Kaitlin Olson Suspects That the Cast of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Will Have to Wait for a Lifetime Achievement Emmy

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has racked up a ton of honors over the years. It’s the longest running live action sitcom in American TV history, it won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Cable TV Comedy in 2013 and it holds the distinction of being the only show in existence to feature a Christmas episode in which a fully naked Danny DeVito bursts out of a leather couch — aka the greatest nude scene in Hollywood history. 

But despite its popularity and acclaim, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has barely been acknowledged by the very institution that’s supposed to be in charge of rewarding TV excellence: the Emmys. 

The cast hasn’t exactly been tight-lipped about their feelings concerning the show’s exclusion from the Emmys, they even brought up this glaring oversight at the 75th ceremony, complaining that their show (not to mention Martin) had yet to win a single Emmy. Although Rob McElhenney and DeVito admitted that they won Emmys for Welcome to Wrexham and Taxi, respectively.

The consistent Emmy snubbing also inspired the unsubtle meta commentary of Season Nine’s “The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award.” 

Sunny’s lack of Emmy love came up during Kaitlin Olson’s recent appearance on WTF with Marc Maron. While Maron was aware that Olson had been nominated twice for playing DJ Vance (not to be confused with JD Vance) on Hacks, he seemed surprised that she had never received the same honor for playing Sweet Dee on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. “Has (Sunny) gotten any love from The Emmys?” Maron enquired. “No,” Olson replied. “Nobody’s been nominated for anything.”

Olson did qualify that one member of the It’s Always Sunny team was recognized by the Television Academy. “We had our stunt coordinator get nominated, I think twice,” Olsen admitted. Actually, Marc Scizak was nominated three times for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Comedy Series or a Variety Program, but those are the only nominations that the show has received. 

While It's Always Sunny may not seem like a particularly stunt-heavy show, according to Scizak, his job involved doubling for McElenney and sometimes coordinating fight scenes to make him “look badass.”

So will the rest of the It’s Always Sunny gang ever score an Emmy for their work on the show? Or should they pull a reverse-Bear and submit themselves in the drama category?

“It seems like one of those shows that’ll probably be on so long, they’ll have to give it a special award,” Maron theorized. 

“Yeah. It’ll get like a lifetime achievement something or other,” Olson agreed.

Hopefully the Emmys will eventually find a way to pay tribute to the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia cast before they’re so old that they show up with walkers, wheelchairs and a DeVito-sized urn.

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