Rick & Morty Fans Don't Want It To End Up Like The Simpsons Or Family Guy

Beloved adult animation has a habit of sticking around for longer than its shelf life, and "Rick and Morty" fans worry their favorite show will suffer the same fate. Now headed into Season 7, "Rick and Morty" has entered the ranks of shows like "Futurama" and other animated series that have proven too popular to take off the air.

But fans of the Adult Swim show look at the juggernauts of the animation space and worry that "Rick and Morty" might suffer the same fate as much longer-running shows like "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy." On a Reddit post asking how many seasons fellow "Rick and Morty" fans hope to see, u/Traditional-Pilot-77 worried "Rick and Morty" might end up sharing the reduced potency of other animated series that have racked up seasons in the double-digits, writing, "I really don't want it to end up like ["Family Guy"] for example. ["Family Guy"] was amazing the first like 12 seasons then it just started going downhill so fast."

In some discussions, fans hoped "Rick and Morty" fulfils Rick's (Justin Roiland) oft-stated goal of "100 years 'Rick and Morty!'" a line the character has repeated several times over the existing six seasons. "I was promised a hundred years of Rick and Morty," wrote u/Redshift2k5. Others seemed to agree that there's no good reason to stop the Story Train now. "why should it be canceled.. it has the potential to run forever like [The Simpsons] or [South Park]," u/RangerPaste declared.

Indeed, fans' opinions over how long the series should last seemed tied to how they perceived the quality of other long-running shows, and that of "Rick and Morty" itself. A few pointed out that, whereas "The Simpsons" has been trucking along for over three decades, "Rick and Morty" remains contracted only through Season 10. "There were 31 episodes before they got their 70 episode contract," wrote a user who has since deleted their comment. "101 episodes is a pretty good run for a show, I think. The most important thing to me is that it get a worthy ending."

The future of "Rick and Morty" remains uncertain in the wake of co-creator and voice lead Justin Roiland's termination from the series. The creator was facing a legal battle that has since been dismissed, but he must also contend with a bevy of unsavory allegations from co-workers and fans he is alleged to have had contact with. Many long-running animated series have dealt with changes to the main cast, and many factors suggest the series will be fine without Roiland, so it's possible that fans may get 100 years of portal adventures, after all.