Rick and Morty

• 1. The C-137 Family

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  Rick Sanchez of Earth Dimension C-137 lives in a suburban house outside Seattle, Washington. He is an eccentric and alcoholic mad scientist who rejects school, marriage, love, and family conventions. His 14-year-old grandson Morty Smith joins him on interdimensional adventures through portals or Rick's flying saucer. Morty is kind-hearted but easily distressed, serving as a moral counterpoint to Rick's Machiavellian ego. The Smith household also includes parents Jerry and Beth, along with their daughter Summer. Jerry is a simple-minded and insecure person who disapproves of Rick's influence over his family. Beth is a level-headed horse surgeon who feels self-conscious about her professional role. Summer is a conventional teenager worried about improving her status among peers. Different versions of these characters inhabit other dimensions throughout the show's multiverse. In the first-season episode Rick Potion #9, Rick and Morty move to a different dimension after turning the entire world population into monsters. They leave the original Summer, Beth, and Jerry behind.

• 2. Channel 101 Origins

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  Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon met at Channel 101, a non-profit monthly short film festival in Los Angeles co-founded by Harmon. Participants submit a short film in the format of a pilot for a live audience to decide which pilots continue as a series. Roiland began submitting content to the festival in 2004, one year after its launch. His pilots typically consisted of shock value elements that received a confused reaction from the audience. Harmon took a liking to Roiland's humor, and the two began collaborating. In 2006, Roiland was fired from working on a television series he regarded as creatively stifling. He funneled his creative energies into creating a webisode for Channel 101 called The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti. This animated short starred parodies of Doc Brown and Marty McFly from the Back to the Future film trilogy. Harmon later created Community while Roiland worked primarily in voice acting for Disney's Fish Hooks and Cartoon Network's Adventure Time. Adult Swim approached Harmon in 2012 after he was briefly fired from Community. Roiland immediately brought up the idea of using the Doc and Mharti characters, renamed Rick and Morty.

• 3. The Story Circle Method

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  Dan Harmon has noted that the writers' room at the show's studio bears a striking resemblance to the one used for Community. The writing staff of Rick and Morty is significantly smaller and more rough and tumble verbally than other productions. Many episodes are structured with use of a story circle, a Harmon creation based largely on Joseph Campbell's monomyth or The Hero's Journey. Its two-act structure places the act break at an odd location in the stages of the monomyth: after The Meeting with the Goddess instead of Atonement with the Father. The first season writing staff consisted of Roiland, Harmon, Tom Kauffman, Ryan Ridley, Wade Randolph, and Eric Acosta. Writer's assistant Mike McMahan was also given writing credit. Discussions often include anecdotes from personal life as well as thoughts on the science fiction genre. After breaking the story, which consists of developing its consistency and logical beginning, middle, and conclusion, a writer is assigned to create an outline. Roiland and Harmon do a pass on the outline before the episode undergoes several more drafts. The final draft of the script is last approved by either of the co-creators. For the most part, this perfectionism caused writing schedule delays, resulting in the third season consisting of only 10 episodes instead of 14.

• 4. Animation Pipeline Changes

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  Animation for the show is done using Toon Boom Harmony, a vector-based 2D puppet software that serves as a more economical option than traditional hand-drawn animation. Post-production work is done in Adobe After Effects, and background art is done in Adobe Photoshop. Production of animation was handled by Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, Canada for the first six seasons and returned since the eighth season. Lighthouse Studios in Kilkenny, Ireland has handled production since the seventh season. Roiland's cartooning style is heavily indebted to The Simpsons, a factor he acknowledged in a 2013 interview. He compared his style to that of Pendleton Ward and J. G. Quintel, noting that mouths and teeth are similar across these shows. John Kricfalusi's The Ren & Stimpy Show was another strong influence for Rick and Morty. Season three art director Jeffrey Thompson explained that characters are often drawn with odd or asymmetrical features to avoid looking too normal. In January 2023, Adult Swim announced they had cut ties with Roiland following allegations of domestic abuse. His roles were recast with Ian Cardoni taking over for Rick and Harry Belden for Morty starting with the seventh season premiering in October 2023.

• 5. Cosmic Nihilism Themes

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  The series addresses the insignificance of human existence as compared to the size of the universe, with no recognizable divine presence, as described by Lovecraft's philosophy of cosmicism. Genovesi from Bonn University describes the series as exhibiting a nihilistic world-view. The characters deal with cosmic horror and existential dread either by asserting the utility of science over magic or by choosing a life in ignorant bliss. Joachim Heijndermans of Geeks notes that none of them appear able to handle the absurd and chaotic nature of the universe. Jerry gets by through denial while Rick is a depressed, substance-addicted, suicidal mess. Harmon describes Rick as a self-interested anarchist who does not like being told what to do. He believes that the character's life on a larger scale has caused mental illness. Matthew Bulger of The Humanist notes that the creators are trying to communicate the message that we need to focus on human relationships rather than unanswerable questions. Eric Armstrong of The New Republic says that Morty represents the audience as he is mostly there to react to Rick's deranged schemes. The character transforms by accepting truths that empower him to value his own life.

• 6. Broadcast Schedule History

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  Adult Swim unveiled its development slate in May 2012 that included a Rick and Morty pilot from Harmon and Roiland. It was eventually picked up to series in October 2012 as one of the network's first primetime original shows. The first season premiered in December 2013 and concluded in April 2014 with eleven episodes airing Mondays at 10:30 pm ET/PT. Two months earlier, in February 2014, the show had been renewed for a second season. Season two aired Sundays at 11:30 pm ET/PT from July to October 2015 with ten episodes. Adult Swim renewed Rick and Morty for a third season in August 2015 after a successful second-season premiere. The season premiered unannounced on the 1st of April 2017, as part of an April Fools' Day prank before continuing weekly almost four months later. In May 2018, after prolonged contract negotiations, Adult Swim announced a long-term deal ordering 70 new episodes over an unspecified number of seasons. The fourth season debuted in November 2019 split across two airings. The sixth season premiered on the 4th of September 2022 while the seventh season premiered on the 15th of October 2023.

• 7. Franchise Expansion Impact

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  Rick and Morty is part of a wider merchandising franchise that has become a hundred-million dollar media empire. Several former storyboard artists and crew members proceeded to develop their own shows or work on major new productions. Creator Justin Roiland and showrunner Mike McMahan co-created Solar Opposites, an animated sci-fi sitcom frequently compared to Rick and Morty. McMahan also went on to create Star Trek: Lower Decks. Writer Michael Waldron would go on to write for Loki, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars. Show alumnus Jeff Loveness became a writer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Erica Hayes, the show's storyboard writer and director, went on to work for Netflix's Big Mouth. Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch worked on the episode Big Trouble in Little Sanchez before becoming executive producer of Inside Job. Pete Michels directed over twenty Rick and Morty episodes and was also a director of two episodes of Inside Job. On the 20th of May 2021, Adult Swim announced a short spin-off series centred on the Vindicators team released in July 2022.