Watch Rob McElhenney, The Lawyer and the Original Dee in This Pre-‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Yoo-hoo Commercial

Believe it or not, Fight Milk wasn’t the first not-exactly-milky drink that Ronald “Mac” Donald ever endorsed.

Before Rob McElhenney came up with the idea of shooting a shoestring-budget pilot for a sitcom about the biggest a-holes in Pennsylvania, he was a struggling actor in L.A. waiting tables in between acting gigs. The slightly embarrassing before-they-were-famous careers of McElhenney’s co-stars are already an integral part of the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia lore — Glenn Howerton starred in the hated failure of a sitcom That ‘80s Show before becoming Dennis Reynolds, and Charlie Day passed on an almost-as-bad show to work as an illiterate janitor. But McElhenney’s list of credits pre-2005 is, comparatively, not quite as notable or mockable as those of his collaborators. 

However, there is one particularly fascinating and thankfully surviving clip from McElhenney’s acting career pre-Sunny that even includes cameos from a couple of his future co-stars. In 1998, McElhenney appeared in a commercial for the chocolate drink (not chocolate milk) brand Yoo-hoo, which featured Jordan Reid, his real-life now-ex-girlfriend and the original actress for the role of Sweet Dee, and Brian Unger, better known as The Lawyer, worse referred to as “The Jew Lawyer” by Frank Reynolds.

At the time of the above commercial’s airing, Unger, who was a correspondent on the original The Daily Show under fellow comedian Craig Kilborn, was an official spokesperson for Yoo-hoo and appeared in many commercials promoting the uncomfortably watery chocolate milk substitute. But only one such commercial starring Unger featured his future boss in a secret love triangle with his real-life girlfriend that ends on a slightly homoerotic note that could be considered foreshadowing for McElhenney’s future character’s proclivities.

As for Reid, the original actress for Dee explained her involvement with the early stages of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in a since-deleted Instagram post, noting that, though she began the process of creating the show with McElhenney and his buds as a both a romantic and creative partner, after she decided to end her romantic relationship with McElhenney, the star and creator ended her professional relationship with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and replaced her with his future wife Kaitlin Olson.

I guess that's still better than if Reid cheated on McElhenney with his best friend and kept it a secret just because he drank sugar water with chocolate flavoring. It’s also better than not getting to be involved with It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia at all – poor Billy.