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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia“What’s up bitches?”

A look at the greatest comedy series you have never heard

of...

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addy’s Pub, Philadelphia P.A, a gang of

five social misfits waste away their days

by getting into various situations for

our amusement. This is the basic premise of

American show It’s Always Sunny in

Philadelphia. It’s also a simple premise that

has provided the world with one of the fun-

niest TV shows in recent memory.

The tragedy for us in the UK, is that no

channel has had the guts to give the show a

series of showings. Digital channel Virgin 1

showed a few episodes late at night, but then

suddenly axed the show. While the shows

themes (abortion, racism, kidnapping) maybe a bit too dark for our screens, surely the

likes of More4 could find a nice little slot to

fit Philly in.

So why is the show so good? Firstly, each

main or recurring character in ‘It’s Always

Sunny…’ is, quite simply, brilliant. The gang

consists of five members. Dennis, one of the

owners of Paddy’s Pub, is one of the vainest

characters to ever grace television. Happi-

ness is his life is determined by what others

think of his looks and body, with him de-

grading others in order to make himself feel

better “My nose was chiselled by the gods

themselves, Frank. My body was sculpted to

the proportions of Michelangelo's David.

You, on the other

hand, well; you're a pit of despair. Frank,

you disgust me. You disgust everyone”.

Next up is Dennis’ sister, Deandra, or as the

gang calls her, Sweet Dee. Dee is a failed ac-

tress, who is constantly dreaming of a life be-

yond the walls of the pub, where she is the

main (and only) barmaid. She sees herself as

above the other gang members, but is often

brought back down to earth with a bump,

with the realisation that actually, she isn’t.

Mac, is the muscle of the gang, or so he tells

them nearly every episode. He is co-ownersof Paddy’s Pub, and if often coming up with

plans or schemes to drive up the business of

the pub, none of them so far successful. He

portrays a ‘bad ass’ image, but when push

comes to shove, often his confidence back-

fires and he is forced to back down from a

situation.

Charlie is the third co-owner of Paddy’s Pub,

and a childhood friend of Mac. Charlie

struggles often with reading and writing,

drinks too much alcohol, sniffs glue, and

often has mini nervous breakdowns causing

him to have an angry outburst.

The final gang member was introduced to

the show in Season 2. Frank Reynolds is the

legal father to Dennis and Dee, and possibly

the biological father to Charlie, who he lives

with in the show. Frank, portrayed by the

excellent Danny De Vito, often exploits the

gang for his own needs.

Danny De Vito joined the show after his

children began watching it. The show

needed a big name to take it to the next

level, and De Vito was the person to do it.

Each episode of It’s Always Sunny in

Philadelphia begins with a pre title sequence.

This sequence introduces us to the story of

the episode, and often features some of thefunniest moments of the show. Episodes are

also accompanied by a title, which sum up

that episodes story in one sentence, some

favourite episode titles are ‘The Gang Gets

Racist’, ‘Charlie Got Molested’, ‘The Gang

Finds a Dumpster Baby’ and ‘Dennis Looks

like a registered sex offender’. In truth, every

episode title could have been listed, they are

that good.

It’s Always Sunny in Philly uses a similar

style of comedy to other American TV

show’s such as Curb Your Enthusiasm in the

way that an episodes situation and story it

set up. The majority of the gangs mishaps

Frank, Charlie and SweetDee share breakfast in

the pub

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come, like Curb Your Enthusiasm, from theinability to interact with the social world

around them. Whether it be through saying

the wrong thing, accidental kidnapping or

through hunting a man on the streets. The

major difference between ‘It’s Always

Sunny...’ and shows like Curb, however, is

that the subject matter is much darker. The

line ‘Seinfeild on crack’ follows the show

around for good reason.

The show is written by its stars, a reason pos-

sibly as to why the characters have been

such a success. All of a characters manner-

isms and lines come from the minds of theactors, therefore they know the characters

better than anyone else could.

The series was developed and created by

Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glen

Howerton, who play Mac, Charlie and Den-

nis respectively. It was McElhenney how-

ever who came up with the original idea for

the show. Picking up bit parts and small roles

in various TV shows, such as Law & Order,

he was struggling to make a name for him-

self. In 2004, he decided the only work to

guarantee work was to write his own mate-

rial. McElhenney’s manager and agent went

to the American television network FX, pre-senting McElhenney’s idea and pilot, star-

ring Howerton and Day, for a new sitcom.FX took the idea, and It’s Always Sunny in

Philadelphia was born.

6 years later, and the show is currently airing

its sixth season, with FX commissioning a

seventh to broadcast in 2011.

It’s Always Sunny... has also been moved to

the stage, with the actors and cast perform-

ing a few small performances of the ‘Night-

man’ episode for a live audience. The

episode involved the gang performing a play

written by Charlie, following the story of the

Daymans’ fight against evil. Of course, the

real reason for the play is the fact Charlie istrying to impress the waitress.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one the

best comedies in the past ten years, and is

another example of America now surpassing

Britain in comedy writing. It is rare in British

television to find the subjects dealt with in

Sunny transformed into comedy material,

and it is even rarer for a mainstream channel

to pick up.

Due to the success of the show, the writers

have been hired to write a new series for FX.

As the show goes from strength to strength,

it is only a matter of time before a UK

broadcaster notices the brilliance that is ‘It’sAlways Sunny in Philadelphia’.

Top 5

‘Sweet Dee is dating aretarded person’This episodes see’s the birth of Dayman.

Charlie, Frank, Dennis and Mac start up a

band, leading to disagreements over the

type of music they should be playing, lead-

ing Charlie and Dennis to start up the

Electric Dream Machine. Meanwhile,

Sweet Dee questions whether her new rap-

per boyfriend is actually, retarded.

"Mac & Charlie Die (Parts1&2)"Mac’s father is released from prison and

looking for revenge after Mac and Charlie

refused to smuggle drugs into prison. Fear-

ing for their lives, they take Sweet Dees’

car and fake their own deaths. Frank and

Dennis find a glory hole in the toilets of

the pub, and seek to use it to their own

advantage.

"The Gang Dances TheirAsses Off"Charlie causes big problems when he puts

the pub up as first prize in a local radio

dance competition. This forces the gangto take part in the competition, where the

last dancer standing wins. However, the

other competitors are made up of charac-

ters they have made enemies of so far this

series.

"Charlie Wants an Abortion"Only the second episode ever of Sunny,

but one of the best. Mac signs up to an

abortion protest rally in an attempt to

impress a girl he has met. Of course,

this doesn’t go as planned, but it does

give Mac the opportunity to raise thequestion, what if Jesus was aborted?

Charlie is also told that he the father of a

child, leading to him trying to get to

know his new son, who is now a

teenager.

"Charlie Gets Crippled”Charlie Gets Crippled see’s the introduc-

tion of Frank into the series. After being

run over, Charlie is stuck in a wheelchair.

Noticing that is attracts the attention of

women, Charlie and Frank hit the strip

bars.

Charlie writes Dayman,with the help of glue

Dennis and Mac intheir party mansion

TELEVISION

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