It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Synopsis

Premise

The series follows a group of self-centered, heavy-drinking, narcissistic misfits, referred to as "the gang", who run a dirty, unsuccessful Irish bar called Paddy's Pub in the neighborhood of South Philadelphia. In season one, the gang consists of janitor Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day), bouncer Mac (Rob Mac), and bartender Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton), the three of whom own Paddy's Pub, in addition to Dennis' twin sister Dee Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson), a struggling actress who works as a waitress there.

In the second season, they are joined by Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito), an eccentric multi-millionaire and the neglectful father of the Reynolds twins, who takes over most of the ownership of the bar. He soon becomes the financial catalyst for the gang, funding many of the gang's convoluted schemes and urging them to go further with their brazen depravity.

Each member of the gang exhibits immoral behaviours such as racism, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, antisemitism and Islamophobia. The gang also display deeply anti-social traits such as pathological dishonesty, narcissism, blatant disregard for the law, extreme selfishness, emotional manipulation, disregard for others, vanity and superficiality, physical aggression, excessive drinking and substance abuse. Unregulated emotions, casual cruelty, predatory tendencies, apathy toward suffering, contempt for others, greed and a lack of remorse are evident in the gang's interactions with the world at large, as well as among themselves.

The gang also demonstrates acute codependency, stupidity, enabling behaviors, and a lack of awareness of basic social norms.

The comedy of the show emerges from these extreme character traits resulting in conflicts that lead the gang into absurd, dark, and painfully embarrassing situations, typically ending with them getting their comeuppance, but never learning their lesson. This allows the show to mine a variety of socio-political and economic issues for satire and dark humor while keeping the characters in a state of relative stasis conducive to the long-running sitcom format.

Episodes usually find the gang hatching elaborate schemes and regularly conspiring, against both outsiders and one another, for personal gain, revenge, or simply schadenfreude. They habitually inflict physical and psychological pain on anyone who crosses their path, even each other, yet always return to the status quo at Paddy's Pub because they have alienated the rest of society and have only each other for company in the end.

Themes

Some of the subjects covered for the purpose of satire on the show include masculinity and misogyny, Catholicism, classism and income inequality, racism including blackface, sexual coercion and stalking, child sexual abuse, homophobia, transphobia, US nationalism and substance abuse. The show frequently satirises American domestic and foreign policy stances and debates with its depictions of gun violence, abortion rights, climate change, torture, police brutality, the Israeli occupation of Gaza, the 2008 financial crisis and the post-covid recession. The show also skewers lighter topics such as social norms, using the gang's stupidity as a vehicle to poke fun at conventions.

Class and class conflict is a recurring theme throughout the show as Mac and Charlie Kelly are shown to be from working class backgrounds, while Dennis and Dee Reynolds had an upper-class upbringing, even if they are no longer upper class. Frank Reynolds, who originally came from a working class background, is shown to be a multi-millionaire, potentially even a billionaire, who made his money through fraud and exploitative business practices, including running sweatshops in developing countries, cheating his business partners and setting up shell companies for tax evasion.

IASIP also frequently engages in absurdist and meta humor, pulling from a variety of television, film, theatre and musical references. Some episodes see the gang in different settings, genres or even time periods.

Cast and characters

Main article: List of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia characters

The show features a core cast of five characters and a recurring cast of colorful side characters, including the Waitress, Cricket, the McPoyles, the Ponderosas, the Lawyer and various family members like Mrs. Kelly, Mrs. Mac and Uncle Jack Kelly, who cross paths and interact with the gang in increasingly unhinged ways as the show progresses.

Main

• Charlie Day as Charlie Kelly, co-owner and janitor of Paddy's Pub. Charlie is a childhood friend of Mac, and high school friend of Dennis and Dee. He lives in squalor with Frank, as his roommate and pseudo-father, in a run-down, vermin-infested apartment, where they share a bed. Charlie has deep-seated psychological problems, partly due to frequent substance abuse, and partly due to his complicated family background, possibly involving child abuse. He has an extensive history of pica and regularly eats various items not meant for human consumption, such as cat food, stickers, paint, and crow eggs. Due to his general stupidity, ignorance of social norms and illiteracy, Charlie is generally regarded as the stupidest member of The gang. Despite this, Charlie can innately read Irish Gaelic, is a naturally gifted musician, a self-proclaimed expert in "bird law" and possibly the only competent worker at Paddy's, besides Dennis, with his knack for unorthodox maintenance practices ("Charlie Work"). He also has an unhealthy obsession with "The Waitress", a recurring character who he stalks and harasses.
• Glenn Howerton as Dennis Reynolds, co-owner and the main bartender of Paddy's Pub, in addition to being Dee's twin brother and Frank's son. Seemingly the most intelligent and normal of the three co-owners, Dennis is slowly revealed to be the most narcissistic and sociopathic of the gang. Dennis is extremely insecure, self-centered and vain and overly concerned with the people around him buying into an image of him as intelligent, cultured, attractive and of high status and class. At his most delusional, he refers to himself as a "Golden God" and flies into fits of rage when he fears he is being disrespected. Dennis' vanity is partly fed by his roommate and best friend Mac, who is in love with him, and is hinted to be a result of his mother preferring him to his twin sister Dee. Dennis' predatory nature is often depicted through numerous schemes to seduce women, typically much younger than him. It is strongly hinted at times that Dennis may secretly be a serial killer, though this remains ambiguous as a running gag. In season 10, Dennis is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, though it is not clear if the diagnosis was definitive, according to the actor. In the season 12 finale, Dennis reveals to the rest of the gang that he has an infant son, and moves to North Dakota to raise him. He inexplicably returns to Philadelphia in season 13, seeming to have abandoned his son. In later seasons, Dennis becomes preoccupied with his age and loss of general fitness and attractiveness, something the rest of the gang is aware of and very much use to hurt him.
• Rob Mac as Ronald "Mac" McDonald, co-owner and self-proclaimed “head of security” of Paddy's Pub. Mac is Charlie's childhood friend and Dennis's high school friend. The son of a convicted felon who has been in prison for much of Mac's life, he frequently attempts to demonstrate his toughness and refers to himself as the "sheriff of Paddy's". Deeply insecure about his masculinity and homosexuality, Mac constantly seeks the approval of those around him, especially his absent father, his apathetic mother, and his self-absorbed roommate Dennis. He suffers from extreme bouts of body dysmorphia, and has been depicted at various weights throughout the course of the series. Mac often brags about his hand-to-hand combat skills, but typically flees from physical confrontation and is usually depicted as the most cowardly of the gang. Mac is a Roman Catholic, though he often espouses strong Christian fundamentalist opinions, and his religion is regularly in conflict with his behavior and his homosexuality. It is insinuated for years that Mac is gay and harbors feelings for his best friend Dennis, though he remains in denial, much to the gang's annoyance, until he comes out in season 12.
• Kaitlin Olson as Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds, waitress and sometimes bartender at Paddy's Pub, as well as Dennis's twin sister and Frank's daughter. Though initially depicted as the gang's "voice of reason" in a couple of episodes in the debut season, Dee quickly loses any sense of moral fortitude that she once had, and is shown to be just as prejudiced and depraved as her male colleagues by the end of season 1. Dee is frequently the subject of the gang's casual misogyny, leading to nicknames like "bird" and "bitch", leading to her resenting them and plotting against them and others whom she deems more successful than herself. Like her brother, Dee too is deeply insecure, though unlike him, she was a disappointment to her parents and a social outcast since high school as a result of her back brace; so she craves approval from Dennis and Frank in any way. Though often the butt of the gang's jokes, she nevertheless stays involved with them because of her desperate need for attention. Unlike the men, Dee lives alone and does not hold any ownership stake in the bar – perhaps due to the gang's various prejudices against her — but also in part due to her desire to become a professional actress/comedian (an ambition she consistently fails to achieve because of her debilitating stage fright and her lack of any talent). Dennis and Dee are frequently shown to be two sides of the same coin, with later episodes depicting Dee engaging in predatory behavior towards young men.
• Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds (season 2–present), the legal father of Dennis and Dee Reynolds, and the majority owner of Paddy's Pub soon after his introduction onwards.Frank is a multi-millionaire who often funds and enables the gang's worst schemes and impulses, just to feel a sense of youthfulness and energy. He was once a successful businessman with a long history of illegal operations, including running sweatshops in Vietnam, and dealings with sordid characters, but chooses to abandon that life and redeem himself after leaving his "whore wife", Barbara Reynolds. He has since embraced his "feral" nature and describes himself as "fringe class". Despite his substantial financial resources, he chooses to share a decrepit one-bedroom apartment with Charlie, where they sleep together on a pullout couch and have a surprisingly affectionate pseudo-father/son relationship. The two have similar interests, such as playing Night Crawlers, collecting trash, boiling denim, eating garbage and foraging naked in the sewers for coins. Frank always arms himself with at least one loaded handgun usually a snub nose revolver and does not hesitate to brandish or even discharge one when provoked, and often snorts cocaine as part of his daily routine. Whenever the gang gets in trouble, Frank is happy to embrace his status as a multi-millionaire and bail them out of trouble, ensuring they never need to go to prison.

Production

Conception

Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob Mac first met each other while auditioning for Tuck Everlasting and other projects in New York City and, later, in Los Angeles—they were going up for similar parts, moved to Los Angeles around the same time and even had the same manager, Nick Frenkel. Day and Howerton, notably, got to know each other on a car ride back from testing for That '80s Show in late 2001, when Howerton was cast as Corey Howard, although Day did not get the part of his best friend.

While living in New York, Day had been making comedic home movies with his friends from the Williamstown Theatre Festival—Jimmi Simpson, Nate Mooney, David Hornsby and Logan Marshall-Green, (many of whom would later go on to be involved with Sunny)—which inspired Mac and Howerton to want to make short films of their own with him. Mac, in particular, had been writing screenplays between jobs and since none of them were picked up, decided to shoot them himself with Howerton, Day and other actor friends. The decision to make their own short films was further influenced by the release of the affordable Panasonic DVX100A digital camera as well as the accessible, low-budget look of The Office (UK) and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia grew out of an idea for a short film conceived late one night by Mac"where a friend came over to another friend's house to get sugar, and the friend tells him he has cancer, and all the guy can think about is getting his sugar and getting out of there". He wrote the scene down before taking it to Howerton the next day to flesh it out and work on making it comedic. Day was soon roped in and the first script was written, featuring three struggling actors in LA named Charlie, Glenn, and Mac, and the ensuing awkwardness around Charlie's cancer diagnosis. The home movies were shot and reshot multiple times, initially with Hornsby playing the Mac character and Rob Mac behind the camera as director. It was via this process that Mac, Day, and Howerton learned the basics of shooting, editing, and other aspects of filmmaking. The three then developed a second "episode" of their home movie series, this time focused on the humor from Mac's sense of shame around his relationship with Carmen, a transgender woman. At this point, it became clear that the home movies had potential as a television series, instead of the short films they were originally envisioned as. Both parts would eventually end up in the episode "Charlie Has Cancer".

The home movie was titled It's Always Sunny on TV after the a-ha song "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.". Howerton had been listening to the album Hunting High and Low (1985) while stretching at a Crunch gym in West Hollywood. This was then developed into a pilot called It's Always Sunny on TV and was shot on a digital camcorder and filmed in the actors' own apartments. They expanded the central cast to four people living in Los Angeles, "a group of best friends who care so little for each other", Howerton said.

It was often claimed that the pilot was shot with a budget of just $200, but Day would later comment, "We shot it for nothing... I don't know where this $200 came from... We were a bunch of kids with cameras running around shooting each other and [the] next thing you know, we're eleven years in and we're still doing the show." This pilot was shopped by the actors around various studios, their pitch being simply showing the DVD of the pilot to executives.

Development

After viewing the pilot, FX Network ordered the first season. The show was budgeted at $450,000 an episode, less than a third of a network standard, using Panasonic's DVX100 MiniDV prosumer video camera. The original concept had "the gang" being out-of-work actors with the theme song being a cha-cha version of "Hooray for Hollywood"; however there were too many shows at the time with a similar premise. "The network came to us and said, 'We don't want a show about actors,' and we said, 'Fine, let's put it somewhere else, Mac explained. "I'm from Philly, let's put it in Philly, and we'll make it about a bar, because that's a job where you can have lots of free time and still have income that could explain how these people can sustain themselves." The title was later changed to reflect that, in the unaired pilot, the gang had been rewritten as bar owners in Philadelphia, instead of actors in LA. Prior to Kaitlin Olson joining the show, the character Sweet Dee was going to be played by Jordan Reid, who at the time was the girlfriend of Mac. The part was recast after they broke up.

After the first season, FX executives were worried about the show's low ratings and demanded that changes be made to the cast. "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, Mac recalled. 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. FX began suggesting actors such as Danny DeVito that could boost the show's profile. "It's not that we were reticent to the idea of adding Danny to the show," Howerton recalled, "It's that we were reticent to add a name to the show. You know, because we kinda liked that we were no-names and it was this weird, small thing, you know." Initially, Mac refused, saying "No, I just don't think we wanna do that, and they were like, 'Oh OK, well, you know... the show's over. Realizing they needed to change the trajectory of the show to please the network, Mac, Howerton, and Day became open to adding a new cast member who was familiar to the public. However, Mac, Howerton, and Day were hesitant at first since they thought they would "ruin the show", but during an interview, Day commented on how they got lucky with DeVito in the end: "We didn’t know what Danny would be like as a person. It turned out he was as great an actor as he was a person. As I said, we got lucky with Danny." DeVito joined the cast in the first episode of the second season, playing the father of Dennis and Dee.

Locations

The show is filmed in both Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Although many interior scenes are shot in California, numerous Philadelphia landmarks are featured, including Boathouse Row, Rittenhouse Square, Penn's Landing, and Italian Market.

The exterior of Paddy's Pub is the Starkman Building at 544 Mateo Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Half of Season 15 takes place in Ireland. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the principal cast did not travel there. Instead, B-roll was filmed in Ireland by a second unit, while northern California locations were digitally altered to resemble Irish landscapes.

Later seasons

On April 1, 2016, the series was renewed for a thirteenth and fourteenth season, which matched The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet with the most seasons for a live-action sitcom in American television history.

In January 2023, Mac confirmed that filming for the sixteenth season had begun. In May 2024, DeVito stated that the eight-episode seventeenth season would begin filming in September 2024, with filming wrapping in December 2024. Season 17 premiered simultaneously on both FX and FXX on July 9, 2025, with episodes also available for streaming the next day on Hulu.

Episodes

Main article: List of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes

Broadcast and syndication

The first season ran for seven episodes with the finale airing September 15, 2005. According to Mac, word of mouth on the show was good enough for FX to renew it for a second season, which ran from June 29 to August 17, 2006. Reruns of edited first-season episodes began airing on FX's then-parent network, Fox, in June 2006, for a planned three-episode run—"The Gang Finds a Dead Guy," "Gun Fever" (which was renamed "Gun Control") and "Charlie Gets Molested" were shown. The show was not aired on broadcast television again until 2011, when FX began offering it for syndication.

The third season ran from September 13 to November 15, 2007. On March 5, 2008, FX renewed It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia for a fourth season. On July 15, 2008, it was reported that FX had ordered 39 additional episodes of the series, produced as seasons five through seven of the show. All five main cast members were secured for the entire scheduled run. The fifth season ran from September 17 to December 10, 2009. On May 31, 2010, Comedy Central began airing reruns. WGN America also began broadcasting the show as part of its fall 2011 schedule.

The sixth season ran from September 16 to December 9, 2010, comprising 12 episodes, plus the Christmas special. The seventh season ran from September 15 to December 15, 2011, comprising 13 episodes. On August 6, 2011, FX announced it had picked up the show for an additional two seasons (the eighth and ninth) running through 2013. On March 28, 2013, FX renewed the show for a tenth season, and announced that it would move to FX's new sister network, FXX.

In April 2017, Kaitlin Olson announced that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia would go on an extended hiatus. In an interview with TV Guide, she said, "We ended up pushing our next season a year because we were all busy with separate projects this year. So at the end of this coming shooting season of The Mick, I'll step right into Sunny after that." On October 2, 2017, the show premiered on Vice on TV.

The series is available for streaming on Hulu except for the episodes "America's Next Top Paddy's Billboard Model Contest", "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth", "The Gang Recycles Their Trash", "The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 6", and "Dee Day", which were removed because they contain scenes involving blackface. The same five episodes are missing from Netflix in the UK, Disney+ in Australia, Canada, Scandinavia, and Spain, and Latin America.

In December 2025, Disney announced that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was among the television series to surpass one billion hours streamed on Disney+ in 2025.

Music

The show uses recurring orchestral production music selections. "We had a music supervisor called Ray Espinola and we said, 'Give us everything you have in a sort of Leave It to Beaver with a big band-swing kind of feel,' and the majority of the songs are from what he sent over," Charlie Day explained. "When you set it against what these characters were doing—which often times can be perceived as quite despicable, or wrong—it really disarmed the audience. It just became our go-to library of songs."

The theme song is called "Temptation Sensation" by German composer Heinz Kiessling. Kiessling's work ("On Your Bike" and "Blue Blood") can also be heard during various scene transitions throughout the show, along with other composers and pieces such as Werner Tautz ("Off Broadway"), Joe Brook ("Moonbeam Kiss"), and Karl Grell ("Honey Bunch"). Many of the tracks heard in the series are from Cafe Romantique, an album of easy listening production music collected by Extreme Music, the production music library unit of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Independent record label Fervor Records has also contributed music to the show. Songs from The Jack Gray Orchestra's album Easy Listening Symph-O-Nette ("Take A Letter Miss Jones," "Golly Gee Whiz," and "Not a Care in the World") and the John Costello III release Giants of Jazz ("Birdcage," "Cotton Club" and "Quintessential") are heard in several episodes. The soundtrack, featuring most of the music heard on the show, was released in 2010.

Soundtrack track listing

Reception and legacy

Critical response

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has received critical acclaim for its humor and the cast's performances. On review aggregator website Metacritic, the show has an average score of 72 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable" reviews from critics. The following seasons are scored out of 100: season 1 (64), season 2 (70), season 4 (69), season 5 (78), season 6 (84), season 9 (86), season 16 (82), and season 17 (80).

In 2005, Brian Lowry of Variety called it "invariably clever and occasionally a laugh‑out‑loud riot". Early criticism included Gillian Flynn of Entertainment Weekly, who described Season 1 as "smug... not smart enough to know it isn't".

The series has earned a cult following and is often likened to Seinfeld—albeit darker. In 2008, Jonathan Storm of The Philadelphia Inquirer described it as "like Seinfeld on crack"—a phrase later used as an FX tagline. Louisa Mellor of Den of Geek praised the show in 2012, urging readers to watch the show. In 2013, Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker called it "one of the most arresting and ambitious current TV series, period". Nussbaum further described the show as follows: "—it looks stupid but is in fact smart. It seems cruel but is secretly compassionate. Mostly, it is very, very funny. Laugh-out-loud funny. At its finest moments, cackling-in-the-basement-while-huffing-glue funny."

