s it’s alway sunny in ia philadelph
2
the show
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American television sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. New episodes continue to air on FX, with reruns playing on Comedy Central, general broadcast syndication, and WGN America—the first cable-to-cable syndication deal for a sitcom. The show was created, developed, and produced by Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day, all of whom star in the show. The series follows the exploits of “The Gang,” a group of self-centered friends who run Paddy’s Pub, a relatively unsuccessful Irish bar in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The series follows “The Gang”, a group of five depraved underachievers: twins Dennis Reynolds and Deandra “Sweet Dee” Reynolds; their friends Charlie Kelly and Ronald “Mac” McDonald; and Frank Reynolds, Dennis and Sweet Dee’s father (although not biologically, it is revealed). They run the dilapidated Paddy’s Pub, a bar in South Philadelphia. They are often dishonest, egotistical, selfish, greedy, unethical, lazy, manipulative, deceitful, hypocritical, self-centered, vain, disloyal, unremorseful, overly competitive, immature, vengeful, and arrogant. Episodes usually find them hatching elaborate schemes, conspiring against one another and others for personal gain, vengeance, or simply for the entertainment of watching one another’s downfall. They inflict physical and psychological pain. They regularly use blackmail to manipulate one another and others outside of the group. Their unity is not solid; any of them would quickly dump the others for quick profit or personal gain regardless of the consequences. Almost everything they do results in competition among themselves and a considerable amount of the show’s dialogue revolves around the characters arguing or yelling over one another. Despite their lack of worldly success, the Gang generally maintain high opinions of themselves and display an often obsessive interest in their own reputations and public images. Despite this high sense of self worth, the Gang often have little sense of shame when attempting to get what they want and will often engage in activities which others would find humiliating, disgusting, or even preposterous, such as smoking crack cocaine in order to qualify for welfare, seducing a priest, or hiding naked inside a leather couch in order to spy on someone. Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia carries a TV-MA rating due to strong language, sexual content, occasional racial epithets, and drug references.
3
season rundown
SEASON ONE starts with the gang inadvertently turning Paddy’s Pub into a gay bar after one of Sweet Dee’s acting class members invites his gay friends over to drink while Mac and Charlie try to prove to Charlie’s crush that they are not prejudiced against African Americans. Then Charlie becomes a father when an old flame reveals that the son she has is his, and Charlie gets a paternity test at a free clinic that states otherwise while Mac and Dennis frequent pro- and anti-abortion rallies to pick up women. The gang then turns their bar into a safe haven for underage drinkers, and find themselves regressing to their high school ways when they get invited to the prom. Charlie has a cancer scare and the gang looks for a woman to sleep with him before he dies. The gang then gets gun-crazy when their bar has been robbed and Dee dates a man who may be the culprit. Following that, the gang finds a dead man in one of their booths and Dee and Dennis visit their ailing (and very racist) grandfather at a nursing home. Finally, Charlie is suspected of being a victim of child molestation when a former gym teacher is accused of sexually molesting his students, and Mac is livid that he wasn’t one of the victims. SEASON TWO introduces Dennis and Dee’s father Frank, who moves in with a wheelchair-bound Charlie following a car accident and blackmails his way into the group (after the gang accidentally blows up an Israeli man’s new bar), and Dee and Dennis’s promiscuous, coldhearted mother, Barbara. Meanwhile, Mac has sex with Barbara and spins a web of lies and deception in order to throw off his tracks. The gang ups their efforts on the scheming front: the gang tries to fight back against a property anomaly that leaves their bar in the path of an Israeli immigrant’s new place, Dennis and Dee quit their jobs and hatch a plot to get on welfare so they can live out their dream careers, and Frank, along with Charlie and Mac, exploit the religious when they discover a water stain in the back room that resembles The Virgin Mary. Charlie and Dee fight against cigarette smoking, with hilarious results, while Frank, Mac, and Charlie fight back against their freedoms being encroached by making their bar an “anything goes” establishment that first attracts drunk college girls willing to flash their breasts for beads, but goes pearshape when heroin addicts, Vietnamese gamblers, and the incestuous McPoyle siblings get in on the action. At the end of the season, Frank and Dee find a man on MySpace who claims (and turns out) to be their biological father, while Mac reunites with his convict dad, and Charlie is still trying to find the identity of his missing father.
