It's been an awesome week for found footage of "Breaking Bad" stars' first TV appearances. Thursday night, Jay Leno unearthed footage of Aaron Paul making his first TV appearance as an enthusiastic teenage contestant on "The Price Is Right," and now a video clip of "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston starring on an episode of the hilariously low-budget CHN/Lifetime drama "Crisis Counselor" has surfaced on Reddit.
"Crisis Counselor" is a mix between a fictionalized Jerry Springer-esque talk show scenario and televised intervention. In this clip from an episode entitled, "Bisexual Husband," which originally aired in 1982, Cranston plays a bisexual man named Sam who goes to a "family crisis counselor" to try to save his marriage after admitting to having an affair with a male lover.
Sporting shaggy hair and looking fresh-faced, Cranston looks more like Mark Wahlberg's "Boogy Nights" character Dirk Diggler than Cranston's diabolical "Breaking Bad" character Walter White. He lays out his character's predicament in an understated, calm manner: "The situation is this ... Three months ago my wife and I had a confrontation involving a relationship that I have had with another man. It wasn't something that has been very easy for me to face, and now that the cards are on the table ... I thought that enlisting your help, you might be able to shed some enlightenment on us all, and hopefully come to some resolutions as to how we might be able to save our marriage."
Cranston has had an illustrious TV career after his ignomious debut. He played Hal, the dad on "Malcolm In The Middle," for seven seasons on Fox before his star turn on "Breaking Bad" propelled him to three consecutive Emmy wins for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama series.
Check out images from Season 5 of "Breaking Bad" and video of Aaron Paul on "The Price Is Right" below:
