Ive had songs stuck in my head for the past month that nobody else understands. I got to hang out on the set of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia while they were filming their musical episode where songs about trolls in my holes and the Day Man fighting the Night Man seeped into by brain.
In the aforementioned episode, Charlie Kelly (played by Charlie Day) writes an opera to impress the object of his unrequited affected, the waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis). His musical opus tells the story of how a boy who lives with a troll gets raped by the supernatural Night Man and ultimately becomes the Day Man. Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton) plays the boy, with his father Frank (Danny DeVito) taking on the roll of the troll. Mac (Rob McElhenney) is the Night Man and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) his fairy love interest. When the boy finally becomes the Day Man, he wears a shiny spandex suit with a banana hammock bulge. As the not exactly harmonic action unfolds, Charlie sits off stage sporting a bright yellow tux and a white top hat.
Over lunch I sat down with the gang to find out more about the upcoming fourth season of the show. FX have renewed the series through 2011, however with the cast still wearing their spandex, yellow tux, black gi and pink fairy costumes, most of the focus was on the musical.
Question: Charlie, where did you get that fabulous suit?
Charlie Day: My character must have broken into the costume department of his local theater and raided it. That's my best guess.
Q: Is it supposed to be Wonka-esque?
CD: Yeah, I wanted a Wonka flair to it.
Q: How did you create this opera?
Rob McElhenney: Well, we always wanted to do a musical episode and we weren't sure how to get into it and how to do it. We noticed that the musical episode we did last year, the music themed episode was The Band, and people seemed to really like the song Day Man. So we thought it would be an interesting way in to see how the little boy beats the Night Man and becomes the Day Man. So we're in the writer's room just knocking around different ideas and then we came up with this idea to put on a musical, an actual play within the story. Then it all kind of evolved from there. Then we broke the story down just like we broke every episode, but in terms of the actual songs, it was mostly Charlie and Cormac who wrote most of the music for the songs.
Q: A common description of the show is Seinfeld on crack. Are there any specific TV inspirations?
Glenn Howerton: I think initially we were pretty influenced by certainly Seinfeld but at the specific time we made the original show, we were pretty influenced by the British Office and by Curb Your Enthusiasm. In terms specifically of Curb, we liked that it seemed like they were shooting it with multiple cameras and because it was improvisational. Even though we didn't intend for our show to be improvisational we felt like it gave the actors an opportunity to, it made it seem like things were happening for the first time.
Q: I cracked up and almost ruined your take when you screamed Cobra Kai. What inspired that improv line?
RM: Well, if you see the way that I'm dressed.
Q: Glenn, don't take this the wrong way, but you have a very impressive package. How snug is the spandex?
GH: Pretty snug.
Kaitlin Olson: That's a fake package. Liar.
GH: I'm packing a lot. I'm packing a lot of heat under there.
KO: You're packing a lot of tissue and fuzz.
GH: I've got a big sweaty hog under there.
CD: That's where we hide his mic pack.
Q: What's Charlie doing in the scene? Why didn't he cast himself?
CD: Stay for a scene or two after lunch. Charlie has an ulterior motive for writing this musical that we'll find out.
KO: What a shock.
Q: To impress the waitress, right?
CD: Impress, propose to, however you want to spill it.
Q: So in season four, we're still holding out hope for this relationship?
CD: Well, you shouldn't. My character is but you shouldn't.
Q: Kaitlin, how has it been getting back to work after breaking your back?
KO: Well, there's a lot of people standing by with wheelchairs and pads for different seats and golf carts.
CD: You're moving around up there.
RM: You're moving around pretty well.
KO: Yeah. The first week back was a little rough. I kinda overdid it a few times, but I think this is the end of week two back and I feel good. I'm just happy I didn't ruin the whole show.
Q: So no pratfalls?
KO: No, we did have to push an episode to next year where I fall down the stairs because I wasn't going to try that. It didn't seem smart.
Q: How did you do it?
KO: Well, it was the fourth of July. My neighbor decided to pick me up.
GH: Oh right, it was all his idea.
RM: Yeah, yeah, he just picked you up out of nowhere.
KO: I was just sitting there drinking beer and probably minding my own businessHe picked me up way over his head and then he dropped me on the cement on my hip and it broke my lower back. It sucked.
Q: You do play one of the better drunks on TV.
KO: Thanks!
Q: Is that an impersonation of yourself?
KO: Did I leave out the part of the fourth of July story where I'd been drinking? It didnt really hurt at all actually. You know, I like to relax with a beer every once in a while.
