It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has gone on for 12 seasons, and is set for at least
two more, which will tie it with Ozzie and Harriet for the longest running live action
sitcom in American television history, not bad for a show that started as a pilot made
by three friends with basically no budget.
Despite being on the air since before some of its fans were even born, it never seems
to lose its edge, why is that?
So I'm not going to talk about the obvious talent of the show's cast and crew, if you're
a fan of the show you're already more than aware of that.
Instead, in this video I want to take a different approach.
Basically, when writing character's there are a few different ways you can go about
it, but the most common approach for a sitcom is to start with a pretty bland, one-dimensional
character who you know a few things about, and then the rest gets fledged out once you've
found your actor.
It's why it often annoys me when I hear people say things like “Rainn Wilson was the perfect
Dwight!”
They're not wrong, but it shows a misunderstanding of the way TV characters are written, the
writers play to each actors strengths, which change depending on the actor and the character
changes with it.
The character of Dwight would have been almost completely unrecognizable if he had been played
by someone like, Seth Rogen, who actually did audition for that role.
Or on Friends, it was Monica and Joey who were originally going to end up together,
but when the chemistry felt off, the writers changed it to her and Chandler.
In the case of Sunny, the actors were the writers, Dennis, Mac and Charlie were all
written by and for the actors who portray them.
So there was a level of control and collaboration that's almost unheard of for a television
show, which gave them a more intimate knowledge of the character than you'd typically see
on a sitcom.
And this is evident in each character's backstory, like in the case of their parents.
Let's start with Charlie.
There's a possibility that Frank is his father, but growing up he never knew who his father
was.
So he was raised by his mother.
The other characters constantly poke fun and call her a “whore” which Charlie detests,
but we find out that that is literally true in the Christmas special.
She's sweet and loving, but naïve, and as a single mother with an only child who survived
an attempted abortion, it's safe to say she lets him get away with pretty much whatever
he wants.
So when he gets into sniffing glue, or throwing rocks at trains, she lets it continue.
And when he starts hanging out with other kids who prove to be a bad influence, it goes
unchecked.
Which brings us to Mac.
Most of his childhood, his father was in prison, so he grew up constantly seeking approval
from him like many children whose fathers aren't around much.
Raised strictly as a Catholic largely by a single mother who spends most of her days
breathing more cigarette smoke than she does air, all while glued to the TV.
It's safe to say he was pretty neglected in his childhood, which is why he's always the
one of the gang that's most desperate for attention, and approval, always trying to
show off how much of a badass he is.
It's also safe to assume based on what we see of his mother, that she didn't do a whole
lot of cleaning herself, and that Mac picked up those duties.
Which explains why he's obsessed with keeping such a clean place as shown in the Season
5 episode “Mac and Dennis Break Up” Sprinkle in some closeted homosexuality and you've
got the perfect recipe for the total narcissist macho douchebag with serious daddy issues
that is Mac.
Daddy issues, by the way, that never resolve, but instead are transposed onto someone else.
Which brings us to Dennis, and Dee.
We get a deeper insight into their parents than we do with Mac or Charlie as Frank, their
father, is one of the main characters.
A greedy, manipulative, bigoted, drug addicted little gremlin of a man who made millions
running sweatshops and scamming people.
He married Barbara, who we see a few times in the first couple of seasons.
Vain, selfish, spoiled rotten, in general fits the bill for many trophy wives.
Looking at those two together it's no wonder that Dennis and Dee both turned out to be
arguably the most narcissistic two characters on the show, with grand delusions of their
intellect and talent, with seemingly no self-awareness of the substantial failures in both of their
lives.
Dee is no closer to becoming a professional actress but still keeps the dream alive, despite
finding out that she's not cut out for success even if she had a huge break, like we see
in “The Gang Broke Dee”.
Despite never so much as getting a paid gig as an actress, she still is so quick to act
like a total diva at the slightest hint of success.
