President Curtis Premiere: Dan Harmon Explains [SPOILER] Cameo in Rick and Morty Spinoff (Exclusive)
It was only natural that the debut episode of Adult Swim's President Curtis would feature a cameo from these two characters.
The President Curtis administration officially began July 26 as Adult Swim debuted the pilot episode for its Rick and Morty offshoot centered around the terrestrial adventures of Keith David's commander-in-chief.
Written by co-creators Dan Harmon and James Siciliano, the series opener finds Curtis and two new characters—Chief of Staff Roe Banks (Stephanie Beatriz) and Special Agent Francis O'Doyle (Jim Rash)—investigating a bonkers CIA cover-up involving President John F. Kennedy and the Apollo 11 moon landing.
"The thing that I love about Dan Harmon projects is they're smart," David exclusively told SYFY Wire over Zoom. "My ideal comedy is not just slapstick funny, but it's smart. It gives you something to think about, as well as something to laugh about."
As you might expect, the story culminates on the moon itself, with Curtis calling on Rick and Morty (Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden) to borrow a spaceship. Curtis apologizes to the duo "for all the times I tried to kill you in your own adventures" before taking off. Morty then makes a meta comment on how "they spin off so fast," to which Rick replies, "I give it 10 episodes."
Dan Harmon Explains Rick and Morty Cameo in President Curtis Pilot Episode
"Even if just as an homage to the concept of spinoffs as we're familiar with them, [it] just feels like a thing that if it weren't there, you would maybe feel like it was missing," Harmon explained. "Whether it's a parody of that concept or actually accomplishes something, it's sort of the same thing. I mean, if you make a cake and you put a cherry on top, whether you're lampooning cherries as a garnish or not, you're still finishing the cake."
While it was only natural for President Curtis to acknowledge the show that birthed it, the White House-based spinoff was always intended to be a conduit through which to mine the secrets of American government and history—à la The X-Files and National Treasure.
"The fun is always taking reality and making your own thing with it," Siciliano said. "It's using reality as a baseline and then building out our world's version of that. It's just part of the fun and fabric of the world, is that you get to take a little bit of history that people might or might not know and build adventures and mission missions around it [while making] it your own thing."
Harmon and Siiciliano serve as executive producers alongside Danielle Uhlarik, Monica Mitchell and Steve Levy.
New episodes of President Curtis air on Adult Swim every Sunday at 11:30 p.m. ET.
