I thought the bench odd as well, as I remembered earlier eps when he stole a neighbor’s newspaper or something. I realize it could have been on a different side of the house.
Neat research upthread showing the park. Man, that house looks even weirder in the satellite shot! Would like to know who picked that paint color. So hideous they couldn’t simply repaint - they had to burn it down! 
I think it would be really dumb and out of character if famed lawyer and knower of the Magna Carta Charles McGill went through the effort and voluminous paperwork required to press criminal and ethical charges against his brother but forgot to write a will that doesn’t fund Jimmy’s “Chimp with a machine gun” law practice. I’m quite certain that Chuck has a solidly witnessed will stored in multiple places that either gives Jimmy no money or sets conditions on getting the money that Jimmy would obviously reject. It’s possible that his will leaves money back to HHM, since he pretty much lost his sanity right after retiring, but there’s no way he accidentally left Slippin’ Jimmy millions of dollars.
Chuck had a lot of hubris. I think it’s possible he thought he would never die, or at least not any time soon. Accomplished lawyer that he was, he couldn’t foresee how his severe allergy to electricity would handicap his firm and force him to retire.
And Chuck was always doing highly prestigious work with large corporations and banks. Jimmy was the “Grandma’s last will and testament” kind of lawyer. I’m sure if Chuck had a will it wouldn’t include Jimmy. But I think it’s within the realm of possibility that he never felt he needed one.
I thought when Lydia had Mike come in to sign the employment papers she mentioned that Gus would be covering any withholding so that Mike would net around $10k per paycheck.
To late to add:
In 2003 the required federal tax withholding on a biweekly $18K paycheck was around $6K. Add in Social Security/Medicaid (another $1.3K) and state/local taxes, plus some amount for benefits and $8K withholding is reasonable.
His mental illness did not include any delusions of immortality, in fact he feared that electricity would kill him. There has never been any indication on the show that he believed this, and plenty that shows he knew very well that he was mortal. His love/hate relationship with Jimmy was a driving force in his life, there’s no way that he never made the connection 'if I die without a will the Chimp with a machine gun gets enough money to start several law firms".
Chuck was someone who made a point of getting all of the paperwork in order and correct, that’s why Jimmy’s sabotage of his documents hurt him so badly. The fact that he didn’t write wills as his regular job is irrelevant to this obsessive need to have things done properly. Do you really think that when he and Rebecca were married he left her future to ‘oh well, whatever the probate court decides’?
Thank you! I was wondering what that piece was- I knew I recognized it but couldn’t place it.
I’ve wondered about that paint color as well. Chuck has decorated the interior with a designers eye for detail and aesthetics, high quality wood sitting room, finely appointed furniture, only the best of everything. And an exterior paint job that looks like it was attached by “a monkey with a spray can”, mustard yellow. Definitely not Chuck’s style.
One of the job listings in the newspaper Jimmy is reading is for Beneke Fabricators (the company Skyler worked for in Breaking Bad). I love the little touches.
Kim. I believe Chuck may well have left his estate to Kim. I think Chuck respected Kim’s work ethic and was perhaps a bit secretly in love with Kim. I can just see the smug smile on Chuck’s face as he imagined Jimmy, Howard, and Rebecca’s reactions. I can’t imagine a worse scenario for the Jimmy/Kim relationship.
I think Chuck’s choice of executor could be a bit of fun too.
(a somewhat nervous first post in SDMB)
Gotta love the Easter eggs!
There was also one for the Laser Tag place.
Yeah, I wonder why they picked such an oddly-colored house for Chuck to live in, and it’s never explained why he didn’t repaint it into something more subdued to fit the tasteful, quiet interior decor. Never really gets explained in the show, seems like something they could have tied into his illness, quirks, or at least made a joke about.
Hey, I had a house that was painted that color. It’s not that bad. It was fairly common in the neighborhood, which was mostly built around 1970.
The painted brick, however, is an abomination.
Was the house still that color in 2002 though? I get ‘it seemed like a good idea when we were wearing plaid bell bottoms with a gold medallion in the 1970s’, but the house doesn’t look like it’s rocking a 30-40 year old paint job in the show. Also speaking of 70s (really 80s, but close enough), I’d still really love to see Chuck from BCS forced to interact with David St Hubbins from Spinal Tap, I think he would probably require medical treatment.
The actual house is in the ABQ Country Club neighborhood. It faces a small park on one side, the actual front door side. In the show, they use the side door. The mailbox was put there for the show. They pull up and park on the house lined street, not the street shared with the park. The color looks more “bold” on TV, it’s really kind of a muted gold/yellow and doesn’t detract from the neighborhood.
I’m thinking Chuck left it all to HHM.
Awesome research! Moving the mailbox makes sense for the purposes of the show. Maybe the colour thing is like Captain Kirk’s greenish tunic that looked gold because of the studio lights (so they say).
I can’t see Chuck leaving it to HHM considered how disgracefully they showed him the door to retirement. I think Rebecca was about the only person he still had feelings for. Or he gave it all to charity.
It was in 1994 when we sold it. Aluminum siding on the sides and back of the house, front painted to match. According to Google Street View, at least the front has been painted white in the interim. And my memory was off, it was built in 1976.
Chuck leaves it all to a trust set up to fund research into EM sensitivity.
I really hope they don’t do the “reading of the will” trope. That doesn’t happen in real life.
I am actually pretty sure he didn’t, because Chuck was shocked by the forced retirement, then went off the rails in a short time. It was something like 5 days from his retirement to suicide IIRC, so I can believe that he wasn’t rational enough to sit down and rewrite the will, or that he decided he’d have time to rewrite it once he got done chasing down that last bit of electricity. If it was a month between the retirement and suicide then I’d agree, but I can see him not modifying it if it’s only been a week. Also, who would he get to witness the new will? With his electrical allergy acting up, he can’t call anyone and neither Jimmy nor HHM are coming by to check on him. And where would he put the will where he could be sure it would be found and accepted?
Even if he did decide to rewrite his will in his last week alive, it’s actually pretty unlikely to stand up to scrutiny, since he’d have a hard time getting it witnessed and the fact that he set a fire to kill himself speaks to him not being in his right mind. Whatever he did with the will, it’s certainly possible that Jimmy, Rebecca, Hamlin, or whoever is appointed as executor for his estate decides to contest it, since there is so much bad blood around.