The Untold Truth Of Rick And Morty

As vast and complicated as the Rick and Morty mythos has become, Roiland and Harmon never want to give too much information as to why Rick is how he is, or why he does what he does. The reason: they think it's "jumping the shark" (i.e., growing terrible past the point of no return, like when Fonzie ski-jumped over a shark on Happy Days) when other shows do that. And it's just too jarring for the audience.

Harmon told The AV Club, "we're very careful about delving into Rick's backstory, because when we do, we don't want there to be any shocking surprises. Justin was really smart about that, saying, 'No, we don't want to reveal that Rick started drinking when blah blah blah,' because then there's something very shark-jump-y about that, like where you learn that the Fonz didn't always wear leather jackets. Because people aren't like that." Harmon added that not saying too much also helps to characterize Rick as "all the more mysterious and selfish."