Posted in: FX, Hulu, Preview, TV | Tagged: always sunny, FXX, hulu, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, preview, season 17

Always Sunny: Rob McElhenney Swaps Season 17 Tease for Poppins Artwork

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney traded a "clue" about Season 17 for Poppins artwork - pretty much a win/win situation.

With the Season 17 writers' room getting underway, talk of an October filming start, and the cast sounding like they don't plan on closing the doors on Paddy's anytime soon, it's been a pretty good week to be a fan of FXX's Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson & Danny DeVito– starring It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Of course, with the writers' room now writing away, everyone is going to do what they can to get some clues to what's to come – but we're giving den without the nis – an artist who has been doing daily drawings of McElhenney that have caught his attention (and appreciation) – a ton of credit for the deal they put out there to McElhenney. Basically, drop a clue about the plans for Season 17 – even a single word – and the artist will draw whatever McElhenney wants.

In response, McElhenney shared that "Plans are… in progress" – before requesting a drawing of Mac's (McElhenney) beloved immortal pup Poppins. Of course, our dumpster fires of random speculation keep trying to convince us that this was McElhenney letting us know that Poppins will be returning – while the other part of our brains keeps telling us that we might very well be making that up because we want – nay, we need – that to be true. Worst-case scenario? We get some really cool Poppins artwork – not a bad deal.

Here's a look at McElhenney's social media posts from earlier this week with Day, David Hornsby, Javi Scott, Nina Pedrad, Keyonna Taylor, and more (including Howerton via painting) – with "Live from the writers' room. Sunny Season 17!" captioning his Instagram post:

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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