It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia On The Red Carpet

By Quendrith Johnson
Fancast.com

8:30 P.M. On a Wednesday. Los Angeles, CA.

What more could you ask for from an It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia launch party? Danny DeVito after a few glasses of vino; Rhea Perlman to keep order; Rob McElhenney in a nice suit; Glenn Howerton in his full regal uncharted sexiness (apologies to the fiancee); and a mostly un-grunged Charlie Day hoping not to drink anybody’s back-washed beer. That’s who showed up at the Red Carpet It’s Always Sunny DVD launch party hosted by FOX/FX Network at CoCo deVille in West Hollywood Weds. night. And they rocked, plus they brought a few TV star friends, stellar girlfriends, and even a porn star named Abbey Road who’d been in “85 movies” showed up. Now that is a party. One of the beefy bouncers, throwing out a line that could have been on the show said, “Only 85? You ain’t a porn star until you’ve been in 100.” With 52 new episodes just ordered, it is safe to say It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has made Rob, Glenn and Charlie legitimate TV stars.

Danny DeVito, Oscar-nominated with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and even three Razzie noms, doesn’t exactly need the work, but at the opening party he was as generous with his time on the red carpet as any actor just starting out. You get the feeling these guys, all of them, love working together as much as they dig doing the show. Kaitlin Olson was the only missing cast member, getting a last minute Conan O’Brien booking in NYC to plug the show.

CoCo’s, the generation hip Hollywood venue, was packed to capacity with movie-star looking waiters and free flowing ‘booze’ as DeVito’s generation would say. DJ Gus spun a mix of Earth, Wind and Fire to “I might play Prince next.” He took requests, the man just didn’t play them.

FOX/FX had many execs in attendance, sprinkling the place with suits, also from Universal in NYC, flown in for “client meetings” and the occasional agent/manager. It was bash-worthy, complete with numb faces of bystanders wondering Who’s Who, and a Monster energy signature bus drive-by with a green-wigged guy opening a sliding window to scream out unsolicited psycho mumble about the show.

Judy Tenuta, a comedy star in her own right, was billed to show up, as was now-adult actor Fred Savage who is also a director, but they slipped under the radar. Sprague Grayden from Sons of Anarchy had some publicist dogging her on the red carpet, and later unwound and had a blast in the bar along with the rest of the cast.

Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman stayed probably longer than you’d expect, having a blast and holding court. Rob and company closed the place down at 1:30 maybe 2 am, and no animals were injured during the making of this party. Unless you count the hors d’oeuvres floating by like clockwork.

Swag included Sunny T-shirts, an energy drink hyped by some rapper, the DVD of Season One and for a souvenir, the sought-after black wristband to get into the place. All in all, It’s Always Sunny where ever this cast touches down.

Here’s your Fancast look inside the show’s exclusive private DVD launch party in West Hollywood:

DANNY DEVITO: It’s me. I’m Frank Reynolds. What’s it to ya? No, the thing about it is, it’s a ball doing It’s Always Sunny. We have a great time. (You can find the rest of his exclusive interview on Fancast.)

RHEA PERLMAN: What are you asking me? My favorite TV shows of all time — this one! My favorite episode is ‘Dumpster Baby,’ where they find a baby in a dumpster. It’s the ‘all-dumpster’ episode. I love it… Cheers. TAXI. From way back, The Honeymooners. Audrey Meadows. I guess you could say, Audrey influenced my acting. And no (you can’t ask any Andy Kaufman questions off the record). NO!

ROB McELHENNEY: I know you want to talk to Danny DeVito, he won’t skip you, don’t worry! He’s right behind me. We’ll just do my interview really quick, fast, let’s do it - done - no, I am not related to the McElhenney Tabasco sauce people, I wish. I come from very humble origins. We just made this show for ourselves. Four years ago, I think I was one of the youngest show runners at 26, now I’m not. We’re just having fun, that’s what we do. It’s for us. Everybody else too. And, yeah, I’ll give a shout-out to Fancast in Philly — Hey, Fancast Philly, from Rob!

GLENN HOWERTON: We wrote it all together, me, Rob and Charlie. In the beginning, we just did it with no money, well almost no money. For ourselves. To make us laugh. Now we’re thinking about other stuff too, movies. We wouldn’t triple direct or anything, no. I like to act, Rob and Charlie could work on the directing. But we all write. It has just gotten so big now. Really big, look at the DVD.

CHARLIE DAY: How is my character like me? You can’t be serious! Like the eating human flesh part? Yeah. Sure — no, it’s my sense of humor. I guess you could say that about my character, he has my sense of humor. Crazy sense of humor!

MARY ELIZABETH ELLIS: I play the waitress. Well, my grandmother watches the show with the sound off. But I have to poop in a handbag. Yes, poop in a handbag. Even with the sound off, it is still pooping in a handbag, so, I don’t know. But that’s our show!