It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Rob McElhenney
Developed by	Rob McElhenney Glenn Howerton
Starring	Charlie Day Glenn Howerton Rob McElhenney Kaitlin Olson Danny DeVito
Opening theme	"Temptation Sensation" by Heinz Kiessling
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	87 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Charlie Day Glenn Howerton Rob McElhenney Michael Rotenberg Nick Frenkel Tom LoFaro
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	3 Arts Entertainment RCG Jersey Films FX Productions
Original release
Network	FX
Release	August 4, 2005 (2005-08-04) – present

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (often abbreviated as Sunny) is an American sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. New episodes continue to air on FX, with reruns playing on Comedy Central, general broadcast syndication, and WGN America—the first cable-to-cable syndication deal for a sitcom. The show was created, developed, and produced by Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day, all of whom star in the show. The series follows the exploits of "The Gang," a group of self-centered friends who run Paddy's Pub, a relatively unsuccessful Irish bar in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Synopsis

The series follows "The Gang," a group of four depraved, thirty-something underachievers: twins Dennis Reynolds and Deandra "Dee" Reynolds; their friends Charlie Kelly, Ronald "Mac" McDonald; and from season 2 onwards Frank Reynolds, Dennis and Dee's adoptive father. They run the dilapidated Paddy's Pub, a bar in South Philadelphia. They are dishonest, egotistical, selfish, greedy, unethical, lazy, manipulative, deceitful, hypocritical, vain, narcissistic, petty, overly competitive, childish, nihilistic, vengeful, arrogant, and are often engaged in controversial issues. Episodes usually find them hatching elaborate schemes, conspiring against one another and others for personal gain, vengeance, or simply for the entertainment of watching one another's downfall. They habitually inflict mental, emotional and often physical pain. They regularly use blackmail to manipulate one another and others outside of the group.

Their unity is never solid; any of them would quickly dump any one of the others for quick profit or personal gain regardless of the consequences. Everything they do results in competition among themselves and a considerable amount of the show's dialogue involves the characters arguing or yelling over one another. Despite their lack of worldly success, the people in the Gang generally maintain high opinions of themselves and display an often obsessive interest in their own reputations and public images. Despite this high sense of self-worth, the Gang often has little sense of shame when attempting to get what they want and will often engage in activities which others would find humiliating, disgusting, or even preposterous, such as smoking crack cocaine in order to qualify for welfare, seducing a priest, or hiding naked inside a leather couch in order to spy on someone.

Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia carries a TV-MA rating due to strong language, sexual content, occasional racial epithets, and drug references.

Cast and characters

Olson, DeVito, and McElhenney in August 2011

Main article: List of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia characters

• Glenn Howerton as Dennis Reynolds – Dennis is a co-owner of Paddy's Pub and is Deandra's twin brother. Possibly the most sociopathic of the characters, Dennis is narcissistic, selfish, histrionic and vain. Much of his inflated ego is perpetuated by his Ivy League education at the University of Pennsylvania where he minored in Psychology.
• Kaitlin Olson as Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds – Sweet Dee is Dennis' twin sister, the main bartender at Paddy's Pub and the show's main female character. Sweet Dee dreams of becoming an actress although she lacks any apparent talent and suffers from debilitating stage fright. She needed a back brace in high school and majored in Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania but did not graduate. Dee lives in an apartment alone, although she had a cat at one point until it became trapped in her wall.
• Rob McElhenney as Ronald "Mac" McDonald – Mac is Charlie Kelly's childhood friend and Dennis's high school friend and later roommate. He is a co-owner of Paddy's Pub. Though he sometimes brags about his hand-to-hand combat skills, he typically flees any type of physical confrontation. The son of a convicted felon, Mac is frequently trying to demonstrate his toughness and refers to himself as the "sheriff of Paddy's".
• Charlie Day as Charlie Kelly – Charlie was co-owner at Paddy's Pub but traded all his stocks for "goods and services", half a sandwich, and other unnamed reasons. He is a childhood friend of Mac and later high school friend of Dennis and Dee. He is also Frank's roommate. Charlie does most of the dirty work (referred to as "Charlie work") at the pub, is borderline illiterate, an alcoholic and substance abuser, and is often seen huffing glue. He suffers from deep psychological problems, and lives in squalor. An abortion survivor, Charlie has extreme anger issues and often screams to get his point across. He has a severely unhealthy obsession with "The Waitress" though she finds Charlie repulsive and shows no interest in him.
• Danny Devito as Frank Reynolds (Season 2–present) – Frank is the legal father of twins Dennis and Sweet Dee, and possibly the biological father of his roommate Charlie. He used to be a successful businessman with a long history of illegal operations and dealings with sordid characters, but chose to abandon that life and redeem himself after leaving his money-grubbing, cheating wife. He now shares a tiny, filthy one-bedroom apartment with Charlie, where they share a pullout couch.

