This is the first season of Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia in HD and the second season with the picture format 169. Club. Comedy on Its Alway Sunny In Philadelphia is filtered through so many layers that adding one more for an episode is exponentially more challenging, for the creators and for us viewers. A hangout comedy where the people hanging out are collectively and individually the worst people in the world makes for humor that, from the outside, can seem like an endorsement of the very thing its satirizing. For one thing, the cast and writers of this seriesnow beginning their 1. The Gang, as ever comprised of Sweet Dee, Dennis, Mac, Charlie, and Frank, and played by Kaitlin Olson, Glenn Howerton, Rob Mc. Sunny In Philadelphia Season 4 Episode 10' title='Sunny In Philadelphia Season 4 Episode 10' />Elhenney, Charlie Day, and Danny De. Vito, have a Globetrotters level of mastery of shenanigans, crudity, comic violence, and all around awfulness. Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, Rob Mc. Elhenney, Kaitlin Olson, Danny De. Vito Photo Patrick Mc. ElhenneyFXXBut theres a reason why Sunnys stuck around so long, and at such a high level. Firmly rooted in character, the shows lowbrow antics simultaneously are and are more than the sum of each profanity, egregious personal insult, act of dangerous lunacy, or poorly intentioned scheme. The series, at its best, looks deep into the heart of the worst of us and findsus. And The Gang Turns Black is Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia coming out swinging for the fences, an almost profligate high concept fantasy about race in America, the Gangs variable degrees of racism, and their seemingly boundless capacity for self obsessed self delusion thats as funny as it is ambitious. Oh, and its also a musical. The setup sees the Gang gathered for a movie night viewing of The Wiz alongside the Old Black Man. Watch The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention online. Stream Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 5, episode 4 instantly. Its Always Sunny In Philadelphias wheel of awfulness spins cruelty into comic gold. Show synopsis, cast details, episode list, episode videos, user reviews, quotes, message board, and production information. Watch Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia Online at Streamtv2. Watch The Alphabet Mediafire more. Four young friends with big egos and slightly arrogant attitudes are the proprietors of an Irish bar. A group of narcissistic friends runs a Philadelphia bar where their juvenile behavior brings situations from uncomfortable to hysterically horrible. Watch trailers. FOLLOW alwayssunny The Gang is back when FXXs original comedy series Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia returns for a 12 th season Mac Rob McElhenney, Dennis. Sunny In Philadelphia Season 4 Episode 10' title='Sunny In Philadelphia Season 4 Episode 10' />Thats how they refer to the wizened, mostly silent homeless guy Wil Garret who sleeps in Dees bed every night because she lost a bet to Frank last season. That nicknames a problematic bit of offhand racism once a lightning storm and some malfunctioning electric blankets turn every member of the Gang black. Seeing that their houseguest has disappeared, Dennis says, Go find Old Black Man. I mean Old Man. As everyone suddenly breaks into expository musical style song, Dennis reasonably asks, What are the rules when youve just turned black and you cant switch back. If the fact that the Gang can only see African American versions of themselves played by A. J. Hudson, Farley Jackson, Leslie Miller, and Anthony Hill in mirrors isnt clue enough that season 1. Charlie Days slyly catchy musical numbers seal the case. Although here, freed from the shows reality, the songs are less about plumbing the depths of poor Charlies tortured psyche not a troll rape in sight and more about episode writers Day, Howerton, and Mc. Elhenney examining how the Gangs racial attitudes are a product of their inherent, but slightly different, prejudices. Danny De. Vito, Kaitlin Olson Photo Patrick Mc. ElhenneyFXXAs usual, Charlie is what passes for the Gangs heart its both appropriate and sort of heartbreaking that his reflection is of a little boy, especially considering the shows payoff. As Dennis and Macpre electrocutionairily debate whether black Americans really have it so bad Mac concedes, We did have a black president before the orange one., its Charlie who pipes up with a defense of them having their own version of The Wizard Of Oz, stating, I mean, its very difficult being a black man in America. Dennis, as ever, frames himself as the Gangs moral center, but that just means mansplaining Black Lives Matter I dont know why it took them so long to realize that their lives matterbut, then again, dont all lives matter before pronouncing, Its kind of tough out there right now for everybody. ThenZAP. Sunny has done blackfacebefore, and I think just about as well as such a thing can be done, so I was glad to see they werent just going to the same provocation well here. The alternate Gang only shows up intermittently, in reflections or when we see them through the eyes of other people. After a genuinely hilarious introductory musical number where everyone attempts to suss out whether theyre in a body swap or Quantum Leap situation Frank, not clear on the concept, thinks FaceOff, the gang splits up. On the Quantum Leap team, Dee and Frank set out in search of Old Black Man under the bridge where Frank found him and where he and Charlie hang out, thinking that a good deed will allow them to leap back into their own bodies. Meanwhile, Mac, Dennis, and Charlie, on team body swap, start hunting for clues as to just which black people they need to swap back with, before being immediately arrested for trying to break into Dennis car. Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob Mc. Elhenny Photo Patrick Mc. ElhenneyFXXEach teams quest provides plenty of opportunities for Day, Howerton, and Mc. Elhenney to both raise questions about the state of race relations, and to use each characters blind spots, biases, and, in Franks case, just old fashioned racism Frank is just really excited to use the n word to illuminate the various ways white Americans contort themselves to deny that racism actually exists. When the cops show up just because three guys are desperately clawing their way into Dennis Land Rover, Dennis assurance that We get out of this stuff all the time cuts to the three of them in the back of the squad car. Finding Old Black Man who finally reveals that his name is Carl, they bring him to an old age home Frank reassures Dee hell stop paying once they get their old bodies back, where hes unexpectedly reunited with his long lost wife. Spotting Bakula who initially and ineffectually claims to be researching a role and not working there as an orderly, theyre pissed when he cant get them to quantum leap and storm out, leaving Bakula who did not get a piece of Quantum Leap, as it turns out to wistfully sing about when he used to be a star with a Camaro who hung out with Nash Bridges and The Fall Guy. Bakula has pipes, and the whole thing just works itself up to a state of loopy bliss. Its when the Gangall falling into The Wiz esque choreographymeet back up that the episode pulls off its most audacious, and shocking, twist. Watch Let There Be Light: The Odyssey Of Dark Star Online IMDB here. Singing and dancing their way to an electronics store called The Wiz because Mac thinks that getting Dees shorted out VCR fixed there will fix them as well, the Gang make a heartfelt, impassioned plea to the white owner to help them out. I mean, its as heartfelt as the Gang gets, Macs song ending with the epically tone deaf, If you look look inside our souls sir, youll see that were white men. When the owner calls the cops, Charlie sings his assurance thatthanks to his recent experience talking to child welfare services at the police stationtheyre my friends. And then the policemen mistake the toy train Charlie got earlier for a gun, and shoot him. Rob Mc. Elhenney, Danny De. Vito, Kaitlin Olson, Glenn Howerton Photo Patrick Mc. ElhenneyFXXIts shocking for a lot of reasons. While the episode walked the signature Sunny line of offensive and meta offensive, the sunny if you will musical conceittunefully continuing while Charlie writhes bleeding out on the grounddoesnt prepare us for it. But its the one, brief flash from the cops point of view right before they pull the triggers that really does it. Were used to seeing Charlie and the rest of the Gang take often bloody comic abuse and laughing at both the moral comeuppance and the exquisite execution of the gag. Here, we get just a glimpse of young Charlie AJ Hudson looks about 1. Charlie on the sidewalk, still keeping up the harmony in his screams as the rest of the Gang sing, desperately, Weve learned our lesson and we want to go home. Our white home Just say home People who look to Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia to reinforce their point of view on social issues are doing it wrong. Its Always Sunny In Philadelphias wheel of awfulness spins cruelty into comic gold. Club. For most of the history of television, the barrier to syndicationand to profitabilityhas been 1. The shows that have made it to that mark are an unusual group. Many were big hits. Some found small cult audiences. Still others just hung on as best they could and never posted numbers quite low enough to be canceled. In. 10. 0 Episodes, we examine the shows that made it to that number, considering both how they advanced and reflected the medium and what contributed to their popularity. This entry covers Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which celebrates the 1. August 4, and has run for 1. FX and FXX. While its easy to found a comedy on unremittingly terrible behavior, its hard as hell to sustain one. Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia, the creation of Philly native Rob Mc. Elhenney with creative and producing assistance quickly assumed by Mc. Elhenneys co stars Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day, is a small miracle of television comedy. Without careful tending, cringe comedy curdles into boorish cruelty, and Sunny has shown an astounding ability to steer a course through some of the most scabrous adventures in television history, while remaining not only consistently funny, but paradoxically endearing. Instead, while the series has garnered enough critical praise and ratings victories to remain on the air, its only ever been nominated for two Emmy awardsboth for stunt coordination, neither of which it won. From the title of the very first episode, The Gang Gets Racist, Sunnys agenda was clear enough Like Seinfeld, with its famous no hugging, no learning philosophy, this show was going to drop its four soon five protagonists into awkward situations and watch them react very, very badly. With their relative wealth and bulletproof karma, the main Seinfeld quartetlooks positively cuddly in comparison to the Sunny Gang, however. Operating out of a filthy hellhole of a bar, Dee, Dennis, Charlie, Mac, and Frank are the worst people in the world, a rotating wheel of reprehensible humanity where some are on top, some are on the bottom, but theyre always rolling over the shows Philadelphia, crushing