The first season of the American animated television series, ''

Rick and Morty ''Rick and Morty'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated science fiction Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The series follows the misadvent ...

'' originally aired in the United States on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

's late night programming block,

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

. It premiered on December 2, 2013 with "

Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

" and ended on April 14, 2014 with " Ricksy Business", with a total of eleven episodes (including the pilot episode). The first season received critical acclaim.

Cast and characters

Main cast

Justin Roiland Mark Justin Roiland (born February 21, 1980) is an American voice actor, animator, writer, and producer. He co-created the Adult Swim animated sitcom ''Rick and Morty'', for which he voiced the protagonists Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith from 2013 ...

Rick Sanchez C-137 Rick Sanchez is one of the two eponymous characters in the Adult Swim animated television series ''Rick and Morty'' and resulting multimedia franchise. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, he is voiced by the former during the first six ...

and Morty Smith Prime, the two main characters of the show; Rick is an eccentric

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as "mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insanity, insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabas ...

and Morty is his kind but easily distressed grandson. *

Chris Parnell Thomas Christopher Parnell ( ; born February 5, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Parnell found wider success during his tenure as a cast member on ...

as Jerry Smith Prime and Jerry Smith C-131, Rick's son-in-law and Morty's father; a simple-minded and insecure person, who disapproves of Rick's influence over his family. *

Spencer Grammer Spencer Karen Grammer (born October 9, 1983) is an American actress best known for her roles as the voice of Summer Smith in the Adult Swim animated science-fiction series ''Rick and Morty'' and as Casey Cartwright in the Freeform (TV channel), A ...

as Summer Smith Prime and Summer Smith C-131, Rick's granddaughter and Morty's sister; a conventional teenager who worries about improving her status among her peers. *

Sarah Chalke Sarah Louise Christine Chalke (; born August 27, 1976) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her starring roles as the second Becky Conner in the ABC sitcom ''Roseanne'' (1993–1997), Elliot Reid in the NBC/ABC medical comedy series '' Sc ...

as Beth Smith Prime and Beth Smith C-131, Rick's daughter and Morty's mother; a generally level-headed person, who is dissatisfied with her marriage.

Guest cast

Other cast members

Other cast members of the season, who each have voiced one or more characters, include:

Eric Bauza Eric Bauza (born December 7, 1979) is a Canadian voice actor based in the United States. He is mostly known for voicing several ''Looney Tunes'' characters, for which he won three Emmy Awards for his performances in '' Looney Tunes Cartoons'' (20 ...

Dan Harmon Daniel James Harmon (born January 3, 1973) is an American television writer and producer. He is best known as the creator and producer of the NBC sitcom ''Community (TV series), Community'' (2009–2015), creator and host of the comedy podcast ' ...

Phil Hendrie Philip Stephen Hendrie is an American radio personality and actor. He is widely known for his voiceover talent throughout the radio and film industry. He came to prominence in the 1990s hosting '' The Phil Hendrie Show'', a radio talk show where h ...

, Brandon Johnson, Ryan Ridley, Melique Berger,

Jess Harnell Jess Harnell (born December 23, 1963) is an American voice actor. His roles include Wakko Warner in ''Animaniacs'', Captain Hero in '' Drawn Together'', Jerry in the first two seasons of '' Totally Spies!'', Ironhide in the first three ''Tr ...

, Smith Harrison,

Maurice LaMarche Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a Canadian voice actor. Across a career spanning more than four decades he has voiced Chief Quimby on Inspector Gadget, Egon Spengler on ''The Real Ghostbusters'', The Brain on ''Animaniacs'' and its spi ...

Rob Paulsen Robert Frederick Paulsen III (born March 11, 1956) is an American voice actor and voice director, known for his roles in numerous animated television series and films. He received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Pro ...

, Jesse Mendel, Dan Benson,

Jackie Buscarino Jacqueline "Jackie" Buscarino (born September 11, 1977) is an American voice actress, writer and producer. She has contributed voice-over work to animated series such as ''The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack'', ''Adventure Time'' and ''Grav ...

Echo Kellum Echo Kellum (born August 29, 1982) is an American actor and comedian. Kellum is best known for his roles as Curtis Holt on The CW drama series ''Arrow'', Tommy on the Fox sitcom ''Ben and Kate'', Hunter on the NBC sitcom '' Sean Saves the World, ...

