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Rick and Morty is a special kind of madness. For those not familiar with the cult hit that’s currently airing its second season on Adult Swim, it’s the story of a sociopathic genius named Rick who traverses time and space with the help of his grandson, Morty. The dynamic between the two is often contentious and their adventures often result in incalculable death and destruction. If it sounds like a perverse version of “Doc and Marty,” that’s about right. It’s also a sly mix of Doctor Who, The Twilight Zone and a bunch of cultural oddities, including the Nightmare on Elm Street TV show from the late 80s.
The show, which comes to us from the twisted minds of Justin Roiland (Acceptable TV, The Sarah Silverman Program) and Dan Harmon (Community), is nothing short of brilliant. It’s equal parts insightful, juvenile and quotable. It’s world-building is sensational and its character dynamics are far beyond anything else we’re seeing on the animated landscape of late night television. It comes as no surprise to anyone who has watched a few episodes that this one has a strong, dedicated following.
This is what has led me to the season 1 DVD commentary track, where plenty more fun awaits. Keep reading to see what I heard from the creators of Rick and Morty, including both lessons to be learned and just some weird stuff that happened on the commentary track.
Rick and Morty, Season 1 (2014)
Commentators: Justin Roiland (co-creator, voice of both Rick and Morty), Dan Harmon (co-creator, writer, producer, rapper) and various others, including Ryan Ridley (writer/producer), Tom Kauffman (writer), Ryan Elder (composer) and more.
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Episode 1, “Pilot”:
1. The original pilot written in 6 hours. The story was broken, sold and written on the same day in Dan Harmon’s office following Community S3. “You [Justin Roiland] said to me, ‘if you leave now, we’ll be done in three months. But if you stay, we can finish this today,'” explains Harmon. He stayed and the rest, as they say, was history.
2. The audio for the pilot’s cold open, in which Rick drunkenly creates a bomb and must be talked down by Morty, was recorded in Justin Roiland’s garage.
3. The dynamic between Rick and Morty is based on Doc Brown and Marty McFly. You can see the birth of the concept in Roiland’s video The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti (warning, somehow it’s even more NSFW than episodes of Rick and Morty), created in 2006.
4. “It’s an accurate personification of bipolar disorder,” Dan Harmon describing Justin Roiland’s two halves, Rick and Morty.
5. At one point the commentary devolves into Justin Roiland beat-boxing and rapping a score for the pilot, because there are only about 10 minutes of music in the actual episode.
6. When Rick pulls the mega-seed apart in the pilot, there are two full seeds inside, not two halves. It makes no sense.
7. “I didn’t like the burping at first, but I’m good with it now.” Something Donald Glover told Dan Harmon via text right before they started recording the commentary. Dan Harmon also hated the burping, at first. Roiland also commented on Rick’s burping, saying, “I don’t even know how much I love the burping.”
8. “As much as there’s one scene in the first Indiana Jones movie that makes you go, ‘That’s Indiana Jones,’ this is that scene for Rick and Morty,” Dan Harmon on the Rick and Morty running through customs scene.
9. There are numerous odes to Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker’s Guide), beginning with the door coming up on Rick and Morty as they are running through customs, forcing them to scale the wall with their special shoes.
10. “That’s your new 6 seasons and a movie,” Dan Harmon on Justin Roiland’s improved line for Rick and Morty to last 100 years.
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Episode 2, “Lawnmower Dog”:
11. Snuffles is designed after Justin Roiland’s dog, whose name is Jerry.
12. Justin Roiland was very nervous about people writing the show off because of the terrorism/9-11 humor in the episode.
13. There was a “Rixty Minutes” subplot that got cut that was about Rick searching for the second season of Mrs. Pancakes, which had been cancelled. But when he finds a dimension in which it exists, but it sucks because the show’s creator was fired and replaced, a clear reference to Community season 4 (the Dan Harmon-less season).
14. “My favorite design in season one is Snuffles in his exoskeleton,” says Roiland.
15. “I just want all dogs to be happy and loved and taken care of,” explains Roiland. Originally when the dogs kidnap the news anchor, they were going to put a gun in her mouth as opposed to a muzzle over her face. But Roiland ultimately didn’t want the dogs to be too menacing (or have to battle Standards and Practices over that one).
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Episode 3, “Anatomy Park”:
16. The original “Anatomy Park” episode was a Thanksgiving episode about zombies inside a human body. It also included a race war between green and blue aliens that would occur inside of Ruben.
17. Dana Carvey voiced Jerry’s dad and a news reporter in this episode.
18. The Christmas trees on Jerry’s sweater are upside down. Once this is pointed out, it becomes a recurring theme throughout the commentary.
19. “Whenever I think of sexual kinks, I almost always think of someone watching, dressed as Superman,” Dan Harmon explains the origin of Jerry’s father’s sexual proclivities.
