'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia': The Gang 'Almost Quit' The Show Over This Gag
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Ahh, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia – a show famed for introducing the world to the Dayman and the Nightman, the Jersey shore delicacy that is rum ham, and the wonderful, wonderful game of Chardee MacDennis. However, the show, which has enjoyed a 15-season run was almost a nonstarter, because …
The Gang Says They Almost Quit Sunny Because of FX
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Yep, in a recent episode of the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Podcast, hosts Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Glenn Howerton – a.k.a the show's co-creators and the actors behind Mac, Charlie, and Dennis – revealed that they nearly threw in the towel after FX vetoed a plotline for season one's “Charlie Got Molested." Centering around whether or not Charlie was molested by his gym teacher – as Mac finds himself jealous that he was not the supposed victim – the show was originally set to have a much, much different premise.
“I would like to point out one of the things about that episode was that was the first time that we ran up against some real resistance with FX because that episode was originally written to be not about a gym teacher but about a Catholic priest, and FX got a little squirrelly about that," Howerton explained.
Although Howerton noted that the topic of papal abuse was “all over the news at the time" – several verdicts regarding the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston's sex abuse scandal came were reached in 2005, the same year the episode hit airwaves – he says the network was “uncomfortable with the idea of saying that a Catholic priest” was molesting people and “worried about the right" and how they would react, even though the allegations against the character ended up being false.
“We almost quit the show over it, guys,” Howerton recalled, with Day chiming to note how that “would've been so dumb." However, the crisis was adverted after the trio “backed down,” according to McElhenney.
“To their credit, what they said was, they said ‘we understand you guys are passionate about this, and we get it, but will you at least try and see if you can make it something else and see if it’s still it funny?” Howerton continued. “And we were like, well that's fair, we would be assholes if we didn't try it.”
Although they ultimately ended up adopting a different plotline, Day, after confirming with his co-stars that FX allegedly felt iffy about the plotline due to the “because of pressure that they would get from the Catholic powers that be? maintains that the network's alleged rationale for nixing the concept. ”Let's go ahead and call that out for what that is. That is some dark s--t," he said.
So, folks, here's to Sunny. As messed up as it may be, at least we got another 14 seasons – with more on the way.
Top Image: FXX
For more internet nonsense, follow Carly on Instagram @HuntressThompson_ on TikTok as @HuntressThompson_, and on Twitter @TennesAnyone.
