Trivia about the origin of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia debuted back in 2005. The story behind the development of It’s Always Sunny is as humble and improbable as they come. You’ll likely never hear again of what was essentially a home movie being turned into a pilot, which impossibly was greenlit, and which would last for nine seasons (so far), become the cornerstone comedy hit of a now successful network, and also become the first sitcom ever to get a cable-to-cable syndication deal (reruns of the FX hit play on Comedy Central). There was no focus testing. No lighting. No big stars. There weren’t even small stars. It was just three struggling actors goofing off, and it was transformed into comedy gold.

Here’s how it happened:

1. Depending on who you ask, the unaired pilot for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia cost between $85 and $200, almost all of which was spent on tapes. That has to make it the cheapest greenlit sitcom pilot in history, and if not that, certainly the cheapest pilot ever for a show that ran for a decade.

2. The original title of the show was actually, It’s Always Sunny on Television, and the unaired pilot was set in Los Angeles. It was only after FX picked it up that the set location was moved to Philadelphia (Rob McElhenney’s hometown) because the network thought there were already too many sitcoms set in Los Angeles and it wanted to distinguish itself.

3. It was actually more important at the time for the series to distinguish itself because it hadn’t yet developed its misanthropic streak. In the original pilot, they’re not so much terrible people as they are mistaken as terrible people by misunderstandings (over the course of the first season, they eschewed the misunderstandings and owned up to their terribleness). It was also centered around the entertainment industry (they were struggling actors) rather than owners of a bar.

4. The credit sequence is also probably the cheapest ever to produce. It was just Rob McElhenney taping Philly footage with a camcorder and editing it together. The theme song — “Temptation Sensation” by Heinz Kiessling — like much of the first season soundtrack, is music from the public domain.

5. The pilot was not really originally designed to land a show. They were just friends hanging out who decided to put together the pilot for themselves, and to show other people, because they thought it was funny. But once they saw that it was funny, McElhenney began showing it around until FX saw it (and loved it) (several other networks, including HBO, passed).

6. The genesis for the entire sitcom came with an idea that McElhenney had to create this awkward situation where a friend reveals to another that he has cancer, and instead of sympathizing or consoling the guy with cancer, the friend tries to get the hell out as fast as possible (the storyline for the pilot was transformed into the fourth episode of the series,”Charlie has Cancer.”)

7. There were actually two versions of the unaired pilot. The first one was very bad, and in it, the role of Mac was played by David Hornsby (who would later play Cricket).

8. A version of the Sweet Dee role was originally played by Jordan Reid, who was McElhenney’s girlfriend at the time. The two would later break up, and Kaitlin Olson was brought in to replace her. According to Jordan Reid, who is now married to Kendrick Strauch of The Harlem Shakes, she was let go after the break up with McElhenney.

9. The role of Carmen was played by Morena Baccarin (Homeland) in the unaired pilot. She was a college friend of Glenn Howerton’s and appeared as a favor.

10. When Kaitlin Olson auditioned, she read Glenn’s part, and was pissed off to later learn that she wouldn’t get to deliver the lines on camera.

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Japanese schoolchildren singing "Day Man" song from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

Chase Utley responds to Mac's letter

Exclusive sneak peek of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" season 9

FX to launch sister channel, FXX, in the fall

FX is going to try to clone itself.

The News Corp.-owned cable network -- home to such critically acclaimed shows as "Justified" and "Sons of Anarchy" -- is launching a sister channel this fall, dubbed FXX.

To get the channel off to a strong start, FX will move its comedies "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "The League" to FXX, as well as its late-night show "Totally Biased With W. Kamu Bell," which will expand from a weekly to a nightly show.

FXX is scheduled to launch on Sept. 2. FX said it should be available in at least 70 million homes.

By moving two of its established comedies to the new channel, FX is betting that it will have some leverage in negotiations for carriage with cable and satellite distributors and attract attention from Madison Avenue.

FX was mum on how it will be able to launch in so many homes, but News Corp. executives have been telling pay-TV distributors that it is considering converting the Fox Soccer Channel into FXX.

