‘Abbott Elementary’ Producers Reveal Which ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Character Will Play the Biggest Part in the Crossover

When the Paddy’s Pub Gang somehow gets within 2,000 feet of Willard R. Abbott Elementary School, one It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia character will have a bigger job than his companions – let’s hope it goes better than the last time he worked at a school.

The long-awaited, oft-teased and finally happening crossover between Abbott Elementary and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is shaping up quickly as Quinta Brunson’s smart and inspiring sitcom about an underfunded Philadelphia public school prepares for their Season 4 premiere later tonight. While the ABC awards-darling seems to have little in common with FX’s long-running comedy about alcoholic psychopaths who torture priests and huff paint from either a tone or a content perspective, the remarkable happenstance that the two best sitcoms on American television both take place in the City of Brotherly coupled with the mutual respect shared between the brilliant comedic minds in charge of both shows necessitated a collaboration that we now know will take place in the ninth episode of the new Abbott Elementary season.

Abbott Elementary executive producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker recently spoke to Variety about their coming season and the massively hyped crossover episode featuring the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, revealing that one Always Sunny character will carry his own storyline in the Abbott episode – Charlie Kelly.

Broadcast TV isn’t ready for the janitorial showdown between Charlie and Mr. Johnson.

“We got the whole gang, the ‘A’ story, ‘B’ story, ‘C,’ ‘D,’ it’s all them,” Schumacker revealed, confirming that the Always Sunny/Abbott crossover will be an entire episode dedicated to the collaboration rather than a brief cameo à la Bradley Cooper's bit part on the show that he strangely submitted for Emmy consideration. Although the entire crew of Mac, Dennis, Dee, Charlie and Frank will have featured roles on the Abbott, Charlie will be the trash smoke star of the show – “Charlie Day’s character has a pretty significant storyline in our episode,” Schumacker added.

“It was kind of a joke at first, that the two shows should cross over," Schumacker commented on the collab, "On paper, it feels like they’d be a real tonal mishmash. But then Rob (McElhenney) and Charlie (Day) came to our writers room and we hashed out some real broad stroke ideas. From there, we emailed back and forth beat sheets and then an outline. They were super game for everything. All those concerns that we had about the tones of the shows butting against each other were alleviated the second we started filming with Charlie.”

Schumacker also addressed the concerns that many online Always Sunny fans had about their show's more jarring energy shocking the tamer Abbott crowd, promising, “It just kind of works in a vacuum. They just feel like other guest stars on the show. Obviously, it’s going to have a much deeper meaning for Sunny fans.”

As for the possibility that Abbott characters could appear in an episode of Always Sunny, Schumacker was more evasive – “We can’t say too much about that yet,” Schumacker said of a possible second mashup on FX.

Fingers crossed that the crossover ends up going both ways – if anyone is ever going to teach Charlie how to read, it's going to be Ms. Howard.