It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Charlie Day is one of the stars of the irreverently funny, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  Day plays Charlie Kelly, co-owner of Paddy's Pub who is somewhat of a loser.  He is slow to learn and therefore relegated only to the most mundane and often disgusting tasks at work.

Aside from starring in the series, Day also co-writes and co-produces the show, together with co-stars Rob McElhenny and Glenn Howerton.  Day recently spoke with Film.com regarding the series.

Considering the rawness of the humor on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Day remarked on how much spontaneity there actually is on the show.

“If I had to come up with a number I'd say 75 percent of the show is scripted and a good 25 percent is off the cuff,” Day said.  “Sometimes we get it right in the writer's room, and sometimes we get it close and then try to push to make it better.  You never really know which one is going to end up improvised.”

The 31-year old actor also went into why they chose Philadelphia to be the setting for their show.

“That had a lot to do with Rob McElhenney,” Day revealed.  “He had the original idea to make a show.  Glenn and I never really aspired to do such things.  Originally it was about actors in Los Angeles, but the network had the foresight to say ‘Well, there's a lot of industry shows, let's take it out of L.A.'  Rob grew up in South Philadelphia and I was pretty familiar with it because my dad grew up there and we'd visit for Christmas or Fourth of July.  It's a good blue collar city and our characters wouldn't be too on top or too on the bottom there.”

While their series pokes fun at just about the most outrageous scenarios and situations, Day admitted that not everything about running the franchise is easy and humorous.  He confessed that behind all the laughter they try to evoke, they are still prone to their share of pressure.

“A million different things [stress us].  We stress a lot because we really care.  We're here for every second.  I stress about making sure that the quality stays the same but at the same time doesn't get boring.  We stress about making things funny, and then we stress about ‘Have we gone too far?' - all the little details.”

Finally, Day discussed how It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has found an ideal match in the FX network. 
“If we were on NBC we would have been canceled by now,” Day stated.  "It's the perfect marriage with FX, they let us get away with murder.  They had the foresight to stick with it and we've built it the old fashioned way, through underground and word of mouth.”

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia airs every Thursday at 10pm.


-Rosario Santiago, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Film.com
(Image Courtesy of charlieday.net)