's birthplace, are now museums for tourists to come peruse, typically for an admission fee that's kicked up to the federal government. However, a small fraction of these homes are still occupied by tenants or owners who have normal lives despite being in the crosshairs of history or mystery. Take Sonia Sanders and her husband, for example, who live in the home that was once occupied by Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia back in the 70s in San Francisco. As Deadheads themselves, they enjoy the free spirits that often cruise by and marvel at the structure, and oftentimes invite people inside for a cup of tea and let them bask in the bygone glory of the hippie movement. Anyways, though that is not always the case with folks who build their lives around historical landmarks. Let's take the working class high bridge community in the Bronx, for example, which was the filming location for Joaquin Phoenix. Joker movie Joker When Joaquin Phoenix danced down these Bronx steps in the Joker, fans quickly followed in his footsteps, turning a steep staircase into a social media sensation. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez clapped back immediately, demanding that fans stop posing on the Joker steps, especially in face paint, as it disrupts the community, creates congestion, and erodes the cultural fabric of the Bronx. Adding back when I was a kid, those stairs weren't safe and people been doing that dance for a long time is all I gotta say.
Joanna Quintana
We come up and down these steps every day and every day when I come down the stairs, I have to go through a barrage of people.
Andrew Callahan
But I'm gonna reserve judgment on the Joker steps for a real Bronx leg like the Kid Marrow. Yeah, you know, motherfucker. And speaking of the Kid Marrow, many of y' all probably know that around a year and a half ago, we opened up Channel 5 for submissions to hire new correspondents. We, we said, if you want to be a correspondent, submit a 5 minute and 55 second documentary to our team and we'll look it over. Well, it's taken us about a year and a half to finally break down the thousand submissions that we got. And we finally picked our favorite 10 submissions and we had an American Idol style panel to break down our favorites and explain why. If you guys want to see that, head over to patreon@www.patreon.com channel. But if you wanna wait, it'll probably be on YouTube in like two or three weeks. It's been a pleasure. Channel five, salute.
Joanna Quintana
Thank you. Dog.
Andrew Callahan
Gang.
Joanna Quintana
Gang. Gang. Gang.
Andrew Callahan
Alright though, back to the Joker Steps and the Bronx controversy. That little back and forth spat between people who fuck with the Joker Steps and the Bronx Defenders probably lasted about two days in the media at best. But it coined an interesting term called meme tourism, which I see as a bit of a bastardization of the word meme. But the point is that, you know, franchise fandoms descending upon an IRL physical location of fictional significance is a recipe for disaster. And that is for a woman named Joanna Quintana, widely referred to as the Breaking Bad house. Lady, my sidewalk is closed.
Joanna Quintana
My sign says stay across the street. Nah, don't get close to my house. You stay right there. Get away from my house.
Andrew Callahan
I'm Christopher Skyler.
Joanna Quintana
She's dead. Get out.
Andrew Callahan
She's not dead. For you, North Sentinelese out there. Breaking Bad was a fictional TV series that first aired on AMC in 2008. The show's protagonist, Walter White, was a chemistry teacher who, after receiving a terminal lung cancer diagnosis, decided to break bad and sell methamphetamine on a large scale to make as much money as he could for his family, you know, because he's gonna pass away soon. Location wise, Breaking Bad takes place in the troubled southwestern city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Walter has a house with his wife Skyler and their disabled son Walter Jr. Who loves breakfast. Now, unlike some southwestern productions that are actually filmed in the California desert, Breaking bad was filmed 100% in the real motherfucking ABQ biatch. And the one story home that's used as the White residency belongs to a real life woman human being named Joanna Quintana, who grew up in that home and has been there since 1973 when the show first aired. Back in 08, Joanna got a few visitors coming by to see the Walter White House, but she thought it was. She thought it was kind of cool, even when a company called Breaking Bad Tours put her house on the route. But then everything changed a couple of years later. Oh man, things got really, really bad beginning on March 28, 2010 when season three, episode two dropped. I'm not going to drop any spoilers here about that particular season because honestly, Breaking Bad, in my opinion, is the greatest show of all time. So if you're home, side note, go watch it. And Aaron Paul, Jesse Pinkman, if you're watching, come on the five cast. I want to talk about the transformation of Idaho, but season three, Episode two, AKA Caballo Si nombre, which means horse without name in Spanish, irreversibly changed Joanna's life forever and the relationship between the fandom and the house. And that's all because of a pizza. An unsliced thin crust pepperoni pie to be exact. In that episode, while in the midst of an argument with Skyler, Walter throws a pizza into the air during a fit of rage and frustration, and it lands perfectly on the roof of the home. Here's that scene. Apparently actor Bryan Cranston pulled this scene off in one take, despite the crew ordering 20 pies. And that particular scene took off in the meme sphere, which is great news for director Vince Gilligan, but not such great news for Joanna. It looks like a normal home, but for fans of the hit show Breaking.
Joanna Quintana
Bad, this is a sort of mecca.
Andrew Callahan
Almost overnight, armies of fans began arriving in droves to Joanna's home. But this time, not to take pictures or relish in the spirit of movie magic, but to throw pizzas in an effort to recreate the scene.
Joanna Quintana
No out.
Andrew Callahan
According to time magazine, by 2013, over 200 fans would arrive at the house every single day, a solid fraction of them wielding boxes of unsliced thin crust pepperoni pie with the intention to Frisbee.
Joanna Quintana
I'm gonna do more than take a.
Andrew Callahan
Take a You don't live in reality, lady.
Joanna Quintana
Wrong people to fuck with.
