Why Adult Swim Wanted Rick And Morty To Receive A TV-14 Rating

Dan Harmon's and Justin Roiland's animated sci-fi series "Rick and Morty" is plenty ribald. Morty (Roiland, replaced by Harry Belden) is a teenage boy with a healthy libido, often finding himself in the company of horny aliens or automated sex bots. Rick (Roiland, replaced by Ian Cardoni), meanwhile, is an unrepentant alcoholic who cusses and kills with impunity. The series has, throughout its seven seasons, firmly established a weirdly Nietzschean theme, exploring the workability of a character (Rick) who believes himself to be naturally superior to those around him ... and who has the intelligence to occasionally back up his claims. Morty, meanwhile, has seen so much death and violence and alternate universes that he has had to shrink his worldview from optimism to a weary acceptance. "Nobody exists on purpose," he says, "nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV." The crass, often "low" show can just as often skew profound.

Co-creator Harmon loves that "Rick and Morty" can be so crass, as he had to abide by stricter studio rules when he made his 2009 NBC series "Community." In the animated world of "Rick and Morty," he was allowed to be a lot grosser, a lot more violent, and a lot more sexual. Indeed, back in 2014, Harmon spoke to the Los Angeles Times about "Rick and Morty," reflecting on what he wanted the show to be when it was still brand new. Harmon noted that, because the show was on Adult Swim (the adults-only block of the Cartoon Network), content pathways opened up very widely for him. No one on "Community," for instance, could have their brains splattered by a killer alien. 

But, even with the new freedoms, Harmon acknowledged that he was still being held back a little. Several of the shows on Adult Swim are rated TV-M and feature language and violence that only an adult audience should see. Harmon, meanwhile, had to make "Rick and Morty" under the auspices of the TV-14 rating. There was, however, still plenty he could get away with.

Harmon noted that transitioning from a 30-minute live-action sitcom to a 30-minute animated sci-fi series was easier than one might expect. Most 30-minute shows, he points out, have the same kind of structure, usually involving an A-plot and a B-plot. The loosening of the TV ratings, however, offered Harmon a great deal of creative freedom he previously didn't have. He made the following metaphor (and it's useful to remember that the gravity on Venus is only 91% that of Earth's): 

"It was ... like kicking weights off your ankles, or playing basketball on Venus. The exciting thing about it was what it meant to Adult Swim because they hadn't done it before, and you could tell that they were gearing up for something special ... and they wanted us to be it. We had to operate at a slightly tamer rating than most Adult Swim content, also. It was TV-14 instead of TV-M, which freaked us out a little at first. But we found out we could still do plenty of disgusting things at that rating." 

And, as the many fans of "Rick and Morty" can say, Harmon and Co. really stretched the limits. But Harmon wanted to add that the TV-14 rating was also a sign of faith from Adult Swim. Harmon knew that Adult Swim wanted "Rick and Morty" to stand at the head of a whole block of nighttime programming. When you're leading a block of programming, it means the network has faith in you. Also, what if they wanted to move "Rick and Morty" into primetime? The TV-14 rating made that (very tantalizing idea) a possibility. As Harmon said: 

"The reason why they wanted that is because they wanted to be like, 'Well, look, I think what we'll eventually do is start creeping into primetime with our programming, and we could see this show being at 10 o'clock and competing with major stuff.' That really excited me." 

Since then, "Rick and Morty" has remained strong and overwhelmingly popular. Its eighth season debuts on May 25.