Posted in: FX, Hulu, TV | Tagged: always sunny, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

Always Sunny: Even Rob McElhenney Can Forget The Number of Seasons

Thankfully, Rob McElhenney has Kaitlin Olson to remind him of how many seasons It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been on television.

Last week was a fun one for fans of FXX's Kaitlin Olson, Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton & Danny DeVito– starring It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Along with getting a chance at some insights into the upcoming 17th season (more on that in a minute), McElhenney dropped a link to be able to view and download the scripts for the season's eight episodes. That's right – from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia S16E01: "The Gang Inflates" through S16E08: "Dennis Takes A Mental Health Day." After the post, McElhenney added as a heads-up, "Aspiring screenwriters: keep in mind that this is a show in its 16th season. The scripts are bare-bones, shorthand documents for cast, crew and execs we've worked with for 20years. Not exactly examples of great screenwriting begging to be emulated." And that's where this update comes in – and it's something we completely missed when it first hit.

As impressive as 16 seasons are, Olson checked in with a follow-up earlier today with an important reminder that "Always Sunny" is actually a show in its 17th season. Of course, with that many seasons in play (and hopefully many more), it's understandable to forget one or two along the way. But to play "Devil's Advocate" for a second, it's possible that when McElhenney wrote, "keep in mind that this is a show in its 16th season," he was asking script readers to keep in mind that what they were reading were scripts from a show that was already heading into its 16th season – maybe? Yeah, we're not sure we're buying it now that we wrote it out and read it back…

In a social media post last week, McElhenney shared an image of Day in front of a dry-erase board – and it was clear that he was mapping out/outlining an episode. As for what that board could be telling us? Well, that was the $100 challenge that McElhenney put out to "Always Sunny" fans – giving them a day to do it. Well, guess what? "I just reviewed all responses, and while there were some really creative answers, unfortunately, no one got anywhere close," McElhenney wrote in a follow-up post. " To be fair, I wrote the episode with him yet still couldn't quite follow his outline. You'll have to watch to find out! It's our season finale!"

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Kaitlin Olson on Emmy Snub

At the Emmy Awards ceremony in January, The Gang got the band back together to present the award for Outstanding Talk Series (Trevor Noah & The Daily Show would take top honors) – and to take a moment to address their topic of the show being ignored by Emmy voters. "Have you guys been doing this every year without us?" Day asked toward the opening of their segment. "I feel like we're getting the full Marvel treatment here."

To make matters even a little more insulting, this year also marked the first time that The Gang was invited to attend the biggest awards ceremony in television. DeVito really drove the point home when he reminded them that he had already won an Emmy for his work on Taxi – which would run for five seasons, picking up 34 nominations and 18 wins. "34 nominations in five years vs. zero nominations in 16 years? That math is bad!" Olson observed – before DeVito added, "Rhea [Perlman] won four for 'Cheers.'"

As fun as that was to watch, the point can't be ignored. How can a show that's run for 16 seasons (and counting) be as ignored as "Always Sunny" has been over the course of its run? "We talk about that a lot," Olson shared during an interview with Vanity Fair. "I think there are some shows where it's just decided, 'Oh, this is the hit show of the season,' and people will give it a shot. And then there are just some shows that are just like, 'No, this isn't an Emmy show.' And if you jumped in and saw a clip of our show and didn't quite understand it, you'd think this show is raunchy and gross—not appropriate and not classy and lowbrow. And the truth is, that's true. And if you really watch a full episode, it's so smart. We're making lots of statements. We are making fun of extremists. It's a lot more intelligent than people think."

Olson added, "It just became a thing where it was like, 'Oh, that show again.' People are looking at new shows. The truth is we are getting a lot of validation every single day. We have fans that will cry and shake if they take a picture [with us]. We're doing what we want to do, making a show that we're proud of and making people happy. I really am truly good. But will I take an Emmy? Yeah, I'll take an Emmy."

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