Andrew Callahan
Fucking retard. Vince Gilligan tried his best to nip the problem in the bud during a podcast saying there's nothing original or cool or funny about throwing a pizza onto an innocent lady's roof. She is the sweetest lady in the world, and if you were getting on her nerves, you were doing something seriously wrong. Unfortunately, Vince Gilligan even addressing the situation like, made it real. And everything got 10 times worse. Which in turn forced Joanna to break bad herself. She began guarding the property with a 12 gauge shotgun, threatening to kill people, citing New Mexico castle doctrine, which allows the occupants of a home to use deadly force to defend their property from damage. World is mine, nigga get back. Don't fuck with my stack. The gauge is whack. Albuquerque police notified Joanna thereafter that pizza actually does not present a substantial safety threat and that she could be prosecuted if she shot any Breaking Bad fans who were attempting to throw. So they met in the middle. And Albuquerque subsidized the construction of a pizza fence in 2017 to protect the home.
Joanna Quintana
Fence is being built around that house.
Andrew Callahan
Because of fans acting badly. Though Joanna claims the fence did stop some of the pizza throwing. She said the seven year debacle took a debilitating toll on her mental health and that she had become a different person.
Joanna Quintana
You're a dumb bitch.
Andrew Callahan
Not the same Joanna. Someone different. Someone bitter, antagonistic, who hated Breaking Bad. Smh. This change in temperament resulted in some viral videos that went around that were documenting aggressive confrontations between typically YouTubers and Ms. Joanna in front of the house. Here's a compilation of a few of those. Man, you ought to learn to chill a little bit, hun.
Joanna Quintana
I don't have to, you motherfucker. Hey, hey.
Andrew Callahan
Relax.
Joanna Quintana
Get out of here. This is my family private home. I've owned this house for 50 years, you dumb bitch. You're a dumb bitch.
Andrew Callahan
Fucking go fly a kite, you moron. That's what I thought.
Joanna Quintana
You better go in.
Andrew Callahan
Get in the house.
Joanna Quintana
You don't live in reality, lady.
Andrew Callahan
I have scared.
Joanna Quintana
You think I'm scared? I'm the biggest bitch on the Internet.
Andrew Callahan
So personally, after seeing a lot of these negative interactions between YouTubers and Joanna, I noticed that most people ended up siding with the content creators against her, which was easy to do, especially after the, you know, Mexican rape, which is confusing to me because she's half Mexican herself. But that's a whole can of worms that I'm gonna leave closed for this particular particular episode. But that incident aside I actually did feel very bad for Joanna watching a lot of this stuff. I mean, she probably was really stoked when it first happened, and she thought that her whole life would be super cool getting to be a part of this, you know, Hollywood production. And then everything just changed. And, you know, the fans didn't really see her as a person. They kind of saw her as, like, an obstacle that prevented them from connecting with the property because the property means something to them that it doesn't mean to her. It's a very strange thing. So I felt like I wanted to sit her down for a calm interview to discuss her unique position and, you know, most importantly, explore the idea of a code of conduct for fandoms in the future who want to pay tribute to iconic locations of their favorite TV shows or movies without, you know, destroying the livelihood of people who call those places home. It took some finessing and maneuvering to make this interview happen and a couple failed attempts along the way, but ultimately, I got the interview secured thanks to a content creator named Danny Duncan, who Joanna claims is the only YouTuber that she's had a positive, though brief, experience with. So Danny facilitated the link up via Facebook messenger and shout out to you, bro. Cause it happened.
Joanna Quintana
Well, I'm all over social media as a bitch.
Andrew Callahan
Yeah, I know I should. But you know what?
Joanna Quintana
I knew you weren't a bitch. I knew you weren't.
Andrew Callahan
For reference, this interview was conducted in the fall of 2023, and we've kind of held the footage for the past two years, waiting for the perfect moment to drop it. And I think that we're here right now, and I'm gonna explain why later. Well. Hey, how you doing? Good to meet you. How you doing? Good to see you. Thanks for having me over. I like the Christmas decorations.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah. Don't be a fan of tell me. This is ruining my pictures. Take this down. A bunch of people from India last year told me that, and I said, guess what? There'll be more. There's a car right there. California? Yeah.
Andrew Callahan
You think. You think that's a Breaking Bad fan?
Joanna Quintana
Of course.
Andrew Callahan
Let's talk to him. How you guys doing?
Joanna Quintana
I know they're. They pull up, prepare. I don't know you for matters, right? No, but you know me or you've heard of me? I think so. You. Yeah.
Andrew Callahan
So she actually lives in the house.
Joanna Quintana
Oh, okay. Okay, okay. So we get busy at checkout time at 11 at a hotel. You can't check in to hotels between three and four. We get busy between three or four because people have nowhere to go. Duh. Here. Right.
Andrew Callahan
Can you tell us your name? Where you guys are coming from? Well, my name is Carson. I'm coming from Louisiana, but I'm going back home to California. My brother and then my. Who's your guys favorite Breaking Bad character? For me. Oh, man. I want to say Mike, who's the.
Joanna Quintana
Most hated character you hate? Skyler.
Andrew Callahan
How does it feel being here looking at Walter White's alleged house? Yeah, it's cool. Not what I expected, but with all the decoration. But I mean, I think it adds a good twist to it, you know what I mean? So this. This would be an example of very friendly visitors, right.
Joanna Quintana
If they were to come, get out of the car, stand on the sidewalk, like my sign says, take a picture and automatically leave. There's no reason to sit here for more than five minutes even. Even my local police say, you know, that's loitering. That's stalking, you know. Yeah, for sure. For sure.
Andrew Callahan
When did your relationship with the Breaking Bad crew start?
