Since debuting in August 2005, the FX series It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia has developed a devoted fan base, drawn to the sitcom's grubby style, zippy pace, deadpan absurdity, and willingness to risk tastelessness in the name of following through on a gag. The show, about amoral, bar-owning bums, launches its fourth season on September 18. Recently, the three men who created, write, and star in It's Always Sunny spoke with The A.V. Club about collaborating on comedy, determining how far is too far, and modifying their career paths in the wake of the news that FX has ordered 39 more episodes on top of the 13 set to air this season.
The A.V. Club: How far along into the new season are you?
Glenn Howerton: About halfway. We're pulling triple-duty right now, which is a little bit insane. We're in the middle of writing and shooting and editing all at once. So there's a little bit of insanity over here. But it's all good, man. It's all really good stuff. The season's coming together, and it's lookin' great.
Rob McElhenney: This is definitely the hardest fuckin' year we've ever had to do of the show.
AVC: Why is everything so compressed? Because of the strike?
RM: It was a perfect storm. The strike definitely condensed us, so we started later. And we're also up against Thursday-night football this year, which is kind of our core audience, you know. Males in their 20s and 30s. So we had to hit a certain airdate, before football started. But we couldn't make September 4, and September 11 was the next date, and… yeah, that's not a very good date to première a comedy. [Laughs.] September 18 was the last day that we could start airing before we started butting up against football. So we had this brief window of opportunity to get the season started. Plus Danny DeVito is directing and producing this huge Morgan Freeman and Pierce Brosnan movie, and our co-star Kaitlin [Olson] broke a bone in her lower vertebrae, so we had to shut down for a couple weeks. And here we are.
AVC: Have you had any conflicts with DeVito's schedule before?
RM: No, this is the first year where we've come into an issue, because it usually doesn't take very long for us to shoot. We're kind of in and out.
AVC: Does DeVito play any kind of creative role, aside from showing up on the set and doing his part?
RM: No. That's pretty much it. He's just an actor on the show.
AVC: Do the three of you tend to come into the writers' room with fully fleshed-out ideas, or do you just kick around premises and see where they take you?
Charlie Day: A lot of times, we go into the room cold and talk about what we could do an episode about, and start putting up note cards. Other times, someone might have a particular idea that they came to work with that day, and they'll say, "Hey, I want to riff on this for a little while." Sometimes I'll be just listening to NPR in the morning, and they'll be talking about North Korea, or the gas crisis, and I'll say, "We should work this into one of our episodes." Other times, we'll be sitting in a room and saying, "You know, poop's funny." [Laughs.]
GH: Sometimes there will be a million note cards on the board that we never end up using, because we can never seem to fit them into a story. And sometimes we go as far as to write the first draft of a story and then realize that the entire storyline isn't working. Then we have to re-break it and rewrite the whole thing. Then when we get down on the stage and actually start shooting, we do a tremendous amount of rewriting on the day we shoot. [Laughs.] Which should be obvious if you watch the show.
AVC: The dialogue does seem pretty off-the-cuff.
GH: It is. We try to put a lot of focus on making sure that every character has a strong force that's driving them to do the things that they do. When you have a clear idea of what your character is trying to accomplish, it makes it a lot easier to riff on things.
AVC: Are you responsible for your own character, or do you all write for each other? CD: We all write for each other. You're responsible for your own character to a degree, because when it comes to the final draft of the script, you might say, "Well, I think maybe I could add this here, add that there." But I find that I write just as well for the other characters as I do for myself. I think. AVC: As the show's gone along, the characters have gotten more and more well-defined. You've added backstory and character traits, like the way Charlie's character isn't just the dumb guy who does all the hard work, but also some kind of strange musical savant.
CD: Well, you know, I don't think anyone who writes a television series has a master plan from the beginning, and knows all the character traits, and everything that's going to happen. We wanted to do an episode where we write music, or have a band, and so we said, "Well, what's the best way to service that? One of the characters should have some musical ability. Wouldn't it be funny if, maybe the guy who seems the most hopeless actually has a ray of light, a talent?" Although not much of a talent. [Laughs.]
AVC: Oh, come on. Don't sell yourself short.
CD: Wait 'til this season. There'll be some more music coming. There's a musical on the way. Charlie's opus. And the gang performs it.
RM: I think the more depth you build into the characters, and the more you see where they came from, the more fun you can have. Setting up different characters in different relationships is always helpful as you move forward.
AVC: Which characters do you think play best off each other?
RM: Dennis and Charlie, really.
AVC: Why?
RM: I don't know. [Day and Howerton are] just unbelievable actors, and they're also really good friends. They have great chemistry onscreen. It's really fun to write a scene for them and watch what they do to it.
