That Abbott Elementary/It's Always Sunny crossover episode is somehow actually happening

TV's two best Philly-set comedies are apparently set to collide, after Quinta Brunson and the Sunny guys both hinted around the idea

By William Hughes  |  October 3, 2024 | 7:16pm
Photos: ABC/FXX
TV News It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
That Abbott Elementary/It's Always Sunny crossover episode is somehow actually happening

When casting around for commonalities between TV sitcoms Abbott Elementary and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, we could only really come up with three: They’re both extremely funny, they’re both set in Philly, and they’re both owned by the Disney corporation. (Abbott lives on ABC, while Sunny is over out in the cable hinterlands of FXX.) Beyond that, the two shows couldn’t be more different in terms of tone, intent, or even their basic summation of the human animal; even in passing, we don’t like thinking about what the five degenerates known as the Gang could do to our poor, beloved Abbott.

Bad news for us, then, as Variety reports today on some extremely weird news: An official crossover between the two shows is apparently now in the mix, with Sunny‘s Rob McElhenney posting a photo on Twitter today of him, Charlie Day, and Danny Devito posing with Abbott creator Quinta Brunson and stars Tyler James Williams and William Stanford Davis on the ABC show’s set. (We guess it could have just been McElhenney’s way of saying “Hey, cool picture, right?” but we’re going to assume there was a bit more to the intent.)

Admittedly, folks on both sides have hinted around about the idea in the past, with Brunson coyly admitting a big crossover was in the works a few months back. “I’m excited to just shake things up in this way,” she said at the time. “I love TV, everyone knows that, but I love TV moments, and I miss those big TV moments. I remember how exciting they were. Anything I can do with Abbott to help keep that culture alive of fun TV, I will do. So I think this is going to be fun TV.”

Again: We are fans of both of these shows, and are happy the creators in question seem like fans of each other, but Sunny is also one of the most misanthropic TV shows ever created, while Abbott, y’know, isn’t. (We were bigger fans of A.P. Bio than most people, but that still doesn’t mean we want to watch Dennis Reynolds get within 1,000 feet of children.) We’re confident that these teams will make something genuinely funny by mashing these two very different tones together, but dang, what a weird choice of overlap.

 
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