Joanna Quintana
The day they rang the doorbell. Sony Productions came up and rang the doorbell and handed my mother a business card. They basically told her, we want to use your house for a pilot. That's all it was going to be, a pilot. The next day she called Santa Fe Film Commission and they told her two words, do it. And then here comes 100 semis. Here comes the set crew, the design crew, the costume people. I mean, we got. The street got bombarded. The house was over. You know, the streets, the neighborhoods, cables running all over the place, thousands of people around. And you're just like, whoa, what's this? You know, when the scouts came out to the house, they said, okay, everything's fine. They went in the backyard and they said, no, we can't use this house. And everybody's like, why? This storyline is. He's a struggling school teacher. Why would a school teacher have a pool? So the scouts said, no, no, we can't, we can't. So they go back to Vince Gilligan and he comes the next day and goes to the backyard and he says two words. Write it in three words. Sorry.
Andrew Callahan
Because the pool became a pretty significant part of the story. Like, you remember that part where airplane parts are flying from the ceiling? And there's also. I don't know what the scene is, but Walter Jr. Is like drinking alcohol or something.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah. Throwing up in the pool. That was cool.
Andrew Callahan
Yeah. So that was your pool?
Joanna Quintana
Yeah. The whole scene of the backyard is real. They later duplicated it to the set. See, that's where all the fans get confused. They think they use the house. Yeah, they use the exterior, the front of the house and the backyard. We did not move out, rent out the house. They just at first took all the furniture out of the house and took it to storage. Well, two or three times doing that. Let's find another place. So they moved everything over. So the inside was basically where all their cameras and films and director chairs and wardrobe was and all that. Not one square inch of the house is true to the show, but the majority of it was filmed in the backyard. All the pool scenes, the skateboard scene, Anna walking in and flick, you know, down she goes. I got stories on those. I got lots of stories to you.
Andrew Callahan
What's like the craziest story you can think of of that time, them filming in your house?
Joanna Quintana
Probably when Walt Jr. Had to learn how to throw up and the tube coming out and he was standing next to me. I thought he was really puking guts. Yeah, he made it sound so real.
Andrew Callahan
So you're actually watching these scenes go down?
Joanna Quintana
Oh, yeah. We're outside with them one time, Dean Norris and everybody, they came in and kind of partied a little too much. And he went and laid in one of our beds and gave him an afghan that and he loves afghans. He crashed out, kind of hungover.
Andrew Callahan
What was that like? Kind of witnessing Hollywood in action.
Joanna Quintana
It was awesome. Yeah, it was the magic of Hollywood. You have no idea unless you live it. Right over my light sensor is where they threw the pizza. If you remember, in the last season, Jesse had Saul Goodman's Cadillac and he comes 0 to 80 and crashes right up here into our rocks. Jesse and I were standing across the street. That was a stuntman, my mother and everybody, all the people were inside. I'm texting her, move away. They're making a drive through window. So they drove the Cadillac all the way up there. When they went on hiatus, they had to keep up with the season, filming of the seasons. So when they came back, it was fall. Well, when they went, it was spring. There's flowers, there's leaves. They hand strung in 2,000 leaves in that tree. To make it look like they never went on break, they had to put fake roses in a neighbor's yard. Over here. They hand scraped off the snow off the sidewalks. That's magic about Hollywood that you don't know that you don't see the scene where Walt takes the baby and Anna's running down the street. She drops to her knees and screams. And he's going around the corner. She was Pacing back and forth. She was smoking like a train at the house, trying to prepare for this hardcore over emotional scene. It tore her up physically, mentally. She couldn't do it. She went and locked herself in one of our bedrooms, you know, and she just. It was so hard for her to do that scene. Yeah. And finally she did it. And then when they had her do it again, it was just so emotional. They got into full character that nobody knows or sees.
Andrew Callahan
And so that to get into that character, you just kind of see them doing these like intensity rituals around the house.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah.
Andrew Callahan
I always wondered how actors did that.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah. If they know there's a hardcore violent scene coming up or not even just the character of Jesse and Walter White. That's a lot. My mother used to bake cookies and all kinds of stuff. And Brian wouldn't eat because he had a state in underweight character. It was funny. The last day put out a big old tray of everything that they all loved. The last scene where Anna got him with the knife, he's holding up a biscuit. He's happy because he finally, after, you know, so many years of filming, he finally gets to eat. It's just crazy. The characters, they have to get into. You know, the airplane scene where everybody goes in the pool and, you know, and crashes and all that hoo ha stuff. They were setting up to do that film shot and they had it on a balloon, tethered a big huge camera, and it was supposed to fly over the pool and shoot the scene. Well, Augusta wind comes, unties it to where it was tied up to. It flies off. So this camera is flying on a balloon.
Andrew Callahan
Did they ever film?
Joanna Quintana
It's going and going. So the next time they come over to film, they told us what happened. A rancher 250 miles away in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, finds this camera that says property of Breaking Bad. And he calls him and says, I got your camera. You know, this man, if he was smart and known, he could have had a million dollars on that camera. When they got it back, there was no footage. They forgot to take the lens cap off.
Andrew Callahan
So Breaking bad premieres in 2008. And, you know, it didn't really pick up steam until.
Joanna Quintana
Until when do you think they came into the pilot? Sony projection. They took it back, they viewed it and they didn't see anything in it. They weren't going to do it, so they gave it to amc. Here, take the.
Andrew Callahan
My name is Walter White. I just want you to know that no matter how it may look, I only had you in my Heart.
Joanna Quintana
AMC took it. And now, well, you know, what happened? Okay. It's just huge. One and two were really slow. Real draggy. People were losing interest in it. Season three got you in. Those were holy oh, my God moments, you know? And what's funny was when the fans first started coming, they were nice. They were polite. We would do trivia with them because I know stuff people don't know. We would take pictures with them. We would take pictures for them. You know, we kept logbooks of where they were from, how many cars a day we had.
