Every season we've had an episode where we had to go and pop the hood on it in animatic. They kept having Toon Boom crash on them constantly just because it had so many elements going on at once. Roiland explained the problems to Animation World Network: "It was brutal to board and animate just because of the multiple screens. The lack of integration proved disappointing to Roiland, as funny as it wound up being. Another idea had the married couple experiencing repetitions in time due to Rick's machinations, but this was ultimately scrapped in favor of an unrelated B-story about Jerry and Beth trying to save a deer's life. The B-story also underwent changes in the writing process, with the original Jerry/Beth plot involving them being dropped off by Rick on a remote island ala "Lost" and making fun of event television tropes. Summer's role was also significantly reduced or ported over to Morty. Part of honing the story involved changing the underlying drama between the characters from pure chaos to the concept of uncertainty, not to mention the emotional damage Rick's verbal abuse has on the kids. We're pretty convinced the first episode might be the worst for that reason." Harmon agreed, stating: "It went off the deep end conceptually and got really over-complicated. We were so close to something amazing and we never really got there from a structural standpoint." Roiland stated to Rolling Stone in 2015 before the premiere aired that the episode "was just brutal and it broke us to a certain extent.