It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: Sorry, Modern Family, but I don’t think you’re the funniest show on TV

I know that a lot of people consider Modern Family to be one of the funniest comedies on TV if not the best comedy on TV, and as much as I love Modern Family, I don’t think it’s the funniest comedy on TV. If it were up to me, I would always given that honor to It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Although, after Happy Ending’s phenomenal second season I would say that it’s definitely a tie between It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Happy Endings for being given the honor of being called the funniest comedy on TV in my book. Unfortunately, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, as well as Happy Endings are completely ignored by way to many people, but for this post I’m only going to focus on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. I’m thinking about discussing my thoughts on Happy Endings in another post.

Before I go any further, I should probably mention that I didn’t start watching the show until it was in its’ sixth season. I found out about It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia by reading posts in a thread on a discussion forum for The Office, if I’m remembering correctly, where people were saying what their top five favorite comedies on TV were. A lot of the people who had posted in the thread had included It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia on their lists, and at the time I didn’t know anything about the show, so the fact that so many people in the thread had included it on the show captured my interest, which led me to watch some season six episodes on TV since that season was airing at the time, and I found myself instantly loving the show. I’ve come across a lot of people online who have said that they don’t think that season six was very good, but I disagree. I thought season six was fantastic. The episode that solidified my love for the show was episode 6x03 “The Gang Buys A Boat”. That episode has a lot of great moments, and if anyone who reads this post decides to check the show out, I would definitely recommend watching that episode. I’ll list a few more episodes that I would also recommend watching later in this post. After I watched that episode, I immediately ordered the box set of the DVD sets of the first five seasons and the Christmas special (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Seasons 1-5 + Christmas Special ) so I could watch every episode of the show that I hadn’t seen yet, and I found myself loving the TV show more and more with each episode that I watched.

One of my favorite memories from my childhood is watching the TV show Seinfeld with my brother, so I love that the FX Network used the tagline “It’s Seinfeld on crack.” If I had to describe what the show is like to someone in one sentence, I think that’s the perfect way to describe the show. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia definitely reminds me of Seinfeld in a lot ways in the sense that the characters on both shows are all incredibly selfish and immoral. Also, like Seinfeld, the characters on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia often spend an entire episode fixated on the stupidest and mundane things and in my mind is in some ways also a show about nothing like Seinfeld was described as being.

The main difference between the two shows is that since It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia airs on cable the writers are able to really push the envelope in ways that Seinfeld wasn’t able to when it comes to what the characters do and say. I’m not someone who likes to constantly swear, but I love that the writers of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia use the word bang as a synonym for the F-Word. The fact that they do that often leads to some pretty funny moments and lines on the show. One particular moment that comes to mind when I say this would be episode 7x11 “Thunder Gun Express” when Frank hijacks a tourist boat in order to get to a movie that The Gang are all trying to go see, but run into problems due to the fact that there’s a major traffic jam. As Frank is driving the tourist boat he starts telling the very confused group of tourists about various incidents from previous episodes of the show and ends up talking about how he loves “banging whores”. I’ve never seen a TV show have a moment like that, and that’s definitely one of my favorite episodes of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia now because it reminds me of one of my all-time favorite episodes of Seinfeld from season 9 “The Puerto Rican Day” where they all got stuck in a traffic jam and they all abandon each other one by one in an attempt to go home to their respective apartments before they finally find each other at the end of the episode, much like “Thunder Gun Express”.

The main reason why I think It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is better than Modern Family is that the writers have managed to make the show so funny that it makes me laugh hysterically simply by thinking about it even when I’m not even watching the show. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is the first TV show that has ever been able to do that with me. Modern Family is able to do that sometimes, but the extent to which the writers of Modern Family are able to do that isn’t even remotely close to It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s ability to do that. I should probably mention that Happy Endings has also always been able to do that, even more so in season two, but I digress.