Andrew Callahan
So at first, you were kind of politely engaging with the fans.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah, it was fun. Even the actors. Bryan Cranston would come out. There was a couple on their way to Santa Fe to get married. They stopped at the house. So we went in and told Bryan Cranston, and he said, okay. He came out and took a picture with them. They were late for their own wedding. I would too. We've had a lot of famous people. We had the guy that has the original General Lee, the orange one from that show. Dukes of Hazzard.
Andrew Callahan
Dukes of Hazzard.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah.
Andrew Callahan
Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, for sure.
Joanna Quintana
He came and it's. Why are you guys coming here? They were more excited to meet us than us meeting them.
Andrew Callahan
So all things considered, you don't mind people visiting your house?
Joanna Quintana
No, I don't mind if they come. With respect. We have signs that says, take your pictures from across the street. We have three of them. Do not disturb us. That's all we ask. Don't vandalize us. Don't hurt us. Don't destroy the neighborhood.
Andrew Callahan
Film Breaking Bad fans are doing bad recreating one of Walter White's scenes at his home in the Heights. But in real life, the family who lives there is frustrated. Did you know that that house is like. The people that live there had to call a complaint because people find it and throw pizzas on their rope.
Joanna Quintana
Since that scene was shown on the.
Andrew Callahan
Show, people go to the house in Albuquerque with a pizza, and they throw the pizza on the roof and then take a picture.
Joanna Quintana
And then what do they do?
Andrew Callahan
They leave. A pizza stays on the roof. This is every day a pizza zone. Now, if you. If you had food on your roof, what else would you have on your roof? Rats. Yeah, birds.
Joanna Quintana
Rats.
Andrew Callahan
So let's go to the. The pizza. It's pizza story. So tell me about the day that was filmed.
Joanna Quintana
The day that was filmed. They brought. Like I said, they brought all the pizzas.
Andrew Callahan
How many do you think there was.
Joanna Quintana
About 50 on the sidewalk. And we had a good pizza pottery after it didn't go to waste. And he wasn't supposed to make it on the first try because the angle of the driveway, the angle of the roof, and he came out and he put everything into it and there it went. And it stuck. Just thunk and was like, dude. And they. That's it, you know.
Andrew Callahan
Is there a part of you that wished that never happened?
Joanna Quintana
Yes. That scene is the most recreated. I mean, the only one. Well, I shouldn't say only one because fans do dress up in hazmat costumes. But that pizza scene. Yeah, because. Okay, you want to vandalize our house. I mean, they throw and run. So what picture proof do you have?
Andrew Callahan
How many pizzas in total do you think have been thrown on your house.
Joanna Quintana
Over the last 10 years? Yeah, probably a couple hundred pizzas.
Andrew Callahan
When do you think the first pizza was thrown?
Joanna Quintana
Probably the day after that scene. It was that quick. People are quick to respond to everything.
Andrew Callahan
What was your reaction when you saw the first pizza?
Joanna Quintana
What the hell is what we said?
Andrew Callahan
So it was instant pissed off.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah, instant. And then it kept coming and coming and coming. Then the egging of the house and the tagging of the house were just like. You know, I mentioned something to the.
Andrew Callahan
Lady a minute ago about throwing a pizza up on the roof.
Joanna Quintana
I don't think she appreciated that. Some people have tried and missed. Some people have gotten them on there. But what they don't understand is this is a private residence. And it's really frustrating. In the beginning, we were averaging over 300 cars a day. Really, a day. And then on the weekends, God forbid, holidays. I mean, come for Christmas. Balloon fiesta is our worst because 100,000 people hit the city. I have to get traffic control. I have to get police. Fans were tagging our house. We had two people on camera sit on our lawn and stab 100 forks in our grass. It's like, what are you doing? That's not part of the show. That's vandalizing now and writing your name on our house. What for? So it gets pretty bad. You know, people assume we put that fence up for the pizza. Oh, my God, you know? No, the fence went up because at 4:30 in the morning, somebody ran the doorbell. And you're like, okay, what is this crap? You open the door, nobody's there. You look down and there's a package. There's a strange package. So you call the police, the police call bomb squad because you made a report of a strange package at your door. So now they're getting too close to our personal space. Our safety is now intact.
Andrew Callahan
What was in the package? Did the cops tell you?
Joanna Quintana
No, they just destroyed it.
Andrew Callahan
Have you ever thought about how unique your situation is before? Like, there's probably maybe a maximum like 50 people in America or maybe the world who live in a house that is like central piece of lore for a giant TV fandom. Like, that's so it's got. You might be the only one. Right now you're like pretty much like patient zero.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah.
Andrew Callahan
For this strange phenomenon. It'll be studied later in time.
Joanna Quintana
I'm sure it will. How this show drew in everybody because when the show first started, the fan base wasn't that big. So the people that watched it are talking to the people that I'm not gonna watch it, that's about drugs. But they kept talking and talking. So then they got them interested. Now we're like on the fourth or fifth generation of people that refuse to watch it. I have people worldwide.
Andrew Callahan
It's a great show. It's probably my favorite show. Part of the reason I wanted to live in an RV in the first place was probably season one. Just seeing the shots of like Walt and Jesse's RV in the desert out here, like out in the boonies, I was like, man, that sounds like a cool way to live. But then also just like watching the character development of Walter White. From like a happy go lucky science teacher dabbling in crime to this full blown like arch nemesis, villain, archetype. That was crazy to watch. And I haven't seen any TV show show. Such an evolution of character. Because by the end he was so unlikable.
Joanna Quintana
Right.
Andrew Callahan
Everyone hated him. And it's almost like that little part of you that wanted to root for Walt was almost gone.
