It's Always Sunny at PaleyLive!

Season 17 premieres in less than a week, and finally after years of little-to-no hype to build us up to the new seasons, they decided to have a premiere! It wasn’t the typical FX-sponsored, entire cast and crew premiere they’ve done in years past, but there was some fanfare, celebrating both the new season and the 20th anniversary of the show’s premiere with a screening of the first episode (The Gang Fucks up Abbott Elementary) and a cast conversation at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles on July 2, 2025. 

In any case I would have probably covered this event as best I could, but I was actually fortunate enough to be able to hop on a plane and fly over there (so yes, I have seen the first episode of Season 17 already… but that’s for a later discussion) and capture the events of the panel personally! 

Now, despite the screening just ahead of it, other than Glenn pointing out a continuity error in the character’s knowledge in the middle of another conversation, there was no discussion of the episode itself (or any other Season 17 episode to come). However, there was an early question in the panel regarding something people have been wondering for months, following Abbott Elementary's episode of the crossover: Can Charlie Kelly now read?

According to Charlie Day, it would be a bummer if so. He shared with us that Charlie Kelly did learn to read a little bit, but then went home and huffed a ton of spray paint and promptly forgot what he had learned. So that’s that! Don’t expect Charlie to be pulling out a novel to pass the time on the Gang’s long-haul trip to West Virginia this season. (You should check out the Season 17 updates tab if you haven’t clicked around there in awhile!) 

The majority of the panel conversation was centered on the fact that Sunny is turning 20 years old, and the legacy that comes with that (which is admittedly how the event was advertised), moderated by Alan Sepinwall. Now, if you’re a Sunny fan who has listened to and/or read every interview of the cast that’s available, you’d agree many of the questions posed and the answers/stories in response are a bit of a rehash, but it was still a very fun (and cool) panel to be in the audience for, with some new perspectives/insights on things we've heard discussed in the past. 

But just like the entire internet for the past week, Rob’s name change was all the buzz at the start of the conversation. Though, this was maybe more called for, as it replaced his name in all five (yes, 5) instances during the opening credits, to the surprise of Danny DeVito. “I thought they were fucked up!” He said to Rob (and the crowd) (and then apologized that he was going to be dropping a lot of “F-bombs”). Rob clarified that it was a serious decision he has made, and Charlie pointed out that Rob should have changed his name to “Blaze” instead, as that’s what he went by in 10th grade. With that little back and forth, the topic of Rob’s name was thankfully dropped, and we moved on to more interesting subjects…

In discussing how the show has gone on for 20 years now without faltering, Glenn was quick to mention that they’ve actually been at this for 22 years now, with the original pilot having been filmed in 2003, and back then they really just wanted to make one great episode of television, which is how they continue to look at the show 20 (22) years later. Charlie said it really comes down to the scene for him, how can they make each moment perfect. With every season, Glenn said, they’re just surprised they’re allowed to go at it again, with as much freedom as any show has ever been afforded, so they take full advantage of that to do whatever they want, as best as they believe they can do it. 

And speaking of the origins of the show, the topic of casting Kaitlin came up, which is always a fun discussion considering Rob, her now-husband, was the only hold out in the audition room. “You dismissed her outright,” Glenn pointed out, which Rob tried to refute by claiming it wasn’t dismissive, he just believed that Kaitlin was “not the one.” Kaitlin interjected to remind everyone Rob only believed that because she had failed to say the “funniest line” in the script (which he had written). Glenn went on to praise Kaitlin’s comedic acting by highlighting how she can say and do the most insane things while managing to keep her performance feeling real, which is something hard to achieve. In the midst of his praise, Kaitlin turned to Rob for a comment, to which Rob sat back and told Kaitlin to pay Glenn a compliment back, and we can “just see what happens.” “We’ve got all night long,” Kaitlin responded…

But back to discussing the actual show (and looping back to Glenn and Charlie’s prior point a little), Rob discussed how he believes they’ve managed to stay on the air so long because they really put their all into every new episode they get to create. While they have a blast making it, they understand they’re asking people to dedicate 30 minutes of their time to what they’ve created and don’t take that lightly (and it shows in what they manage to put out). Charlie added a thank you to FX, again, for believing in them enough to keep them on their air no matter what (a lot of pedestaling John Landgraf here… I’ll allow it) and also thanked us! The audience/fans, for watching the show and continuing to ask for more seasons. 

With age, many sitcoms start to ‘fall off’ due to the fact that the characters remaining in their same ways of life, making the same mistakes, ends up reading as more sad to the audience than funny after a decade of situations. How do you keep that from happening on Sunny?  “It’s always been sad!” “We started at sad!” “It’s never not sad!” RCG were all quick to respond. “Sad is funny,” Kaitlin chimed in.  (This, as many of us understand, is Sunny’s thesis, in a way. The Gang’s lives are really a tragedy in a million different ways, once you look past the hilarity and really begin to dissect them.) 

So, in that case, is there anything [sad] that’s even funnier with age? “That Mac and Dennis are roommates still is so funny…these two guys are still living together,” Rob immediately responded. “In an apartment that looks like it was [decorated] by twenty year olds,” Glenn added. Rob was also quick to point out the other roommate situation they've had going on for two decades, “Frank and Charlie sleep in the same bed.” “In the same bed!” Danny emphasized. “It sags in the middle because we have to have a place for the poop to go,” he explained, referencing one of Sunny’s most well-known episodes, Who Pooped the Bed? 

