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Josh Duhamel and Battle Creek Stars Reveal a Fun "Wink Wink" to Breaking Bad and Harold & Kumar Fans

Exclusive: Josh Duhamel, Dean Winters and Kal Penn dish on new CBS show and nods of nostalgia

By Kristin Dos Santos Feb 27, 2015 4:00 PMTags
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Imagine what Breaking Bad would have looked like if Walter White was dealing some, prime Grade A, 99 % pure…maple syrup.

That's more or less what episode two of CBS' new small-town cop drama Battle Creek nods at, as stars Josh Duhamel (Milt) and Dean Winters (Russ) try to crack a case involving a thuglike gang of maple syrup distributers.  

"I have to be honest," Winters tells me, "When I first saw that, I was like, is this the direction the show's gonna go in? Are we gonna do an illegal Golden Retriever ring next? But that episode was really David [Shore]'s way of kind of acknowledging Breaking Bad in the CBS way. It turned out it was humorous and something different and I hope people see the inside ‘wink wink' in that one."

Monty Brinton/CBS

The series, premiering Sunday, which is helmed by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan and House creator David Shore, focuses on a mismatched partnership between a cop (Dean Winters) and an ultra-suave FBI agent (Josh Duhamel). Kal Penn rounds out the group and there's a fun nod to Harold & Kumar fans, too!

Hear all about Battle Creek from Josh Duhamel and Dean Winters, and find out why Kal Penn had to "learn how to get high differently" in the exclusive video interview right here...

Watch: More Than Meets the Eye on "Battle Creek"