Besides the FX shows that will relocate to FXX, there are plans for two other original comedies in the first year and a total of six for the second year. The channel will aim for adults 18-34. FX executives said it will not strictly be a comedy network.

“We are embarking on an incredibly ambitious ramp-up of program development and production required to sustain these networks," said FX President John Landgraf, who unveiled FXX to advertisers in New York City on Thursday morning.

No executive to oversee FXX was named. Besides Landgraf, the executives expected to play key roles in building FXX are executive vice presidents Nick Grad, Eric Schrier and Chuck Saftler.

FXX is the second major cable initiative News Corp. has announced in the last month. It also is launching a new sports network -- Fox Sports 1 -- in August.

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Nine "It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia" Plots That Actually Happened

The Gang Solves The Gas Crisis

Always Sunny: This is a classic mediocre lbr episode of IASIP in which the characters each acquire a theme based alias: Dennis is the looks, Mac the brains, and Charlie the wildcard. And when this trifecta of awesome comes together, they devise one of their most lame-brained schemes of all time: reselling gasoline door-to-door in the short term while hoarding gas long-term in the basement of Paddy’s Pub and selling it once the price doubles. As you can imagine, everything goes very, very wrong.

Real Life: Likewise, Bridgewater, Massachusetts had a wicked hard controversy when the Department Of Water & Power Commissioner Dana Olson was caught on tape illegally purchasing gas from Amy Nobel. Nobel, like the gang, had stored gallons of gasoline in her home and was reselling it on the cheap. Unlike the gang, her husband stole the gas from his employer, Conoco Phillips in East Boston. If only the Looks, Brains & Wildcard had been there to guide them on their moneymaking quest things could have turned out just as poorly, but way more entertaining.

The Gang Gets Invincible

Always Sunny: When the Philadelphia Eagles hold open tryouts, Mac & Dennis use it as an excuse to settle who is the better football player. Eventually, it becomes clear the answer is neither of them, and the attention is turned to Sweet Dee. Dee uses this opportunity to dress like a man and prove that she can compete in football, eventually kicking a perfect field goal and gaining the attention of the Eagles’ coaches. But when she goes to show off her talents as a woman, her magical abilities disappear and she breaks her foot.

Real Life: 2006 Olympic silver medalist Santhi Soundarajan had her fair share of problems when her femininity, or lack thereof, was called into question by competitors. Unlike Dee, her genetic testing resulted in the conclusion that Santhi “does not possess the sexual characteristics of a woman.” She was then stripped of her medal. People really do cross dress with the hopes of winning at sports; it wasn’t just a silly IASIP gag.

The D.E.N.N.I.S. System

Always Sunny: The D.E.N.N.I.S. System might be the most brilliant episode in IASIP history. Dennis breaks down his evil tactics for seducing and then abandoning a woman in order to make her dependent on him forever.

D - Demonstrate Value
E - Engage Physically
N - Nurture Dependence
N - Neglect Emotionally
I - Inspire Hope
S - Separate Entirely

This, of course ends tragically when Frank, Mac & Charlie all attempt their version of the D.E.N.N.I.S. method on the same girl and it becomes clear to her that she’s been used. The exact method that should have catapulted the gang to dating fame failed, per the usual, leaving them to chase down other lofty dreams.

Real Life: Another man employed his very own “system” for getting girls. You might know this guy as the dude in the stupid hats, but he also goes by Mystery. Yes, I’m talking about the Mystery Method, which holds many common bonds to the D.E.N.N.I.S. System. However, its success rate is apparently very high, even landing Mystery his very own show on VH1. If only the gang had been comprised of highly intelligent nerds instead of moderately good-looking asshats. (HDU, would sleep with each and every one of them)

Sweet Dee Is Dating A Retarded Person

Always Sunny: When Dee starts dating a moderately successful rapper who may or may not be retarded, the whole gang wants to prove that they have what it takes to be a musician. When Charlie is rejected from joining the band, he returns to his apartment and starts huffing paint. After Dennis is kicked out of his own band he returns to Charlie’s apartment so that the two can team up. From this paint huffing and despair is born “Day Man.”