Episodes

Main article: List of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes

Production

The show began as a short film idea written by Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton about a man telling his friend he might have cancer, while the friend's only intent is on trying to borrow a cup of sugar for the "shitload of coffee" he has made. This was then developed into a pilot called It's Always Sunny on TV and was shot on a digital camcorder by Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney. This pilot was shopped by the actors around various studios, their pitch being simply showing the DVD of the pilot to executives. After viewing the pilot, FX Network ordered the first season. Although it is often stated publicly that Always Sunny was one of the first shows to be shot in 24p video, using Panasonic's DVX100 MiniDV camcorder, from the sixth season forward, the show was shot using high-definition cameras.

The first season ran for seven episodes with the season finale airing September 13, 2005. According to McElhenney, word of mouth on the show was good enough for FX to renew it for a second, which ran from June 29 to August 17, 2006. To boost ratings and achieve more mainstream exposure, Danny DeVito joined the cast in the first episode of the second season, playing the father of Dennis (played by Glenn Howerton) and Sweet Dee (played by Kaitlin Olson). Reruns of edited first season episodes began airing on FX's parent network, Fox, in 2006, but after only two episodes ("Gun Fever" and "Charlie Gets Molested"), Fox removed the show from its lineup. The show would not be shown on broadcast television until 2011, when FX began offering the show for syndication.

On August 18, 2007, the episode "Mac is a Serial Killer" from the third season appeared on the group's MySpace page. The third season ran from September 13, 2007 to November 15, 2007. On March 5, 2008, FX renewed It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia for a fourth season. On July 15, 2008, it was reported that FX had ordered 39 additional episodes of the series. All five main cast members were secured for the entire scheduled run. The fifth season ran from September 17, 2009 to December 10, 2009. On May 31, 2010, Comedy Central began airing reruns of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. WGN America also began broadcasting the show Fall 2011. The sixth season ran from September 16, 2010 until December 9, 2010, running twelve episodes. The seventh season ran from September 15, 2011 until December 15, 2011, running 13 episodes. On August 6, 2011, FX announced it had picked up the show for an additional two seasons (the show's eighth and ninth) running through 2013, which would make it the longest-running live-action comedy in basic cable history. There is also an option for a tenth season.

Opening titles

In the first season, the title of the episode appears following the title of the show, but starting in season two, the title appears as the theme song starts, directly before the credits roll. Episode titles are mostly a sentence describing the plot and incorporating one or more of the main characters' name or their collective appellation of "The Gang", such as "The Gang Gets Whacked" and "The Gang Goes Jihad." The title of many episodes are presented as a punchline tying in with the gag in the cold open. For example, in one cold open, Sweet Dee states "there is no way I'm dating a retarded person!"; almost immediately, the title card appears, which reads "Sweet Dee's Dating A Retarded Person". In another, Dennis and Dee insist "we'll be just fine" after quitting their jobs at the bar; the title of the episode is "Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare".