Dennis never even started on the path to becoming a veterinarian, has yet to publish his memoirs,
and has a totally skewed memory of his youth, where he recalls being the most popular guy
in school, as he puts it, “a legend”.
Even when he's confronted with the contradicting truth in episodes like “The Gang Reignites
the Rivalry” or in the two part “The High School Reunion”, he still holds to his version
of
the truth.
Which is why he exhibits the most psychopathic tendencies of the rest of the gang.
Having a god complex like that must make dealing with people he deems inferior quite the chore.
It's why he has incredibly volatile outbursts that can genuinely frighten the others.
All of which culminate into one of the finest Dennis episodes the show's ever done, “Mac
and Dennis Move to the Suburbs”.
Which leaves us with Frank.
Actually we don't know anything about his parents, so we're going to skip past him.
But having that foundation built into your character's history is how you can stay true
to a character, even after twelve years.
Something else the show does is play with standard TV tropes.
There are a lot that the show toys around with, too many to cover in one video, but
in keeping with the theme of character, the trope that they seem to have the most fun
with is the idea of these people only ever hanging out with each other.
On every sitcom that I can think of, the main cast never changes, the show revolves around
this small group of people from start to finish.
Whether that's coworkers at an office, a small suburban family, or some young and attractive
friends in a city, it's how every major sitcom functions.
Obviously as an audience we know it's because it's a TV show.
You have your main cast that predominantly make up the show, with some guest stars and
other supporting roles to fledge out the scenes that don't involve the entire group at the
same time.
But it's not really an accurate reflection of how most people live their lives, where
we meet new people constantly, and where the average person's social circle changes pretty
dramatically over the years.
Sunny takes this idea and runs with it, what would actually happen if you surrounded yourself
by the same people, every single day of your life, and what would happen when these people
are all egotistical morons?
Regardless of what is thrown at the gang, they never learn or grow from anything that
happens.
They've been addicted to drugs, witness to murder, involved in a hostage situation, dealt
with loss of loved ones, confronted a serial killer, tackled every hot button political
topic imaginable but eventually they always end up back at the bar, no different for having
gone through these experiences.
Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad states that "Television is historically good
at keeping its characters in a self-imposed stasis, so that the show can go on for years,
or even decades."
Which is normally a point of contention I have with most shows, but with It's Always
Sunny, this self-imposed stasis is exactly what continues to make the show work.
They're too self-centered to ever address the very real and very numerous problems in
their lives.
And no matter how cruel they can be to each other, they always come back because it's
what's familiar, and considering the pattern of destruction they have when interacting
with people outside of the gang, no one else really wants anything to do with any of them,
except for people who are just as much of a mess as they are, like the McPoyle's, or
the Ponderossa's.
So they continue to spiral downwards, becoming more selfish and vain and greedy as the show
goes forward.
And that's the magic of the show, it's why I'm still not tired of it.
There's something so oddly satisfying about seeing these complete assholes go through
all of this suffering, but never grasp that they are the cause of their own misery, and
never learn from any of their mistakes.
Honestly, as long as the main cast and writers are still working on the show, I'd happily
watch the show until the gang were middle aged, just to see how much crazy they get.
But as of now it's probably the most perfect run a sitcom has ever had.
Certainly for a sitcom that's lasted this long.
And while a lot of that credit belongs to the brilliant cast and incredible crew of
writers and directors, set designers, script supervisors, and so on.
I think that characters in this kind of long form storytelling only work when they remain
true, never doing anything out of character.
The gang is still the same mess of ego and denial living in their own reality distortion
field, and we love 'em for it.
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the people pleding support on Patreon.
I don't really make any money through ad revenue so any support on Patreon means absolutely
everything to me.
And I just wanted to say thank you to those that are pledging.
Also wanted to give a shoutout to one of my favorite channels, Beyond the Frame.
If you're looking for more film related content on the site I think he's one of the absolute
best at it, I think he deserves a lot more attention than he gets, so go over there and
show him some love.
Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time.