‘Rick and Morty’ Bosses Want Their Show to Be More Streaming Friendly, Too

It’s a problem that crops up every couple of years. One of the biggest shows on television isn’t on streaming or broadcast; it’s almost exclusively on cable. “Rick and Morty” showrunners Scott Marder and Dan Harmon know that new seasons of their Adult Swim original can be difficult to watch.

New seasons of “Rick and Morty” premiere Sundays on Adult Swim. Though the network does sometimes allow fans to watch select episodes for free on its website, the full season often isn’t available to stream until roughly six months after the last episode airs. That’s when “Rick and Morty” goes to Hulu and Max, the streamer owned by the show’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.

“I don’t know how it fell into that distribution model. We are constantly trying to shrink that window. It might shrink to three months this year. I could be wrong,” Marder told TheWrap. “I don’t see the benefit of it. Most shows are on streamers the next day or even that same day.”

This delayed distribution model hasn’t changed how Marder or Harmon construct new seasons. But they have noticed a specific viewership pattern. “Normally, our rabid fans are grabbing us right when we come out. Then there’s a whole major class of casual viewer that doesn’t realize that it [premiered] and think it’s launching on Max three months from now,” Marder said. “It’s kind of two waves that everyone tries to capitalize on. That’s the way it’s been the last couple years.”

“I think I would be in that latter category if it weren’t for premiere parties,” Harmon added. “That’s how I know it’s premiering — it’s on my calendar because there’s a party. Otherwise, I’ve tried to watch it when it drops, and I’ve had to go to, like, YouTube Premium, Platinum, Recorded. I’ve enlisted housekeepers and things to try and make it work because I want to watch this episode the minute it’s airing, and I have a hard time watching.”

Harmon then paused for a moment, reflecting. “It’s probably a scandalous quote. ‘Willy Wonka says he can’t open this package of Reese’s Pieces.'”

Regardless of how it’s available to watch, “Rick and Morty” isn’t going anywhere. Ahead of the Adult Swim show’s eighth season, the sci-fi animated comedy was renewed through Season 12 last year. This mega greenlight came while the series was still working its way through the 70-episode order it was given back in 2018. Despite the fact that “Rick and Morty” may have more of a guaranteed runway than almost any other show on television, the process hasn’t changed much for the series’ showrunners.

“I feel the same pressure whether we’ve got two more seasons or five more seasons. We only get 10 [episodes] a season, and I feel the same pressure to make those 10 the very best 10 we can,” Marder said. “I can’t believe the quality that we’re delivering in [seasons] eight, nine and 10. They feel very unprecedented for a show this deep in its run … Internally, it’s still feeling really fresh. So that excites me. I feel like we can keep rolling with it.”

“The deadlines don’t go anywhere. That’s why Scott saved the show,” Harmon said.

Before Marder took charge of “Rick and Morty,” the series was led by its co-creators Harmon and Justin Roiland. Warner Bros. Discovery later cut ties with Roiland in 2023 after the co-creator was accused of sexual assault and explicitly communicating with underage girls. When Harmon and Roiland were running the show, Harmon described the process as “this auteur-based, oh my god, Kanye has got to cook.” Since Marder joined in Season 4, the series has become notably more steady. Reports of internal creative friction have all but vanished and the days of waiting multiple years for a new season are gone.

“[Marder] gets the uncredited work of bailing out this sinking ship. The point of his existence is that the deadlines are always there. Without them we wouldn’t be able to produce. I think that the pressure to do something great is usually your enemy, not your friend,” Harmon said. “This sort of shame reflex that writers tend to have like, ‘Oh, I better make this pilot good, or I’ll never get picked up and an audience won’t care,’ you make sloppier decisions when you do that. You tend to put a ‘Got milk?’ joke in there that didn’t make you laugh out loud because you’re like, ‘I think this is what people think is funny.'”

Harmon sees these renewals as well as the consistent structure of “Rick and Morty” as a “huge value add” for the show’s writers. “Writers look at it — I think, creatively — like the way it might be to write for ‘Black Mirror.’ This is a place for me to make sure that I’m following my bliss when I pitch something and, when I develop it, to make sure that it’s a gem that belongs in this sandbox.”

Harmon then paused again, self-consciously considering his own words. “A gem in a sandbox. I still got it. Still making razor-sharp metaphors.”

There’s no end when it comes to praise for “Rick and Morty.” The series holds the record as the most-watched Adult Swim series in the network’s history and has won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program twice. To date, every season of the show has earned a “Fresh” Rotten Tomatoes score, and it isn’t unusual for the critical ratings to be in the 90th percentile.

But with hindsight, Harmon sees the show’s devotion to its creative ethos as its “big fatal flaw.”

“Both Justin and I had the ability to stop the clock, and that meant the clock was always going to be stopped. I would keep my coffee on that button,” Harmon joked. “Scott has to keep those trains running, and that frees me to be nitpicky. At the end of the day, I can do a speech about how it would be great if we redid this entire thing, and Scott could either indulge that — which he often does — but he can go, ‘Yes, that would be great. And let’s see what we can do working backwards from the fact that this is airing on schedule.’ That is a big paradigm shift that trickled down to the mental health of every storyboard artist.”

Keeping the creative trains on track is especially important right now considering how many projects are currently sporting Harmon’s name. In addition to “Rick and Morty,” he is a creator and executive producer for Fox’s “Krapopolis” and Netflix’s upcoming “The Undervale.” There’s also the long-awaited “Community” movie, which is still in the works.

“I keep redefining my definition of busy in the direction of laziness. I learned in therapy that this beloved city that I love and that is the only city on Earth where I could have ever found happiness in is the Las Vegas of workaholism. If you are willing to work 14 hour days, it will say, ‘Fifteen would be great, too,'” Harmon said of Los Angeles. “The last eight years of my life have been slowly accepting I shouldn’t be working as much and I’ll never be ashamed of that. So it only looks like I’m busy because you see my name … But thanks to losing the auteur model, delegating, using teams and families, I’m not spread thin. I’m just playing video games, and then I’m doing this for a couple hours a day, I promise.”

“I’m happy to pick up his slack,” Marder added. “We’ve got a good ebb and flow that way, because I’m hungry and sincerely happy to pick up whatever he doesn’t want to touch.”

“Rick and Morty” airs Sundays at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Adult Swim.

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