Personally, for most of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’s run it was too hard for me to pick just one character as my favorite or say that there was a single bad character on the show because I don’t think there is, so I always ranked the characters by what characters are able to make me laugh the most simply by thinking about them when I’m not watching the show. For the first six seasons, I ranked the characters as followed: 1) Dee 2) Charlie 3) Frank 4) Mac 5) Dennis. However, after season seven Dennis not only became my favorite character on the show, he also ties with Jenny Schecter from The L Word as my all-time favorite fictional character now.

The reason why Dennis Reynolds now ties with Jenny Schecter is due to the transformation that Dennis underwent in season seven. Throughout the series’ run, Dennis had always been fairly narcissistic and teetered on a thin line between being a sociopath and not being a sociopath, but when it comes to the writing for the character Dennis in season seven I feel like the writers decided to have him become a full-on, certifiable sociopath instead of teetering on the thin line he always walked on in the first six seasons of the show. Considering the fact that this is a comedy and not Criminal Minds or Law & Order: SVU, both the writers and Glenn Howerton are obviously playing Dennis’s sociopathic tendencies from a comedic standpoint because I’m sure that in real-life someone who’s sociopath would just be flat-out creepy and not funny at all. The writing for the character Dennis in season seven also caused me to gain a whole new level of appreciation for the character Dennis as I’ve gone back and watched episodes from the first six seasons of the show. I have to say that Glenn plays the role of Dennis Reynolds flawlessly.

This might seem weird to some people since Jenny Schecter is a character from a completely different show, but as I watched the seventh season of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia as it was airing on TV and I saw how over-the-top Dennis’ behavior was, a part me couldn’t help but think about how over-the-top Jenny’s behavior became starting with The L Word’s fourth season. When The L Word’s fourth season was airing, I remember watching a behind the scenes video on one of the episodes where the creator of The L Word, Ilene Chaiken, and one of the other writers, Angela Robinson, talked about how since Jenny had always been a character whose behavior was kind of over-the-top that they basically decided to stop fighting it and have Jenny’s behavior become completely over-the-top starting with season four.

I can’t help but wonder if the writers of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia were thinking something along the same line when it came to writing the character Dennis last season. One of the show’s biggest assets in my opinion is the fact that Rob Elhenney, who plays Mac, and Glenn Howerton, created the show and they also serve as executive producers and writers for the show along with Charlie Day. Since they developed and write the characters that are they are playing they obviously know what they are capable as actors, and they also have creative control over the show, so they are really able to tell the stories that they want to do and take the show where they want, which I believe most likely contributed to Dennis’ behavior becoming so over the top in season seven.

It’s a shame that It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia isn’t a bigger hit with the critics and that the ratings aren’t much higher than they actually are like Modern Family is. Although, the show is apparently one of the FX network’s most popular shows, and as much as I love Modern Family, I definitely think that It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia deserves to have just as high, if not higher ratings than Modern Family, because it’s a truly brilliant show that’s even funnier than Modern Family in my humble opinion. Unfortunately, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia airs on a cable network whereas Modern Family airs on ABC, so that will never happen. Plus, if the show was ever nominated for an Outstanding Comedy TV series Emmy award and if Modern Family were also nominated, I would definitely root for the show to win over Modern Family even though I’ve always rooted for Modern Family to win at the Emmy’s in the past. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia truly is a brilliant TV show and as much as I love Modern Family, I believe that it’s even more deserving of winning an Emmy than Modern Family ever has been.

Apparently It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia was almost canceled after its first season due to low ratings, however the executives at the FX Network decided to renew it and give it a chance for the ratings to grow under the condition that the producers add a new character to the show and get a big name actor to play the role. The president of the FX Network was apparently a friend of Danny DeVito’s, so they approached him about joining the show. DeVito agreed to sign on for all ten episodes of season two since he and his children apparently big fans of the show during its first season. DeVito enjoyed being a part of the show for season two that he decided to be a regular cast member on the show.