20. The tattoo on the shoulder of Pancho, the guy who is ultimately revealed to be the saboteur of Anatomy Park, is the same as Ninja from Die Antwoord’s chest tattoo. Die Antwoord is one of Justin Roiland’s favorite bands.
21. “I have a heavy theme of molestation in my work and I think that maybe I’m channeling something that I’ve suppressed,” explains Dan Harmon, whose overshares are part of his charm.
22. “That puffy vagina line is fucking amazing,” admired Justin Roiland. Yes, it is.
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Episode 4, “M. Night Shaym-Aliens!”:
23. This episode is based on a 1964 James Garner movie called 36 Hours, in which Garner plays an American G.I. who is kidnapped by Germans. They attempt to convince him that World War II is over so that they can get details about the Allied innovation of Europe.
24. In early drafts, the classroom scene in this episode was supposed to devolve into an orgy that involved Morty, Jessica, Mr. Goldenfold and other students.
25. “A chicken in a peanut and a house with a raisin, run around together in a tiny little station.” This was the original Morty rap from the simulation scene, as recalled by Ryan Ridley. In the final scene, no actual rapping takes place.
26. The creators seem fascinated by what transpired between Jerry and simulated Beth between the moment he begins kissing her and the next time we see them, in bed. The would like to see the story of how Jerry got Beth up stairs to bed in one of the Rick and Morty comic books. Which means that I’ll now need to buy the Rick and Morty comic books.
27. The Mr. Marklovitz (Jerry’s boss in the simulation) running into the wall gag, then having his lower body turn around first is a reference to Goldeneye on Nintendo 64.
28. The song that Rick does at the end (it also appears earlier in the episode), is “Baker Street” by Scottish artist Gerry Rafferty. Try watching this video and not getting a bit of a Rick and Morty vibe.
29. “Rick is like the dark version of Abed on Community,” explains Dan Harmon.
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Episode 5, “Meeseeks and Destroy”:
30. The design of the space ship in the cold open, on which Rick and Morty are battling a demonic clone version of their own family, is meant to look like Event Horizon.
31. There was a big debate about the size of the Meeseeks. At one point they were going to be much smaller.
32. “About half the time we need to just realize that Justin is right,” explains Dan Harmon. He’s talking about how some of the episodes that don’t work so well are the ones in which some of the Justin craziness is pulled away. But when the writers give into the madness of Roiland’s mind, they often get the best results.
33. The giant in the episode is drawn based on Dan Harmon and is voice by Steve Agee.
34. “This story just makes no sense. It’s a story about not having a story,” explains Harmon.
35. Ryan Ridley: “We’ve always talked about doing a comic book called ‘Tales from the Thirsty Step,’” following the various characters as if it were interesting like the Star Wars Cantina.
36. Tom Kenney (Spongebob) voices Mr. Jellybean, the very rapey king of the village Rick and Morty are trying to save.
37. There is a story behind where the Meeseeks got the gun and the horse, something about jumping a mounted cop.
38. “I’m proud of this performance on the Meeseeks,” explains Roiland. “I shredded my vocal chords on this one.”
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Episode 6, “Rick Potion #9”:
39. Along with “Lawnmower Dog,” this is one of the first episodes that was written for the entire series.
40. Originally the end of this episode felt more like a season finale, but they had also considered doing it second. In the end, Justin Roiland decided, “Fuck it, let’s put it in the middle.”
41. “That’s Kendrick Lamar as the flu rapper,” explains Ryan Ridley. It’s not actually Kendrick Lamar. It was Dan Harmon.
42. “Because Summer is a few years older, she calls Rick out on some of his biggest crimes,” explains Dan Harmon. The creators have an affinity for the dynamic between Summer and Rick. Morty always realizes too late that Rick is a monster, whereas Summer is always on to him.
43. “If it does exist, it will be on Tumblr. That’s where all the all-male Rule 34 stuff exists,” explains Roiland, responding to the question of whether or not there is a Rule 34 version of the Morty/Goldenfold/Principle Vagina threesome.
44. “You have to break your own rules in the final third of your episode,” Dan Harmon on how he overthinks things a lot. Some of the more interesting episodes have, as he describes, a “slingshot around the sun” feel to them in which the writers aren’t sticking to a rigid structure so much as just going where the story takes them.
45. “Rick is a very petty character. I don’t need to tell you that,” Dan Harmon on the deep truths about Rick.
46. The Mazy Star song “Look On Down From The Bridge,” which is used at the end of the episode, was also used to close out an episode of The Sopranos.
47. In the guest commentary, of which there are two, Al Jean and Matt Groening invite Justin Roiland, who isn’t present for the commentary, to do a Simpsons couch gag. The result was pretty epic:
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