Posted in: FX, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: always sunny, Anne Archer, Barbara Reynolds, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, podcast, rob mcelhenney

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Barbara Reynolds Deserves Better

The Always Sunny Podcast rewatch podcasts give viewers an opportunity to look back at the 15 seasons of the FXX series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Hosted by creators and stars Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney, the trio blazed through the first two seasons with the final physical appearance of Anne Archer's Barbara Reynolds in the season finale "Dennis and Dee Get a New Dad". While the majority of the podcasts veer into tangents on a wide variety of episode and non-episode-related topics, Day, Howerton & McElhenney reveal tidbits about what went into the episode including their regret for killing off her character. The estranged ex-wife of Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito) died off-screen from a botched neck lift operation, which no longer tied up his money in the divorce in the third season episode "Dennis and Dee's Mom is Dead".

While Sunny has done perfectly fine 12 seasons later, the two themes of season 15 were their trip to Ireland and a mini-prequel of sorts that showed what the gang was like before the trio owned Patty's Pub in the flashback "The Gang Buys a Roller Rink". We see a relatively untainted Dennis (Howerton) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) with bright futures ahead before a series of events helped make them into the terrible people they are today. Missing from this equation is Barbara since they never bothered recasting Archer's part nor felt the need to ever really include her. I'd argue as conveniently written-off the series as Barbara is, she still very much offers a lot for Day, Howerton, and McElhenney to revisit. Here's what I propose to bring her back…

First, she can fake her own death. After all, her selfish and sociopathic ways definitely fed into the toxic family dynamic of the series early on. She was just as much a scheming person the way Archer carried herself in her memorable three episodes from the way she used Mac (McElhenney) sexually, the way her bitterness carries over to her children in Dennis and Dee, and even her brief moments with Frank just begged for more. Hell, I'd argue some of his best moments were trying to get back at Barbara and "he who shall remain nameless" especially that memorable outburst at the restaurant. Finding her way back in a one-off with the gang, because she got bored or whoever she ran off with left her would be just the way to bring her back at least one more time. Also, the body Dennis and Dee dug up in season eight could be a fake.

Second, Archer can just come back in a flashback episode because so far all we have are second-hand stories from Frank, and Sunny fans know Frank isn't the most reliable source for information given his shady way of viewing things. It can even be as simple as finding a diary of her exploits that reveals some kind of secret Dennis and Dee never knew. Hell, I would even think it's something that Mac and/or Charlie (Day) find that changes what they think about the pair. As zany and outrageous as Sunny is, retconning a death or bringing back a relic of the series' past would definitely give fans a treat and an interesting creative challenge.

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