Real Life: Although not an exact match, Charlie most closely resembles the genius that is Alison “the huffer” from A&E’s Intervention. Perhaps she wasn’t huffing paint with the hopes of composing some of the raddest tunes around, but the results of her behavior (an irrational fear of light) are identical to Charlie’s.

Dennis & Dee Go On Welfare

Always Sunny: When looking for ways to jump start their nonexistent careers, Dennis and Dee team up and go on welfare in order to keep afloat while working to become a Broadway star and veterinarian, respectively. However, it’s the lengths they go to in order to make this scheme work that really proves the true nature of their degeneracy. Dennis & Dee decide to start smoking crack to prove to the establishment that they are not over privileged brats.

Real Life: It turns out faking the government isn’t anything new. Like Dennis & Dee, Kim Johnson saw the opportunity of financial shortcut called welfare and had a $40,000 Escalade to prove it. Instead of saying she was addicted to crack like Dennis & Dee, Kim alleged that she was immobile and in need of 24-hour assistance. Too bad that was a lie and she got caught, proving once again, if the cast of IASIP has attempted a scheme with poor results, don’t bother trying it.

Best characters on television right now

Now that nearly all the new shows of the fall TV season have premiered (Once Upon a Time and Grimm both unmagically limped onto the scene last week), let's take a look at who we like the best right now. Television is largely about telling the same story over and over again. The one thing that can save the medium is a great character: part actor's performance and part writer's creation. Stumbling onto a great character is like discovering a particuarly pretty pebble on a rocky beach. From listless New Yorkers to men with half a face, these are our favorite TV characters right now.

The Wounded Soul: Richard Harrow on Boardwalk Empire
While Harrow (fitting name!) first appeared on HBO's oftentimes deceptively shallow crime series as merely an oddity -- half of his face was blown off in the Great War, so he wears a creepy painted half-mask -- he has become, thanks to a few generously written scenes and to Jack Huston's lovely, quiet performance, a more fully realized and sympathetic character this year. The grimly efficient expert marksman has gone from creepily tragic righthand man for a young upstart gangster in the Atlantic City bootlegging scene to something a bit deeper -- he serves as both a reminder of the visceral horror of the 1910s and as a chillingly saturnine omen of all the bad that's still to come. So, of course, nobody on Boardwalk Empire wants to look at him. Better for them to just enjoy the rah-rah roaring '20s in peace. But we here in the future can't look away.

The Villainess: Constance, American Horror Story
Sure FX's new horror series is oftentimes a jangly, garbled mess, but boy oh boy is Jessica Lange's Contance -- the next door neighbor from hell (perhaps quite literally) who torments, with a malevolently chipper smile, the fractured family inhabiting the show's house of horrors -- a whole lotta fun. We're not sure if the scenery is lined with chocolate or what, but Lange sure does seem to enjoy chewing on it. But it's not just Lange's fin-de-Dunaway performance that makes Constance so compelling -- it's that she's really the only character who seems fully instep with the show's lugubrious rhythms. Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton's characters are intentionally drawn as the plain ol' regular folks confronted by crazy psychosexual phantasmagoria, of course, but they could at least be a little outsized in order to better fit in with the show's kitchen sink aesthetic. Basically, they're no fun! Constance, though, with her Ipecac cupcake baking and daughter tormenting ("Go to your closet!"), both lives up to and raises American Horror Story's grand, often laughably over-the-top stakes. It seems as though Ryan Murphy and Co. created one great camp-fabulous character and then built a whole series to showcase her. To that end, the show would be nothing without her.

The Slickster With a Heart of Gold: Eli Gold, The Good Wife
Long one of the secretly best actors of his generation, Alan Cumming finally gets the kind of big, smart, meaty role he deserves. First introduced during the first season of CBS' stylish legal drama as a snappily amoral campaign manager, as Eli has moved into the law firm populated by Julianna Margulies et al. to act as an elite damage control consultant, he has evolved into a far knottier and more morally complex character. Sometimes he is still charmingly conniving and ruthless, but we've also seen him be earnestly passionate about a cause or, on Sunday night for example, reduced to a brokenhearted divorced guy. The Good Wife is often hailed as network TV's most intelligent drama because its writers are able to create full-bodied, wholly compelling characters like Eli. Never does he wander into the ho-hum realm of obvious character sketch; he constantly reveals new and surprising, yet still wisely subtle, facets, ones that Cumming and the writers show off with aplomb. Now writers, an assignment: Give him a real, serious love interest and see how weird things get.

