'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' Origin Story
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Rob McElhenny and Glenn Howerton -- the two creators and stars of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia -- along with FX President John Landgraf, tell the unlikely origin story of this off-beat comedy.
Banner image: (L-R) Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton at the season premieres of FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Photo by Brian Dowling/PictureGroup/FX 2012
Banter
The Hollywood News Banter ()
Kim Masters and John Horn, film writer for the Los Angeles Times, banter about some of this week's top Hollywood news stories.
- Adage reports that advertising rates during football games have risen as rates for shows like American Idol have fallen precipitously.
- Electronics company Sony is experiencing some financial troubles so Sony Pictures is having to look for financial partners to cut production expenses on their movies. Fox will now finance half of the George Clooney-Sony movie, Monuments Men, and Paramount will pick up an Adam Sandler comedy that Sony was going to produce.
- Zero Dark Thirty, the Kathryn Bigelow movie about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, will now have a slower release strategy than originally announced. It's unclear if this is because of the awards strategy or if it also has to do with Sony's financial troubles.
Guests:
Main Topic
John Landgraf; Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton ()
The origin story of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a lesson in chuztpah and initiative. Three friends and aspiring actors -- Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day -- made a pilot as a short film for themselves. But what began simply, quickly developed into something more significant. They shopped it around town as a potential TV show and got a lot of bites. FX President John Landgraf talks about how the pilot came out of nowhere from three guys with no experience but how he was taken with it immediately.
McElehenney and Howerton tell The Business producer Darby Maloney about those early days, what motivated them, and how they had the confidence to insist that they be the producers and show-runner despite having absolutely no experience producing TV. They talk about how they welcomed Danny DeVito in the second season. And even though the series is in its eighth season with plans for two more and has been sold into syndication on Comedy Central, it still doesn't feel like a huge success to them... partially because they get no Awards love.
Guests:
- John Landgraf: FX Networks
- Rob McElhenney: writer, producer and actor
- Glenn Howerton: writer, producer and actor, @Glenn_Howerton
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