Thursdays are about to get brighter (and more twisted) with the premiere of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’
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The sun will come out Thursday, so get out your bottom dollars and head over to Paddy’s Pub — it could really use some customers. For those who can’t make the trip (or are still working off this weekend’s hangovers), grab your remote and watch as “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ returns for its sixth season on FX.
You might even want to DVR the episodes for instant replay because it looks like the twisted lives of Mac, Dennis, Charlie and Dee — and even Frank — are about to get ‘more twisted.’
“I really look forward to see how people react to this season,” said co-creator Glenn Howerton, who also plays Dennis Reynolds, recently by phone. “We’ve done something different this year.”
Not usually a fan of recurring storylines, the show put away its commitment issues to accommodate one. It’s no secret that Kaitlin Olson (who plays Dee Reynolds) is pregnant — or was; she gave birth to a baby boy this month. Instead of employing those oh-so-coy tricks of hiding the baby bump with purses and lamps, Dee will discover she is preggers. And while some fans have hinted they’d love to see Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day, who can also be seen in the new Drew Barrymore flick ‘Going the Distance’) revealed as the father, Howerton was more squeamish about that idea.
“Oh, good God,” he said. “Why are people hoping that it’s Charlie? Sick. I think that’s going to be part of the fun is watching everyone sort of squirm and wonder who the father of this child is. We don’t even realize she’s pregnant until episode 6 or 7.”
If that wasn’t twisted enough, viewers will watch Dennis, a self-proclaimed lothario, get married — only it’s not really a surprise to him.
“My character reveals to everyone else that he always thought he’d be married with kids by now,” Howerton said. “He sort of lets his imagination get pretty carried away. I got to show some really different colors in my character. He basically reconnects with his high school sweetheart and gets swept up enough to get married. Like many things on our show, it doesn’t last long. But it will be fun to have this ex-wife as a character that will possibly recur.”
Babies and marriages aren’t even the most bizarre aspects. Season 6 will also see the likes of Dave Foley, Jason Sudeikis … and Tom Sizemore.
“Sizemore is going to be playing something different and something sort of the same,” Howerton said. “We get stranded in the woods in New Jersey. ... He ends up picking up Charlie and I on the side of the road and gives us a lift to Atlantic City. He basically plays a guy who mistakes us for a lot lizard — which is basically a truck stop whore. His goal is to reform us and then it ends up with him trying to bang us.”
Sizemore is the kind of guest star they hope to keep getting, Howerton said.
“We like to think of ourselves as the Quentin Tarantino of TV shows,” he said. “We get guys with careers who have fallen into disrepair like Sinbad and Tom Sizemore. We’re trying to help these guys get back on their feet.”
So what other career would Howerton like to see the show rehabilitate?
“Sylvester Stallone just did a whole lot for a lot of people with his last movie,” he said. “A lot of those guys would have been the guys we would pick. I guess if Jean-Claude Van Damme wouldn’t do the “Expendables,” I don’t know if he’d do our show. I certainly would love to get him on board. And maybe Christopher Lambert. Where has he been? I feel like Sean Connery — I feel like that whole retirement thing was just a rouse.”
‘Sunny’ premieres at 10 p.m. Thursday ET/PT on FX.
— Yvonne Villarreal
