Posted in: FX, Hulu, Preview, TV | Tagged: always sunny, FXX, hulu, It's Always Sunny in Phildelphia, Season 15

Always Sunny: McElhenney Honors The Gang on Best Friends Day (VIDEO)

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney honored The Gang on Best Friends Day with a great behind-the-scenes look at Season 15.

Even with all of the focus we put on learning as much as we can about the 17th season of FXX's Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson & Danny DeVito– starring It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, we still like to take a moment every now and then to appreciate that impressive record-breaking achievement. It's jaw-dropping enough when a series has a season count that runs into double-digits – but to accomplish that by keeping the core of the series together is almost unthinkable. Based on what The Gang has shared in the past, keeping the showing has a lot to do with continuing to find new stories to tell, finding creative opportunities away from "Paddy's" to keep things from becoming stagnant, and being able to work with some truly great friends. In case you need additional proof, McElhenney shared a look at The Gang breaking and having some fun while filming December 2021's S15E03: "The Gang Buys a Roller Rink" (directed by Richie Keen and written by Rob Rosell & David Hornsby). Flashing back to 1998, we see how plans to buy their favorite roller rink led Mac (McElhenney), Charlie (Day), and Dennis (Howerton) to purchase Paddy's – and how "Sweet Dee's" (Olson) nickname used to not be ironic.

Here's a look behind the scenes at The Gang while filming "The Gang Buys a Roller Rink," followed by a look back at The Gang's on-stage time at the Emmys earlier this year and Olson's thoughts on being ignored by Emmy voters:

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

At the Emmy Awards earlier this year, 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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