Q: Do you joke around when you're off camera or save it for the show?
CD: Yeah, we joke around. It's different types of jokes. Probably more cynical. A darker sense of humor. We save the light stuff for the camera.
GH: There's a certain amount of truth to that. There's real, real dark shit that goes around.
CD: I think we're constantly testing ourselves to see what is still funny.
GH: I mean, we definitely do that with each other when we're joking around. Somebody'll say something that's a little fucked up and I guarantee you that whoever picks up on it is going to make the darkest, darkest, most fucked up joke out of it that you possibly can.
Q: Are any parts of your characters true to life?
CD: I don't want to admit it, but I can't read or write. It's tough for these guys when I submit my scripts to them and it's all in pictures and code.
GH: Cool pictures though.
CD: Great pictures. No, I think if anything, things are based on our sense of humor but not our actual personalities I hope.
RM: I look a lot like Mac. I look a lot like him.
CD: You're taller.
RM: I'm a little bit taller than Mac.
Q: What's Mac's name?
CD: We've never established it.
RM: Never established it. We'll find out maybe one day.
CD: We've joked about what it is but we'll maybe wait until the last season to reveal it, what it actually is.
GH: He does actually have a first and last name, we just never revealed it. As does the waitress. She has a name.
RM: But nobody knows what it is.
GH: Well, we do.
Q: Have you ever been involved in any theater aside from this production?
CD: I have. I used to do lots of plays in little spaces like this. Definitely when we came in to start rehearsing it, it really took me back.
GH: Well, that was part of the inspiration for why we wanted to write it. I think to some degree, we all have some experience with this style of theater. It's fun. This is really fun. This is one of the most fun days I've had.
Q: What's the weirdest thing you've ever played on stage?
RM: Look at him. This is the weirdest thing. I mean, Jesus Christ.
GH: I did play a little boy in a production of Love's Labor's Lost. I got to play the ukulele and be a little child on stage. That was kind of fun. I did that in college, but I don't know, this is probably the weirdest thing I've ever done on stage.
CD: I played a neutrino in a musical about inner space.
RM: That's pretty weird.
Q: Are you serious?
CD: I'm dead serious, yeah.
Q: With a commitment through 2011, how great a success story is this?
CD: It's the greatest that ever was.
RM: The greatest success story that ever was in the history of humanity.
CD: Past Ghandi.
Q: Do you worry the episodes will get too silly as they get more outrageous going to 2011?
CD: Sure. That's a concern. You have to make sure that there seems to be a reason why the characters are doing what they're doing but in terms of the development of the show, you can't get away with an episode like this in the first season of the show. In some sense you haven't earned it because you don't know the characters well enough to go along on a ride like this. But as you get into the characters and the stories more, I think the opportunity presents itself to have some of these storylines.
KO: This episode is justified. We don't just go title, credits and then we go into a musical. There's a whole story going on too. Also what you guys saw, it's not going to play continuously like that. There are intercuts between scenes in the wings.
CD: And what's happening backstage.
KO: Yeah. So there is a little bit of a story.
CD: Not much.
Q: Has any subject on the show offended you?
RM: I don't think so. As long as we think it's funny as we're doing it.
KO: If it gets mean it doesn't feel funny anymore.
Q: Is there a topic you won't address?
GH: Well, this whole show's about rape, so no. I don't think so. We haven't come up with anything.
KO: Scientology.
RM: Well, that's just terrifying. Next question. We don't want to offend anyone.
CD: We dont want to get our show shut down.
Q: Will it become uncool when it's too popular? Like one of the great things is telling our friends to check this show out.
GH: I think we've established enough street cred at this point hopefully to where I don't think that would matter. I think when you look at certain bands that started off that way, they start off pretty underground and people didn't even know that they had a first and second album, then they latch onto the third album and just go back and watch it again.
CD: Also, at a certain point, if you're that popular, then who cares if you're cool?
KO: Is there more money involved? Because that's cool.
RM: You take a look at us. I don't know that we're really that concerned about being cool. You're wearing a yellow suit.
CD: It's warmer than you think.
Q: How exhausting is it to work up to the Charlie freak outs?
CD: It's not exhausting at all because in life I actually don't freak out ever on anyone, so I let it all out on the show.
GH: You bottle it all up.
CD: But that's what I feel like on the inside so I unleash all my rage in front of the camera. So it's good. It's a release.
Q: What else do we need to know that we haven't asked you?
RM: If you're not watching season four of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, you're just a straight up dick. You can print that.
