Rick and Morty: What Took So Long?

It took seven months to renew one of the most popular shows on TV. Some theories on why

First, for the uninitiated, here’s an accessible introduction to the Rick and Morty universe.

Short version: Rick and Morty follows the galactic adventures of a drunk, super-genius scientist and his unassuming grandson.

The show is a contradiction. It’s cerebral but crass, edgy yet erudite, stony yet sympathetic, profound, puerile and everything in between.

Mostly, it’s just fun.

And, here’s one more contradiction. After Rick and Morty’s third season — which drew the highest ratings in Adult Swim history and unseated The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family to become the highest rated comedy on television, per Nielsen — it took seven months post-finale for the network to officially bring back the show.

Why?

A Promo for Rick and Morty (source: Hulu)

Taking A Step Back

The dynamic between network and talent always becomes more complicated as the seasons progress. Typically, the tension is financial. The cast of Friends, for example, were paid $22,500 per episode in Season 1. By Season 10, they were pulling $1 million per episode. That’s an extreme example, but it’s also instructive: as the talent grows more integral to the show’s success, the talent’s leverage grows as well.

But sometimes, the tension is creative. Producers/creatives and network executives both want to deliver a great product, but their incentives aren’t always aligned. Creatives may be more interested in pleasing diehard fans while networks are more interested in broad appeal. Producers may be more inclined to shock their audiences with sex, violence and vulgarity, while network executives are more concerned with brand safety or reputational risk.

In the case of Rick and Morty, the financial explanation doesn’t really pass the smell test. Adult Swim’s expenses are a rounding error on the financial statements of its parent company, Turner/Time Warner. It seems unlikely that a company that pays $1.2 billion a year to televise the NBA was risking a hit show over a few million dollars.

Co-creators Dan Harmon (right) and Justin Roiland (source: LA Times)

As for Rick and Morty’s co-creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, it’s unlikely that they suspended production of their masterpiece for this long solely on the basis of salary or production budget. So, while Harmon and Roiland may have wanted a few more heads in the writers room and a few more zeroes in their paychecks (and I’m sure they got both), it’s difficult to believe that the bottleneck was financial.

On the creative front, Adult Swim prides itself on platforming subversive and inflammatory voices, so Rick and Morty’s provocative style alone would not have been an issue.

While the negotiations took a long time and were undoubtedly complex, I can think of two key sticking points. The first almost certainly contributed to the delay. The second is a bit more speculative.

Sticking Point #1: Length of Renewal

For the first three seasons of Rick and Morty, the network renewed the show season by season. For a show still gaining popularity, this was a low risk arrangement for the network.

But, the highest rated comedy on television warranted a longer-term investment. Last week, co-creator Justin Roiland announced that the show had been renewed for a whopping 70 episodes.

So clearly, length of renewal — the number of episodes the network guarantees at once — was a key sticking point. And the calculus for each side was pretty complicated. Here’s a simplified look at the benefit that could accrue to each side based on renewal length. It’s not as linear as you might think. (Explanations below.)

Point A: A cancelled hit benefits no one.

Point B: At a shorter renewal length, the network has the advantage of moderating its risk — they don’t have to commit time and resources down the line — while benefiting from a show that is nearly guaranteed to still be popular over the short-to-medium time period.

Point C: The showrunners are progressively happier. They’re locking in the sort of long term agreement where they can plan multi-season narratives without concerning themselves with episode-to-episode ratings. And, of course, they’re getting paid. Meanwhile, the network’s benefit curve begins to inflect downward, as the long term financial (and airtime) investment represents a real risk.

Point D: We found the sweet spot. Adult Swim renewed Rick and Morty for 70 new episodes, more than twice the 31 that have aired in the first three seasons. It’s not clear how many “seasons” that means, but a season is an arbitrary construct anyway.

For the show’s creators, this is a significant long term commitment. They’re happy that they get to tell the full Rick and Morty story. That said, creatives can be restless — it took four to five years to produce 31 episodes, so the next 70 may take a decade.

The network’s considerations are sort of convoluted. While they may have been hesitant to extend the show in the middle part of the graph above, their benefit curve inflects upward around a 50–60 episode renewal length. That’s because, as the Rick and Morty library expands in size, the likelihood of syndication deals improves.

Years after Seinfeld and Friends ended their runs, we’re still watching them on TBS. The episode threshold for syndication is usually around 100, although it could be a bit lower for a popular show like R&M. Conveniently enough, the new 70 episode renewal will push the Rick and Morty library to 101 episodes. You will likely be to tuning into Rick and Morty on Nick at Nite, TBS or The CW at some point in the future (and more than likely on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime).

Point E: Every TV shows needs to reach a natural conclusion, and Rick and Morty’s co-creators won’t want to extend it past that point. However, the value to the network in selling the show to streaming platforms and in syndication would probably grow indefinitely.

Sticking Point #2: Dan Wanted Certain Assurances

In some sense, sticking point #2 is a derivative of sticking point #1.

Let’s start with some context. Co-creator and lead writer, Dan Harmon, had success before Rick and Morty. He was behind the cult favorite Community, on NBC (and later Yahoo).

The Cast of Community (source: SBS)

But his tenure was marred by controversy. While the show was critically acclaimed and the cast and staff generally spoke highly of Harmon, there were also signs of strain. A feud with actor Chevy Chase. Discord in the writer’s room. Some other miscreance. Not to mention middling ratings.

So, after Season 3, Sony, the studio producing Community, removed Harmon from his role.

And then, after Season 4 left fans wanting more, Sony re-hired Harmon for Season 5.

And then, after Season 5, NBC cancelled the show.

And then, after a period of uncertainty, Sony sold the production rights for Season 6 to Yahoo!. Harmon agreed to write the season because he wasn’t “going to be the guy that re-cancels cancelled Community.”

So you could understand why Harmon may have wanted some assurances about his status as Rick and Morty lead showrunner. While he’s been mercurial and difficult to work with in the past, he’s been candid about his mistakes, and, coming off a highly-rated season, now would’ve been the time to negotiate for some basic assurances.

While it may be impossible to know for sure, the lengthy renewal may include an explicit guarantee to Harmon that he will remain in control for the duration of the deal. And, frankly, for a show as elaborate and multi-threaded as Rick and Morty, it would be difficult to proceed without him anyway.