Posted in: Adult Swim, Preview, Rick and Morty, TV | Tagged: Adult Swim, Emmys, rick and morty, Season 6

Rick and Morty: Horror, Doctor Who, Sleeping Beauty Inspired Emmy Nom

Rick and Morty EP Steve Levy on Rob Schrab & Jacob Hair's Emmy-nominated "Night Family" going horror, the episode's inspirations, and more.

So the last time we checked in with how things were going with Dan Harmon & Justin Roiland's Rick and Morty, Executive Producer Steve Levy discussed how the writing was so important in offering a different family dynamic, how the writers & artists rise to the occasion time and again, and how the creative teams wouldn't let Roiland's departure "drag down" their hard work. For this go-around, Levy turns his attention to the Rob Schrab-written and Jacob Hair-directed Season 6 episode "Night Family." The Emmy-nominated episode is representing the Adult Swim series in the category of Best Animated Series (alongside FOX's Bob's Burgers, Netflix's Entergalactic, Adult Swim's Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal, and FOX's The Simpsons). Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Levy discusses the series shifting gears from fantasy/sci-fi to the horror genre, how the episode is a "love letter" to the works that Schrab's been a fan of, and how the episode can be seen as a "family bonding" story.

"We really got to dig into what makes the horror B-movie genre special," Levy shared. "We were able to use lighting, color, and shadows and jump scares in ways we'd never done before. As a result, the episode really stood out as one of the past season's best ones." And the inspirations for much of what we see throughout the episode stem from Schrab's personal loves. "It's really a love letter to the movies he grew up loving," Levy explained. "There's definitely an homage to John Carpenter movies and classics like Stuart Gordon's 'From Beyond.' The drones in the episode even look like the Daleks in 'Doctor Who.' Rob actually drew those designs. There's also a nod to the spinning wheel in 'Sleeping Beauty.'"

But even with so much horror and darkness inspiring the dimension-hopping duo's Emmy-nominated adventure, Levy adds that he also believes the episode brought the family closer together as a unit. "The writing was great because not only is it very funny, it is also one of the few episodes that keeps the family really close," Levy said. "The emotional core is really there as it explores the deep-seated problems that the family members have with each other through the zombie-like, sleeping versions of themselves."

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