In the aforementioned episode, Charlie Kelly (played by Charlie Day) writes an opera to impress the object of his unrequited affected, the waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis). His musical opus tells the story of how a boy who lives with a troll gets raped by the supernatural Night Man and ultimately becomes the Day Man. Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton) plays the boy, with his father Frank (Danny DeVito) taking on the roll of the troll. Mac (Rob McElhenney) is the Night Man and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) his fairy love interest. When the boy finally becomes the Day Man, he wears a shiny spandex suit with a banana hammock bulge. As the not exactly harmonic action unfolds, Charlie sits off stage sporting a bright yellow tux and a white top hat.
Over lunch I sat down with the gang to find out more about the upcoming fourth season of the show. FX have renewed the series through 2011, however with the cast still wearing their spandex, yellow tux, black gi and pink fairy costumes, most of the focus was on the musical.
Question: Charlie, where did you get that fabulous suit?
Charlie Day: My character must have broken into the costume department of his local theater and raided it. That's my best guess.
Q: Is it supposed to be Wonka-esque?
CD: Yeah, I wanted a Wonka flair to it.
Q: How did you create this opera?
Rob McElhenney: Well, we always wanted to do a musical episode and we weren't sure how to get into it and how to do it. We noticed that the musical episode we did last year, the music themed episode was The Band, and people seemed to really like the song Day Man. So we thought it would be an interesting way in to see how the little boy beats the Night Man and becomes the Day Man. So we're in the writer's room just knocking around different ideas and then we came up with this idea to put on a musical, an actual play within the story. Then it all kind of evolved from there. Then we broke the story down just like we broke every episode, but in terms of the actual songs, it was mostly Charlie and Cormac who wrote most of the music for the songs.
Q: A common description of the show is Seinfeld on crack. Are there any specific TV inspirations?
Glenn Howerton: I think initially we were pretty influenced by certainly Seinfeld but at the specific time we made the original show, we were pretty influenced by the British Office and by Curb Your Enthusiasm. In terms specifically of Curb, we liked that it seemed like they were shooting it with multiple cameras and because it was improvisational. Even though we didn't intend for our show to be improvisational we felt like it gave the actors an opportunity to, it made it seem like things were happening for the first time.
Q: I cracked up and almost ruined your take when you screamed Cobra Kai. What inspired that improv line?
RM: Well, if you see the way that I'm dressed.
Q: Glenn, don't take this the wrong way, but you have a very impressive package. How snug is the spandex?
GH: Pretty snug.
Kaitlin Olson: That's a fake package. Liar.
GH: I'm packing a lot. I'm packing a lot of heat under there.
KO: You're packing a lot of tissue and fuzz.
GH: I've got a big sweaty hog under there.
CD: That's where we hide his mic pack.
Q: What's Charlie doing in the scene? Why didn't he cast himself?
CD: Stay for a scene or two after lunch. Charlie has an ulterior motive for writing this musical that we'll find out.
KO: What a shock.
Q: To impress the waitress, right?
CD: Impress, propose to, however you want to spill it.
Q: So in season four, we're still holding out hope for this relationship?
CD: Well, you shouldn't. My character is but you shouldn't.
Q: Kaitlin, how has it been getting back to work after breaking your back?
KO: Well, there's a lot of people standing by with wheelchairs and pads for different seats and golf carts.
CD: You're moving around up there.
RM: You're moving around pretty well.
KO: Yeah. The first week back was a little rough. I kinda overdid it a few times, but I think this is the end of week two back and I feel good. I'm just happy I didn't ruin the whole show.
Q: So no pratfalls?
KO: No, we did have to push an episode to next year where I fall down the stairs because I wasn't going to try that. It didn't seem smart.
Q: How did you do it?
KO: Well, it was the fourth of July. My neighbor decided to pick me up.
GH: Oh right, it was all his idea.
RM: Yeah, yeah, he just picked you up out of nowhere.
KO: I was just sitting there drinking beer and probably minding my own businessHe picked me up way over his head and then he dropped me on the cement on my hip and it broke my lower back. It sucked.
Q: You do play one of the better drunks on TV.
KO: Thanks!
Q: Is that an impersonation of yourself?
KO: Did I leave out the part of the fourth of July story where I'd been drinking? It didnt really hurt at all actually. You know, I like to relax with a beer every once in a while.
Q: Do you joke around when you're off camera or save it for the show?
CD: Yeah, we joke around. It's different types of jokes. Probably more cynical. A darker sense of humor. We save the light stuff for the camera.
GH: There's a certain amount of truth to that. There's real, real dark shit that goes around.
