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DH: <\/strong>Right, the pandemic, the loss of our patriarch Mike Mendell, the WGA strike, the recent events with the replacement of the voices in the show. And before that, the show was its own problem. Before Scott came on board, the show itself was a turbulence to the network because we were always over budget and over schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
To bring it back to your question, I don\u2019t think we ever \u2014 even in our wildest dreams \u2014 had that kind of clarity and sure-footedness between seasons 6 and 7 to say, \u201cLet\u2019s have a conversation about the tone we\u2019re going to strike with season 7. Ever since Scott came on board, there\u2019s been this drive to create a healthy work environment that\u2019s making a show that is reliable, both creatively and productively, to try to shift to a world where, low and behold, 10 episodes of the thing can come out on a reasonably predictable schedule. And we can have everybody working on it feel secure and happy enough that we can keep making the show and promote people from within without losing them to Netflix shows or losing them to Marvel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SM:<\/strong> I feel like a lot of success that we\u2019ve had with all that has been due to holding onto a staff that just gets stronger every season. They\u2019re just so well versed in the continuity that we\u2019re all striving for, and they\u2019re all such rabid fans themselves that that elective joy just keeps sort of feeding into the new seasons and the new episodes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Would you say season 8 is going to feel more distinctly like the product of the changes Rick and Morty <\/em>has <\/em>gone through?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
DH:<\/strong> Season 7 just represents one more brick in that road, and it\u2019s season 8, which is already written, when that comes out, I think it\u2019ll be even more so. It\u2019ll feel like a return to form and kind of like a \u201cwe\u2019re back, baby\u201d kind of feeling, and hopefully, season 9 will be that but, you know, even more<\/em> so. But it\u2019ll be because it\u2019s been a gradual process of just trying to get our wind in our sails again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Dan, you\u2019ve been really open about getting into therapy, reassessing your relationship with work, and just trying to move through the world differently. How has that personal process of getting into a healthier emotional space shifted how you go about creating this world that\u2019s always had, you know, a kind of nihilistic streak to it and a morbid sense of humor?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
DH: <\/strong>It\u2019s funny, the most terrifying thing in the world to me when I started therapy was the idea that I would go home at 5PM from work; that I would have a hard out. Because that would be like saying, \u201cWe\u2019re going to make the greatest movie ever, but it\u2019s going to have to be cast with all our ostriches.\u201d Like how are those two things going to sync up? What are the odds?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
But it turns out, when you work backward from a goal like that, it starts extending itself to your collaborators. You find out that darkness, while still a storytelling tool and all-important, it still fills the human heart, and it\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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And what does your \u201cfine\u201d look and feel like now having gone through therapy?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
DH:<\/strong> I can go home at 5PM, and what that requires is trust and delegation and acquiescence. I\u2019m not able to pull the breaks on the show. I\u2019m still the reason why the show isn\u2019t as on schedule as it could be, but I no longer get to be the reason why it literally stops down while I finish a pass on a script or something like that.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Therapy taught me: start with this one simple step: set your hours. Because if you don\u2019t, this city will suck your life dry, and when it results in your divorce, or your suicide, or you\u2019re drinking yourself to death, this city will say, \u201cWho\u2019s the next workaholic? Get him over here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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And how do you guard against that?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
DH:<\/strong> If you set boundaries for yourself, it actually starts to benefit the people around you because it means that you have to trust them, you have to communicate with them, and you have to accept leadership from them. Scott is my boss, and at the end of the day, we rely on people like Heather Anne Campbell for our darkness; she\u2019s got enough for everybody.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
How much of that reality and your experience, Dan, did you want to be reflected in characters like Dr. Wong and through the emotional low we find Mr. Poopybutthole in at the beginning of this season?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
DH: <\/strong>Initially, it was honestly for an ironic, kind of edgy, comedic reason because I think it\u2019s hack comedy to punch down at therapy. It\u2019s like what doing mime jokes became in the \u201980s. We got it in the \u201970s; mimes were irritating us, and then the \u201880s was filled with just hack jokes about mimes and wanting to shoot them, and it\u2019s like \u201ceveryone hates mimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
But I was starting therapy in earnest at that time, and so, just in wanting to be original, I wanted to portray therapy as valuable. At the end of \u201cPickle Rick,\u201d it\u2019s like, \u201cSure, let\u2019s let Rick do his whole monologue that you\u2019d expect and respect from this edgelord, but then let\u2019s give her the last word.\u201d And writing from her perspective toward him was an incredibly therapeutic experience for me because I certainly had to inhabit the shoes of a shrink calling me out on my bullshit without negating it. Just saying, \u201cLook, man, I think you need to come back. I want to make you happy. You\u2019re paying me. You could pay me to make you happy. I\u2019m not your mom. I\u2019m not your guidance counselor.\u201d That\u2019s the deal my therapist struck with me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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In your mind, has Dr. Wong struck the same kind of deal with Rick?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
DH:<\/strong> I think a character like Rick being in therapy could be fun and cool the more he comes around to taking it seriously and coming around to using it. I love that he goes to her to deal with his Pissmaster problem, and he\u2019s still treating her like she\u2019s a vendor. He can\u2019t cross that threshold where he truly respects her. But he has acknowledged that therapy is a science that he has not himself dominated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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