Acting for Two: For the first six seasons, both Rick and Morty were voiced by Justin Roiland. In "Meeseeks and Destroy" Roiland plays about forty Meeseeks and again in any episode with the Council of Ricks, in which the characters Roiland plays are literally different version of the same person talking to himself. The ultimate example has to be "The Ricklantis Mix-up" which is entirely composed of dialogue between multiple Ricks and multiple Mortys and as such only has a single voice actor carrying an entire episode, and somehow conveying that two particular voices with slight inflections are somehow multiple characters. This is continued in Rick: A Mort Well Lived, where Roiland voices most of the episode barring the interjection of Summer's B-plot.
In May 2018, Adult Swim picked up the series for an additional 70 episodes even after Harmon & Roiland threatened to end the show to get more money. This is the largest episode order ever given by the network, and one of the largest orders ever for a show that isn't a daily program. For comparison, it took The Venture Bros. over a decade to reach 70 episodes over six seasons.
Casting Gag: A live action Rick & Morty episode was teased in early September of 2021, with Christopher Lloyd cast as Rick, coming full circle with how Rick was conceptually pitched as a more deranged and cynical parody of Doc Brown from Back to the Future.
The Cast Showoff: In "Bethic Twinstinct", the two Beths speak in Venusian (read: French) just because their Voice Actor Sarah Chalke is fluent in French.
Colbert Bump: "For the Damaged Coda" by Blonde Redhead got a huge boost in popularity from this show, and has become the iconic and unmistakable Leitmotif of Evil Morty.
Content Leak: The seventh episode of Season 5, "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion", was accidentally placed on Amazon Prime in Canada in place of the fourth episode, "Rickdependence Spray".
Dan Harmon's said that he feels "Raising Gazorpazorp" is among the weakest episodes in the series and is especially disappointed with the "battle of sexes" Cliché Storm in that episode, noting that he agrees with critics who saw it as an 1980s holdover.
Harmon has also expressed regret for "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender".
Judging from the "Inside the Episode" commentary for "Rickdependence Spray", the production staff weren't pleased with the episode, admitting that the plot was too tasteless even for them.
Justin Roiland considers "Interdimensional Cable II: Tempting Fate" to be this. He even told people several weeks in advance to not get their hopes up for that episode.
After the show's Troubled Production came to light following Justin Roiland being let go, it was revealed that part of the conflict between Roiland and Harmon stemmed from their differing creative styles. Harmon was a big proponent in breaking down a story and focusing on every part to make it the best it could possibly be, while Roiland and his supporters preferred simpler, sophomoric humor.
A source of contention was, after Season 2, Harmon brought on some former writers from his previous series, Community. Roiland felt that Harmon was taking control away, which Harmon maintains was never his intention. They eventually had a big blow-up over text message and haven't spoken since 2019.
Dan Harmon: “If I had felt like I was imposing something, I would have never done it [...] I’d come to find out later that it was like, ‘Oh, Harmon brought in his Harmon writers,’ and, man, that is not how I saw it."
Corpsing: The episode "Rixty Minutes" has Rick tuning the TV so as to get channels from parallel universes. It's quite evident that several if not all of these shows and commercials were improvised by the voice actors on the spot, and they don't even bother to cover the fact that they cracked themselves upwith it.
As seen in the first clip, the titular characters are even kind enough to lampshade it beforehand.
Morty: Huh, seems like TV from other dimensions has a somewhat looser feel to it.
Rick: Yeah, it's got an almost improvisational tone.
Happens twice in the 'State of Georgia Vs. Denver Fenton Allen' Rick and Morty parody skit. The first time is when in the middle of the video Roiland breaks character out of Morty for a moment when he's unable to contain his laughter over the absurdity of the argument with the accused Rick. Then again with Rick when he threatens to murder the judge's kids and he cracks up right at the end of the line about 'knocking their brains out with a hammer'.
