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

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17: Mac & Frank Get Fired-Up

The crossover with ABC's Abbott Elementary burns bright in this teaser for FXX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 Episode 1.

When FXX's Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, and Danny DeVito-starring It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia returns for Season 17 on July 9th, Mac (McElhenney), Charlie (Day), Dennis (Howerton), Dee (Olson), and Frank (DeVito) will be welcoming ABC and Quinta Brunson's Abbott Elementary crew for the second episode in the two-episode "The Greatest Moment in Television History." To help set the mood, FX Networks released a new teaser showing what happens when Mac and Frank get their hands on an open flame and a bench that they're determined to burn.

As for the overall season, fans can expect to see how "The Gang Embraces the Corporate Era," a season that shows us "how greed and the New American Dream have consumed Paddy's Pub." The official overview continues: "They'll exploit cross-network promotion to increase market share; they'll scapegoat one of their own to avoid a PR backlash; they'll risk everything for a handshake with the Saudis; they'll bend the laws with side hustles to pad their pockets; and they'll change everything about themselves to appeal to a broader audience. And sure, like any corporate goon, the Gang craves money and parasitic social privileges. That's been plain since 2005. But they're also human beings. They crave love.. respect… conditional freedom… constant adulation… histrionic amounts of attention… non-stop gratification… and unfiltered, slaphappy eroticism."

Abbott Elementary EPs on "Always Sunny" Turn at Crossover & More

Speaking with EW, Abbott Elementary's Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker offered some insights into the upcoming Paddy's chapter of the crossover. In addition, the EPs discuss a Frank (DeVito)/Mr. Johnson (Davis) backstory that was cut, an ad-libbed joke from McElhenney that couldn't make the Abbott Elementary cut, and why we didn't get much Dennis (Howerton) during this chapter.

Halpern & Schumacker on "Always Sunny" Episode: "It's been written, it's been shot. I was present for quite a bit of it, and it's very cool. The ideal viewing experience will eventually be watching these two episodes back to back, even though I don't know if they've even solidified their date yet, but eventually, they're going to end up on Hulu together and it'll be very easy to access both of them back to back. They do very much play off of each other," Schumacker shared. "Their episode is what's happening in between our episode in the scenes that we're not showing. You're seeing what they're doing. It's really clever the way that they piece together their episode. It's really ambitious," Halpern added.

Frank & Mr. Johnson Have a Grudge Dating Back to High School: "We did at one point have a whole backstory between Frank and Mr. Johnson that they did know each other. It was that they went to high school together. They dated the same woman who was a canonical character in Sunny. That ended up falling away just as a function of, 'Hey, we can't tell that story. Maybe let's save it for another time.' 21 and a half minutes is not a lot of time to tell a story," Schumacker.

Schumacker on McElhenney's "Johnny Knoxville" Ad-Lib: "Ava [James] has a line about the white guys that she's into, and she names Johnny Knoxville and Johnny Bravo. I almost ruined a take off-camera cackling and spitting out my coffee because Rob ad-libbed, 'That Johnny Knoxville guy destroyed his penis. There's nothing there.' I was like, 'Okay, well, that one, we can't say on ABC.'"

Schumacker on Why We Didn't Get Much Dennis in "Volunteers": "Glenn [Howerton] had a show that he is a series regular on called 'Sirens.' It's the Netflix show, and it was shooting in New York. He flew in specifically to work on this and had to fly back. We had him for half a day, so we had to build that in. That was one of those ones where we didn't know if we had him, and so we had to stay a little bit nimble as far as breaking the story. But he's very heavy in their episode."

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