And “Charlie is still wearing the same green shirt after twenty years,” Sepinwall contributed. “How many of those are there?” “It’s sort of a jacket,” Charlie corrected. “Please don’t reduce it to a shirt,” he joked. But the answer? There’s only one. It’s the same jacket he bought for himself before they shot the Pilot, albeit it’s been repaired quite a few times. And it’s “getting a little tighter,” according to Charlie. 

The idea that the Gang rarely learn from their mistakes is a central theme of Sunny, another major player when it comes to discussing how the show can (but also does not) age, but that theme doesn’t always keep them from injecting moments of self-awareness that lead to certain changes in their characters understandings/perspectives. “How do you figure out the line in which they can learn this much and no more?” “That’s tricky,” Rob answered. Sometimes they’ll have a discussion in the writers room where they realize a pitch contradicts canon, so they dismiss it, but sometimes they’ll decide just to “eradicate canon” because “we can do whatever the fuck we want.” And this is the point in which Glenn interjected to point out that he noticed a canon consistency error in the episode we had just watched, The Gang Fucks Up Abbott Elementary. 

Since the inconsistency is an episode spoiler, I won’t mention what it is that he caught, but Charlie jokingly turned the blame for the error around on Glenn: “That’s what you get for doing Sinners,” he said to him. “What’s that?” Glenn responded. “You weren’t there when we were having that conversation,” Charlie clarified, implying he was referencing a discussion that had taken place in the writers room, which Glenn had been absent for a chunk of due to filming Sirens (not Sinners, which he is not in, lmfao) in New York. But they quickly came up with an excusatory explanation as to how they can get around that canon inconsistency. “There’s a lot of justification that goes on in the writers room,” Rob shared, this conversation proving his point. 

With the conversation topic having warped from the Gang’s actions to the mistakes of RCG, Rob shared how many of the continuity mistakes they make just aren’t noticed, for example in some of the early episodes there are scenes in which they will be outside the bar in one outfit and enter the bar wearing completely different shirts, but “your mind just fills in the blanks.” (I can’t think of a direct instance of this, so I believe what Rob might be talking about is when there are on-location scenes which are supposed to be the same day/continuous with a Paddy’s scene, but we as the audience view the two scenes as different days due to the characters being in different clothes.) 

“Look, we’re still trying to figure out how to do this,” Charlie jokingly interjected. “I still don’t know what an act break is,” Rob admitted. “We sort of just, do it until it ends…” “That’s true we don’t write act breaks into the show at all,” Glenn supplied. “We just get into the editing room and we’re like, ‘I guess put a commercial here? I dunno.’” (Pick out any random Sunny script you want and you can see that this is true for yourself!)

Considering all of the ‘headache’ of not knowing basically anything when they started out, now having to constantly decide if they will stick with or break canon twenty years on to make certain things work, Sepinwall asked if they would have changed anything about the show early on, if they had known it was going to go on for 20 years. The cast was silent for a second but an audience member was quick to give a definitive “No,” as the answer. “You’re right!” Charlie responded. Rob went on to mention that the only changes they’ve really fought over are “more technological” (implying that dealing with addressing canon problems isn't ever much of a 'real' fight, but more 'excusatory' as they evidenced above), with Rob wanting to embrace newer technology and Charlie standing firm with keeping the show as it is (and Glenn somewhere in the middle). Of course the most famous example of this (discussed on The Always Sunny Podcast), which Rob recounted during the panel, is that Rob pushed for Sunny to move to filming in a 16:9 aspect ratio, and in HD, while Charlie wanted to keep the show in 4:3 (and he still would if he could!). 

As to when Glenn is no longer somewhere on the fence during their debates? When it’s about character choices, potentially pushing the comedy too far to a point where it’s uncomfortable to film: Rob claimed that Glenn’s biggest pushback to-date was on the Implication scene, which he recalled Glenn was incredibly hesitant to film. Glenn refuted this claim in a way, saying he didn’t recall resisting doing the original scene from The Gang Buys a Boat in which his character explains the Implication (in fact, he later said he remembers finding the script for that conversation hilarious, but maybe he did in the moment think it could be crossing a line), but that his more-adamant refusal was doing the cruise ship scene (in The Gang Goes to Hell) where the audience “actually had to see the implication in action.”: “I was like, ‘Please, guys, please don’t make me do this. Please.’,” he recalled. “But it doesn’t work!” Charlie interjected. “That’s why it’s funny.” “Yeah, yeah,” Glenn acknowledged. “There’s just certain things that as a human being, you know, it’s just tough to stomach.” 

And while we were on the subject of Dennis’ questionable thought processes, Sepinwall took the opportunity to ask Glenn if he could share any “potentially worse” crimes Dennis may have committed. Charlie jokingly stepped in before Glenn could speak, “You don’t have to answer that without a lawyer,” but Glenn was happy to give his own answer. “I don’t want to fill in the blanks for people necessarily, but if you’re just asking me, personally, I think we’re dealing with a very sad and delusional man, who is clinging to any sort of power that he can possibly have in any given situation, and will do whatever it takes to achieve that. But I don’t think that, well—,”

“I’m going to advise my client to stop talking,” Rob jokingly interrupted, appearing as Glenn’s lawyer. “I don’t answer questions,” Glenn fell in line. 