4
SEASON THREE sees The Gang’s narcissism spins out of control, as usual. First they decide to do good: Sweet Dee and Mac adopt a baby that was abandoned in a Dumpster, Dennis volunteers with environmental rights activists, and everyone in the gang become vigilantes to solve Philadelphia’s homeless problem. The gang then hatches several schemes to become famous: Mac, Frank, and Charlie try to be viral video stars by covering the local news while Dennis and Dee seek fame as spoiled, drug-addled club hoppers. Sweet Dee dates a local rapper mistakeningly thought to be mentally handicapped by Mac and Dennis, the two of whom start a band, but can’t quite pinpoint their genre of music, especially when Charlie comes up with a raunchy, disjointed song about a mysterious creature who violates him in his sleep. The Gang’s jealousy and greed come roaring back when they fight over Barbara’s inheritance, after she wills the house to Dennis. Dee gets jealous of her high school friend (who lost weight and has a successful career in fashion design) and decides to start her very own sweatshop. The entire gang struggles to compete with a local bar owned by a Korean woman who looks like Kim Jong-Il, and then decide to sell out by offering Paddy’s Pub to a coporate chain. Two members of the gang find themselves on the wrong side of the law due to mistaken identity: Mac is suspected to be a serial killer after becoming distant from the gang and Dennis is mistaken for a registered sex offender who targets children after a real sex offender (who looks like a fatter version of Dennis) is released from prison due to overcrowding. Meanwhile, the gang inadvertently sells some cocaine found in a pair of abandoned stereo speakers, forcing them to turn to crime and prostitution to earn the money back before some local Mafia members whack them. Finally, the gang is forced to save themselves from Charlie’s mistakes. First, the McPoyles get revenge on the gang for revealing their false molestation charge and inadvertently shooting their brother Doyle after he was invited to the Eagles’ training camp by taking all of them hostage in their own bar. Finally, Charlie’s illiteracy screws over the gang when he accidentally puts the bar up as a prize for a dance marathon, and all the enemies made throughout the course of the series enter the contest so they can take the bar away from the gang. The gang won’t let the bar go without a fight, but not before using dirty tricks on each other. SEASON FOUR sees The Gang get even crazier when Sweet Dee and Charlie become cannibals while Mac and Dennis decide to hunt humans for sport. Later, the gang hatches a plot to counter soaring 5
6
prices at the pump by stealing and reselling gasoline, then try living the healthy life, by scamming their way to free medical insurance, but not before trying to prove that Paddy’s Pub is historically relevant, and kidnapping a newspaper critic who panned their bar. Dee and Frank set out to stop Bruce Mathis (Dee and Dennis’s biological father) from donating Barbara’s inheritance to a community center for Muslims while Charlie and Mac fake their deaths to escape Charlie’s convict father, Luther, who vowed in “Dennis Looks Like A Registered Sex Offender” to get revenge on the two of them for screwing up his plan to make amends with the people he terrorized before he was sent away to prison for the first time. This season also sees Frank holding a contest to find a new billboard model for the bar and the gang trying to bring good karma to a Hispanic family by rebuilding their hovel. Dennis’ erotic memoirs land him in a mental hospital with comedian Sinbad and Matchbox 20 lead singer, Rob Thomas. Dee and Artemis live it up like the girls on Sex and the City, while Frank and the rest of the gang solve a scatological mystery. Charlie continues to stalk The Waitress, especially in light of news that someone else is having sex with her; then Charlie reworks his “Night Man” song into a sprawling musical to win over The Waitress. SEASON FIVE sees the gang tackling the global recession in their own selfish, clueless ways, by exploiting the mortgage crisis and taking advantage of the nouveau pauvre homeless people living outside the bar to growing the bar’s brand by selling merchandise. The gang also follow up on last season’s musical episode by putting on a wrestling show for American troops stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq, with Frank also dresses up as a trash man for his wrestling-forthe-troops persona. In