Creator's Favorite Episode: Dan Harmon regards Pickle Rick and The Ricklantis Mixup as his favorite episodes of Season 3 and is thrilled that those were the ones with the best reception among the public.
Played with when it comes to the Szechuan Sauce. While it was a real thing, a promotional sauce like that doesn't usually get rereleased post-promotion. That said, McDonalds has considered bringing it back because of it allegedly being Rick's Trademark Favorite Food.
Officially payed straight when McDonalds announced that they would be bringing the sauce back on October 7th, 2017, for one day...and bringing it back again for a longer term, due to a severe underestimation of demand that caused a truly absurd backlash.
Apparently, Strawberry Smiggles are on their way to becoming a real cereal.
There are twoversions of Inter-dimensional Cable now.
Descended Creator: Justin Roiland voiced both Rick and Morty, all versions of them, as well as several side characters.
In "Big Trouble In Little Sanchez" Rick draws a self-portrait. It looks a lot like Doc.
Throughout the series, there is a box in the garage labeled "time travel stuff" that sits on the shelf in Rick's workshop. Word of God says that this is supposed to allude to a distaste for time travel plots and how those particular story ideas will forever be on the shelf.
A positive case. In their initial pitch to Adult Swim, Harmon and Roiland had Morty written to be much more of a Butt-Monkey who was there merely to absorb the abuse Rick throws at him. Some AS executives didn't like this version of Morty, so Harmon and Roiland completely rewrote his character into the current Morty, who's not afraid to stand up to Rick if the need arises.
AS executives made the decision to have the show be rated TV-14 so the show could fit into Adult Swim's expansion into primetime. This rule is still in effect, although they are allowed to do episodes rated TV-MA every once in a while.
Harpo Does Something Funny: Most of Justin Roiland's lines are retroscripted, with him ad-libbing off of a loose description of what the character is supposed to say. Played for Laughs in the interdimensional cable episodes, where the In-Universeprogramming is all improvised in a purposefully awkward way for the sake of comedy.
Hostility on the Set: Following Justin Roiland's firing in 2023, sources close to the show toldThe Hollywood Reporter that Roiland's relationships with co-creator Dan Harmon and the writers had been fraught behind the scenes going back to Season 2. By all accounts, Roiland gradually stopped contributing much to the writing process during the production of Season 2, and started to show up at the office less and less, and even when he did show up, he kept a very low profile, with his co-workers noting at times that the only signs of his presence was when they heard his dogs or saw his remote-control toy car driving around the office. In the middle of the production of Season 3, Roiland just stopped showing up at the production company altogether. By this point a mediator was brought in an attempt to smooth over things, but this ultimately failed to solve anything. From this point and until he was fired by Adult Swim, Roiland's only continued involvement with the show was entirely down to voice acting, and he mostly ghosted Harmon and the rest of the staff when they attempted to contact him. It reportedly got to the point that by the time at his firing, Roiland had not been on speaking terms with Harmon and members of the writing staff hadn't interacted with him, even over Zoom, in years.
In Memoriam: An animated title card at the end of each episode in season 6 reads "In Loving Memory of Mike Mendel". Joel Michael Mendel was a TV producer who worked on the show from its first season in 2013 until his death in 2019.
The Other Darrin: On January 24th, 2023, Adult Swim cut ties with Justin Roiland and fired him from the show in the wake of his domestic abuse charges that finally went to trial just a week earlier. From Season 7 onwards, Ian Cardoni, Harry Belden, and Jon Allen were cast as Rick, Morty, and Mr. Poopybutthole, respectively.
The Other Marty: As Roiland already recorded his lines for Season 7 prior to his firing, his lines were dubbed over by his replacements.
Playing Against Type: Sapient jellybean or not, Tom Kenny playing a rapist is, uh... different. Between this and his role as a kids' show host with evil intentions towards bullies ("Uncle Howee"), you'll never look at SpongeBob SquarePants the same way again. In "Total Rickall" he also voiced a Nazi in one of the gang's "flashbacks."
