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For 20 years the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been offering laughs to FX viewers while taking on some of the world’s most controversial topics.
Kimberly Potts’ new book, It’s (Almost) Always Sunny in Philadelphia: How Three Friends Spent $200 to Create the Longest-Running Live-Action Sitcom in History and Help Build a Network — which was released on Tuesday, July 1 — explores how Rob McElhenney (Mac) took his dream and a video camera to create the successful show. (Charlie Day, who plays Charlie and Glenn Howerton, who plays Dennis, helped too.)
While Potts’ book is full of anecdotes from the cast, and those who were there to witness it all, it’s one story that she’s been sharing during the press tour that’s been making the most waves.
Potts learned during research for the book that Danny DeVito (Frank) “nearly drowned” while filming an episode titled “The Gang Goes to Hell: Part Two,” which aired in 2016 as part of the show’s 11th season.
“They’re swimming, they keep rising to the top. And to shoot that scene, they were underwater,” Potts told the New York Post last month. “At one point, Danny got accidentally kicked, I think, in the shoulder — close to his head. As I’ve been told, he nearly drowned,” she added. “It certainly had everyone afraid he was in trouble.”
Keep scrolling for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia secrets from the new book:
McElhenney Wasn’t Always a Star
Before the show was an FX hit, McElhenney recruited his friends to film a low-budget version of It’s Always Sunny pilot. He stayed behind the camera, offering the role of Mac to David Hornsby.
“McElhenney’s girlfriend at the time, actress Jordan Reid, was playing Sweet Dee, the female foil to the three fellas, and Mac was being played by … not McElhenney,” the book reads. “McElhenney had his hands full with writing, directing, and producing the film, overseeing the whole enterprise, and holding one of the cameras.”
They filmed the episode three times, and when Hornsby wasn’t around, in stepped McElhenney.
Charlie’s Trauma
The season 1 finale titled “Charlie Got Molested,” shows Charlie confronting the possibility that he was a victim of his high school gym teacher, who was accused of molesting students. However, the perpetrator wasn’t always a teacher. FX chairman John Landgraf made one major change before the episode went to air, Potts wrote.
“Initially, the accused molester was a priest,” the book reads. “Landgraf suggested to McElhenney that the character not be a member of the clergy, so they made him a gym teacher instead.”
What Happened to Lil’ Kev
A season 3 episode titled, “Sweet Dee’s Dating a [R-Word] Person,” introduced viewers to the character of Lil’ Kev (Kyle Davis). In the years since the episode aired, Davis told Potts that he’s received tons of DMs from fans sending the meme of him shoving popcorn into his mouth from the episode. But that scene almost didn’t go as planned.
“I actually almost literally choked to death eating the popcorn,” Davis shared. “Because we’re doing all these takes, I just kept saying, ‘S***!’ Like, they just kept running the camera, and saying, ‘OK, let’s do it again. Keep doing it,’ and I was just shoving mouthfuls of popcorn every single time, chewing, trying to swallow, spitting some out, chewing it … then I just got so much stuck in my throat, and I wasn’t drinking. It started getting backed up and basically, I was almost throwing up popcorn. It was crazy, but super funny.”
Let’s Do Lunch
The It’s Always Sunny writers’ room consisted of McElhenney, Day and Howerton until season 3. With a successful show under their belt, the trio hired Scott Marder and Rob Rosell — but they had no idea what a real writers’ room looked like.
“McElhenney and company were unaware that when it comes to the writers’ room, there is such a thing as free lunch,” Potts wrote. The author also spoke to Rosell, who had fond memories of this moment.
“They didn’t get their lunches taken care of, which is, generally you get your lunches brought to you in the writers’ room, because usually, you are working so much,” he said. “I remember Rob [McElhenney] being shocked about that, and calling FX about it, and them saying yes.”
Those NSFW Towels
It’s Always Sunny fans are well versed with the d*** towel — thanks to Mac’s season 5 invention. The towel is exactly what it sounds like and when The Gang started to sell them in real life, there were 20,000 to 30,000 units sold. (They’re still available today.)
McElhenney’s Cameos
The success of the show led to several cameos for McElhenney in other major series. He appeared in Lost as short-lived character Aldo after hearing that the show’s cocreator Damon Lindelof was a fan.
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Game of Thrones showrunners, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, appeared on It’s Always Sunny (and wrote an episode) before having McElhenney die in the show’s season 8 premiere.
McElhenney and real-life wife Kaitlin Olson (who plays Sweet Dee on It’s Always Sunny) were also asked to appear in the Imagine Dragons music video for “Follow You.”
It’s (Almost) Always Sunny in Philadelphia is out now.
English (US) ·