It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s 14th run is a record season, tying with Ozzie and Harriet as the longest-running live-action comedy. Star Kaitlin Olson has one goal as the show continues: “I want to be The Golden Girls of inappropriate, basic cable comedy.”
The actress sat down with The Hollywood Reporter In Studio to discuss the new season, which premiered back in September, and whether a 15th year is on the horizon.
“It’s so much fun. I don’t think we really ever want to stop doing it. It’s very easy for me to say because I don’t produce the show; I don’t write it, I don’t edit it. So, it’s two and a half months out of the year commitment, so I would do it forever,” she explained. “It’s more about whether Rob (McElhenney) and Charlie (Day) feel like they want to jump right back into the writers room, and Glenn (Howerton). It’s a lot. They put a lot of pressure on themselves to make really great, quality episodes and sometimes you need a little bit of a break. But hopefully we’ll take a break and come back.”
The series made its debut back in 2005, and ever since has managed to get away with quite a bit, including some amazingly inappropriate plots and punchlines, while poking fun at extreme human behavior.
Olsen explained why she thinks the series gets away with it, saying, “We started doing this 15 years ago, and not a lot of people were doing it and I think the reason we get away with it is because we are clearly not advocating for this behavior. We’re very clearly calling this behavior out as ludicrous and because we are really pointing out — making fun of sounds mean — but I think we really are making fun of extremes on all sides.”
She continued: “There are a lot of people who come up and they’re like, ‘That’s so cool, you’re making fun of those snowflake liberals.’ And we’re like, ‘Are we?’ And the next people are like, ‘Oh, it’s great that you guys are bashing conservatives.’ And it’s like, if you really watch it, we’re looking at human behavior and how reprehensible it can be when you go to the extreme and you are completely narcissistic and not worried about the greater good.
“When you take it to the extreme, it’s absolutely ridiculous and people who really, really firmly stand behind and defend that behavior is just funny.”
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.
Watch more in the video above.