Dan, Justin, and the initial four other writers (Eric Acosta, Wade Randolph, Ryan Ridley and Tom Kauffman) are all Channel101 alumni. (Later writers who have joined such as Mike McMahon aren't.) The show's composer, Ryan Elder, is too.
Some of the guest stars were cast regulars on Community. In order of appearance, we have John Oliver (Dr. Duncan) as Dr. Xenon Bloom, Jim Rash (Dean Pelton) as Glaxo Slimslom, Joel McHale (Jeff) as Hemorrhage, Gillian Jacobs (Britta) as Supernova, and Alison Brie (Annie) as Planetina.
Recycled Script: "Rick in King Morturs Mort" is similar in plot to the second Interdimensional Cable episode where a member of the Smith family is coerced into chopping off their dick due to extraterrestrial politics.
The Red Stapler: After the Mulan McNugget sauce was greatly mentioned in the Season 3 premiere, it caused lots of fans to demand McDonald's revive the sauce, and possibly also in promotion for the upcoming live-action remake of the movie. Only two days after the episode aired, a top chef at Micky D's has already responded with interest in bringing the sauce back.
Role-Ending Misdemeanor: In January 2023, Justin Roiland was arrested and charged with two counts of felony domestic violence stemming from an incident that occurred in January 2020 (with the trial scheduled for April), along with being accused of engaging in sexually predatory DM conversations with fans (some of whom were underage). As such, Adult Swim promptly cut all ties with him and plan to continue the show without his involvement. Although the domestic abuse charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence, Roiland wasn't re-hired, especially due to subsequent investigations into the sexual misconduct allegations (some going back as far as 2013) and Roiland's poor working relationship with other Rick and Morty crew members (which had been on-going for several years, to the point Roiland reportedly barely showed up at the office and he hadn't been on speaking terms with co-creator Dan Harmon since 2019).
Throw It In!: Rick's parody of a catchphrase "Wubalubadubdub!" originates from Justin Roiland misreading the script. It called for Rick to channel Curly from The Three Stooges and run on the ground in a circle while making the "Woobwoobwoob!" sound. Roiland says he skips over most stage directions and just blurted out the sound. Everyone thought it was funnier than what was written.
Trolling Creator: "Never Ricking Morty" is an episode that seems to mock fans who think there will be resolution for longstanding dramatic plotlines involving Tammy and Evil Morty with their vendettas against Rick. Come the season 4 finale, Tammy did make a dramatic return and her storyline was settled and then the season 5 finale also gave closure to the Evil Morty storyline.
Troubled Production: After Justin Roiland was let go from the show due to being charged with battery and false imprisonment, it was revealed that the production had become extremely strained as early as Season 2. Roiland would apparently rarely come into the office, and when he did he'd spend most of his time goofing off with his various toys. He would also give impromptu tours of the office for controversial figures such as Kanye West and a porn star. It got to the point where Roiland had no contact with any of the writers or production staff after Season 3, only doing his lines from his home studio. The tension between Roiland and fellow showrunner Dan Harmon got to the point where outside mediation was needed before their landmark 70-episode order. In a September 2023 interview, Harmon even said that he and Roiland hadn't even talked since 2019, and that last time was by text.
Word of Gay: Rick was confirmed to be pansexual by Justin Roiland.
Stacy from the episode "Rest And Ricklaxation" is confirmed to be either 22 or 23 years old. Also, it was confirmed that Morty unconsciously left his phone on.
The US president in "The Rickchurian Mortydate" guesses that he was dealing with the same Rick but decides to play dumb for the sake of his ego.
Write What You Know: Beth and Jerry's self-destructive marriage was based on several of the writers' own parents, who stayed together for years despite constantly being on the brink of divorce. In the DVD Commentary, Justin Roiland says he can usually tell which fans are millennials if they're genuinely confused as to why Beth and Jerry stay together.
