With a pilot episode that was shot for just a couple hundred dollars, it would have been all too easy to have overlooked It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia when it premiered in 2005, but the sitcom has steadily grown in popularity over the years, and during the FX presentation at Disney Investor Day, FX chairman John Landgraf announced that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia will continue for quite some time as the network has renewed the series for four more seasons.
This means that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia will last at least 18 seasons and also that it has officially become the longest-running live-action scripted comedy in TV history, breaking the record previously held by The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Not bad at all. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia follows "The Gang", a group of five misfit friends: twins Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Deandra "(Sweet) Dee" Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson), their friends Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day), and Ronald "Mac" McDonald (Rob McElhenney), and Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito), Dennis' and Dee's legal father. The Gang runs Paddy's Pub, an unsuccessful Irish bar in South Philadelphia. The series had actually already been renewed for a fifteenth season earlier this year, but COVID-19 (as well as Rob McElhenney's schedule) has kept production from kicking off. While speaking with ComingSoon, Glenn Howerton commented on the delay.
We’ve been talking about overarching concepts, but we haven’t really gotten down to business because Rob’s still finishing up the second season of Mythic Quest, which has been constantly put on hold and then they go back and get put on hold again because of COVID. There’s not really much to report, we’ve got overarching ideas that we want to explore next season that we’re all three of us really excited about, but as far as creating stories and writing stuff, that hasn’t happened yet.
While we may not know just when It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia will be returning to our screens, fans will be pleased to know that they have years of schemes and hilarity to look forward to.