Anyone who’s watched Rick and Morty long enough knows that the show was originally a short film created by Justin Roiland back in 2006 called The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Marty. The crudely drawn cartoon was a parody of Back to the Future with vulgar jokes about Doc Brown and Marty McFly.
Seven years later, this parody evolved into what is now known as Rick and Morty. But while there certainly was some carryover, including Rick’s iconic burp, many of the characters we know on the show today have changed significantly, including Rick Sanchez.
So where did Roiland get the inspiration for the mad scientist known as Rick Sanchez? Well, according to a former CNN reporter, the foul-mouthed grandfather was actually based on him, the real Rick Sanchez.
Sanchez discussed this interesting detail on the latest episode of his Rick Sanchez News podcast.
During the show, he plays a video from 2006 of Roiland showing off a masked news reporter named Rick Sanchez, who hosts “7 PM News”. It’s not until later that Roiland’s Rick Sanchez becomes the mad scientist we know and love today.
Speaking about being the inspiration behind one of the most successful adult cartoons in history, Saches said, “I think it’s cool and maybe flattering, but most of all, it’s really disappointing,” he laughs. “My name was sort of stolen.”
Rick Sanchez has been a journalist for over 40 years, serving as an Emmy Award-winning host of the number one daytime show on CNN, host and producer on Fox News, Univision and iHeartRadio, and the first Hispanic in the US to host his own national newscast.
