FX Only Had One Objection To It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia's Wild First Season

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The gang on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" has never been afraid to push the envelope when it comes to jokes about controversial topics. Even back in the very first season, episodes like "The Gang Gets Racist" and "Charlie Wants an Abortion" pushed the boundaries of good taste (and upset network censors). There was one joke that went just a little too far for FX network president John Landgraf, however, and the season 1 finale, "Charlie Got Molested," was changed as a result. While the FX president was willing to let them joke about Charlie (Charlie Day) being forced by his old classmates the McPoyles into pretending he was molested as a child, Landgraf had some boundaries about who exactly was being accused of doing the molesting. 

According to the book "It's (Almost) Always Sunny in Philadelphia: How Three Friends Spent $200 to Create The Longest-Running Live-Action Sitcom In History And Help Build A Network" by Kimberly Potts, the gang originally intended for Charlie and the McPoyles to accuse a priest of molesting them as kids, and that was a bit too far for Landgraf. Instead, he suggested they make the priest into a schoolteacher, and the rest is "It's Always Sunny" history. 

Series creator Rob Mac and his co-writers Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day, who star as Mac, Dennis, and Charlie in the series, were actually surprised and a little concerned at the lack of backlash to some of the more shocking content in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." "Charlie Got Molested" is pretty rough stuff, but the humor is always rooted in the fact that the guys respond to the whole situation so poorly, and not in the idea of molestation itself. 

Case in point: In the episode's B plot, Mac is upset that Charlie and the McPoyles (Jimmi Simpson and Nate Mooney) were allegedly molested by their gym coach, and he wasn't. He even goes to the coach's house and asks him why he wasn't cute enough to be inappropriately touched, which might have played out a bit differently with a priest. Instead, the physical education coach is played by "Saved by the Bell" coach Dennis Haskins, and it turns out he never did anything to any of the kids. The scene is the kind of awkward hilarity that the series has become known for, but since the team behind "It's Always Sunny" were flying blind for the first few seasons, it's honestly even more impressive.

While there have been a few instances over the years where "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" was deemed to have gone too far and had a couple of episodes yanked from streaming, for the most part, the series has managed to skirt by censors and sensitive critics by the skin of its teeth despite tackling some seriously controversial topics. The secret to its success is that at the end of the day, the gang and their terrible actions are the punchline, not the topics themselves. In "Charlie Got Molested" the humor is derived from Charlie agreeing to pretend to have been molested even though he wasn't, which includes him being forced to describe the alleged event in detail in front of his entire family. Similarly, it's funny that Mac is so self-absorbed that he's offended he wasn't abused, making him the butt of the joke. 

The writers on "It's Always Sunny" seem to know it's important never to "punch down" when it comes to potentially painful topics, and even give the gang a bit of a break now and then when things get too mean. It's surprisingly smart for a series that has an entire episode revolving around "Who Pooped the Bed?," and even from the start "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" has been so much more than just a show about terrible people. The series may occasionally be controversial, but the hearts of the creators seem to be in the right place.