their dating lives, The Waitress announces her upcoming wedding, which sends Dee into a panic while Mac and Dennis introduce Charlie to online dating to get his mind off the fact that his days of stalking The Waitress are over once she says, “I do.” Dennis introduces the gang to his manipulative guide to scoring with women, while Dee has an online relationship with a soldier who turns out to be wheelchairbound. This season also sees Frank becoming more self-destructive and worried over his mortality: becomes a slobbering drunk, attempts to hang himself after losing all his money, has sex with Artemis (the actress from Sweet Dee’s acting class), and tries to sleep with the same women as Dennis, after Mac has had his shot at them. The 7
gang then decide to take a trip to The Grand Canyon as part of an item on Frank’s bucket list, but the trip ends before it can begin after several unfortunate events. The gang then gets their taste of Hollywood stardom when M. Night Shymalan films his latest movie in Philadelphia, wreak havoc at The World Series, and reignite a rivalry started ten years ago at a popular drinking contest. SEASON SIX sees Mac fights against gay marriage after Carmen announces that she’s getting married to someone other than Mac. Meanwhile, Dennis marries an old friend, then quickly divorces her and gets stuck with paying alimony, and Charlie and Frank decide to exploit gay marriage by getting married themselves for benefits, only to find it a waste of time. Later, the gang decides to buy a boat with the money made from their merchandise on “Paddy’s Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens,” but, as usual, everything goes wrong. When a heatwave hits Philadelphia, Mac and Charlie restore an abandoned pool while Frank wreaks havoc at a public pool, and Dee and Dennis are accused of being “white trash” while trying to get a membership at a country club pool. This season also sees Dee becoming pregnant and every male panicking over who could be the possible father (with the surprise revealed at the end of the season), Charlie finally getting the respect he deserves during a scheme to throw a surprise party for him, and the gang getting lost in the woods. The gang also puts a cynical spin on Christmas when its discovered that all of their treasured memories of the holidays were masking the debauched events that happened around that time as well. SEASON SEVEN sees Frank fall in love with a prostitute named Roxy which sets the rest of the gang off to try and transform her into a presentable woman. Meanwhile, Dennis attempts to help Mac get healthy after gaining nearly fifty pounds. The gang decides to take a roadtrip to the Jersey Shore so Dennis and Dee and relive their favorite childhood memories. The vacation turns nightmarish for the siblings, while Frank, Mac, and Charlie have magical experiences. Frank accidentally finds himself in charge of a child beauty pageant and tries to squash all suspicions that he is a pedophile while the rest of the gang pick contestants to mentor. When Dee comes into money from her surrogate pregnancy, she is forced to fake a baby funeral to avoid paying taxes the IRS. The boys in the gang attempt to start a more democratic way of running 8
Paddy’s Pub, which ultimately resorts to more shouting. Frank’s long lost brother showed up at Paddy’s, revealing secrets about Frank’s former life as a club owner, drug addict, and his former lover. The gang runs into trouble when they tried to prepare for a giant storm, and Dennis meets a woman he can’t seduce. On a slow news day the gang played a board game they invented (ripped off from other games) called “Chardee McDennis!”. The gang tries to track down an annoying shusher on Facebook and end up bickering about the use of the Internet for Paddy’s business. While robbing a house, the gang got caught in a precarious situation when the homeowners returned. Mac confessed to a priest how he gained his weight, and why the blame falls on his friends. The gang rush to the movie theater to see the world’s greatest action movie, but must avoid traffic caused by Obama. The gang attend their high school reunion and are humiliated by the “cool kids” and other former enemies. They then take revenge on their enemies in the form of a dance routine. On August 6, 2011, FX announced it had picked up the show for an eighth and ninth season of 13 episodes set to premiere in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
9
a woman in politics is like a ing o d y e k n o d calculus.