unfortunate outsiders in their tracks. The shows first season saw Sunny emerge into the world already fully formed. If theres any difference in the show now, its that the characters awfulnessto each other and in generalhas a decades worth of backstory to draw upon, lending the invariably terrible things they do context, but never excuse. In that seven episode first season, the gangs dynamic was remarkably pure, and was prodded into its present and permanent shape by the beginning of season two, when TV vet Danny De. Vito joined the cast as Dee and Dennis deadbeat dad, Frank Reynolds. There used to be more conventional cringe comedy in the mix The gang were victims of circumstance, acted upon by people even worse than themselves. Like Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, the gang were also at the mercy of their own weaknesses. The key difference being that David, for all his irascibility, is usually right. If any member of the gang is right about anything, its that other members of the gang are even worse. In her initial review of the show for The New York Times, Alessandra Stanley cited Curb alongside Chappelles Show as examples of contemporary comedies that she felt superior to the freshman Sunny, saying, irreverence toward sensitive issues is not uncommon. Funny is much harder to find. As Sunny quickly found its comedic feet, fewer critics could exclude the show from the ranks of the best, and darkest, comedies on television. Sure, the gang reacted in inappropriate ways to being blackmailed into potential statutory rape by a manipulative 1. Jimmi Simpson and Nate Mooneys hilariously gross Mc. Poyle brothers. The first season saw the show more actively trying to push the audiences buttons, provoking outrage by having the gang engage with issues like abortion, race, and gun control. The debates raised were always red herrings in the end, any social satire defused by how the gang invariably superseded the issues through their own ignorance and self interest. While bold, these episodes, relying as they did on more external factors for their comedy, took away from the character comedy that quickly became Sunnys black heart. But starting in season two, there was never as much competition in the terrible person sweepstakes. Following a low rated first season, Mc. Elhenney, Howerton, and Day were presented with an ultimatum from FX president John Landgraf Add a marketable name to the cast, or be canceled. After mulling several unrevealed names, the guys finally agreed to meet with Danny De. Vito. Already familiar with the show thanks to his kids, the former Taxi star joined Sunny in the season two premiere Charlie Gets Crippled. De. Vitos availability was such that all of his scenes had to be filmed 2. Frank Reynolds. Nonetheless, he cannonballed into Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia with an infusion of chaotic energy, clarifying the conception of the characters and their uniquely destructive relationshipto each other and to Philly. An egregiously crooked and wealthy retired businessman, Frank acted as the gangs capricious bank, freeing the audience from wondering how Paddys Pub could stay open in the face of the gangs managerial negligence. This brought a freedom to the show as well. Franks rutting filth monster antics often exist in their own grubby little subplots, but his emergence catalyzed the gang. Dee and Dennis particular awfulness finds a partial explanation in Frank, the worst father in the world. Strongly hinted to be Franks illegitimate son, Charlie found both a soulmate in squalor and an outlet for the loneliness underlying his insane actions. Mac, beset with his own absent father issues, ceded most of his early right wing tendencies to Frank, whose old school prejudices and crudity were used as foil for the gangs more multifaceted ignorance and self interest. Thus Dennis self regard was built up to such an enormous level that he exploded at the barest hint that his obvious physical and intellectual superiority wasnt being acknowledged. The guys unending stream of abuse only increased with time, but it was overwhelmed by Dees mean spiritedness and crazy eyed fury when crossed. Macs tangle of Roman Catholic self righteousness and macho posturing inevitably collapses in the face of any actual threat to his safety or comfort. And Charlie, by default the most affectingly vulnerable of the gang, harbors such concealed oceans of madness as to be arguably the most dangerous of all. The object of his affectionobsession, a hapless former classmate of the gangs known only as The Waitress played by Days real life spouse Mary Elizabeth Ellis finds herself in continual misery because of Charlies unwanted and terrifying devotion. Frank is Frank. Freed from all responsibility, his retirement consists entirely of grunting, drooling self gratification. With all these pieces in place, Sunny began to explore the nuances of human depravity with dizzyingly deft comic inventiveness, as the gang discovered deeper wells of lunacyand the barest snatches of empathy. The keys to keeping Sunny palatable through all the sordidness is that the gang can never win, and that the show can never allow them to be truly sympathetic. The gang are all underdogs, which should lend them pathos. Yet they all harbor delusions of enormous self worth, which causes them to act superior to each other and the rest of the world, and they lash out in unpredictably destructive ways when those delusions are punctured. If any member of the gang comes out on top in a particular episode, its at the expense of one or more of the others, and their victory only comes about through actions viewers can never truly get behind.