Joanna Quintana
Do you know who's the most hated character? And a gun.
Andrew Callahan
Really? Skyler.
Joanna Quintana
Skyler. They cannot stand Skyler. They hate Skyler. In fact, they call me Skyler. I was like, whatever. I grew up from Karen to Skyler.
Andrew Callahan
Have you spoken to anybody in a similar position? Maybe someone who lives in a residence that's allured by a fandom?
Joanna Quintana
Like somebody else that owns a famous house? Yeah, the lady that owns Mork Mindy's apartment in Boulder, Colorado. Everything died off for her. She came. It was right after, unfortunately, you know, Robin Williams had passed. Fans started going to her. She made a trip out here and just to tell us, I am so sorry for you guys. We had the neighbors that live next door to the Goonies house, Come now. Goonies were shot in the 80s. Now they have parachute blinders hiding the house and everything like that. And they still get people. The neighbor told us that they sold their house and bought an RV and they're out of there. They can't do it anymore. You know, it's over 30 years. Those people are different. Mork and Mindy, the Dallas Ewing house, you know, the ranch, Brady Bunch. All those fans are different. They're harmless.
Andrew Callahan
When do you think your first interaction with, like, a. What they call a content creator was, you know, like, who is the first YouTuber, TikToker person to engage you in that way?
Joanna Quintana
The first Tiktoker.
Andrew Callahan
Yeah.
Joanna Quintana
I get Danny Duncan.
Andrew Callahan
That's the towels. Don't go in front of her house. He made meth in there. Oh, shit, she's gonna lose it, bro. Yeah.
Joanna Quintana
My grandson goes, well, Bisa, the show's been over exactly 15 years. 24, 7, 365. We have people who get harassed, threatened. I mean, I have total surveillance cameras around my property in the backyard. I get attacked by drones. I was tricked. He went to my neighbor and my neighbor said, oh, yeah, I know her. And he was talking to her. And so my neighbor called me and said, my grandkids are here from Colorado and they're. Friend, can you come out? Well, yeah, I came out. You know, I'll let them up. You know, he's the neighbor's grandkid. All of a sudden, I get hugged by Danny Duncan, and I'm like, okay, who are you? And then I get hugged by a midget. I'm like, who are you really? You know, because I don't. I'm not on social media. I don't know TikTok, I don't know Instagram, you know, none of that stuff.
Andrew Callahan
When you say you've been hurt, what do you mean?
Joanna Quintana
I've had open beer cans thrown at me. I've had my arm jerked when I went to check my mailbox because I didn't acknowledge this man. I don't have to acknowledge you, dude. I didn't. I don't know you. I'm coming out of my fence, and apparently he was saying hi in the distance, and I didn't hear him and I wouldn't answer him anyway. So he grabbed my wrist when I went to check my mouth and I jerked back and I told him, you better let go. And he goes, but you don't have to be so rude.
Andrew Callahan
It seems like the Breaking Bad fan base is super militant. They have no spatial boundaries for your.
Joanna Quintana
House, and it's not teens. I have all ages. They're even letting 7 and 8, 9 year old kids watch breaking Bad.
Andrew Callahan
Yeah? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I've watched Channel 5 for a while. So can you tell us your name and where you live? Hey, I'm Brian. I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, across from Walter White. And you guys have a good neighbor relationship?
Joanna Quintana
Yeah.
Andrew Callahan
Oh, she's a great neighbor. Yeah, she's always got my back. Always looking out, you know, there's all kinds of crazy stuff going on. So one time some people stole a van and like crashed it and then like ended up on her roof. So there was like cops everywhere from that. It was pretty. It was pretty wild. Yeah, that was pretty wild. Most people are pretty cool and out of the way. Some people kind of forget that this is a neighborhood, you know, and they kind of do whatever they want. It's not quite, you know, a tourist stop, but yeah, most people are pretty cool. A lot of enthusiasts, A lot of people who are just like driving across the U.S. you know? Yeah. Are you stoked to live right here? Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's. It can have its moments, but it's been. It's been pretty cool.
Joanna Quintana
It's a cult following now. So now they've gotten rude, violent.
Andrew Callahan
You dumb bitch.
Joanna Quintana
You're a dumb bitch. Wrong people to fuck with.
Andrew Callahan
Fucking retire. Harassing me.
Joanna Quintana
My mail gets filtered every day. My mailman let this go by. This came yesterday. So I want you to see that Saul called.
Andrew Callahan
Free Saul Goodman.
Joanna Quintana
What does that have to do Walter White, who's dead, have to do with me? I get this constantly. I get threatening mail. I get packages in Joe Smith using my address. Walter White, hearing aid appointment, your car. You know, I get stacks of mail to where my mama doesn't even give it to me anymore. But he gave this to me because I knew I was going to talk to you.
Andrew Callahan
I mean, this makes no sense because Saul Goodman doesn't even live at your house.
Joanna Quintana
Right.
Andrew Callahan
None of them are real.
Joanna Quintana
Right.
Andrew Callahan
But even in the context of Breaking Bad, we actually don't know where he lives. It's never revealed.
Joanna Quintana
No, it's not.
Andrew Callahan
When he lived with his brother Chuck, we knew that they lived together. But Saul Goodman's residence is not revealed after that.
Joanna Quintana
No.
Andrew Callahan
So I don't like that one bit. Gosh, if I own this house, I would be given tours all the time. Super cool.
Joanna Quintana
Why? It's a family private house. Ain't no fucking tours, stupid.
Andrew Callahan
Oh, I didn't say you gave tours.
Joanna Quintana
I said I would give tours. This Is cool stupid because it's a family home.
Andrew Callahan
Well, you rented it to them.
