Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: Adult Swim, Brian Quinn, dan harmon, entertainment, Justin Roiland, Rick & Morty, sdcc, television

Rick & Morty – Think Doc & Marty But With Interdimensional Travel

by Mike Sangregorio

WUBBA LUBBA DUB DUB!

Friday in the Indigo Ballroom, directly following the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Forever presentation, was the much anticipated (by me, at least) panel of Adult Swim's Rick & Morty. This was the event I was most looking forward to in advance of the convention and it did not disappoint.

Moderated by Brian Quinn (Impractical Jokers) the panel featured co-creator and executive producer Dan Harmon (Community), Justin Roiland, co-creator and voice of both titular characters (as well as fan-favorite Mr. Meeseeks), and Ryan Ridley, show writer as well as providing numerous voices, mostly for one-off characters who are rarely unremarkable.

Two such characters include "sentient phones" from a world where they can order furniture-based food as takeout and use enormous pizza for furniture. If you are not already familiar with the show a little background may be warranted.

Rick Sanchez is a genius inventor who has reappeared in the life of his daughter and her family after a prolonged absence. He has drafted his grandson, Morty Smith, into his adventures. Shenanigans ensue.

Think "Doc and Marty" from Back to the Future and replace time travel with interdimensional travel. Except, and I will be the first to note how absurd this seems, but somehow better. The show, a half-hour animated cartoon that handedly earns its late-night, explicit time slot, spends as much time on the non-sci fi characters and their failed lives as it does with anything Rick may be trying to inadvertently murder that episode.

Imagine if the timeline had never been fixed in the first BTTF film and there was a show following the events of Marty and his strange, older friend having adventures that mirrored the marital problems fueled by a struggle to accept the lowered expectations of the perpetually behind-the-eight-ball McFly family.

Except here we have "Ants in my Eyes Johnson" and the, truly sublime, 2 Brothers (Google the "trailer," it will make your day). Hope that brings you up to speed.

Quinn, who is no Dana Snyder (lively moderator of the prior panel and voice of the character Master Shake from ATHF), brandished the one-of-a-kind "Council of Ricks" pin that he had been given by the creators. Harmon and Roiland had drinks with them on stage and were not entirely sober at the time.

Roiland treated the audience to his JFK impression which would return throughout the panel including telling us that "we will go to the Moon… and we will find the Moon's butthole." Roiland was also the subject of a story told about him visiting a strip club in New York.

Out of money, Roiland was able to get by by using the voices of Rick and Morty and "crudely drawn, off model sketches drawn on cocktail napkins" for dancers who were apparently fans of the show and more than happy to meet him. We also learned that, according to the panelists, Chris Hardwick has a map to dry land tattooed on his back "even though we are not in a Waterworld."

A clip was shown for the cold open of an episode of season 2. If I had nothing else to show someone who had never seen the show I can say with absolute certainty that this would get them on board.

Questions and answers brought a few key aspects of the development of season 2 to light (as well as a full cosplay of the world conquering family dog Snowball). There will not be too many call backs or retreads of characters and concepts from season 1. One of the reasons for this is that Harmon does not to hinder the show's potential.

He felt that Community lost potential fans because it became known as an "inside joke show" long before it had reached critical mass in terms of audience. The panelists themselves seemed almost surprised at how successful the show has been thus far.

Though there are no plans for a movie at the time, anything is possible. Specifically, if Community is any indication then Rick & Morty could potentially have "five seasons and a TV movie." No specific story points were revealed about Rick's backstory, other than the promise that we would meet an ex-girlfriend of his during the upcoming season. As for action figures, the audience was encouraged to let Adult Swim know that those would be something the fans wanted and would be ready to buy.

Roiland revealed that "Doc and Marty" (characters from a short animated pilot he created) had been animated into the Council of Rick's background during season 1 but they were taken out before the episode aired (you can Google this pilot but it is a bit crude and not indicative of the quality of the show it became).

Finally, Harmon provided a little backstory on why the family puts up with the craziness that Rick brings into their lives. According to him, Beth Smith, Rick's daughter and Morty's mother, "fetishizes exceptionality and her biggest fear is being unremarkable." On some level he believes that she lets Morty go with Rick because if she does not then he might leave her again.

Rick & Morty season 2 will premiere on Sunday July 26, 2015 at 11:30 PM on Adult Swim. Season 1 is available on Blu-ray.

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