Ready your Kitten Mittens – It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is coming back on Wednesday night for its eleventh season. While the journey to season eleven has been mostly paved with success, the gang’s backstory is an interesting one. From cast couples to on-set injuries, here are some things you might not have known about Sweet Dee (Kaitlin Olson), Charlie (Charlie Day), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Mac (Rob McElhenney), and Frank (Danny DeVito).
The series began as a short film.
The humble beginnings of It’s Always Sunny are well known at this point – the pilot was made for under $200 and, instead of Philadelphia delinquents, the stars were struggling Hollywood actors.
Many are unaware, however, that series co-creators and producers Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton never intended for their weird little short about a man telling his friend he might have cancer to be a series. In fact, they just thought they were making a film.
It wasn’t until friends told them the “pilot” was truly funny, that they decided to shop it.
Danny DeVito joined the show because his kids were fans.
After its first season on FX, It’s Always Sunny was, unfortunately, not faring too well. FX wasn’t quite ready to give it the boot, however, and, luckily, the network president had a solution. According to an interview Rob McElhenney gave the Nerdist podcast:
“So, John Landgraf, who’s the president of FX, he called me in for a meeting and was like, ‘Hey, no one’s watching the show, but we love it, we wanna keep it on, but we don’t have any money for marketing, and we need to add somebody with some panache that we can hopefully parlay into some public relations story, just so we can get people talking.'”
That someone? Danny DeVito. While McElhenney was nervous to add a big name to the series (out of fear that it would screw up the format), DeVito was the perfect fit. And the veteran star was totally on board because his three children (Lucy, Daniel, and Grace) were huge fans. Thus, Frank Reynolds was born. Several of the show’s cast members have real-life romantic relationships.
A match made in Paddy’s heaven. Kaitlin Olson and McElhenney began dating in secret during the second season of the show, eventually marrying in September of 2008. The couple now share two children.
But the pair isn’t alone – there’s another set of real-life lovers on set. Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis, who plays the object of Charlie’s affections (the waitress), were also married in 2008.
You can visit a Paddy’s Pub-inspired bar in Philly.
Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson became partners in an Old City, Philadelphia bar called Skinner’s a few years back. They, naturally, changed the name to something more fitting of the show that made them stars: Mac’s Tavern.
The bar and restaurant, located at 226 Market St., features themed menu items like Sweet D’s Turkey BLT and Mac’s Chili.
“Dayman” was written on a Casio keyboard by Day and Howerton.
Before the Nightman finally came, Day’s character was toiling away at the keyboard on his original musical masterpiece: “Dayman.”
The season three tune was actually penned by Day himself, as are much of the series’ original compositions. The conception of “Dayman,” in particular, was aided by Howerton. As Day told Entertainment Weekly:
“We had a little Casio keyboard and started screwing around with it. A bunch of college buddies [once told me], ‘If I even walked down the hallway in the dorm and you were sitting out there with a guitar in your hand, I knew you were going to make up some song about me as I walked by.’ So it’s nice to finally make a living doing it.”
The later “Nightman” track was penned by Day, too, something he made up entirely on the spot. Toying around on the keyboard, he created both the music and lyrics for the show’s memorable tune.
Mac’s weight gain was meant to send a message.
While some actors fluctuate their weight in order to fit a role, McElhenney instead decided to use his weight gain to send a message through his role.
After an impressive diet of 5,000 calories a day, the actor blew up in season seven. So, why intentionally pack on the pounds? He told TV Guide:
“It came when I was watching a very popular sitcom, and I noticed the people were getting better and better looking as the seasons were going on. I always thought that what we were trying to do on Sunny was the deconstruction of the sitcom.”
NPR has a big impact on the show’s plot lines.
It’s Always Sunny is influenced by the National Public Radio. Yes – you read that right.
When Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney are coming up with storylines, they go through a variety of ideas that are, sometimes, influenced by their morning commute. Day said he’ll listen to NPR en route to the office and riff off whatever the news of the day is. He told AV Club:
“They’ll be talking about North Korea, or the gas crisis, and I’ll say, ‘We should work this into one of our episodes.'”
Howerton told EW he is also influenced by the radio network – “that’s where I get all my ideas from.”
The crew often has the characters take sides on a divisive issue, and, no matter what, according to Howerton, “everybody ends up being wrong.”
Kristen Wiig was the second choice for Sweet Dee.
One of everyone’s favorite Saturday Night Live superstars and a soon-to-be Ghostbuster lost out on a chance to play the self-centered female member of the Sunny gang.
According to Howerton, Kristen Wiig was neck-and-neck with Olson for the part of Sweet Dee. In the end, things worked out for Wiig, too, obviously – she joined the not ready for primetime players the same year Sunny debuted.
Olson insists on performing her own stunts, but they’ve landed her in the hospital.
Olson’s physical comedy chops are absolutely impressive. The actress throws her body around (and into cars) all for the sake of a gag – and it works. So, someone performs all her stunts, right? Wrong. The actress prefers to do her own tricks. She told BuzzFeed:
“I don’t want the stunt double to do it, unless it’s like a quick thing, because that’s part of the acting. I want to do that. There’s a lot of acting that happens in between the running out and the head-hitting.”
That authenticity comes with downfalls, however. During the show’s eleven seasons, the star has broken her foot, back, and heel. She also fell through a floorboard and, according to BuzzFeed, “ripped her calf open on a metal spike.”
The Game of Thrones showrunners penned an episode of the series.
This is probably not a surprise to die-hard fans, but Game of Thrones co-creator and showrunner David Benioff and executive producer Daniel Brett Weiss wrote a season nine episode of It’s Always Sunny.
Based on the 1959 short story Flowers for Algernon, “Flowers for Charlie” found the titular character with increased intelligence (and arrogance) after a science experiment.
Fred Savage (yes, that one) directed 19 episodes of the show.
Fred Savage is a man of many talents. In addition to leading the cast of The Wonder Years, the actor appeared in The Princess Diaries and now, as a real, adult actor, leads The Grinder. But he is also an accomplished television director.
From 2007 to 2009, Savage got behind the camera for 19 episodes of It’s Always Sunny. Some notable installments include both parts of “Mac & Charlie Die” and “The Waitress Is Getting Married.” He’s also helmed episodes of shows like Happy Endings, Modern Family, and 2 Broke Girls.
Grinder fans will also tell you that the Always Sunny waitress, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, co-stars as Savage’s wife on the show.