(Glenn, as clearly evidenced by a later shared (but earlier filmed) red carpet interview (more on that a little further down the page), was likely on pace to discuss how he doesn’t see Dennis as some kind of serial killer off-screen, his rants and ravings being part of a facade Dennis’ has built up only to appear that way. Rob (and Charlie) stepping in as lawyers to keep him from sharing too much of the truth indicates that they prefer the true underbellies of the characters to not be blatantly pointed out (perhaps reflecting Mac and Charlie in Season 12’s Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer), reserved for a deeper reading of the character(s).)

And naturally, while on the topic of writing Dennis Reynolds in a panel about the longevity of the show, the subject of Glenn quitting came up. And this moment has already been reported on to death (not only in the past, but following this panel as well—it was the major portion of this panel news outlets decided to cover), so I’m gonna move past that recap. We know the story: he wasn’t feeling it anymore, he thought they should end it, they didn’t wanna end it, he left, he got pulled back in…Or, really, he came back to save them, as Danny (a little facetiously) interpreted of Glenn’s words following Glenn expressing that he became more involved in the writers room again because he was “finding [him]self having a lot of opinions about the episodes [they] were writing,” and he decided he wanted to “get [his] hands dirty again.” 

He naturally slotted back into the Sunny machine, and now he’s more excited and optimistic about the show that seemingly ever before. (In fact, he dedicated an Instagram post to the event the next day, expressing his gratitude for it all.)  Side note, there was a very funny moment in the middle of Glenn discussing leaving the show in which Danny dropped his microphone… and I’ll let a video do the rest of the talking:

Of course, there could not be a celebration of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia without talking about the memes. “You really never know,” Rob said about the way fans (and the general public) respond to certain scenes or gags in the show. There’s some things they’d never imagine were going to blow up, such as Mac’s obsession with karate. “When we started the show there was no such thing as a meme,” Charlie pointed out. “If I got paid per meme….” Charlie pondered. (He’d be a very, very, very rich man.) “There are certainly things where we knew they were going to work, and then they did work,” Rob said, before going into the story about Danny DeVito’s famous “couch birthing” from A Very Sunny Christmas.  Danny chimed in to discuss the whole set up (he had to wear a pouch for his junk…so he wouldn’t trip over it) and how they had to do multiple takes of him coming out of the couch because Kaitlin was so shocked by the sight of it all she forgot to say her line. 

But back to the topic of memes, Glenn expressed that “We need a ‘What is Happening?’ Supercut.” To which I could not help but yell out, “I made one, Glenn!” (Because, well, I did.) Glenn asked where it was and when I told him Twitter (it’s also on Tumblr, as a very beautiful gifset, but Twitter seemed like a better shot), he said “You mean ‘X’?” facetiously. I told him I would put it on Youtube, which I did, but also, on Thursday, Rob quoted the compilation on Twitter, addressed to Glenn:

To date, Glenn has yet to comment, so whether or not he’s seen it is anyone's guess…

With a final few minutes left, we got into the grit of the show—discussing the characters. Known for their terrible actions, the Gang each have long rap sheets, but what is the worst thing the actors each think their characters have done?

For Glenn, still fresh in his mind, he went back to Dennis’ attempted use of The Implication on the cruise ship. “Probably the most despicable thing you’ve seen my character do.” Charlie? The thing he did to Ruby Taft (the name, apparently an inside joke) “was so ruthless.” Charlie Kelly used her (and slept with her) all to make the Waitress feel his absence and lessen her restraining order against him by 50 feet.  Danny innocently claimed that Frank has “never done anything wrong or bad to anybody.” “Have I?” He asked the audience, to which one person brought up the moment when he showed Dennis and Dee their dead mother in her grave. “Oh…” Danny replied, “You mean the dead hor.” Someone else in the audience yelled out about Roxy, Frank’s Pretty Woman who they dumped in the hallway. “We gotta push the envelope if we do this again,” Danny said (presumably of the Gang’s treatment of dead bodies). “You know what I mean? We gotta, just, make it really bad.” 

“Maybe the two decades-long declined of an ordained priest?” Kaitlin offered of her character’s worst action. “Poor Cricket.” “What about the stripper?” Someone from the audience countered. “What did I do with a stripper?” Kaitlin wondered. Glenn reminded her that Dee had a man strip in front of his own daughter (to get back at him for calling her his “rock bottom”), which had Kaitlin ecstatic. “Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That was cool. That was cool.”  And as for Mac, Rob began by saying “I think maybe cook—cooking,” before he was interrupted by an audience member. (I believe he was going to say cooking a dog and feeding it to Dennis, as that is the most infamous Mac crime to most people.) What had the audience member suggested? Blackface. “Black body, not just face,” Kaitlin clarified. Rob then reminisced on the way they treated the baby (D.B.) in The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby and added, “Not just my own black face, but painting a child’s face black” (which he pointed out he has not seen been brought up as much of an issue on Reddit). 