Paddy's Pub

Exterior shots of Paddy's Pub are not shot in Philadelphia. Most of the interior shots are on Los Angeles sound stages. Exterior shots of Paddy's Pub are shot at the Starkman Building, 544 Mateo Street, Los Angeles(34.040312°N 118.232921°W / 34.040312; -118.232921). "The Great Recession" shows a street sign which places it at 3rd and Dickinson in South Philadelphia (39.929402°N 75.1503°W / 39.929402; -75.1503). Rob McElhenney grew up near Dickinson and Moyemensing near the location. In 2009, McElhenney and Olson announced their purchase of Skinners Bar at 226 Market Street in Philadelphia (39.949895°N 75.144795°W / 39.949895; -75.144795). It was renamed Mac's Olde Towne Tavern.

Music

The theme song is a piece of production music called "Temptation Sensation" by German composer Heinz Kiessling. Additionally, Kiessling's work ("On Your Bike" and "Blue Blood") can also be heard during various scene transitions throughout the show, along with other composers and pieces such as Christopher Movick ("Off Broadway"), Joe Brook ("Moonbeam Kiss") and Karl Grell ("Honey Bunch"). Many of the tracks heard in the series have been taken from Cafe Romantique, an album of easy listening production music collected by Extreme Music, the production music library unit of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Independent record label, Fervor Records has also contributed music to the show. Songs from The Jack Gray Orchestra's album, Easy Listening Symph-O-Nette ("Take A Letter Miss Jones", "Golly Gee Whiz", and "Not a Care in the World") and the John Costello III release Giants of Jazz ("Birdcage", "Cotton Club" and "Quintessential") are heard in several episodes. The soundtrack, featuring most of the music heard on the show was released on September 1, 2010, the same day that Kaitlin Olson and Rob McElhenney's son Axel Lee McElhenney was born.

Throughout the series, music is featured from artists including: Bell Biv Devoe, The Doors, Biz Markie, Enigma, Joe Esposito, Stacy Q, Rick Astley, Extreme, Heart, Ray Parker, Jr., Yello, Rick Derringer, Bruce Springsteen, Soul Asylum, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Steve Winwood, Seal, Kate Bush, Deee-Lite, Styx, Boyz II Men, Alphaville, Berlin, and The Go-Go's.

Coincidentally, the main theme "Temptation Sensation" appeared in the fourth season Taxi episode "Louie's Fling" (which aired in 1981) in a scene with Danny DeVito's character Louie De Palma and his girlfriend Zena Sherman, who was played by DeVito's ex-wife Rhea Perlman.

Reception

Early seasons received mixed reviews. Gillian Flynn of Entertainment Weekly reviewed the first season negatively, commenting "it is smug enough to think it's breaking ground, but not smart enough to know it isn't." Brian Lowry of Variety gave the first season a positive review, saying it was "invariably clever and occasionally a laugh-out-loud riot, all while lampooning taboo topics." Later seasons of the show have received favorable ratings on review aggregator Metacritic, receiving 70/100, 78/100 and 85/100 for seasons 4, 5 & 6 respectively. The show has become a cult hit with fans and is often compared in style to Seinfeld—particularly due to the self-centered nature of its main characters, to the point that FX attached the tagline, "It's Seinfeld on crack."

In 2012, Entertainment Weekly listed the show at #6 in the "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years," with the comment that "it's a great underdog story ... If it sounds too dark for you, consider that there's an episode about making mittens for kittens, and it's adorable."

The Nightman Cometh Live

In September 2009, the cast took their show live. The "Gang" performed the musical The Nightman Cometh in New York, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Mary Elizabeth Ellis and Artemis Pebdani also appeared in the performance as The Waitress and Artemis. Danny DeVito's wife, actress Rhea Perlman assumed the role of Gladys.

Co-creator Rob McElhenney said that Live Nation originally approached the cast about doing the show at 30 cities, but in the end the cast settled on 6. Co-Creator Glenn Howerton described the show as "essentially an expanded version of the actual episode of "The Nightman Cometh" which was the final episode for season four. There are some added moments, added scenes, added songs and extended versions of songs that already existed." Two new songs were included in the performance, and a longer running time allowed for greater improvisation by the actors. The performance was also preceded by a preview screening of a season five episode.

The Los Angeles performance, filmed at The Troubadour, was included as a bonus feature on the season four DVD box set.

External links

• Official website
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on TV Squad
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com