Movies - TV
The One-Paragraph Pitch That Spawned It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
By SHAE SENNETT
Before “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” became the longest-running live-action sitcom on television, it began as a single idea that came to co-creator Rob McElhenney in a dream. This spark, developed by McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, and Charlie Day, became the basis of the show that follows five narcissists running a dive bar in South Philadelphia while performing their self-serving schemes.
In an interview, McElhenney described the dream stating, “It was just an idea of a guy going over to another guy's house to ask him for sugar, and the other guy telling him that he has cancer. And instead of the friend being compassionate, he just wants to get the sugar and get out the door." The dream was later adapted for the pilot and again in Season 1, Episode 4, “Charlie Has Cancer.”
McElhenney's fever dream was a driving force for the series, but so was McElhenney himself. As Charley Day explained, “Rob is the most driven man we knew, so we were just hanging onto someone who had some motivation.”