Finally, they got around to audience questions (unfortunately only one, but it was a good one!). A fan from Philly who grew up watching the show (via their parents, inducting him into the fandom from the womb), Colin Mick, asked the cast how their relationship with the city of Philadelphia has changed over the past 20 years. Danny was quick to jump in on his mic, expressing his annoyance with the studio for not letting them shoot there anymore, because he has great memories filming there (very specifically filming on the stream grate in Season 3’s episode Bums: Making a Mess All Over Philadelphia.) Rob jumped in to clarify that “the executives didn’t stop us from going.” “It was because we all started having babies,” Kaitlin revealed. “We started having kids, and we would spend a week and a half in Philly on a bender, from start to finish. So almost every scene you could see of us in Philly, we were pretty much hammered,” Rob revealed. (On The Always Sunny Podcast a few years ago they discussed how they would go out and party every night when they were shooting in Philly, but Rob revealing that they were drunk while filming as well is pretty funny, as that’s something they’ve historically tried hard to deny—well, except for that one time it was obvious on a TV interview.) “I thought it was a budgetary thing,” Danny said. “Ehh!” Kaitlin replied, emulating the incorrect buzzer of Family Fight. “It was a liver thing,” Rob admitted. “We miss you guys!” the fan from Philly called out, to which Danny seemed to try and promise that they would go back to film there again some day. We can only hope…

And with that, the panel wrapped up, sweeping the cast off the stage before anyone could give them more than a minute-long round of applause! (The entire discussion was just under 50 minutes long, despite this being advertised as a two hour long event, so I am not sure if it was mislabeled from the start, or if it was cut short last minute for some reason… I am leaning toward the latter due to the fact that only one fan question was answered.)  

But that wasn’t all the information we got from the event on Tuesday night! As I mentioned briefly when Glenn was asked about Dennis' “worse crimes” during the panel, there was a red carpet press event just prior to the screening. While they didn’t let the “fake” press join in (if they had, I’d have given you all a real treat…), the outlets who are considered “real” media were pretty quick to get out their conversations with the cast! A question from US Weekly, in particular, tied in perfectly with what Glenn was advised against expanding on earlier (or, later, if you're Glenn), answering, “In my mind he’s not. In my mind he’s just delusional…he’s willing to do whatever it takes to be in control of any situation more than that he’s an actual serial killer,” giving us a much more definitive “no” answer than what Charlie and Rob ‘allowed’ on stage. 

As surely predicted, there were a few questions on Rob’s name change brought up on the press line, which I am going to blow right past for everyone’s sake (the jokes about it are funny, but the rest of this “news” grew very stale very quickly). Actually connected to the upcoming season, Rob shared how he enjoyed the fact that everyone thought the crossover they were talking about for the season was the Abbott Elementary one, so they were able to keep the Golden Bachelor crossover a secret (well, not from everyone, Rob!). And on the subject of crossovers, when asked by TheWrap on what sitcom they’d like to crossover with next, Charlie and Glenn both said What We Do In The Shadows.

To People, Danny DeVito expanded a little on the Golden Bachelor crossover, confirming that the actress in a snippet of the trailer is in fact his former Taxi co-star, Carol Kane, and that he “had a ball doing it.” He also told People that if he were on a dating show he would need a doctor’s assistance to get through it… a “trail of blue pills” for a “little old boost.” Could Danny have been referencing the viagra plot we are sure exists in the season, the elusive Rhino Dynamo which seemingly is sponsoring this Season? (And does that mean it’s related to The Golden Bachelor Live?)

Danny also praised the writing of the season in speaking with People, “They write such great stuff. If it's not on the page, it ain't on the stage”, a sentiment which was echoed by Glenn and Charlie in speaking with On the Red Carpet: “We really got a real murderers row of our favorite writers that we’ve worked with over the years,” Glenn said in praise of the season. “It’s one of our strongest in years…the chemistry was good and the jokes were flying, and I think this season is really strong,” Charlie supplied. (Now, RCG saying ‘this is the best season in years’ is something we hear basically every new season, but considering the “murderers row of writers” includes the return of Dave and John Chernin, as well as Sunny vet Rob Rosell, I am in no way doubting that the writing for Season 17 is going to be as strong as ever.)

Also to On the Red Carpet via a now-expired Instagram story, Charlie expressed that he misses doing the musical episodes, telling a reporter that in a future episode he wants to “get back to” doing “something with music.” And along those similar lines, Screen Rant asked Glenn about a potential sequel to their most famous musical episode, The Nightman Cometh, to which Glenn expressed that while there was a desire to do one, “we’ve all floated out ideas over the years as to what it would be, but nothing has quite stuck yet.” (In all honesty, I’ve never understood what this would be or why this is wanted, considering the events are a fictionalized version of Charlie’s childhood sexual abuse from start to end, so I can see why the writers cannot come up with how a sequel would play out…however if Charlie is looking to get another musical episode into Sunny and this is the path, I am sure he’ll find a way to make it work.)

Finally, FX’s social team was present and gave us a great little bit, having Charlie and Mac recreate their stare-down in The Gang Dines Out. (And I made a little parallel of the two!) 

And while that may be all of the event news we got, it certainly hasn’t been the extent of everything Sunny-related we got this week. In case you missed it, there's a brand new teaser trailer from Sunny’s socials (for what I can best guess is Overage Drinking: a National Concern), three slightly different cable trailers (which gave us some new shots for most of the episodes!), and the synopsis for The Gang Goes to a Dog Track (yet still no director...)!

All of this, plus getting to meet a ton of people (old and new) in the fandom across the country this week has me filled up with Sunny! It certainly feels like we’re only a few days out from the Season now! (Minus the reviews… seriously, where are those?) Now we await release!

It's (Almost) Always Sunny in Philadelphia

I had the pleasure of receiving a copy of 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 early, and am grateful to Kimberly Potts for not only sending me a copy, but also for writing it!

This book diligently combines behind the scenes information (from various interviews, a good chunk of things shared on The Always Sunny Podcast, as well as new interviews conducted for this book) with a well-detailed walkthrough of the sixteen seasons Sunny has put out so far, diving deeper than I could hope into not only how certain episodes contributed to Sunny’s lore in the development of the show and characters itself, but how the passionate fanbase has influenced the show had such a major impact on Sunny’s longevity and success. 

