Debuting Monday night on Adult Swim (though you can watch the pilot now via YouTube, embedded below), Rick and Morty is a new animated series from Community creator Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, a writer and actor whose many animation voice over roles include Adventure Time, Fish Hooks and Gravity Falls.

Rick and Morty began life as a Back to the Future parody short Roiland did a few years ago, The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti, presented at Channel 101, the short film festival Harmon co-founded with Rob Schrab. That short got really lewd, really quickly, with “Doc” tricking the less than bright “Mharti” (both voiced by Roiland) into, well, licking his balls. Rick and Morty reimagines the character in a less lurid but still outrageous scenario, as the brilliant scientist Rick brings his grandson Morty on all sorts of fantastical adventures, with little care for the danger he’s putting Morty and others in.I sat down with Harmon and Roiland to discuss Rick and Morty and what to expect from the series.

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No, that was just me in my apartment blowing off some steam. I had just gotten off of a job as a producer for a TV show that I won't name that I was just so creatively handcuffed on. I just had all this angst and rage, and I just wanted to make something that was disgusting. For some reason, it was all wrapped around these two horrible impersonations of Doc and Marty. The conceit that licking his balls would fix any problem -- it was ridiculous. But yeah, I kind of fell in love with those two characters, and they sort of took on a life of their own, despite being inspired and directly connected to the Back to the Future guys. I started drifting away from that. Then I just kept trying to figure out ways to repackage those two voices over the years. Dan was always a fan of those original shorts. When he called me to say, "Do you have anything? Adult Swim wants to work with me," that's the first thing I told him. "Well, what about those two dudes? Are you interested in that?" He's like, "Yeah, that's perfect!"Yeah. Justin, out of all the brilliant stuff that he does, when he's doing those two voices, he is filled with this energy. It's like, "Okay, let's take that and do the necessary things to develop that into a half-hour, sustainable franchise." So at the core of it is that energy.Yeah. Sometimes in the booth, I'll run scenes with the two characters back and forth, if my voice will allow me to. I'll do it as scripted, and sometimes I'll go off-script, and sometimes the stuff I say when I'm just riffing is just insane and stuff you'd never think to write, to commit, you know? It really brings the characters to life in a weird way.Yeah, I think you've found two poles of your personality there, too. I mean, maybe not necessarily the north and south, but two that are so diametrically opposing that it's very healthy to listen to him do one character and then the other. It's this gruff guy that doesn't have time for any of this, "Morty, I don't have time for it!" Then, "Well, oh jeez! Maybe you don't!" To seek something different just because, "Oh, that'd make a better idea for a TV show," that would be such a waste of something that's already sitting right there.Honestly, I don't think [Mike] Lazzo or any of those guys were aware that stuff existed. In fact, I to this day don't know if Lazzo's seen those shorts, I really don't. I mean, there was a whole other story that happened in the pilot, which was the potential recasting of Rick and Morty, which was a whole thing. I think that was just a symptom, again, of Lazzo having no idea of the original shorts. We sort of built this show around these two voices, and he had a different perception, at that point, of what they were supposed to sound like. It ultimately all worked out really well. It was very collaborative and gracious and smooth sailing. But I don't know. When Lazzo sees those, is he going to be like, "The f**k!?" [Laughs] Has he seen them? I don't know. Have you seen them? Have you seen the shorts? Oh boy. I can take them down off my website if you want. You know what it is? I just don't want people seeing those before the show airs and writing the show off, because there's a lot of heart. It's a really smart show. It's not just the shock. Sure, my sensibilities often drift in that direction. That's my sense of humor, and I like that kind of stuff, and I like to shock people.But partnering with Dan is such a beautiful partnership, because he's able to take that part of me and then sort of put it in the frame of heart and contextualize it in a way that enables mom and dad to watch it and be entertained. Whereas if it were just me by myself, it would be like at Channel 101 when we screened Unbelievable Tales , and the whole crowd is going, "This f**k! What the f**k!?" Like, screaming and covering their eyes, and I'm sitting there just like, "This is the best ever! Look at the effect I'm having on all these people. They want to vomit!" But I also like to tell narratives that are not off-putting as well. But anyways, yeah, I don't want those shorts to taint anybody prematurely. I don't want people to see them. I don't know, I think once the show drops, it'll speak for itself.

Continue to Page 2 as Harmon and Roiland talk about other influences on Rick and Morty, veering away from the Back to the Future idea and more.