The True Heroes: The zombies, The Walking Dead
Think about all the exciting, interesting scenes on The Walking Dead, AMC's plague of the undead thriller series. Are the zombies in those scenes? Most likely yes. And the duller scenes? No zombies, right? Right. The zombies are really the ones we care about on this show -- their story is the most compelling (what happened to them? What willhappen to them?), their motivations are clear and well-stated, and they enliven (endeaden?) the show every time they're on screen. The zombies are why we watch! Do we root for them? No, not usually. But are we alone in kinda sorta starting to wish these shambling ghouls would just go ahead and eat up the weeping, moralizing mortal folks at the center of this increasingly listless show? Give the best characters their beloved brains, please.

The Real Girl: Rachel Chapman, How to Make It in America
OK, yes this HBO trifle is mostly just an East CoastEntourage, the kind of we-own-this-town boys fantasy that has no room for women characters unless they're disrobing while saying cool, sexy things. But somehow one real, fleshed-out female character has sneaked past the man censors on HTMIIA, and thus we have Rachel, a young woman navigating various aspects of the Manhattan media scene who is a bit lost and unsure of herself yet also still coolly savvy and humbly competent. Though she once functioned primarily as the love interest for the show's male lead, the writers have done well this season in turning Rachel into her own, believable human being -- she's the kind of young woman you may know these days if you live in any major city full of strivers and dreamers. Sure she's portrayed by the gorgeous and willowy Lake Bell, so she is certainly still eye candy, but Bell is also such an assured, naturalistic actress that she manages to fill even Rachel's smallest scenes with a gently whirring pathos and intellect. We know that using that kind of language about a show like this seems silly, but compared to, say, the manic froofing of Zooey Deschanel's character on New Girl, a desexualized childwoman fit for any indie boy's curio collection, Rachel is that rarest of TV creations: A character you might actually know, andlike, out here in the real world.

The Comedy All-Star: Frank Reynolds, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Bouncing back to form after last year's lackluster season, FX's gutter-garbage band of Philly friends are in top form in this year's crop of episodes. And none more so than Danny DeVito's near-feral father figure Frank. Between the wild thicket of flyaway black hair, the bought-at-a-Walgreens glasses, and DeVito's naturally strange and delightful physicality, the mere sight of Frank is funnier than all the past and future episodes of Whitney combined. Frank's doomed romance with a hooker was a highlight of this season, as was simply watching him interact with the group while they played a bizarre and menacing board game on last week's episode. Frank might not get the attention that Charlie Day's addled manchild Charlie does, but he's so consistently weird and filthy and lovably unconcerned about the polite trappings of society that he deserves singling out.

The Loose Cannon: Carrie Mathison, Homeland
Everyone thought that Cassandra was crazy, though of course they were wrong. She wasn't a raving lunatic, but a true foreteller of doom. The interesting thing that Showtime's paranoid spy drama Homeland has done with its own fortune telling young woman, CIA analyst Carrie, is that she may actually be crazy for real. Carrie, who is trying to reveal what she suspects is the secret terrorist sleeper agent status of a returning American war hero, lamely tries to seduce her boss when things don't go her away, she doesn't eat, she stays up til all hours staring wild-eyed at surveillance footage, and, oh yes, she pops anti-psychotics like Altoids. That Carrie, played with vibrating smarts and anxiety by Claire Danes, may be both right and crazy is one of the show's fun and clever conundrums. (That "fun" and "clever" are being used to describe a Showtime show is a small revolution in its own right.) We both root for Carrie's assuredness and are turned off by her brash, erratic, and occasionally reckless behavior. She's actually sorta what you'd imagine a real CIA analyst to be like in these shadowy times, when it's difficult to tell whether we're tilting at giants or windmills -- she's a paranoid, but still smart, mess. Wracked with 9/11-related guilt enough to make her a bit too close to the case, but possessed of enough intelligence and authority to make us believe her, Carrie is "the thinking person's" Jack Bauer.