CD: I think we're constantly testing ourselves to see what is still funny.
GH: I mean, we definitely do that with each other when we're joking around. Somebody'll say something that's a little fucked up and I guarantee you that whoever picks up on it is going to make the darkest, darkest, most fucked up joke out of it that you possibly can.
Q: Are any parts of your characters true to life?
CD: I don't want to admit it, but I can't read or write. It's tough for these guys when I submit my scripts to them and it's all in pictures and code.
GH: Cool pictures though.
CD: Great pictures. No, I think if anything, things are based on our sense of humor but not our actual personalities I hope.
RM: I look a lot like Mac. I look a lot like him.
CD: You're taller.
RM: I'm a little bit taller than Mac.
Q: What's Mac's name?
CD: We've never established it.
RM: Never established it. We'll find out maybe one day.
CD: We've joked about what it is but we'll maybe wait until the last season to reveal it, what it actually is.
GH: He does actually have a first and last name, we just never revealed it. As does the waitress. She has a name.
RM: But nobody knows what it is.
GH: Well, we do.
Q: Have you ever been involved in any theater aside from this production?
CD: I have. I used to do lots of plays in little spaces like this. Definitely when we came in to start rehearsing it, it really took me back.
GH: Well, that was part of the inspiration for why we wanted to write it. I think to some degree, we all have some experience with this style of theater. It's fun. This is really fun. This is one of the most fun days I've had.
Q: What's the weirdest thing you've ever played on stage?
RM: Look at him. This is the weirdest thing. I mean, Jesus Christ.
GH: I did play a little boy in a production of Love's Labor's Lost. I got to play the ukulele and be a little child on stage. That was kind of fun. I did that in college, but I don't know, this is probably the weirdest thing I've ever done on stage.
CD: I played a neutrino in a musical about inner space.
RM: That's pretty weird.
Q: Are you serious?
CD: I'm dead serious, yeah.
Q: With a commitment through 2011, how great a success story is this?
CD: It's the greatest that ever was.
RM: The greatest success story that ever was in the history of humanity.
CD: Past Ghandi.
Q: Do you worry the episodes will get too silly as they get more outrageous going to 2011?
CD: Sure. That's a concern. You have to make sure that there seems to be a reason why the characters are doing what they're doing but in terms of the development of the show, you can't get away with an episode like this in the first season of the show. In some sense you haven't earned it because you don't know the characters well enough to go along on a ride like this. But as you get into the characters and the stories more, I think the opportunity presents itself to have some of these storylines.
KO: This episode is justified. We don't just go title, credits and then we go into a musical. There's a whole story going on too. Also what you guys saw, it's not going to play continuously like that. There are intercuts between scenes in the wings.
CD: And what's happening backstage.
KO: Yeah. So there is a little bit of a story.
CD: Not much.
Q: Has any subject on the show offended you?
RM: I don't think so. As long as we think it's funny as we're doing it.
KO: If it gets mean it doesn't feel funny anymore.
Q: Is there a topic you won't address?
GH: Well, this whole show's about rape, so no. I don't think so. We haven't come up with anything.
KO: Scientology.
RM: Well, that's just terrifying. Next question. We don't want to offend anyone.
CD: We dont want to get our show shut down.
Q: Will it become uncool when it's too popular? Like one of the great things is telling our friends to check this show out.
GH: I think we've established enough street cred at this point hopefully to where I don't think that would matter. I think when you look at certain bands that started off that way, they start off pretty underground and people didn't even know that they had a first and second album, then they latch onto the third album and just go back and watch it again.
CD: Also, at a certain point, if you're that popular, then who cares if you're cool?
KO: Is there more money involved? Because that's cool.
RM: You take a look at us. I don't know that we're really that concerned about being cool. You're wearing a yellow suit.
CD: It's warmer than you think.
Q: How exhausting is it to work up to the Charlie freak outs?
CD: It's not exhausting at all because in life I actually don't freak out ever on anyone, so I let it all out on the show.
GH: You bottle it all up.
CD: But that's what I feel like on the inside so I unleash all my rage in front of the camera. So it's good. It's a release.
Q: What else do we need to know that we haven't asked you?
RM: If you're not watching season four of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, you're just a straight up dick. You can print that.
VIEW 17 of 17 COMMENTS
chinowski:
the reason to own a t.v.
wottan:
Definitely one of the best live action comedies around. I remember hearing the creator(I think it's the guy who plays Mac?) describe the concept as seinfeld on crack. One of the many live action comedies I like these days that have broken away from the boring sitcom universe.