What Rick And Morty’s Justin Roiland Finally Understands After Years Of Pitching Shows

When creating a television show, there can’t be a moment more simultaneously exhilarating and disheartening as putting all your cards on the table in the big pitch meeting. In an interview with Collider, Roiland explained what it was like to hear a familiar, yet dreadful response from TV execs. “You’d go pitch a show, and an executive would be like, ‘That sounds like a really good episode of a show, not a show.’”

These days, Roiland is on the other side of the table, having founded the animation studio Justin Roiland’s Solo Vanity Card Productions! and the video game studio Squanch Games. More often than not, he now finds himself agreeing with those once seemingly persnickety executives. “It’s so funny because thinking about it now, it’s like, ‘I get it,’ said Roiland. “I’ll hear a pitch and I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s like an episode of…that would be an episode. How do you sustain that across how many seasons?’” Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.

Luckily for Roiland, he says he’s feeling more inspired and creative than ever, and he’s no longer at the whims of a roundtable of executives. “I think I’m in that time again now, super highly creative — I’m getting all these cool ideas pouring out of me,” he concluded.