The Tragic Heroine: Kim Richards, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
Let's try for the time being to forget about the fact that Kim, former child star and current brain-fried Bravo reality TV Housewife, is a real person. That's too depressing. As a TV character, though, Kim's arc these past two seasons has been a fascinating depiction of mental catastrophe. Oscillating unpredictably between (alleged) mysterious substance-fueled cuckoo-birdiness and sober self-help platitudes, Kim -- in her interactions with the other Housewives (especially her constantly undermining, Little Miss Perfect sister Kyle, who is also on the show), with her children, with the maid -- is just so darn deliciously bleak and tragic. She's a modern day Mary Tyrone, wandering around Beverly Hills with a camera crew chasing after her. Again, if we dwell too long, or at all, on the fact that Kim is a real-life lady with real-life problems it all becomes too sad to enjoy, but for those 42 or so minutes every week we can turn off our moral sensors and just enjoy this gravelly voiced generator of grand human drama.

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It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia season 6 bloopers

Real-life couples from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"

FX premieres

Yesterday FX had two great premieres to kick off the fall television season: "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Archer." I was excited for both shows to premiere and their first episodes did not disappoint.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: Frank's Pretty Woman

The Paddy's Pub gang is back and I don't mean just that the show is back on the air; the gang is back to their old despicable, scheming ways that I enjoyed so much in the first few seasons of the show. Let's just be frank: season six was the poorest season of them all. Sure, the finale when Dee gives birth was pretty funny, but overall the show was lacking the hilarity as you saw from yesterday's list of funniest scenes.

Roxy the prostitute - favorite character of the premiere.
Credit: FX

Frank and Charlie's scenes were probably my favorite. The whole boiled denim, cowboy millionaire throwing up blood had me cracking up like the first time I saw "The Nightman Cometh." And Charlie's exclamation, "I think I have been poisoned by my constituents!" goes on the list of his best quotes. Surprisingly, Sweet Dee's scenes were hilarious as well, especially when she's shopping with Frank's prostitute, Roxy: "this is a classy establishment for classy people." I wish they didn't kill her off at the end because I think Roxy could have been a great character, up there with Artemis. I found myself laughing more at her lines than than I did during the scenes with Mac and Dennis.

I don't think I've caught on to the appeal of "Fat Mac" yet but I will give the show a chance to win me over with this change. I thought it was kind of weird that they just introduced this new Mac character with no subplot to back it up. I did think the scene with the doctor and pronouncing diabetes as "die-uh-bet-is" was pretty funny though.

Overall, a pretty solid episode and a great way to start the new season.

Archer: Heart of Archness: Part I

If you haven't been watching "Archer" then get on Netflix immediately and catch up! It's seriously one of my favorite television shows on right now and it never fails to make me laugh. I love every character on the show and their dialogue is hilariously inappropriate. This three-part episode gives audiences an "Archer" fix before the full season begins.

Archer's new look at the beginning of the premiere.
Credit: FX

The premiere starts where the finale ended with Archer missing for three months after the death of his Russian fiancee. Mallory Archer hires a man hunter to track down her son and bring him home.

I wouldn't say this was a strong episode in itself but I did enjoy the dialogue ("Be careful of Hitler, I heard he's a bad egg!") and I think it will lead into funnier parts two and three as Archer becomes the pirate king.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the voice of guest star, David Cross. I just finished watching Arrested Development and I was happy to hear what I pictured as Tobias in cartoon-form.

Unfortunately we'll have to wait till 2012 until the actual third season begins. But that means you have plenty of time to catch up on this amazing show, right?

What are your thoughts on the two premieres? Did you enjoy them? What were your favorite parts?

15 Funniest "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" Scenes

"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" returns tonight on FX! To celebrate the premiere of season 7, here is a video of the 15 funniest scenes from the first six seasons of the show (although season 6 was lacking the hilarity of the other five seasons).

15. Full-on rapist


14. Kitten mittens


13. Wildcard, bitches!


12. Frank's pick up line