Hopefully you have not been missing it, but three weeks ago Comedy Central syndicated the groundbreaking sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia from FX and has been airing them in 2 hour blocks every Monday night, deftly named Happy Hour. In an interview with The Onion's AV Club, primary script writer and actor of It's Always Sunny, Rob McElhenney, explained his inspiration for the sitcom arose in 2004 after considering what he was not seeing on primetime sitcoms. Most sitcoms we watch on Fox, NBC, or CBS are geared toward a family-oriented viewing crowd with wholesome humor and conflicts that are resolved within a 30-minute episode. McElhenney desired the opposite in It's Always Sunny.
Every sitcom has two consistent qualities: 1. they are comprised of main characters who form a "family" or tight-knit circle and 2. for the most part, the main characters behave in a predictable pattern, allowing the audience to feel more connected when they predict their actions. It's Always Sunny has a tight-knit group of main characters (Charlie, Mac, Dennis, Dee and Frank), yet the main characters are all selfish, greedy, impatient, narcissistic, and completely antagonistic of each other. Also, the character's decisions are hardly predictable and perpetually leaving the viewer in the blue about what could go wrong for "the gang" next. (FUN FACT: Coincidentally, McElhenney explained the light, fluttery classical theme music for the show reflects the ever-changing and unpredictable actions of the characters).
On paper it seems like the perfect shitstorm of a sitcom. But the sheer opposition of mainstream, conventional sitcom writing compensates as the utter genius behind It's Always Sunny. And for that I, and millions of other fans thank FX for taking a chance on this rogue sitcom. Looking back, the first season was a little rocky and had issues with continuity amongst the gangs interactions, but the show has been flying higher and higher with the addition of Danny DeVito in the second season. Comedy Central will be airing four consecutive episodes from the five various seasons of Sunny every Monday night almost all the way through summer. So, if you have not caught on to this phenomenon of a show or you haven't seen or you just want to catch that rare episode from season one whence Charlie claims he was raped, catch it every Monday night. Besides, a sitcom of this caliber truly deserves much more mainstream exposure than Grey's Anatomy, for example. Here's a little interview below, just to get a feel fo it yo:
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