Prevalent among the college/young adult generation, Always Sunny is the laugh-out-loud-till-your-sides-hurt, cross-every-boundary show that leaves no subject untouched and has native Philadelphians talking about each episode till the next one airs. Although more often than not the subject of each episode may prove to be completely un-politically correct, the half hour that it plays on FX never disappoints and usually provides a few phrases to be quoted all week, if not all year. (i.e. “I’LL EAT YOUR BABIES, BITCH!” and “WILDCARD, BITCHES!” not to mention the famous ‘DayMan’ song)
So, how did the show get to be the best thing to happen to Philadelphia since the signing of the Declaration of Independence? I had the chance to talk to writer, producer, and actor Rob MacElhenney who plays Mac in the show, and ask him just how the show got on its feet.
Born and raised in Philadelphia himself, MacElhenney attended Waldron Academy, occasionally referenced in the show, during grade school, and St Joseph’s Prep for high school. He met Glenn Howerton (Dennis Reynolds) and Charlie Day (Charlie Kelly) while living in New York. Lying in bed late one night, MacElhenney came up with an idea for a short film starring Howerton, Day and himself.
The trio got together, wrote a script, and filmed their short movie using a handheld camcorder all for the cost of film. After filming a few more short films, MacElhenney and the gang thought it would be a good idea to take the tapes to MacElhenney’s manager, who showed it to an agent, and later turned their project into the half hour TV show that thousands have grown to love, with the addition of a fourth main character, Sweet Dee (Kaitlin Olson).
The FX sitcom which airs once a week often includes touchy subjects such as racism, child molestation, alcoholism, and drug use among many others, and always includes one of the five main characters scheming some far-fetched plan to become either rich, or famous. While the average morally upstanding viewer may find the show to be too contentious for their taste, MacElhenney explains that ‘the gang’ does not feel bad for airing the episodes because one of the characters “always ends up screwing themselves over…They get what’s coming to them.”
That being said, MacElhenney further explained that the future of Always Sunny (the show is signed for 50 more episodes, translating to about 3 more seasons) includes countless more witty, controversial laughs. When asked if he and the gang use their own experiences to fuel the script, MacElhenney replied that although people they know inspire the names used in the show, the content of the episodes are not something that the cast has actually gone through themselves. “None of us have actually found a water stain that resembled the Virgin Mary or danced around on TV strung out on ecstasy and wearing a diaper or pretended to be a cop, but its fun to play that on TV.” He also went on to say that he is nothing like his character. MacElhenney said that Mac’s character consists of all the bad personality traits that MacElhenney does not show in his own personality.
The biggest step that Always Sunny has taken was the addition of Danny DeVito to the lineup in the show’s second season. DeVito, who’s kids are huge fans of the show as well as him, accepted the invitation to be on the cast immediately and has shared 3 seasons with the original 4 characters as Dennis and Sweet Dee’s dad and Charlie’s roommate.
The show is set in Philadelphia, but actually only shoots there once a season. MacElhenney explained that it takes them 3 days to finish one episode, and they only take one trip across the country from their set in LA to film in Philly. Always Sunny airs on FX but gets a lot of its hits from the on demand TV website, hulu.com. “Hulu has been great for us because most of our fan base comes from college kids who might not get FX in their dorm rooms, and have to resort to watching the episodes online,” said MacElhenney.
Always Sunny obviously has a huge following among the teens and young adults in Philadelphia, but is not limited to the city. Although the amount of loyal viewers is no where near as high as in Philly, fans from all over the country have shown support for the show and have come to love the characters just as much as native Philadephians. MacElhenney said that the best compliment he has heard thus far was when “someone told me that after watching the season 4 finale, they had never been more weirded out in their life. We think that’s fuckin’ awesome.”
So what’s in store for the future of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia? While MacElhenney wouldn’t dish much, he did say that season 5 is going to be better than ever and somewhere along the course of the season, viewers will finally find out Mac’s full name. The show will go on for 3 more seasons, and MacElhenney, Howerton and Day are coming out with another FX series, Boldly Going Nowhere, in the near future.
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