Why The Paddy's Pub Bar Signs In It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Look So Weird
One thing is for certain on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" — the main characters will never, ever change. That's proven to be pretty true for Paddy's Pub as well, the place where those characters spend the vast majority of their time pretending to work and drinking copious amounts of beer. There have been a few tiny alterations here and there, but the only major changes have been the neon signs hanging in the bar, which have changed pretty drastically a couple of times over the show's 16-season run.
In fact, eagle-eyed viewers of the show's first season might notice that the signs change between the first and second episodes and that the signs in most of the season look pretty, well, weird. They advertise super-generic alcoholic beverages, simply reading "Wine" or "Dark Ale Beer" instead of any brand-named beers, clever fake replacements, or even catchy slogans, but why? And why do they look kind of strange if you zoom in?
In the first episode of the Always Sunny Podcast, creators and stars Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Glenn Howerton explained that there's a very good reason for the weird signs in season 1, and that it has to do with their off-color brand of humor completely freaking out a major sponsor. Hey, maybe they should have gotten sponsored by Frank's Fluids!
This Bud's not for you
While discussing the first episode, "The Gang Gets Racist," the guys dug into their very first big sponsor and how they lost them after the very first episode aired. Apparently, the first season was sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, who maybe liked the idea of being the "official beer of Paddy's Pub." The first season was filmed with all kinds of neon signs related to Anheuser-Busch's products, including Budweiser and Bud Light, but the day after the first episode aired, FX got a call from the sponsor saying they wanted out. McElhenney explained:
"And FX goes, 'we already shot the entire season with all of the signage.' And Anheuser-Busch was like, 'sorry, we're out.' [...] And then our position was 'f*** you,' You guys had the scripts, you read the scripts, and you should be fully in.' And then FX was like 'no, f*** you, we have a relationship with them,' like big Fox, like news corp had a big relationship with them for the Super Bowl and NFL football. And so we had to go in and digitally change them all to gobbledy goo."
The first episode has signs for Bud Light everywhere, but if you look at the rest of the season, the signs have been digitally altered to things that vaguely look like the original signs, only with no trace of the corporate logos or wordage.
The gang goes generic... for a bit
The digital signs were replaced with different decorations after season 1, including some actual generic neon signs for "BEER" and the like, but during season 6 fans started noticing some new product placement for Coors Light, a rival of Anheuser-Busch's that eventually became a part of "Always Sunny" lore. The gang chugs down the American light beer with regularity, and even mentions the mountains on the outside of the bottle that turn blue when the product is ice cold. Charlie (Day) even makes the mistake of thinking the "Closed" sign on the outside of the bar is a "Coors" sign, and he turns it on each morning to make sure that everyone knows they have some delicious drinks inside. (To that point, though: who has a closed sign? Aren't they always "open" signs? It's the gang, so whatever.)
Shows almost always need corporate sponsorship of some kind to get by, and as long as the product placement doesn't get overwhelming, who cares? After all, if Coors has been willing to stick by the gang and their antics, maybe they really are a match made in dive bar heaven. If you want to check out all of the different bar signs for yourself, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is available to stream on Hulu and FXNow.