THR: Matt Groening And Justin Roiland Talk About Rick And Morty Simpsons Couch Gag

What was the genesis of the couch gag?

Justin Roiland: I had the crazy idea of asking Matt and some of the folks at The Simpsons if they would be interested in doing a DVD commentary on Rick and Morty because I had heard from Mike Lazzo over at Adult Swim and a few other people that Matt was a huge fan of the show, which I couldn’t believe, but it turned out to be true. That commentary track led to the offer of the couch gag, which we immediately followed up on to see if that was a sincere offer, which it was.

Matt Groening: It turns out I wasn’t the only fan on The Simpsons of Rick and Morty. The animators on the show were fans and all of the writers as well. We’ve never done a DVD commentary for another show. We do DVD commentaries for every episode of The Simpsons, and everyone is pretty worn out. But when the opportunity came to do one for Rick and Morty, we said yes. The rest is Hollywood magic history.