Frank Reynolds ‘The Gang Runs for Office’ Season 2, Episode 8 10
11
charlie kelly
Portrayed by Charlie Day Occupation Co-owner of Paddy’s Pub Aliases Green Man Night Man
Charlie is an angry individual unable to cope with daily problems, prone to emotional outbursts and is often confused and flabbergasted by modern day life. He maintains poor personal hygiene, lives in squalor, frequently abuses inhalants such as glue, spray paint and poppers and, like the rest of The Gang, drinks copious amounts of alcohol regularly. In one episode Charlie says he has never left Philadelphia, though in the episode “The Gang Gets Stranded In The Woods,” he finally does, after the gang ties him up and puts him in the trunk of a car, although in “The Gang Gets Invincible” he travels to neighboring Bucks County which is outside of the city of Philadelphia but still within the Philadelphia Metro area to watch Dennis, Mac, and Dee try out for the Philadelphia Eagles. He also later returns to New Jersey to visit the Jersey Shore and, unlike the rest of the Gang, has a wonderful time there thanks to his child-like amazement at the seashore. Throughout the show, Charlie exhibits difficulty reading and writing and has generally poor communication skills. Despite this obvious handicap, Charlie has on many occasions fancied himself to be a lawyer of superior skill, leading to disastrous results when he is actually forced to deal with legal matters. The Gang frequently accuses him of being illiterate and calls him retarded. He shows a very poor grasp of grammar and sentence structure. On one occasion, Mac goes so far as to claim that “no one understands the subtleties of Charlie’s retardation better than me.” Like the rest of The Gang, Charlie has a poor grasp of history, current events and geography (once describing George Washington as “some old dude who looks like Meryl Streep who chopped down a cherry tree like ten million years ago”.
12
ronald mcdonald
Portrayed by Rob McElhenney Occupation Co-owner of Paddy’s Pub Nickname Mac
Mac comes from a broken home; his father has been incarcerated for dealing meth and his mother is extremely apathetic and unemotional. Mac and his mother also own a dog named Poppins, who despite being extremely old and prone to eating poisonous objects appears to be practically indestructible. He sees himself as a karate expert and total badass. Mac constantly seeks the acceptance of others, especially his parents, but his over-earnest efforts make him come off as an “asshole.” Earlier, under the impression that his father would possibly murder him after being paroled, Mac later receives a warm letter from his father, specifically requesting that Mac stay away from him. This letter is written as Mac’s father fears that Mac’s destructive tendencies could harm him. Dennis notes that the only reason Mac hung out with the popular kids in high school was because he sold them all weed and even then was considered an “asshole.” Though Dennis reigns supreme as selfish and arrogant, Mac has made his fair share of selfish, inconsiderate decisions and observations. Mac sincerely believes that he is an adept martial artist with “cat-like reflexes”, and he usually wears sleeveless shirts to draw attention to his physique and to exhibit his tribal tattoos. Despite his apparent fitness, Mac generally focuses his workout time on developing his glamor muscles and is largely the weakest member in The Gang, behind everyone but Dennis. Despite his enthusiasm towards karate, he is shown to have no real expert (or basic) skills when showing off his talent, and is a coward when it comes to physical confrontations. A Catholic, Mac is the only member of The Gang to profess a religious faith. Though Mac seems to care more about issues such as abortion, community activism, and parenting than the rest of The Gang, his views on such subjects are twisted, ignorant, or prejudiced, and his actions regarding them are always hypocritical and selfish. 13
dennis reynolds
Portrayed by Glenn Howerton Occupation Co-owner of Paddy’s Pub
Dennis has a strong superiority complex. He is almost wholly unable to empathize and routinely destroys others’ property, betrays his friends, and harshly criticizes the appearance of people in his presence. He even insults and demeans his friends, particularly Deandra and Charlie, on a regular basis and never hesitates to draw attention to their flaws, shortcomings, and past failures. This can lead to the conclusion that Dennis has sociopathic tendencies. Both his friends and enemies have referred to him as “a piece of shit” within the series. In response, Dennis usually smiles or laughs and rarely disagrees with their sentiment, seeming to be perfectly comfortable with that description. Dennis openly considers himself to be the epitome of physical attractiveness, but is actually very insecure about his looks. Although he is generally unfazed and often pleased by insults about his personality or nonphysical features, he is very sensitive to any negative remarks about his physical appearance. Any critique of his looks, however mild or trivial, deeply distresses Dennis and often leads him to extreme behavior to rectify the supposed problem. In the episode “The Gang Exploits a Miracle”, Deandra counters Dennis’ insults by claiming that he has a “fat face” which temporarily causes Dennis to become dangerously anorexic. Exceedingly promiscuous, Dennis tends to easily gain the short-term favor of women. He’s claimed that, in his sexual encounters, the words “no”, “don’t”, and “stop” never stop him from following his intentions. It has been revealed that Dennis was once dismissed from a counselor position at a summer camp because he was accused of the statutory rape of an underage teenage girl, although he maintains he just kissed the girl, who was only a year younger than he was.
