‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and ‘Abbott Elementary’ Director Says the ‘Deplorable Five’ Never Should Have Met the Teachers

Mac, Dennis, Charlie, Dee and Frank had no business spending an entire week at an elementary school, but there’s no point in making judgments once the trash is out of the bag.

On January 8th, Volunteers” was a smashing success, and, when It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 premieres on July 9th, we’ll get to see what really happened during that chaotic school week from the perspective of “The Deplorable Five,” as Randall Einhorn calls them.

Einhorn, a director, cinematographer, producer and TV comedy legend, has directed 14 episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and 16 episodes of Abbott Elementary, including “Volunteers.” As such, Einhorn is uniquely qualified to speak out on the crosstown crossover and say that the depraved characters of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia had absolutely no business being in the same universe as the hardworking heroes of Abbott Elementary — but he still loved shooting Danny DeVito in a raccoon trap.

During a directors’ hosted by the entertainment awards prediction and coverage outlet Gold Derby, Einhorn spoke about his unique experience directing so many episodes of both It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Abbott Elementary, saying that the process of directing the Always Sunny cast on the much more family-friendly sitcom was “surreal.” But Einhorn, who was the go-to director on Always Sunny during its absolute hot streak between Seasons Five and Seven, still says that the Gang should stay far away from his new sitcom family.

“Those people should never meet our people,” Einhorn itted of his protectiveness toward the Abbott Elementary cast whom he now directs before he coined a new nickname for the Always Sunny Gang that used to be “our people,” too. “The Deplorable Five, who are fantastic at what they do, meeting our six people who are trying to do the right thing every single day. … It shouldn’t have happened.”

"But I’m so glad it did,” Einhorn clarified of the crossover that he, himself, directed.

Despite the fact that Einhorn hasn’t worked on Always Sunny since he directed the 2011 episode “How Mac Got Fat,” and regardless of how he now talks about the awesomely named “Deplorable Five,” Einhorn will always be a part of the Always Sunny family, whether he likes it or not. In fact, the legendary director was the last-ever guest on The Always Sunny Podcast, an honor that would land him in the Always Sunny Hall of Fame on its own, notwithstanding his expansive list of credits.

And now that Einhorn has brought Always Sunny and Abbott Elementary together, maybe he can do one last favor for the former show’s deplorable fandom — bring Megan Ganz back together so they can shoot more episodes of the podcast.