It is an uncensored, full look at the history of Sunny, dedicated to honoring the show while also discussing many of it’s more controversial origins and plots at face-value, and is inclusive of every facet that helped them reach this 20 year milestone. In addition, the walk-through of dozens of episodes throughout the book is a great guide for linking references, connections, and later-provided pieces of information that elevate a viewers understanding and enjoyment of many episodes. 

There are also a ton of fun tidbits baked into this book, among my favorite being the fact that the house first used as Bonnie Kelly’s house in Charlie Got Molested was, in fact, Sunny director Todd Biermann’s house (and that her and Rob actually reconnected because Biermann wanted to help Rob with some remodeling of his sad one-room garage apartment he was living in at the time), that Artemis Pebdani was the one who penned Artemis’ Coyote Ugly monologue in Charlie Has Cancer, that Brittany Daniel would actually love to return as Carmen (RCG are you hearing this?), and that there once existed an It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia branded iPod (DOES ANYONE HAVE ONE OF THESE?). 

My personal favorite thing about hearing anything “behind the scenes” of Sunny is how highly people tend to talk about being on set and working with RCG, so I was happy to see that nothing in this book contradicted that point, in fact in more guest star conversations, it was only reiterated how great it is to appear on the show (and how most hope to return!). My favorite recount came from Wade Boggs, who not only loved his time filming after initially being hesitant, but was bummed not to have got a chance to visit Paddy’s Pub!

I won’t spoil any other reveals/interviews, because it was a lot of fun to discover things while reading, but I do want to use this post to link to a PDF I created, compiling blog posts by Erin Ryan (a staff writer in Seasons 13 and 14) which were referenced in Chapter 11, but are no longer available to view on FX’s Website (due to being deleted by FX). This detailed recount of the Season 13 writers room is something I wasn’t aware had been published until reading this book, and is a really great insight into how the Sunny writers room operates! (If you’ve watched The Always Sunny Podcast, you might already have a pretty good idea, but this 5,000 word series of blog posts discusses the writers room process in much more succinct detail.) It will remain linked on the side bar of the blog as "Writers Room Process"! -->

So even as massive of a Sunny fan as I claim to be, I still learned a couple new things in this book (and throughly enjoyed reading everything I already new), so I can definitely recommend picking it up once it’s released Tomorrow (July 1) to any fan of the series, especially if you’re interested in a detailed exploration of the show’s history, as it paints great connections across the (almost) 20 years of lore that’s been built around Sunny. 

Also, as a really cool bonus to the release of the print copy of 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, Brian Unger (the Lawyer) is narrating the audiobook version..!! (I could listen to that man read off Dennis and Dee’s mom’s will for hours, so I will 100% be seated for him to re-read this book to me on Tuesday.) 

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to Return to FX..!?

For years now (12, to be exact), FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has aired exclusively on FXX. Earlier this year Bleeding Cool wrote an argument for Sunny moving back to FX that I really resonated with, because Sunny airing on FXX is something that's seemed nonsensical to me for the past few years, too:

FXX was launched as FX's comedy channel back in 2013, which made sense at the time, but every new FX comedy for the past few years (see: English Teacher and Adults) isn't going anywhere near the "dedicated comedy channel".. they're all getting primetime airing slots on FX, while FXX is almost exclusively dedicated to Family Guy marathons (you'll never guess what's on FXX right now as I type this). Furthermore, viewership is further restricted on FXX, as it's not a standard cable channel like FX is. FX keeping Sunny tied exclusively to their "re-run channel" almost feels like a slight at this point, like it's the show they're hiding away from public eyes (alright, maybe it is, lmao). And while (at least as far as I'm aware) RCG don't seem to care about where their show airs, it's something that's been a personal gripe of mine for awhile. 

So it really stuck out to me, then, that when they announced the airdate for Season 17 along with dropping the Crossover teaser, they "announced" that the Season would premiere on FX:

Though a bit later the Sunny Instagram dropped a little bar napkin promo, which had FXX on it, so I figured the FX was likely a website typo.

Interestingly enough, though, this has happened again. While the graphic promos (posters and teasers) we are getting say FXX on them, the website updated again to state FX...

 For some sense of comparison, the Season 16 text immediately and always said FXX:

Though, again, I was wary of making some kind of claim that this meant something, because the trailers also say FXX... there's only these small little potential typos saying FX, and is that enough to go all Pepe Silvia over? 

Since the first press release of episodes very much reflected that the two-episode premiere would be on FXX, I figured probably not:

I mean, that's pretty damning.. so, I rest my case. I reasoned that because I want them back on FX I'm simply reading too much into typos...up until tonight. Because, lo and behold, I just got an update to that very press release...

And would you look at that. Not a correction, but an addition. There were no mistakes in any of what I was following, but simply something slipping through the cracks... because it looks like Sunny will (at least for the premiere) air on both channels: FXX and FX, for the first time since Season 8. 

Will this stick around for the remainder of the season? That remains to be seen (but I really hope so), but it certainly seems to indicate that there's an expectation (and want?) for a much larger audience tuning in to The Gang Fucks Up Abbott Elementary. ALL EYES ON SEASON 17!

This must be what Charlie felt like when he finally thought he had figured out the mail room conspiracy....

-Seth

Strike That. Reverse it!