14
frank reynolds
Portrayed by Danny DeVito Occupation Landlord of Passy’s Pub
Frank claims to have his children’s best interests at heart but he frequently exploits and insults them even more so after it is revealed that he is not their biological father. We learn that Frank made a tradition at Christmas of buying the gifts his children most wanted for himself just to see them suffer. It has been clear that Frank and his wife’s greedy, indifferent and cruel parenting shaped Dennis and Dee’s pathologies into the narcissistic, borderline-sociopathic way they are today. Over the course of the series he has pimped out his son Dennis for “no-rules” sexual favors and trained his daughter Dee to be a boxer so she could fight the daughter of his longtime nemesis. He is especially cruel to Dee, constantly remarking negatively on her age and looks. In “Dennis and Dee’s Mom Is Dead” he convinces her to pretend to be engaged to him and almost takes part in sexual activity with her. When it is learned that Dennis and Dee were the products of an affair Frank’s wife engaged in, Frank and his children mutually cease to regard each other as family and instead as just part of The Gang. Frank seems to take Mac under his wing, “mentoring” him on how to succeed in life via shady, unethical and sometimes illegal methods. It is observed that Mac looks up to Frank, perhaps more so than the rest of The Gang, with the possible exception of Charlie. Charlie has taken extreme measures to ensure that Frank remains his roommate, despite Frank’s cruel, manipulative behavior towards him. It is revealed that Frank is possibly Charlie’s long-lost father, due to Frank’s affair with Charlie’s mom 30 years before. Frank claims he was never told of Charlie’s birth, and pushed for Charlie’s mom to have an abortion, which Charlie somehow survived.
15
deandra reynolds
Portrayed by Kaitlin Olson Occupation Bartender Nickname The Aluminum Monster
Sweet Dee is Dennis’ twin sister and is the main bartender at Paddy’s. Sweet Dee was unpopular in high school due to her severe scoliosis, for which she wore a corrective back brace that earned her the nickname “The Aluminum Monster”. Additionally, she is often ridiculed for her resemblance to a bird by the rest of The Gang, especially Mac and Dennis. She identifies herself as a liberal, and also claims to be compassionate. Despite her personal self-assessment, she is characterized as being selfish, greedy, and prejudiced. Sweet Dee battles The Gang’s view that “females are inferior” and feels that she must prove that she’s as able as her male friends. In “The Gang Gets Invincible”, Sweet Dee poses as male alter ego “Cole” to try out for the Philadelphia Eagles with Mac and Dennis; she does a superb job and impresses the Eagle coaches until she stuns everyone by revealing she’s a woman right before her punting tryout, after which she kicks the ball and severely injures her foot. Her father Frank is the only one who considers Dee a true member of The Gang. Whenever there is a decision or a vote among members of The Gang, the three other guys habitually exclude her. Sweet Dee is usually ignored or ridiculed whenever she presents an idea to The Gang; however, if someone repeats her exact suggestion, it is immediately accepted. In her mother’s will, Dee is told that she has been a disappointment and a mistake despite the fact that she is one of twins. She has considerable animosity towards her mother. She wants to show her up and “shove it in her face”. After failing out of the University of Pennsylvania, where she had intended to major in psychology, Deandra decided to become an actress. However, she has put little effort into realizing her ambition and has never had any significant acting work; as a result, The Gang frequently taunts her as lacking in any talent.
16
the cast
Rob McElheney as Ronald ‘Mac’ McDonald Glenn Howerton as Dennis Reynolds Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds Kaitlin Olson as Deandra ‘Sweet Dee’ Reynolds Charlie Day as Charlie Kelly
17
hi. i’m a recovering . t c i d d a k c cra y m s i s i h t d an retarded sister.
Dennis Reynolds ‘Dennis and Dee Go On Welfare’ Season 2, Episode 3 18
19
god dammit
20