Joanna Quintana
I didn't rent nothing out to them. Go to the fucking studio. That's where they filmed it. Get your fucking facts straight. Yeah.
Andrew Callahan
Well, I guess this is going on YouTube.
Joanna Quintana
They start with the intent to fight with me because they want to make themselves 32nd TikTok famous. Okay, so they only show me going off. They don't show what started it. You are that fucking stupid. Get out with that thing right now. Get out. It's a private house.
Andrew Callahan
She got me wet. Get back from the gate. Scared.
Joanna Quintana
I'm the biggest bitch on the Internet. I'm a famous bitch. That's why.
Andrew Callahan
Do you think that the young generation is cursed by a chronic desire for social media fame?
Joanna Quintana
Mm.
Andrew Callahan
Were things like that when you were growing up?
Joanna Quintana
No. Heck no. We had flip phones and pagers that went on your hip.
Andrew Callahan
But did people still want to be famous? Did the average kid growing up or average teenager have this desire to be famous? Whether that at the time, that might have been Hollywood or a movie star?
Joanna Quintana
No, that was. There was nothing like that growing up.
Andrew Callahan
It's interesting now. My 13 year old, 14 year old cousins ask them what they want to do when they grow up and they all say YouTuber, TikToker, Twitch streamer, I.
Joanna Quintana
Don'T want nothing else. They sit in front and play Nintendo video games all day. I mean, come on. There's a life. There's things to do out there.
Andrew Callahan
Yeah. Looking back at everything, do you think that Breaking Bad was good or bad for Albuquerque?
Joanna Quintana
It was good for Albuquerque, for tourism. Get Albuquerque notice because we're just a piss hole, dirt place. Nobody knows. You drive through 66 on your way to Flagstaff, on your way to Vegas. Bryan Cranston loved this place so much. Albuquerque. He bought a townhome down on Nob Hill. He's got an apartment. Aaron Paul loves it here. R.J. minton bought a house out here. Walt Jr, Dean Norris bought a house down. You know, they. They fell in love with the city because there's more to Breaking Bad than people know. Did you know at the same time Breaking Bad was being filmed that Avengers was filmed here? Transformers was filmed here.
Andrew Callahan
I wonder if it's because California is so expensive, you know, with the tax.
Joanna Quintana
Oh, yeah, they're giving good tax credits here. Did you know you're less than a quarter of a mile away from where Jim Morrison and lived? His father was in the Navy. They moved here on. Yup. Candelaria. They settled here for a Few years he went to school and moved out. Moved back in the same house. You're that close, but nobody knows. It's like I could be your tour guide if I wanted to.
Andrew Callahan
Do you still like pizza?
Joanna Quintana
Of course. I'm human.
Andrew Callahan
See, that's good.
Joanna Quintana
I have nothing against pizza, but there's three pizza restaurants in this local area and people call in fake orders, either online or call. There's still three restaurants that do COD. People think they're going to deliver 20 pizzas and I'm going to buy them. Get the hell out of here. I'm one person. I'm not going to eat 20 pizzas. My address is flagged. Actually, they have to call me first to see if it's a real order. Two years ago, June 26th. No, sorry. June 25th, a friend of mine let me know that there's an Internet threat on Instagram to the house. The title of this person's Instagram said, let's bombard the Breaking bad House. On June 25th at 5 o', clock, this so called person had 2 million followers. 700 of them responded, okay, I'll be there. We'll do it. So I get on the phone and I contact the studio. They look into it. They come to me and says, we got you, we'll take care of it. June 25th, they got the state police. I had three state police officers 24, seven, three days, the day before and the day after. Two days after the event, this thing was going to happen. I had two undercover cops in civilian vehicles. It didn't happen. We had a lot of people that day, but nothing happened.
Andrew Callahan
Right. That's good.
Joanna Quintana
It has become a cult following because these fans do not accept the end that he died. They refuse.
Andrew Callahan
You're talking about Walter White?
Joanna Quintana
Yes. They refuse the ending and they let me know. They all come screeching down the street screaming, walter White. Come out, come out. I'm here to buy meth. I'm like, dude's dead. You want to go where his headstone is? I'll give you the location.
Andrew Callahan
There's a fake Walter White headstone.
Joanna Quintana
You don't know the story on that? No, Dude. Okay, so the character dies. Nowhere in history has a local newspaper ever put an obituary for a character in our local paper. That newspaper sold out within an hour. They had to re run it the next day. So here's a fake character in our local newspaper. They go and have a real service at our local cemetery.
Andrew Callahan
Wow.
Joanna Quintana
Fans show up like, Dude. No, they've never been. So now the fans are going to the cemetery, spending the night, having parties. So now they're disrespecting our local cemetery with our loved ones. Mourners paid for dirt. Dirt to toss across an empty coffin, which was laid in a real grave site with a headstone. And it will stay there for now. So they moved the headstone. It was a fitting end for loyal fans. But for families with loved ones laid to rest here, it hits too close to home.
Andrew Callahan
My son is buried about 15 yards away from where the makeshift gravesite is.
Joanna Quintana
But, yeah, it was real.
Andrew Callahan
Is there a part of you that feels like, man, I should just move out of here?
Joanna Quintana
No, because it's our family home. That's our first and only family home because we traveled all over the country as little kids. My father was in the military. This is our family home. Our all of us grew up. Now the grandkids are growing up.
Andrew Callahan
So you have, like, a deep connection to the home.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah. Fans come and tell me, well, if you don't like it, you should move. Well, why don't you move? Don't tell me what to do in my home. You don't pay my bills.
Andrew Callahan
Is there anything you want to say to the people out there who are thinking of maybe visiting harassing you?
