The gang just might be going back in time: Danny DeVito couldn’t help but compare his beloved sitcom “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” to another iconic TV series, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s ’50s comedy “I Love Lucy.”
DeVito told Variety while in discussion with Colin Farrell for “Actors on Actors” that after 17 seasons of “It’s Always Sunny,” he still finds the show to be as fresh as ever. “I always looked at it as ‘I Love Lucy’ on acid,” he said. “You could do anything you wanted.”
DeVito cited just how different “It’s Always Sunny” is to filming the 1992 feature “Batman Returns” in which he played villain Oswald Cobblepot AKA the Penguin. Farrell gives his own take on the character, now named Oz Cobb, in Max series “The Penguin,” which was a spinoff of Matt Reeves’ 2022 film “The Batman.”
“You can go anywhere you want. I love it,” DeVito said of the freedom of “It’s Always Sunny,” adding to Farrell, “It’s not the same thing as what you do with ‘The Penguin,’ or what I did with Oswald. Oswald, I stuck to the script. There’s no riffing.” DeVito further clarified that despite its title “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is filmed in California “where we should make more movies and television.”
DeVito co-stars alongside Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, and Kaitlin Olson in the beloved series. “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” made history as the longest running live-action comedy series in 2020 with its 15th season renewal; of course, it’s still going strong in 2025, exactly 20 years since it first debuted in 2005. Season 17 will premiere in July on FX and Hulu.
McElhenney and Olson, who are married in real life, much like Ball and Arnaz of “I Love Lucy,” recently told Variety that they actually disagree with the comparison that DeVito has now echoed. “I would never compare ourselves to Lucy and Desi!” McElhenney said, adding to Olson, “However, John [Landgraf of FX] has compared you to Lucille Ball.”
Landgraf told the outlet that he knew Olson was a star when she first auditioned for “Sunny” in 2004. “Kaitlin was just great, it was like watching Lucille Ball walk through the door,” he said. “You can put her in any situation, and there’s just something about the way she performs comedy physically.”