, Patricia Lentz,

Rob Schrab Robby Christopher Schrab (born November 12, 1969) is an American comic book creator, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is the creator of the comic book '' Scud: The Disposable Assassin'', co-writer of the feature film '' Monster House'', c ...

Gary Anthony Williams Gary Anthony Williams (born March 14, 1966) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He has voiced the character Uncle Ruckus on ''The Boondocks'', General Horace Warfield in '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty'' and Dr. Richard Tygan in '' ...

Steve Agee Steven Douglas Agee (; born February 26, 1969) is an American comedian, actor, writer and musician, known for roles including Steve Myron on the Comedy Central series '' The Sarah Silverman Program'' and as John Economos in the DCEU superhero f ...

Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He has been voicing SpongeBob SquarePants (character), the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media since its debut in 1999. Kenny has voice ...

, Vatche Panos,

Cree Summer Cree Summer Francks (born July 7, 1969) is an American-Canadian actress and singer. She is best known for her extensive work in animation, voicing characters such as Elmyra Duff in ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' and related media, Susie Carmichael ...

Reagan Gomez Reagan Gomez-Preston is an American television, film and voice actress. She is known for her roles as Zaria Peterson on The WB sitcom ''The Parent 'Hood'' (1995–1999) and Roberta Tubbs on the FOX animated comedy ''The Cleveland Show'' (2009 ...

, Megan Adams, Will Jennings, Finnegan Perry,

Jeff Bergman Jeffrey Bergman (born July 10, 1960) is an American voice actor who has provided the modern-day voices of various classic cartoon characters, most notably with ''Looney Tunes'' and Hanna-Barbera. Bergman was the first to replace Mel Blanc as th ...

, Adam Ray, Scott Chernoff,

Rich Fulcher Richard Fulcher (born November 18, 1963) is an American comedian, actor and author. He played Bob Fossil and other characters in the British comedy series ''The Mighty Boosh'', and Edward Sheath in the American series ''Jon Benjamin Has a Van''. ...

Tress MacNeille Teressa Claire "Tress" MacNeille (; born June 20, 1951) >https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/macneille-tress-1951 is an American voice actress, who has contributed to voice-over work with credits including vo ...

Nolan North Nolan North (born October 31, 1970) is an American actor best known for his voice acting roles. After his breakthrough role as Dr. Chris Ramsey on the ABC soap opera '' Port Charles'' in 1997, North moved into voice acting when the show ended ...

, Alejandra Gollas, Lauren Hillman and

Chris Romano Chris Romano also known as Romanski (born February 2, 1978) is an American actor, writer, producer, and director, most commonly known for co-creating, producing and starring in Spike TV's ''Blue Mountain State''. Early life Romano grew up in Nas ...

Episodes

Production

Series co-creator

, John Rice, Jeff Myers, Bryan Newton and Stephen Sandoval served as directors, while Roiland, series co-creator

, Tom Kauffman, Ryan Ridley, Wade Randolph and Eric Acosta served as writers; writer's assistant

Mike McMahan Mike McMahan (born 1981) is an American comedy writer and television producer. He is the creator of the animated comedies '' Solar Opposites'' (with Justin Roiland) and '' Star Trek: Lower Decks''. Career McMahan, a native of Chicago, first ...

was also given writing credit. All episodes in the first season originally aired in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

, and are rated

TV-14 The TV Parental Guidelines are a television content rating system in the United States that was first proposed on December 19, 1996, by the United States Congress, the American television industry, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ...

. However, the uncensored version of the episodes released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

are rated

TV-MA The TV Parental Guidelines are a television content rating system in the United States that was first proposed on December 19, 1996, by the United States Congress, the American television industry, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ...

. All episodes from this season were originally produced and broadcast in 16:9 high-definition on both Adult Swim's SD and HD feeds, resulting in the episodes appearing letterboxed on Adult Swim's standard definition feed. This season began production in January 2013.

Reception

The first season has an approval rating of 97% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 8.30 out of 10. The site's critics consensus reads, "''Rick and Morty'' zaps onto screens and makes an instant impression with its vivid splashes of color, improvisational voice acting, and densely-plotted science fiction escapades -- bringing a surprising amount of heart to a cosmically heartless premise." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the season has a score of 85 out of 100, based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Home media

The first season was released on DVD (Region 1) and Blu-ray on October 7, 2014. Before its release, Roiland had confirmed that it would contain uncensored audio tracks.

References

External links

{{Rick and Morty seasons 2013 American animated television seasons 2014 American animated television seasons Rick and Morty seasons