What many may not realize is that my matching of production codes (the #170X numbers) to episode titles, writers, and directors, is all individually speculative based on what I can best deduce from a myriad of factors (behind the scenes pictures, codes we have had confirmed, vibes, etc.)

Tonight we got confirmation that #1702 is, in fact, Mac and Dennis Become EMTs, which is in fact the episode directed by Heath Cullens and written by Charlie, Rob, and Nina Pedrad, all individual parts I put together based on the best information and strongest belief I had. So naturally, after a high W for my sleuthing/prediction skills, there has to come a low...

Because another piece of information I came across tonight is that the actor who plays Cock Chewa, Audrey Corsa, has been credited on IMDb... for Episode #1706. Up until now, I have been operating under the assumption that #1706 was/is The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time, because that episode has always been a mystery to me and just "slotted in there" as the last option, The Golden Bachelor Live! always seemingly belonging to #1708, as it is the finale and was written to be the finale. But obviously Cock Chewa is in The Golden Bachelor Live!, there is no debating that fact, so #1706 is actually the production code for The Golden Bachelor Live! and not The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time. Therefore, this blog is due for some corrections!

If #1706 is The Golden Bachelor Live!, which we know for sure is the finale, that now aligns with the fact that Rob claimed he and Charlie wrote the finale, which is the white board episode, which we can very confidently say is The Golden Bachelor Live!... meaning TGBL is not #1708, and instead that production code belongs to The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time...

(And if you couldn't follow that string of thought, it's okay, I have drawn a map:

This has been corrected on the current Season 17 Updates page!

) And now, with those corrections made, some things from the trailer(s) start to make more sense... 

The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time was coded as #1708 not because it was supposed to be the finale, but because it had to be filmed last due to Charlie shaving his beard... which was a look I was attributing to The Golden Bachelor Live! episode originally, but now must believe it instead belongs to The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time. And since Frank is in a Coma filmed between TGBL and Prime Time, it is highly unlikely bald Charlie belongs to TGBL at all...  So lets take a look and correct some of my initial trailer breakdown claims:

The clearly "Golden Bachelor" stuff is, well, obviously The Golden Bachelor Live! and we do see Cock Chewa in Mac and Dennis' Apartment (with a bearded Charlie):

Which must still belong to that episode (if it's the finale and we are meeting Cock Chewa in this episode, I'm confident to claim she isn't in any other episode). The existence of the "formal" Mac and Dennis table being in another shot right after this, with Dennis, is what initially had me linking all of these shots to the same episode:

Clearly it's not the same dinner in the same span of time due to Charlie's baldness:

But they seemed so similar, a dinner party set up in Mac and Dennis' apartment where they clearly look like they're going to be on TV? It seemed like they had to connect... But now I am not so sure. While it's all evoking a similar vibe, it might truly be because the season is revolving around this corporate sell-out, dazzle for the cameras kind of atmosphere. In the same way that Abbott and TGBL are both "high-production crossover" episodes, I think TGBL and Prime Time are both "reality shows with an audience" episodes. Not the same, just in the same vein. 

But instead of some high production on a sound stage...

They have strangers packed into their apartment with a ghoulish looking Charlie entering to stun. Lmfao.

And more dinner party scenes from the trailer in which everyone is in even more costumes seems to also belong to Prime Time:

In fact, this shot has the Waitress, dressed as an old lady, so it must belong to this episode, as we know for certain that Mary Elizabeth Ellis was in this costume for the final day of shooting, this episode #1708, as she posted to her Instagram stories on wrap day:

So perhaps NOW the brand new shot we got of all of the Gang being bald makes more sense:

Okay, it doesn't make sense sense, but it works in terms of being a completely separate episode from The Golden Bachelor Live!'s atmosphere, okay? Some kinda show, that's about ... dinner parties and dressing up, but obviously does not go well when it comes down to being time to perform.. this all sounds like the Gang...

Now I am still not entirely convinced these two episodes don't have some kind of connection (like whatever the hell they're doing in Prime Time is in response/to complete with Frank's reality TV show (because where is Frank??)), but I think this new information makes it clear that bald Charlie (and the Gang clearly having "characters" they've created here) does not belong to TGBL, but instead to The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time..!

My bad on the original misinformation... can't always bat a thousand right out of the box, you know... But I am much more certain that this is correct!

Season 17 Frame-by-Frame Trailer Breakdown !!

Today we got the Season 17 trailer, and with it a ton of clips we can use to finally start piecing together with the scraps of information we have from filming! In this post I'm going to break down each unique shot from the Season 17 trailer and connect frames (and certain lines) to their relevant episodes (or plots, if episodes are too far of a reach), based on various assumptions in an attempt to conclude or predict the upcoming plotlines, so, SPOILERS AHEAD!

First of all to start with the finale, the central focus of this trailer, The Golden Bachelor Live is indeed a “real” ABC episode of The Golden Bachelor, (as confirmed last month by Glenn) complete with Jesse Williams hosting the episode. We can match a woman Frank is eyeing, named Cock Chewah (a Hawk Tuah reference, clearly…), in many clips from the trailer, effectively linking this episode to many shots outside of those that seem obvious to the filming set of The Golden Bachelor:

Frank and Jesse Williams

"Cock Chewah"

Frank with Chewah and Charlie (ready to flip!)

