The It's Always Sunny Bon Jovi Cameo That Never Came To Be
There have been some truly incredible cameos on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" over the years, ranging from all of the gang's spouses to director Guillermo del Toro, who is nearly unrecognizable as Pappy McPoyle. Often, the cameos come about because the main cast knew someone — del Toro worked with star Charlie Day on "Pacific Rim," for example — but sometimes, they really try to reach beyond their circle of friends and acquaintances. Sometimes it works, while other times they're totally out of luck. The season 4 episode "Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life" is a perfect example of both, because there are some wonderful cameos and one that just sadly didn't work out.
In the episode, Dennis (Glenn Howerton) wants to publish his erotic memoirs, but Frank (Danny DeVito) and Mac (Rob McElhenney) point out that the stories inside are totally make-believe and could open them up to litigation – for example, he says that he once woke up in a rehab facility with stigmata and that he was the personal sex advisor to Jon Bon Jovi. So, Mac and Frank drop Dennis off at a rehab clinic to try and re-create the tale while they attempt to get Mr. Bon Jovi on board with confirming Dennis's ridiculous story. They do end up talking to someone who works for Bon Jovi, but not the man himself, although apparently there were originally plans to have him appear that never panned out.
No Bovine Jovi for Sunny
The guys were probably livin' on a prayer when they tried to get Bon Jovi to appear, as they discussed on "The Always Sunny Podcast." Howerton started to say that they tried to get Bon Jovi to do a guest spot and was interrupted by Day, who joked that his name was "Bovine Jovi," as Frank pronounces it in the episode. Howerton then explained:
"We tried to get Bovine Jovi himself to do this with us, I think through Danny [DeVito], 'cause, you know — We've used Danny a couple times for that, you know? Had Danny reach [...] It's like, look, you know, Bon Jovi's a Jersey guy and he was [...] Or no, that comes later. That was the Bruce Springsteen thing, when we almost got Bruce [...] But I don't think [...] I don't know that Bovine Jovi ever even got back to us about it."
McElhenney chimed in to say that Springsteen was actually interested in doing it and Day confirmed that "Springsteen almost did it," which would have been pretty darn funny. Instead of making jokes about Bon Jovi's lead guitarist Richie Sambora, they could have made jokes about Springsteen's E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt. Heck, they would have had extra joke fodder since he also played Silvio on "The Sopranos."
An episode with some great cameos
They may not have been able to get Bov ... er, Bon Jovi to appear on the episode, but there are still two great cameos in "Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life." While Frank and Mac are trying to get Bon Jovi involved in their scheme, Dennis is off in what he believes is a rehab clinic being tormented by actor/comedian Sinbad and Matchbox 20 lead singer Rob Thomas. The two really get into their roles as ridiculous versions of themselves, with Sinbad berating Dennis at every turn while Thomas serves as his submissive lackey. It's exceptionally funny stuff, especially when it's revealed that Dennis hallucinated the whole thing on account of a head injury and the two men were actually just employees at a garage across the street from the rehab clinic where Mac and Frank dropped him off. Whoops.
One cameo that hasn't happened yet is "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds, although he's eager to make an appearance and there's even a pretty great idea for how he would show up. Reynolds wants to play Mac's boyfriend, which could honestly be pretty magical given Mac's general inability to romance anyone other than Margaret McPoyle (and in early seasons, a transgender woman named Carmen who was clearly lowering her standards). Will Mac finally find love or at least lust? We'll have to wait until season 17 to see.