Recent seasons have continued to receive positive critical reception. In 2023, Ross Bonaime of Collider wrote of season 16 that the show "remains one of the funniest, strangest, and most unpredictable shows, even after eighteen years, and it's this type of longevity and brilliance that will make it go down as one of the all-time great sitcoms". In 2025, Consequence awarded season 17 a "B+," describing it as "homage-heavy while remaining its true crass self". CBR referred to season 17 as "one of the darkest seasons yet," citing its standout narrative twist.

Rankings and accolades

• Ranked #7 on Entertainment Weekly‍'s "26 Best Cult TV Shows Ever" (2014).
• A New York Times interactive map (2016) found the show to be "more popular in college towns (and most popular in Philadelphia)".
• In 2015, Rolling Stone named the two-part episode "Mac and Charlie Die" the series’ best.
• The BBC called it "the best US sitcom" in 2019.
• IGNs Matt Fowler ranked it #63 on IGN's list of the Top 100 TV Shows of All Time.

Awards

Other media

''The Nightman Cometh'' live

In September 2009, the cast took their show live. The "Gang" performed the musical The Nightman Cometh in New York City, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Mary Elizabeth Ellis and Artemis Pebdani also appeared in the performance as The Waitress and Artemis. Actress Rhea Perlman (wife of Danny DeVito) assumed the role of Gladys. Creator Rob Mac said that Live Nation originally approached the cast about doing the show at 30 cities, but in the end the cast settled on six. Co-developer Glenn Howerton described the show as "essentially an expanded version of the actual episode of "The Nightman Cometh," which was the final episode for season four. There are some added moments, added scenes, added songs, and extended versions of songs that already existed." The performance featured two new songs, and the actors were given more opportunity to improvise thanks to the longer running time. An episode from season five was also previewed before the show. The Los Angeles performance, filmed at The Troubadour, was included as a bonus feature on the season four DVD box set.

Russian adaptation

A Russian adaptation of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia premiered in Russia on the television channel TNT on May 12, 2014. This version is titled В Москве всегда солнечно (V Moskve vsegda solnechno, It's Always Sunny in Moscow) and like the original, centers around four friends, who own a bar called "Philadelphia" in Moscow.

Books

A book based upon It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was released on January 6, 2015, titled The Gang Writes a Self-Help Book: The 7 Secrets of Awakening the Highly Effective Four-Hour Giant, Today. In 2023, Laurel Randolph collaborated with Disney to release a cookbook inspired by the show's grotesque food, titled Paddy's Pub: The Worst Bar In Philadelphia: An It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Cookbook. The cookbook was released on September 26, 2023, and features more than 45 recipes ranging from Charlie's Kelly's favorite dish, milk steak boiled over hard with jelly beans on the side to Frank Reynolds's famous rum ham.

''The Always Sunny Podcast''

In November 2021, Howerton, Day, and Mac started The Always Sunny Podcast, an episode-by-episode rewatch podcast, with Megan Ganz as producer. Occasional guest stars include Kaitlin Olson, David Hornsby, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Michael Naughton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Cormac Bluestone, and Danny DeVito. The first live podcast event was performed at the Louisville festival, Bourbon & Beyond, in September 2022. The podcast then went on tour in 2023, including live shows in New York City, Philadelphia, London, and Dublin to crowds as large as 9,000 viewers.

The podcast was put on indefinite hold in July 2023, and Howerton confirmed its end in July 2024, stating that the actors' busy schedules had made filming podcast episodes impractical.

''Abbott Elementary'' crossover

Main article: Abbott Elementary and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover{{!}}''Abbott Elementary'' and ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' crossover

In October 2024, it was announced that a two-episode crossover event with Abbott Elementary would begin as the ninth episode of the fourth season of Abbott Elementary, and conclude in the seventeenth season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The Abbott episode, "Volunteers", aired on January 8, 2025.

Notes

References

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49. "(SP-0635) "The Gang Finds a Dead Guy" (Repeat)".
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