Based on these shots and the name of Frank’s favorite contestant, we can very much 100% confirm that the “White Board Episode” is this episode, The Golden Bachelor Live!, and therefore the finale, complete with a “visit” (in Mac and Dennis’ apartment, likely the most “TV ready” of the three apartments) as likely what is noted in Charlie’s handwriting:

So, in connection with this idea, we can deduce that the Gang are preparing for some kind of visit/the dinner pictured above. In a shot of Dennis, we can clearly see the same table set up behind him, indicating this belongs to the same episode:

Dennis looks glammed up and has papers in his hand

However, in the next shot, you can see Dennis' hand holding the same papers in front of the rest of the Gang, indicating this the same scene:

It seems like this lines up, with the table set up and the fact that it looks like everyone here is portraying a type of character, likely to stand out for their appearance on The Golden Bachelor, but the most jarring part of this shot, Charlie's bald head and absent beard (we were aware a beardless Charlie Day existed at the end of 2024, and had a suspicion that might have been part of this Season, but the bald head was a shock), is a very obvious break in the continuity of the prior shots... 

Similarly, in the very first shot of the trailer we see beardless Charlie in Frank's toupee, entering the apartment full of strangers in folding chairs:

The folding chairs are similar to those they are sitting in in the above shot. 

Why would the audience for The Golden Bachelor Live, shown to be a studio in the trailer (below) be in Mac and Dennis' apartment for all of this?

Well, maybe they're not (there for TGBL, that is)! Because there is one more dinner shot which shows a similar dinner set up, but gives us a better tip off:

The duster makes a return! Protecting Mac here, surely

The back of the wigged head looks to be the Waitress, dressed up as an old lady (as we saw in a BTS picture from Mary Elizabeth Ellis), which we know is from #1708, The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time and not #1706 The Golden Bachelor Live! So it looks like there are two dinner scenes from two different episodes here. (And assuming Glenn was being truthful when he said The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time is not a two-parter with the Golden Bachelor episode, it is two entirely unconnected plots.)

(Corrections were made to the above Golden Bachelor and Prime Time predictions, based on obtaining more accurate production code knowledge)

And with all that being said, there is one thing obvious to me that is not relevant here... The fact that "Cock Chew(a)" is the name of a person means it is not, in fact, a form of viagra (boner pill) as I had predicted. But based on the original press release being sponsored by a “Rhino Dynamo” pleasure enhancing pill, this concept of a viagra-related plot existing must belong somewhere in the Season… Did Dennis give us a clue in the trailer? 

Dennis tells Dee his scent is of a testicular nature...

Standing on a doorstep, Dee points out Dennis’ scent, to which Dennis informs her that he is sporting “testicular fluid” to “drive females wild”. But, this of course could be some kind of…home-harvested testicular fluid (more on what that means here), because Dee's reply to Dennis asking if he's trying to attract humans is certainly telling:

(so what exactly Rhino Dynamo is remains to be seen)... BUT what we can pretty confidently deduce from this moment in the trailer is that the female Dennis is looking to “drive wild” is very likely Tammy, from Season 1’s “Underage Drinking: a National Concern”, based on behind the scenes photos we obtained a few months ago:

Jaimie Alexander spotted filming on October 31, 2024

Dennis and Dee are wearing the exact wardrobe Glenn and Kaitlin were spotted wearing at the same time, in the same filming location, as they are in the above scene:

Glenn and Kaitlin filming on October 31, 2024

So, without a doubt this scene belongs to the Tammy callback episode, Overage Drinking: a National Concern. And, if you took a look at the post I wrote when I broke that news, you might notice that I mentioned David Hornsby, as Cricket, was filming around the same time Jaimie Alexander was on location filming as Tammy...and we also got a look at him in the trailer!

Cricket with Mac

So can we definitively conclude that Cricket is involved in Overage Drinking? Well... still, not really. Because while they filmed around the same time, the Sunny team very much could have purposefully filmed all of their on-location (not on a set) scenes in the same span of time, taking different directors with different characters in different locations for different episodes, across a few days... and given another shot from the trailer, we might actually be leaning toward the idea that this Cricket scene is not Overage Drinking.

The Waitress, holding a flyer, with Charlie

Because the background of this shot of the Waitress looks eerily similar to the background of Cricket's location... And moving past the fact that this would indicate the Waitress is now properly homeless (rip girl), it seems likely that Mac and Charlie are together, visiting this tent city, in which they confront Cricket and the Waitress, respectively, as part of the same scene. And noticing the flyer in the Waitress' hand and pointing out another shot she's seen in in the trailer, pieces start coming together...

The Waitress, seemingly having kicked someone to the ground in Paddy's

This scene, surely, must be connected to what I have been calling the "girl fight" episode, Thought Leadership: a Corporate Conversation, and therefore seems a much more likely candidate for the first shot of the Waitress, which is then-likely connected to the Cricket shot (unless, of course, they have multiple episodes taking place in that tent city with side characters, which you can't rule out being possible). 

But how do we know this fight belongs to Thought Leadership? Well, there's quite a few tells, based on both credits and BTS pictures. First of all, we know Thought Leadership is Episode #1704, thanks to the director Zach Knighton sharing the front page of the script on his Instagram! And as to credits for #1704, there are many female stunt performers attached, including a stunt double for Mary Elizabeth Ellis (the Waitress) and Kaitlin Olson (Dee), who is also seen fighting in the trailer:

Dee fighting a woman in the same atmosphere as the Waitress

In addition to the stunt performer credits, we also saw some BTS photos from a guest actor, who confirmed he was in Episode #1704, and is helpfully spotted in the trailer behind Dee in another shot!

Thanks, Blake!