AVC: Have you been surprised by the way your careers have evolved, going from actors to writer-actors? And not only that, but comic writer-actors?
CD: Oh, very surprised. Maybe in the back of my head I had aspirations, but no immediate goals. When it started happening, it was a little bit of a shock to the system. Now I find that the majority of the year, I don't spend acting. I spend it either writing or editing or producing, or putting things together. So it's as shocking as it is tragic. [Laughs.] No, it's good. I really enjoy it. And you know, it's a valuable skill set. I certainly feel like more of a grownup.
GH: I was entirely wrapped up in the idea of becoming an actor. I learned how to write on the job, basically out of necessity. I always thought it'd be fun to write something, but it never was an ambition of mine, per se. I just thought, "Well, maybe I'll do it one day just for the hell of it and see if it works." And the other sort of weird thing about this is that the three of us, being actors, of course had done comedy before, but none of us primarily came from comedic backgrounds. One of Charlie's biggest jobs, prior to doing [It's Always Sunny], was playing the drug-addict brother on Third Watch. I'd done a bunch of episodes of ER. Rob was doing primarily dramatic movies. I had done a sitcom prior to the show, and so had Charlie, so our backgrounds had a pretty good mix of dramatic and comedic things. But none of us were in Groundlings or Second City or anything like that. [Laughs.] I don't know how we ended up doing this.
AVC: Is the partnership between the three of you fairly even?
RM: I take lead in the show-running responsibilities, in terms of being the liaison to the network, and dealing with the creative team over there, and working with the marketing and publicity departments. I'm sort of manning the ship as far as that goes. But from a creative standpoint, we all work together equally and have a sort of two-against-one rule, which makes things very easy. We work so closely together that we had to figure out a way to communicate with each other, because otherwise we'd just be at each other's throats all the time. When you're dealing with subjective matters, there's no wrong or right answer, it's just, "What do we think is best for the show?" So we could get into hourlong conversations about why somebody thinks something's funny and waste tons and tons of time, but the good thing about having the triumvirate is if Charlie and Glenn both agree that something works and I say, "It doesn't work," then I just have to trust their opinion, and we move past it. And that doesn't mean that they won't hear me out. I'll get a chance to talk it over and say, "This is why I feel this could work." We're pretty honest with each other, and open-minded. Most of the time we're able to take our egos out of it, and say, "Okay, why do I feel this way? What's the right thing to do in this given situation?" Then once we can separate that and figure out, "Okay, this is what it's really about," we can have a conversation creatively. In any situation, it's going to be either A or B, and if there's three of us, every single time, there's going to be somebody siding with another. Then we move forward.
AVC: FX has renewed you for two more years?
GH: They renewed us for 52 episodes. That includes this year. So however many years it takes us to make that amount of episodes is what they've essentially committed themselves to. It's pretty damn exciting. I don't know too many shows that can boast of a 52-episode pick-up. It's really, really exciting.
AVC: Is that going to limit your ability to do other things?
GH: Not anymore than it already has. The three of us, because we write, produce, and act on the show, don't have time to do anything else anyway. Luckily I was able to pop out a little while back and do that movie The Strangers. I kind of jumped out one day and did another part in Crank 2, with my buddies who wrote and directed that, and the first one. Personally, I've gotten to slip out and do small things. But it's tough for us to get out and do anything else, as the schedule is now. We really pour our hearts and souls into this show. We really care about it and want it to be special. We do, however, have another pilot that we're working on for Fox. We're trying to figure that out. It's tough, but we're motivated, and we're excited, and the new pilot is super, super funny. We are going to put that together.
AVC: This is your science-fiction parody Boldly Going Nowhere? Are you going to perform in that as well as write?
RM: Well, we can't. We have a commitment to Sunny. We just got picked up for 52 episodes! That's where all of our time and energy is being spent. However, we are developing it. We've already written the pilot, and we're mapping out the next six episodes on paper, and we're hiring a show-runner who's going to man the ship. We are going to be heavily involved in the first season. But we won't be acting in it, because of our commitment to Sunny.
AVC: Is knowing that you'll be doing this for three more years exciting, or stressful?
RM: It's terrifying. I mean, look, it's the greatest job in the world, and it's super, super fun, we love doing it. That being said, it is a lot of work, and it can be really, really stressful, and difficult at times. When it's working, when all pistons are firing, it is the greatest job on the planet. So I look forward to those moments when we're just having a blast on set, and in the editing room, and in the writer's room.
CD: It's a little bit confining, but you know, this is a good problem to have. So we just try and look on the bright side, and hope that when it's all done, people will still work with us.
- Comments