However, Danny DeVito’s availability for filming the show’s second season was limited to twenty days, which meant that the scripts for all ten episodes had to be written before filming for the season began. They also had to film scenes for multiple episodes all at the same time in order to accommodate DeVito’s schedule instead of filming one episode at a time, which also meant that the show’s script supervisor and the rest of the crew had to keep detailed records when it came to things such as what the actors did with their hands in scene, what clothes they wore and what the makeup looked like on the actors in various scenes in order to maintain continuity in each of the episodes. This is something that they explained in the season one and two DVD set extra “Sunny Side Up Making-Of Featurette”. Based on the DVD commentaries for several season six episodes, it sounds like the show has continued to film the seasons that followed in a similar manner where they will be filming scenes for several different episodes all at the same time. I don’t know if the reason they are still filming each season with this technique is to accommodate DeVito’s schedule or if they do it for other reasons now, but regardless of the reasons for them doing that, I think it just goes to show what a great cast and crew the show has because they’ve always done a really good of preserving continuity on the show.

I have to say that I did think it was really weird for me personally to watch the show’s first season since it was the sixth season that got me into the show in the first place. I just remember thinking it was weird to go from having the first episodes of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia that I ever watched be episodes from the point in the series be episodes where Danny DeVito was a member of the cast to watching the first season when he wasn’t a part of the show’s cast yet. I feel like the show had a very different feel back in season one compared to the seasons that followed once DeVito had joined the cast. The overall tone of the first season also felt much darker in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I like season one, but I definitely think the show started to get even better once DeVito joined the cast. He really adds a lot to the show and the character Frank was a great addition to the cast.

That being said, if there’s one thing that I learned from watching episode 7x05 “Frank’s Brother”, it’s that as much as I love Danny DeVito on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and as much as I love the character Frank, he can’t carry an entire episode on his own. Personally, I think that episode is the worst episode ever of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, because I didn’t laugh once as I was watching it. To this day, I’ve only watched the episode two times. The first time was when it aired on TV and the second time was when I was writing my review of the episode. I understand that the writers were trying to do something different with that episode by having it focus on Frank and his brother as they were telling the others about something that happened in the past, but the main reason why I feel like the episode was so terrible was because it pretty much only focused on Frank and his brother who we had never seen before.

If the writers really wanted to do an episode where they introduce Frank’s brother, I think it would have been much better if they’d come with a storyline for the episode that featured Dennis, Charlie, Mac and Dee more prominently with Frank’s brother being a part of their storyline. I just found it hard to get into watching the episode since it revolved almost entirely around Frank and his brother who we had never met before, which it made hard for me to care about what was going on in the episode. Besides, I just don’t think that episode is one bit funny. The writers completely dropped the ball when they wrote that episode, if you ask me.

I have to admit that sometimes I think it’s kind of weird to see Frank spend so much time Dee, Dennis, Mac and Charlie since Dee and Dennis are his kids and they are all much younger than him. Yes, he’s Dee and Dennis’ legal father, but they’ve frequently said throughout the show’s run that they think he’s a horrible father, so people would probably think that they could easily ignore him and shut him out of their lives. At least the writers did acknowledge that Dee and Dennis probably wouldn’t want Frank to have such a prominent presence in their lives back in season two when they refused to let him be a part of The Gang, which led him to buy the land that the bar is on in episode 2x02 “The Gang Goes Jihad” as a way to weasel his way into becoming a member of The Gang. Plus, Paddy’ Pub has always been relatively unsuccessful bar, so it’s obvious that Frank’s money is a huge part of what keeps the bar from going out of business, which I guess explains why Dennis, Charlie, Mac and Dee don’t really have the luxury of shutting Frank out of their lives. Although, the show has always had the tendency to be on the rather absurd side, so in that sense it isn’t too big of a stretch of the imagination as to why Frank would spend so much time with Dennis, Charlie, Mac and Dee instead of simply hanging out with people his own age.

