Rob Thomas Remembers the ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Cast Roasting Glenn Howerton for Starring in ‘That ‘80s Show’
Dennis Reynolds is a five-star man, but his biggest pre-It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia project is bad enough to make someone want to grab a shoe and beat his testicle.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans have long mythologized the humble beginnings of the longest running live-action sitcom in American history. Famously, Rob McElhenney shot the pilot for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on a $100 budget after convincing his friends Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day that making their own TV show would be a better way to get acting work than attending endless auditions while waiting tables in L.A.
However, a couple years before McElhenney, Day and Howerton shot to sitcom superstardom on Always Sunny, Howerton’s first attempt at becoming a bona fide TV comedy leading man came on the short-lived spin-off series of That '70s Show, titled That ‘80s Show, in which he starred as a struggling twenty-something musician living in his parents’ house in 1984.
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Before appearing in the classic It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode “Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life,” Rob Thomas had a somewhat similar backstory, having been the frontman for the multi-platinum rock band Matchbox Twenty for a couple decades before his Always Sunny debut. And, in a recent retrospective on his iconic cameo for Vulture, Thomas recalled how Howerton’s Always Sunny partners tore into the Golden God for his origin story and the unholy abomination that was That '80s Show like a bunch of idiot savages.
“They were exactly what you thought they would be,” Thomas said of the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia crew and their behind-the-scenes behavior. “They showed up really early, and we all hung out before the show and started drinking.”
As is the case with the Paddy’s Pub gang on the show itself, Thomas recalled how the camaraderie of the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia set came from a mutual love of mockery and bullying, and when it came time to make “Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life,” the crew felt that the episode’s star deserved to be that day’s target. “Just listening to them bust on each other and mess with Glenn — they started going into this whole ‘When Glenn was on That ’80s Show,’ and then, ‘I don’t know why it didn’t work. What do you think it was? Maybe because it was fucking horrible, maybe that’s what it was?’” Thomas recounted, noting, “It was so beautiful watching them riff.”
Now, while That ‘80s Show was certainly every bit as “fucking horrible” as Howerton’s Always Sunny co-stars said it was, both they and the Always Sunny fandom should count themselves lucky that the sitcom sequel, which consistently ranks among the most unfunny TV shows ever made, ever got its misguided greenlight, and that Howerton was chosen as the leading man. As Howerton has proudly proclaimed, there would be no It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia without That '80s Show because the money he made on the latter funded the purchase of the camera that filmed the pilot of the former.
McElhenney, Day and the rest of the gang should be thanking Howerton and Fox for the dumpster fire that was That ‘80s Show, seeing as the shoestring budget that built the Always Sunny empire came from Howerton’s high-top Converses — not literally, of course. Everyone knows he only wears the finest Italian leather, and the perfect fit has no room for lead, let alone strings.
