Ricktacular!

Cartoon Network, via Adult Swim, has wrapped up Rick and Morty creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland for a long term 'overall' deal, which will see them produce (at least?) another 70 episodes of the hit series. No official word on number of seasons yet, but 10 episodes per season, at the current... lethargic... rate of 18 months hiatus, would see the show end around 2030, with 10 seasons, and 101 episodes. Those seem like realistic numbers to me, even with Roiland and Harmon proclaiming that they'll have more time to focus on the duo. Don't be surprised if, like South Park, we get a game or two during this period also.

"It was a lot of back and forth, but Justin and I just needed enough episodes and the right kind of deal structure that would give us permission to do what we want to do, which is truly focus on the show," he said. "We got all that, and we’re both very excited."

Dan Harmon hasn't exactly been quiet about the lengths hes gone to to get the deal from the network that he wanted. It helps that the show has become massive in the last year, with almost every episode being "meme'd", and the shows audience being vocal enough to gets McDonalds to reintroduce menu items. Very few other shows have that kind of power.

While this seems a lot its not unprecedented for a network to secure talent for a length of time like this. While not exactly the same, Charlie Sheen got a 10 + 90 order for his last show Anger Management. An initial 10 episode order was placed with a rider that locked FX in to producing another 90 if they wanted any more than 10. Sheen was still riding a wave of popularity between the end of season 1 and season 2 being produced, despite being fired from Two and a Half Men, and acting out on social media. When that 15 minutes was up, FC was stuck was producing the extra episodes. They opted to burn them off one a week for nearly 2 years straight, rather than deal with Sheen for a decade. Lets hope the same isn't true with Harmon and Roiland, who are both also known to be a little difficult to contain.

Wub-a-lub-a-dub-dub!