Although, I should probably mention that after Dee and Dennis discovered that Frank isn’t their biological father in episode 2x10 “Dennis and Dee Get a New Dad”, and that their biological father was actually a man named Bruce Mathis who their mother had had an affair with they did admit that they would rather have Frank for a father than Bruce Mathis be their father since they were so uncomfortable with the fact that he’s very devoted so much of his life to helping with various humanitarian causes. Personally, I loved that Dennis and Dee were so opposed to Bruce’s working with humanitarian causes because it really reinforced the idea that Dee and Dennis, as well as the rest of The Gang are self-centered and horrible people. I have to say that I love the character Bruce Mathis because despite his compassion for people who are less fortunate than him, he did show that he was capable of screwing over The Gang in episode 3x03 “Dennis and Dee’s Mom Is Dead”. Plus, it was just really fun for me to see Stephen Collins play a character that was so different from the character he played on 7^th Heaven.

As I was watching season seven, I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of the episodes took place mostly if not entirely outside the bar. Maybe other people don’t think that the amount of screen time that took place outside the bar was any different from the amount of screen time outside the bar in previous seasons, but it felt that way to me. By having The Gang spend what felt like a lout of time outside the bar, it definitely seemed to me like the writers were trying to do a lot new and different things last season, and it was fun for me to watch The Gang interacting with other people when they weren’t spending time in the bar. With the exception of episode 7x05 “Frank’s Brother”, I would say that the writers’ attempts to do something that was new and different on the show last season were all successful.

For example, one episode that I feel really deviated from the show’s typical style is episode 7x09 “The Gang Gets Trapped”. For starters, it took place entirely outside the bar, but the thing that made it really different from most episodes is that they typically show what leads The Gang to formulate a scheme only to have it go increasingly wrong as the episode progresses. However in that episode, it began with The Gang’s scheme to steal an artifact from a family having already gone wrong, because they discovered that the family was home, so the whole episode was basically Dennis, Dee and Frank trying to figure out a way to get out of the house without being caught. In the end, the episode ended with a rapid conclusion where Dennis, Dee, Frank and Charlie who came into the house at one point in the episode decided to simply walk out the font door, because they realized that the mom was too wrapped up in her plans to leave her husband for another man, taking her daughter with them to notice that Dee and Dennis were in the house and that Charlie had snuck into the house simply by entering the house through the front door after they had overheard the mom, daughter and the mom’s boyfriend talking to each other throughout the episode. The episode did end with somewhat of a twist involving the family, but I’m not going to reveal what the twist is in case anyone reading this has never seen the episode before and decides to watch it. I have to say that episode is definitely one of my favorite episodes from season seven because it was so different from most episodes of the show, and of course it was also very funny.

I’m guessing the fact that they had so many episodes in season seven that took place mostly if not entirely outside the bar is a big part of why they did episode 7x07 “Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games”, which is a bottle episode. Usually I’m not a fan of bottle episodes, because I feel like having those episodes be limited to sets that have already been built with very few if any guest stars drastically limits what the writers can do in the episode, and in the end they just end up not being very good. However, I think that episode was a bottle episode done perfectly, and it showed that a bottle episode can still be a very good and enjoyable episode. Honestly, I didn’t even realize that it was a bottle episode until I got on the IMDB message board for the show after I watched the episode the first time and somebody else on the board mentioned that it was a bottle episode. I would even go as far as to say that it’s definitely one of my top all-time favorite episodes of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

Another one of the many things that makes the show as awesome as it is in my opinion is the fact that pretty much all of the main characters have an extremely delusional view of themselves compared to how all of the other characters see them. For example, Dennis has always been portrayed as believing that he was one of the most popular guys when he was in high school and just being rather narcissistic in general. However, in the two-part season seven finale it was established that all the other kids in high school had always thought that he was really weird because he would do things such as refer to himself as “The Golden God”.

