Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton Want to Quit ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Every Time They Write A New Season
It’s no secret that Charlie Day just itted that they, too, have had thoughts about going off to be a dad in North Dakota.
We are now less than a month away from the premiere of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 on July 9th, and the press tour has hit the point where Howerton, McElhenney and Day are literally torturing themselves just to ensure the season’s success. Given the grueling nature of TV production, Always Sunny fans shouldn’t take for granted the fact that the stars still like each other and the show itself, and that “creative differences” still haven’t fractured the most important friend group in TV comedy after two decades of hard work.
But that’s not to say Always Sunny is all sunshine and rainbows — much like a Hot Ones appearance, making a sitcom like this can be a surreal and painful experience, and as the trio itted during their Hot Ones Versus challenge, they each have their own moments during the writing stage of every single season when they want to walk out for good.
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When Hot Ones asked McElhenney, Howerton and Day, “What’s the closest we’ve come to calling it quits?” The Gang initially couldn’t come up with a single instance when all three of them wanted out at the same time. However, that doesn’t mean that each of them hasn’t had an individual moment of frustration where they wanted to leave the other two in the dust.
“I mean, I’ve discussed us ending it,” Howerton pointed out of his own self-itted frustrations back in Season Six.
“You tried to end it,” McElhenney agreed.
Howerton added dryly, “Oh, I’ve tried to end it multiple times. I’m still trying to end it!” Though he conceded that he always comes back because, “Listen, the truth is, you know, I like you guys.”
“That’s not why,” Day interrupted, “You need the money.”
However, Howerton isn’t the only one of the three who has let the stress of Always Sunny get him close to the point of quitting. In fact, blow-ups like the one that nearly caused Howerton to walk out 11 seasons ago are simply a part of The Gang’s shared creative process. Said McElhenney, “Really, we all hit a point at the end of each writing season where we go, ‘I think that’s it. We’re done.’”
Day, on the other hand, disagrees. “No, we hit a point in the middle of every writing season,” he said of their shared fantasy of finally ending Always Sunny, “When we’re all like, ‘We all wanna do this different ways, go fuck yourselves.’”
As Day and Howerton revealed, even the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator McElhenney once quit the show for a full 24 hours during the writing stage — but his co-stars knew that McElhenney would come crawling back the next day. That guy’s always playing both sides so he always comes out on top.
