The Real Reason Why It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Is About A Bar

Longtime fans of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," try and picture a version of the show where Kaitlin Olson never took Sweet Dee's chaotic reins after the initial pilot. Or see if you can imagine how long the series would have lasted if Danny DeVito never joined in season 2. Not easy to do, right?

Now imagine an "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" where fans aren't following a vicious gang of parasitic and conniving deadbeats who hang around a bar all day, but a group of ... out-of-work actors? Well, that's how the show was originally envisioned. The FX series was, in fact, initially conceived as being about a group of friend who were struggling actors in Hollywood. As creator and star Rob McElhenney explained to The New York Times in 2007:

"The network came to us and said, 'We don't want a show about actors,' and we said, 'Fine, let's put it somewhere else.' I'm from Philly, let's put it in Philly, and we'll make it about a bar, because that's a job where you can have lots of free time and still have income that could explain how these people can sustain themselves."

This may be one of those rare instances where fans should be grateful for studio interference (like when Disney ordered those infamous "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" reshoots back in 2016). Because, really, without the show being about a gang of awful ne'er-do-wells hanging around Paddy's Pub all day, is "It's Always Sunny" really "It's Always Sunny?"

Anyone who vaguely remembers television in the early 2000s likely recalls that there were already a ton of shows that featured some variation on the "struggling and/or up-and-coming actor(s) trying to make it in Hollywood" premise. From the "Friends" spin-off series "Joey" coming out in 2004 on NBC to "Entourage" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" thriving on HBO around the same time, this setup had simply already been hammered down across the board — and that's without even mentioning Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's highly-underrated "Extras!"

Simply put, in 2005, the world didn't need another show following a group of friends trying to make it big in Hollywood. It needed an outrageous comedy about a vile and delusional gang of toxic misfits who "work" at the worst bar in Philadelphia and absolutely destroy everyone who gets even remotely close to them (except Artemis Dubois, one of the best side characters in "It's Always Sunny," and a goddess who remains immune to the group's corruption even after 20 years).