In Mac’s case, he’s always believed that he’s very adept at martial arts, but doesn’t show any actual talent when it comes to martial arts. Plus, he typically wears sleeveless shirts in order to show off his apparent muscular physique and tribal tattoos, but in reality he is perhaps the weakest member of The Gang since he primarily focuses on his glamour muscles when he goes to the gym to work out. Dee aspires to be a comedienne and actress, but she hasn’t really made any real progress towards achieving that goal throughout the course of the show’s run not to mention the fact that she also suffers from severe stage fright.

Charlie is also a rather brilliant character in my opinion who is perhaps the least morally corrupt character on the show. He’s practically illiterate, but he considers himself to be a lawyer who specializes in “bird law”. His favorite food is a dish called milk steak. There’s also the fact that Charlie is most likely Frank’s son. This is something that aside from Charlie’s mom telling Charlie that Frank is his father has been strongly implied due to the fact that they seem to have a strange connection to each other, but at the moment it remains unconfirmed if Frank is indeed Charlie’s father. They are roommates and have some rather odd, yet funny habits when it comes to their living arrangements, especially since they live in squalor. First off, they sleep in a pullout couch together, every night they huff glue and eat cat food before they go to bed because it’s apparently the only way they are able to go to sleep since there are a ton of cats outside their apartment, which I’m guessing is due to the fact that their apartment is full of cat food.

Personally, I think that the reason why Charlie is perhaps the least morally corrupt character on the show simply because he’s so dumb. Although, his obsession with The Waitress has led him to do some pretty questionable things at times, which along with rest of The Gang’s involvement has really messed up her life. There are several things that make Charlie’s obsession with The Waitress very entertaining. First off, there’s the fact that Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis are married in real life, which makes the fact that she’s constantly rejecting his advances, but has been infatuated with Dennis throughout the show’s run rather hilarious in my opinion. Next, Charlie along with everyone else on the show doesn’t even know what her name is even though they all went to high school together. Personally, I like that the writers have had The Waitress’ name remain a mystery much like they did with Mac’s full name until the two part season seven finale. It makes everyone’s interactions with her very funny, especially since they’ve established that people think she’s rather forgettable.

One episode that’s fairly Charlie-centric that I strongly recommend checking out especially if you’re not familiar with the show is episode 4x13 “The Nightman Cometh”. The plot of the episode is that Charlie writes a musical and asks the rest of The Gang to play parts in the play. It’s definitely a good episode that demonstrates a lot of the aspects of the character Charlie such as the fact that he’s basically illiterate, his obsession with The Waitress and his relationship with Frank. It’s also a good episode for new viewers because it also showcases recurring aspects of the other characters as well.

From where I’m standing, it takes real talent for a writer to be able to create characters that are rather unlikable people who constantly betray each other even though they are supposed to me friends, and yet the viewers still love the characters because of the way they act. I find Mac’s rather harsh treatment towards Dee rather amusing due to the fact that Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson are married in real life the same way I find Charlie and The Waitress’ relationship very funny. So many times I think that writers ultimately don’t do a very good job of creating unlikable characters that their audience still ends up liking despite all of the qualities that they have that make them unlikable to the other characters in the story. I know that personally have typically never been able to do a very good job of accomplishing that myself when I’ve attempted to do that, but the writers of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia have done a terrific job of doing that. I think that’s one of the things that have made the show so popular with its viewers. On the IMDB message board for It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, I’ve seen a lot of discussions about which character people think is the most corrupt and immoral character on the show and which character is the least corrupt and immoral character, and like I said I feel the least corrupt character on the show is Charlie.

I should mention that even the writers have acknowledged how dysfunctional Dennis, Dee, Charlie, Mac and Frank’s relationships with each other are. They had Dr. Drew Pinsky otherwise known as Dr. Drew participate in the DVD commentaries for episode 5x04 “The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention” and episode 5x09 “Mac and Dennis Break Up” where he commented on the characters and The Gang’s relationships with each other from a psychiatrist’s point of view and how they all demonstrate sociopathic tendencies. It was really interesting to get a psychiatrist’s point of view on the characters given how complex they all are.

