NYCC 2014 Recap: ‘Rick and Morty’ EXCLUSIVE Interview

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Hopefully if you’re reading this, you’ve already drank the Rick and Morty Kool-Aid. If not, you’re not alone, being sadly joined by a majority of the world’s population that is living without the wonderful knowledge of what is currently the best animated sitcom on TV, the internet, or anywhere. From the warped minds of Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland (who also voices both Rick and Morty), this sci-fi comedy is unlike anything you’ve ever seen, while also being just like a lot of things you’ve already seen. Season one finished an 11-episode run earlier this year and Adult Swim will air the second sometime in mid-2015. The creators stopped by New York Comic-Con along with voice actors Sarah Chalke (Beth) and Chris Parnell (Jerry) to answer questions and give us something – anything! – to hold us over until the new episodes are released.

The creators started by setting up a little background about the show. Prior to becoming what we now know as Rick and Morty, Justin Roiland made some short animated videos featuring characters that were pretty much Back to the Future, right down to the names. The man himself addressed this conception when fielding a question about Morty calling Rick by his name, instead of “Grandpa,” like Summer does. “The honest answer,” Roiland explained, “is because in the original shorts that I made for Channel 101 it was ‘Doc.’ You know, it’s like Doc Brown and Marty McFly. Like, [in Morty and Rick’s respective voices] ‘Oh geez, Doc, what are we gonna do?’ … ‘Marty, you gotta suck my balls, Marty.’ Or whatever it was. And then when we went to series it was like: ‘…Brock and Jerry…?’ Just trying to find names that fit the same amount of syllables so that I could just do the same thing. Rick was something I was kicking around for a while. It’s one syllable, very close to Doc, and Rick Sanchez is a name that I had been using.”

“We were trying to brainstorm names for the kid,” Harmon said. “And it was like, ‘Milty…? Murty…?’ And [verteran TV producer/writer] Nick Weidenfeld was like, ‘Morty. Man, you guys really aren’t Jewish.’”

“Morty worked perfect,” Roiland added.

Although going back to the original question, Harmon had a canonical answer as well. “I think that when Rick first showed up, which predates the pilot episode, he probably didn’t like being called ‘Grandpa’ by this kid he’s dragging around,” he said. “He probably kept telling the kid not to call him Grandpa.”

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As for the origins of the plot ideas, there’s an explanation for that as well. “I think the early process was we had a list of sci-fi tropes that we were interested in: teleportation, invisibility, rocket boots,” Harmon said. “And then we made a list of domestic tropes: divorce, credit card debt, house-training the dog. We thought early on that we needed to stick to a template of pairing those two columns in each episode.”

“Which we still do from time to time,” Roiland added. “But season one was driven by Rick’s crazy inventions for a lot of the stories, but season two is a little more open, it’s a little bigger.”

There’s also a bit of a crossover brewing. “We got Matt Groening and Al Jean and a bunch of The Simpsons guys to do a commentary track for the DVD, and that’s where they first asked us to do a couch gag for The Simpsons,” Roiland said. “So we’re in the process right now. The script is submitted, and we’re just in the process of figuring out the production pipeline. That’s like a tiny little crossover of Rick and Morty with The Simpsons, which is insane to me, growing up and being a fan of the show since I was a kid.”

Speaking of short, unique clips that air as part of each episode, the extra after-credit scenes will continue in the new season. “Every episode has a tag,” Roiland said. “It’s just a cool, fun thing that we want to continue to do to keep people through the credits. Not that there’s any real reason to keep people on the hook through the credits, but it’s like Ferris Bueller. It’s such a treat.”

However, with all these changes there might not be room to bring back any popular plots and characters from the first season, like the Meeseeks, just yet. “At some point probably,” Roiland said of the hilariously annoying blue creatures. “We’re being really careful not to bring popular characters back just for the sake of bringing them back. We want it to be an organic reason.”

Also, as Dan Harmon pointed out, they don’t want to make the show appear as if it’s unwelcoming to new viewers, a problem one of Harmon’s other shows, Community, encountered.

Which means there will be some new characters, evidenced by the list of guest stars slated to appear in the season two. “We hit a few more fantasies of mine in the second season,” Harmon said. “We got Stephen Colbert to do a character, Warner Herzog.

“We got some great Battlestar Galactica guys, [Keegan-Michael] Key from Key and Peele in an episode and he’s great,” Roiland added. “Andy Daly is in one, a bunch of Mr. Show guys … Jim Rash is in one.”

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Sarah Chalke and Chris Parnell addressed some upcoming changes for their characters, but first Chalke wanted to say something about Justin’s titular ones. “My favorite thing is to hear him do both voices in a row,” she said. “I remember hearing both voices and then finding out that he did both of them. At the beginning I only knew he was Rick, I didn’t know he was Morty. It’s bonkers. He’s ridiculously talented.”

As for the husband and wife duo, Chalke and Parnell revealed that their characters won’t be non-players in Rick’s exploits going forward. “We get to get in on the crazy in season two,” Chalke said. “That was one of the things Justin & Dan wanted to explore more in the second season. Taking the show a little more interplanetary and into the sci-fi direction even further.” Citing an example, she said, “We have a lot of trouble with our marriage so Rick suggests we go to couples therapy off-planet.”

“In couples therapy they get to envision a mythological creature of what is going on in your subconscious and how you see the other person,” she continued. “So he’s a spineless worm man; that’s how Beth kind of sees him. And he sees her as like a giant, warrior-queen cyborg.” This allowed her to have a little fun in the recording sessions. “That’s one of the funnest things about this show. There’s really no limit to where it can go and what you get to try as an actor. In the sound booth you can do one line ten different ways in under a minute, and it’s such a fun and creative way to work.”

Of course, marital issues aren’t anything new to Beth and Jerry. “Well right from the pilot we kind of have a terrible marriage,” Chalke said. “I’m a horse heart surgeon, and he thinks that’s not really a doctor, and I find that unbelievably offensive. In season two it’s getting pretty bad and that’s why we go off-planet for this couples therapy and that sort of goes awry. However, she added that “there are some real moments of tenderness in this season.”

“The marriage is messed up, but there’s some genuine affection down there somewhere, I think,” Parnell said, before adding: “Jerry married up for sure. I’d like for Jerry to have some opportunities to be a stronger figure, you know, just because it’s more fun to play a variety of things. Anything that’s different than the meek little struggling insecure Jerry.”

Despite the fact that her character is settling, Chalke is still hoping they make it as a couple, and for good reason. “There’s definitely been a lot of humor in the tragedy of their marriage, but I’m rooting for them. I want them to stay together,” she said. “I mean, if they divorce, between the two of us [actors], I’m the one to go. They’re keeping Parnell. I had to audition from a weird cabin in Canada over the phone with Justin and Dan to get this job, so yeah, let’s go with together.” Still, she’d “like Jerry to stay as meek as possible. Just in his meek box.”

“But not his Meeseeks box,” Parnell quipped.

Clearly all this information, though glorious to hear because it’s Fucking Rick and Morty, is not enough to feed fans’ insatiable appetites for the show. Unfortunately, it will have to do. Besides that, you should grab a copy of the DVD/Blu-Ray and watch brilliance unfold on your screen.

Wubba-lubba-dub-dub!

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[Photos by Becca Green]