‘Rick and Morty’s Staff is Slowly Taking Over Television

There are some shows that act as springboards. The Office led to Michael Schur and Mindy Kaling’s empires. Nip/Tuck marked the beginning of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s seemingly limitless partnership. The Simpsons has launched more careers than anyone can count. And there’s another show that has been not-so-secretly lifting up the next round of TV mega creators. Rick and Morty‘s producers, writers, and directors have been slowly overtaking television, and chances are they’re not going to stop any time soon.

Adult Swim has proven that Rick and Morty is absurd profitable on multiple occasions. Back in 2018, the series was renewed for a staggering 70 episodes, and earlier this summer, it was announced that the sci-fi animated comedy would be getting a spinoff series that revolved around The Vindicators. That’s nothing to say of the major projects coming up for series co-creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. Roiland launched Hulu’s Solar Opposites back in 2020 alongside former Rick and Morty producer Mike McMahan. He also set up his own video game studio known as Squanch Games in 2016, which has produced the positively reviewed VR games Job Simulator and Trover Saves the Universe. And if you like Dan Harmon’s optimistic brand of nihilism, get ready to see a lot more of it soon. The creator is attached to Krapopolis, an animated comedy about fighting Greek gods for Fox; Strange Planet, based on Nathan Pyle’s comic of the same name for Apple TV+; and Sirens of Titan, a long-discussed adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel.

That’s an impressive and exciting list for any creative team. It’s also only the beginning.

Speaking of Mike McMahan, the Solar Opposites co-creator and former Rick and Morty executive producer is also the creator of Paramount+’s currently running Star Trek: Lower Decks. McMahan’s success with Lower Decks even led to him signing two-year deal with CBS Studios

Another former Rick and Morty writer and producer was responsible for one of the biggest TV events of the year. But before he created Loki, showrunner Michael Waldron was perfecting his multiverse skills with this grandfather and grandson pair. Waldron is also the creator of STARZ’s critically praised Heels and will be dominating the film industry soon. He and Jade Bartlett are the co-writers of Marvel’s upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And after he’s done broadening the MCU, he’s going to try his hand at Star Wars with a currently untitled project with Kevin Feige.

Then there’s Jessica Gao. The writer of “Pickle Rick” will serve as the creator of Disney+’s upcoming She-Hulk. She also received a pilot order from ABC about a comedy centered around a Chinese-American family and is set to executive produce Amazon’s upcoming The Undesirables. And Waldron isn’t the only one heading for the big screen. Gao will be executive producing Jo Koy’s Easter Sunday and co-writing the Ice Cube-starring Oh Hell No.

Also that Vindicators show? That will be executive produced by Rick and Morty alum Erica Rosbe and Sarah Carbiener in addition to Harmon and Roiland. Both Rosbe and Carbiener worked as writers and producers on You’re the Worst, FX’s critically-acclaimed romantic comedy, as well as writers and supervising producers on Amazon’s psychological thriller Homecoming.

The list doesn’t end there. After working on Rick and Morty, Jane Becker worked on Hulu’s Future Man, the twisted animated series Harley Quinn, and one of the greatest comedies of our time, Ted Lasso. James Fino and Kenny Micka went on to be producers for HBO’s bizarre cult hit Animals. Director Stephen Sandoval has worked on Gravity Falls and The Owl House. And Jeff Loveness, the writer of some of your favorite Season 4 episodes including “The Vat of Acid Episode”, will be the second Rick and Morty writer to jump to the MCU’s big screen. Loveness is the writer of the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

It would be insane to suggest that all of these new projects are only happening because of Rick and Morty. No show has that much power, not even one with Rick Sanchez as its lead. But there is something about this aggressively wild cartoon that attracts talent. Shows like Loki, Solar Opposites, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and even You’re the Worst do the same thing as Rick and Morty, time and time again taking an established premise and flipping it on its head. That flip can be something as simple as writing a rom-com with hatable characters or as complex as dissecting the entire universe of Star Trek. It’s not entirely surprising that highly creative people who would thrive writing about multiverses and pocket dimensions would bring that thinking-beyond-the-stars mentality to every project they touch.

There’s also the burn rate of Rick and Morty’s writing and directorial teams to consider. Typically, writers and directors stay on the show for a season to a season and a half before they drift on to other projects. None of the writers or directors credited in Season 5 appear in the credits list for Season 1. This is likely due to the massive delays between seasons. It’s difficult to secure talent when you’re talking about two year gaps. This could also be an indication that Rick and Morty may be a harsh working environment. After all, Harmon was known for being unpredictable while working on Community and former writer Megan Ganz has spoken out about being a victim of his misconduct. But considering the long list of people who have moved on from Rick and Morty and the relative lack of horror stories about the show, there’s another possibility to consider.

Whether this is actually the case or not, Rick and Morty is starting to feel like a paid boot camp for some of TV’s most narratively ambitious creators. It feels like a place where they can stretch the limits of their imaginations in Harmon and Roiland’s world before settling into other projects. Before it was ever an Adult Swim show, that show that would become Rick and Morty was a short in Harmon and Rob Schrab’s film festival Channel 101. The entire point of Channel 101 was to give budding creators a platform to show the world what they could do and let the people decide what stayed. More than The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti, this contest is starting to feel more like Rick and Morty‘s predecessor. Pay attention to those names in the credits. There’s a good chance that with each passing episode, you’re being introduced to Hollywood’s future.

Where to stream Rick and Morty