If you’re not interested in watching every episode, here are some episodes that I recommend checking out:

• 1x01 “The Gang Gets Racist”
• 1x03 “Underage Drinking: A National Concern”
• 2x01 “Charlie Gets Crippled”
• 2x04 “Mac Bangs Dennis’ Mom”
• 2x10 “Dennis and Dee Get a New Dad”
• 3x01 “The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby”
• 3x03 “Dennis and Dee’s Mom Is Dead”
• 3x07 “The Gang Sells Out”
• 3x15 “The Gang Dances Their Asses Off”
• 4x04 “Mac’s Banging the Waitress”
• 4x08 “Paddy’s Pub: The Worst Bar in Philadelphia”
• 4x10 “Sweets Dee Has a Heart Attack”
• 4x13 “The Nightman Cometh”
• 5x02 “The Gang Hits the Road”
• 5x04 “The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention”
• 5x05 “The Waitress Is Getting Married”
• 5x09 “Mac and Dennis Break Up”
• 5x10 “The D.E.N.N.I.S. System”
• 6x01 “Mac Fights Gay Marriage”
• 6x02 “Dennis Gets Divorced”
• 6x03 “The Gang Buys a Boat”
• 6x07 “Who Got Dee Pregnant?”
• 6x08 “The Gang Gets a New Member”
• 6x09 “Dee Reynolds: Shaping America’s Youth”
• 6x12 “Dee Gives Birth”
• 7x04 “Sweet Dee Gets Audited”
• 7x06 “The Storm of the Century”
• 7x07 “Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games”
• 7x08 “The Anti-Social Network”
• 7x09 “The Gang Gets Trapped”
• 7x11 “Thunder Gun Express”
• 7x12 “The High School Reunion”
• 7x13 “The High School Reunion Part 2: The Gang’s Revenge”

Honestly, it’s impossible for me to narrow down the list of episodes that I would recommend watching because there are simply too many truly awesome episodes to not at least mention briefly. In terms of the episodes I listed, if you’re not going to watch all of them, I would strongly recommend watching episode 2x01 “Charlie Gets Crippled” because it’s Danny DeVito’s first episode, and I feel like it really set and established the tone of the show even more so than season one did because the show really started to take off once he joined the cast. The show got even better in season three, which is where I feel like the show truly took off and became the awesome that it is now. 

Another episode that I would strongly recommend checking out is episode 5x10 “The D.E.N.N.I.S. System” for several seasons. The first reason being that it really helps develop the character Dennis a little more in addition to all of the character development that all of the other prior episodes had. The episode reveals that Dennis has a system for seducing women, which is where the title of the episode comes from, and The D.E.N.N.I.S. System is something that’s mentioned in many future episodes. That episode was also one of the episodes where I found myself really loving Dennis as a character before season seven. I feel that I should mention that Glenn Howerton’s wife, Jill Latiano, plays the woman that Dennis tries to seduce once again in order to prove that his system to seduce women works. 

One last episode that I would definitely put at the top of my personal recommendations would be episode 6x03 “The Gang Buys A Boat” simply because it’s the episode that officially got me completely hooked on the show, which I mentioned earlier. It also includes a scene that has become one of the most iconic moments from the show where Mac and Dennis discuss putting women in situations that give the implication that they are in danger. That scene also shows that Dennis definitely had some sociopathic tendencies before they became blatantly obvious in season seven when those tendencies went to a level that was rather extreme and over the top.

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia really is a great show, and as much as I love Modern Family, I truly believe that It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is the funniest comedy on TV right now. The characters very complex, and the writers are constantly pushing the envelope in ways that most shows on TV haven’t, especially for a TV series. It’s not just a show about five self-centered people; the writers have also dealt with a lot of social and political issues, which is usually in a very bizarre way. If you’re a fan of the TV show Seinfeld, and you’ve never seen this show, then I definitely think It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is worth taking the time to check out, because the show truly is Seinfeld on crack and simply flat out brilliant.