Joanna Quintana
Well, they can come and visit. With respect, they can come and take their pictures. Don't stay and stalk me for 16 hours, because I will call. You know, I get scared. You would, too. If somebody's staring at your house for 16 hours. That vehicle hasn't moved. They're watching. They're up to something. Yeah, and I'm nine. One one's on speed dial.
Andrew Callahan
Well, there's that. I hope you guys enjoyed it and felt like you learned something along the way about, you know, Breaking Bad, Albuquerque. Joanna, Me? I don't know. As I mentioned, though, I've been sitting on the footage for a couple years, waiting for the right time. And now is the right time because Joanna caved. Maybe that's a negative way to put it. Joanna changed her mind about living there for the rest of her life. She actually just listed the house for sale, despite being valued, like, as a property at $350,000. Despite the house is now listed for 3.995 million. Walter White's home in Breaking Bad is officially up for sale.
Joanna Quintana
Yeah, but it could be outside your budget. You see, the homeowners are asking for almost $4 million.
Andrew Callahan
Joanna told the New York Times that she's just over the harassment and wants to finally cash in big. She hopes that the future owner of the home will turn into some kind of fan friendly museum or bed and breakfast, which I would love to stay at. And I think it's sick that she's finally cashing in, because I understand the desire to, like, stand strong in your position. But I mean, breaking bad probably like quadrupled, if not quintupled, the value of that house, which is just a standard Albuquerque house. So I think it's overall good news. Anyways, after wrapping up filming with Joanna and the abq, we decided to cover a different issue. The ongoing drug crisis that has ravaged large subsections of Albuquerque. Much like in breaking Bad, the new flavor of choice in the streets is in fact blue. But it's not methamphetamine. It's fentanyl, which is being pressed by the cartel into small, sometimes 25 cent pills called blues that have hooked tens of thousands of people of all colors and creeds throughout a very short period of time. We just felt like with the celebration of the fictional drug traffickers that has brought so much attention to the city, we owed it to Albuquerque to do our due diligence and cover the actual ongoing fentanyl crisis, which is very much real and doesn't have a fictional house or Hollywood actors attached to it. Here's a preview of that. But this area is day or night. You know, they're moving. They know where the guys come to drop off the fentanyl at these gas stations or these different places, and they have a whole network. But if you're from Albuquerque, you're from New Mexico, you're a certain way. And we grew up with these realities. You know, fentanyl is just the new thing. What have we had before it? You know, when I was young, heroin really shaped my life and my family's life in Espanola. I was able to get away from that place and move to Moriarty. And there was meth everywhere, you know, single, wide trailers full of meth. And now we've come into the opioid epidemic and it's turned into this thing called fentanyl. It was made in a lab, and it's like, far more deadly than. Well, I mean, it's not deadly. It's like sustaining these people like zombies. The streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico, are not to be played with, Especially as they face an increased rate of homelessness and a mass surge of fentanyl driven by the mass production of small pills called blues, which are pressed and packaged in Mexico by cartels who receive the raw fentanyl precursor materials from Chinese chemists who Operate with little to no consequences from their government. After all, we're enemies, right?
Joanna Quintana
There's a new drug of choice in.
Andrew Callahan
New Mexico that's causing problems like the.
Joanna Quintana
State'S never seen before.
Andrew Callahan
It's in our communities, it's found everywhere we go, and it's something Bernalillo county officials say needs to be discussed as often as possible. Even a few grains of this deadly synthetic fentanyl can kill you. Bernalillo county reported nearly 69 deaths per 100,000 people.
Joanna Quintana
That fentanyl, that fentanyl is killing a whole lot of. Of people. Back in the days, it used to be. She might used to be heroin homes, you know. Overnight, it seemed like the blues came in, and I just started to see everybody that, like, I knew that was getting high on just the heroin go to the pills. Like their whole lifestyle changed, you know what I mean? Like, they started losing everything. I mean, like, I mean, heroin's not no better, But I mean, it was. It seemed like it wasn't as much of a. A need for it, you know what I mean? Like, people are going out and just stealing right and left, you know what I mean? If it ain't. If it ain't bolted down, somebody's gonna take it, you know what I mean?
Andrew Callahan
In the years prior, Albuquerque's gritty reputation was something that many well to do residents saw as quirky, A small blemish on an otherwise strong city, Often ironically celebrated through the veneration of the character Walter White, a fictional meth dealer from the series breaking bad, who once called the ABQ home. But the surge in violence and property crime that's accompanied the advent of blues has caused residents to get serious and push for a solution. Much like in San Francisco, where I visited a non profit facility called the Gubbio project, who distributes safe supplies to drug users in the hopes of curtailing the overdose rate. Albuquerque is home to several nonprofits that work in harm reduction, One of which is called the endorphin power company.
Joanna Quintana
So I'm Jeff Holland. I'm the executive director here at the.
Andrew Callahan
Endorphin power company in Albuquerque's international district. I'm also a clinician at New Mexico wellness residential treatment center in detox. If you'd like to see our full episode Albuquerque streets, head to our patreon@www.patreon.com Channel 5, where we have the full pretty gnarly, uncensored documentary out right now. As many of you guys know, we are 100% independent, and it's your monthly support on Patreon, which is five bucks a month. That keeps us in business. It keeps the train rolling again. That's www.patreon.com Channel 5, if you guys want to check out Albuquerque streets and support us while doing it. All right, that's it for today. Hope you guys have a good one. Channel 5 live worldwide, Hollywood and Vine. Fuck the authority. Channel 5 news.
Joanna Quintana
Channel 55.