We get a good shot of the Guys reacting to the fights, of varied reaction:

And then we also know, from more BTS photos on Zach's Instagram, that this episode features the Gang in blue matching vests, linking a few more moments from the trailer to this episode:

Considering how the show typically goes, and the name of the episode almost always being a punchline, it seems highly likely that we should be tracing these shots of the episode in reverse as I've presented them to put a plot together... What starts as an attempted "thought leadership" gift of Paddy's Pub ends up devolving into a (girls') fighting ring, to which the Waitress eventually gets wrapped into (probably to make some money). This episode seems like a lot of fun, and considering it looks like the bar is selling some merch again (peep the guy in the Paddy's shirt behind the Waitress), I would not be surprised if this episode is also where The Lawyer makes his return!

The Lawyer in a dingy, cluttered office and missing an eye from Royal McPoyle's assault

Of course, there's no way yet to directly connect this shot to any episode (just yet), but considering Paddy's Pub: Home of the Original Kitten Mittens ended in his right to 100% of any merch Paddy's sells, and the Gang setting up shop for their t-shirts, perhaps the fast food is a distraction/bribe Frank has brought by to keep him off their necks... (or maybe he's covered in hot sauce, because how the hell is that B-plot gonna come into play?)

+ Brian Unger shared a video to Instagram, sharing that he has a stunt double, and in the background you can make out that his episode features Charlie's mom, Bonnie, played by the late Lynne Marie Stewart:

And speaking of lawyers, though many were probably hoping we would go a Season without, it looks like Uncle Jack is back in play:

Jack in Charlie's apartment

We can only make out Charlie across from him (though clearly there is someone else seated next to Charlie), and given the fact that the man repeats outfits as if he were a cartoon, matching this moment to an episode would be based purely on luck and vibes (I'm shooting with Overage Drinking, cos why not throw something out there). 

...and now I have to circle back to the testicular fluid, because if the dog semen doesn’t belong to the obvious dog-titled episode, The Gang Goes to a Dog Track, what do we know about that episode? We don’t get anything from the few filming BTS shots we have on-location, but we do have this interesting shot in the trailer, in which Frank is treating the twins like dogs:

With the collars around their necks and the people behind them waiving cash around in what looks like a pool hall, it would be amiss not to conclude this is part of Dog Track just based on the vibes. So this episode, then, seems to be a plot the devolves just like Thought Leadership, if not even more, and seems heavy on commentary and meta. ("B" plot? I don't know! One of the lawyers here maybe? Could be hot sauce? Cricket in this ep instead? ermmm.. TBD!) 

You know what I do know, though? I want to kill Frank for putting Dennis and Dee in literal trash bags and forcing them to perform (probably for money), but I'll settle for putting him in a coma instead:

What? That's just the Guys looking good in tuxes? Fine, here's a body:

Ok, that's not Frank, but these shots do all belong to the episode, Frank is in a Coma, which we know for certain due to getting a pretty big leak of information for. But it doesn't seem like anything revealed in the trailer can be attributed to the "A" plot with Frank and Dee, except maybe this solo Dee shot?

Dee says "pick it up grandpa"

But this moment seems much more likely to belong to Mac and Dennis Become EMTs:

Mac becomes an EMT to.. pick up guys

But he ends up saving lives!?

Which we've always assumed was the Postmates-using-an-Ambulance plot, the EMT aspect being the front for the guys to use an ambulance to deliver for Postmates, but based on the trailer it very much seems that that is the "B" plot of this episode, belonging to Charlie and Dee:

Dee screams "Yes, Chef!" at Charlie among a row of customer orders in the ambulance, somewhat mirroring one of the very first shots we got of the Season, in which Charlie is yelling "Yes, Chef!" in his apartment (seemingly at Frank):

The top of Frank's head is spotted before Charlie turns

Which means Mac and Dennis, like, legit "become" EMTs? This has changed my idea of this episode quite a bit, but I am still just as excited to see how it all goes wrong (and now, how the hell they end up going down this path, is it to help get Charlie and Dee (and Frank?) access to the ambulance?). 

...well, lets just hope no one (or everyone!) is in that ambulance during this moment

And other than The Gang Fucks up Abbott Elementary scenes, for which we got a few more (but generally understand the premises is following the "removed" footage from the actual Abbott episode and therefore don't need to say too much on it here), that covers the extent of what we've got! There's only a few things we can't really place, which again leads to this idea that there is obviously a major lack of whatever "Prime Time" is supposed to be, if it is not part of The Golden Bachelor Live. (Does anyone have any idea what belongs there if it's not TGBL????)

Perhaps we will find out a little later! Charlie Day is set to make an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel tonight, so fingers crossed we get another little batch of info to add to what we know so far :D

This season is looking insanely chaotic and incredibly fun, I am beyond excited for every single one of these episodes. 

BONUS!

Thursday night, during a new episode of Welcome to Wrexham, FX aired a cut-for-cable version of the trailer, which included two additional shots:

Mac says "It's about getting back to basics, before we were all pampered and soft"

Mac is wearing the same shirt Rob was wearing in the "first day" picture he shared back in October, indicating this could belong to The Gang Goes to a Dog Track, seemingly the first episode they filmed. 

And also, move over bald, beardless Charlie and let the rest of the Gang join you!

Obviously this should belong to The Gang Gets Ready for Prime Time, due to bald, but whatever the hell this actually is about is anyones guess... the terrible aftermath of Dennis trying to rein everyone in? Lmfao