Andrew Callahan
We don't with custers. And 5 is the best number. Hey, you. That's right, you. Are you a documentary filmmaker or a journalist whose work is being held captive by the fat cats at the Hollywood studios? Or even worse, being held back by a tyrannical parent organization like Vice, Vox, and Mother Jones? Well, I have great news for you. Those days are over because we are launching our own independent documentary platform called C5Now.
Joanna Quintana
C5Now. C5Now.
Andrew Callahan
C5Now. It's going to be available on smart TV, iOS and just a regular old computer. A lot of you guys might Wonder what makes C5 now different than Peacock or HBO Max or Tubi. And the answer is residuals. I know some of you guys may think that residuals is an HPPD symptom, but that's not the case. It means the proportion of streaming revenue that that you get paid after your movie is on a platform. Most people get 10% or 20% of residuals. But if you got a film on C5 now, you're gonna get 55% or more of residuals. Yeah, it's gonna cost money. It's gonna cost $5.55 a month, much like the Dear Kelly film. But the thing is that money's gonna go straight to the director, straight to the executive producer, straight to the people who actually put money into the project itself. So we don't gotta put fucking break off fat chunks of change for all these fat cats telling us how to think. So if you have something you want to submit, just do me a favor, email me that to submissionsannel5news. And you too can be a part of C5 now. We're not going to change your edit, but we will give some feedback if it's not that good. But it's almost there. Maybe less music. Put a little bit less music on there if you want to, but you don't have to. And that's key to Channel 5Now suggestion, not enforcement. And the best thing about C5Now is you don't gotta be 18 to sign up.
Joanna Quintana
Content for all ages, not just adults.
Andrew Callahan
We're gonna have documentaries for kids about the history of Roblox or How to succeed in Minecraft. Maybe we'll have some MrBeast stuff on there. Not sure. Maybe even other languages one day. Mandarin Chinese.
Joanna Quintana
Even if I spoke a different language, I'd subscribe.
Andrew Callahan
Tagolog. That's the main language of the Philippines. Speak a bit of Navajo if you want. And the best thing about Channel 5 and C5 now is we're going to take those proceeds and support local business. Compra dos.
Joanna Quintana
6 5. Right now, everybody.
Episode Title: Living in Walter White's House & Dodging Pizzas: 5CAST w/ Andrew Callaghan (#7)
Release Date: June 8, 2025
Guest: Joanne Quintana
Joanne Quintana has been the long-time resident of the house famously featured in the television series Breaking Bad. Purchased by her parents in 1973, the home has been a staple in her family's life for over five decades.
[00:00] Joanne Quintana: "Bought the house in 1973, my parents did. So it's a family-owned home since 1973."
Joanne reminisces about her childhood in the house, highlighting a vibrant teenage life filled with activities like street racing and garage ping pong games. Her father, hailing from New Mexico, instilled a strong sense of family and responsibility in her.
[00:10] Joanne Quintana: "I was a crazy teen. I used to start the races, streetcar races... there was nothing to do but street racing and hanging out in shopping center parking lots and getting drunk."
After high school, Joanne pursued nursing, specializing in geriatrics and Alzheimer's care. Her professional life took a poignant turn when she began caring for her father diagnosed with Alzheimer's, leading her to move back home four years prior.
[00:54] Joanne Quintana: "Went to nursing school, geriatrics, Alzheimer's specialist. Did that for years... I take care of a parent that has Alzheimer's. My dad."
Joanne's life intersected with the Breaking Bad production when the crew approached her family to use their home for the series. Initially a positive experience, it soon spiraled due to the infamous pizza-throwing scene.
[03:21] Joanne Quintana: "The day they rang the doorbell."
A pivotal moment occurred in Season 3, Episode 2, when Walter White throws a pizza onto the roof. This scene became a meme, leading fans to replicate the act by throwing pizzas at Joanne's house daily. The situation escalated from mere fan enthusiasm to harassment and property damage.
[08:34] Joanne Quintana: "Bad, this is a sort of mecca."
[00:10] Joanne Quintana: "I was a crazy teen... getting drunk."
Faced with relentless harassment, Joanne initially resorted to extreme measures, including arming herself with a shotgun. However, legal counsel advised against such actions, leading to the construction of a fortified fence in 2017, funded by Albuquerque.
[09:03] Joanne Quintana: "You're a dumb bitch."
The ongoing harassment took a severe toll on Joanne's mental health, altering her demeanor from a welcoming neighbor to someone defensive and bitter. Viral confrontations with content creators further exacerbated her situation.
[10:16] Joanne Quintana: "You're a dumb bitch."
Joanne sought to establish a respectful boundary with fans, requesting they admire the house from a distance without causing disturbances. Despite these efforts, the fanbase's aggressive behavior persisted, leading her to label the situation as a "cult following."
[22:40] Joanne Quintana: "Breaking Bad was good for Albuquerque, for tourism... But it's just a piss hole, dirt place."
After enduring years of harassment, Joanne made the difficult decision to list the house for sale. Valued at nearly $4 million, she hopes the new owners will respect the home's privacy while possibly embracing its iconic status.
[39:56] Joanne Quintana: "...she's finally cashing in."
The episode concludes with a reflection on the broader implications of fandom culture and its impact on individuals' lives. Joanne's story serves as a cautionary tale about the unintended consequences of media portrayal and the importance of respecting personal boundaries.
Joanne on Harassment:
[09:03] "You're a dumb bitch."
Joanne on Fandom's Impact:
[22:40] "Breaking Bad was good for Albuquerque, for tourism... But it's just a piss hole, dirt place."
Joanne on Listing the House:
[39:56] "...she's finally cashing in."
This episode of 5CAST provides an in-depth look into Joanne Quintana's struggles living in an iconic house overshadowed by fandom fervor, highlighting the delicate balance between celebrating art and respecting individual lives.