The second season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia aired in the summer of 2006 on FX. It ran for 10 episodes and was the first season to feature Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds. It is available for purchase on DVD and download in iTunes.
Season Summary
Dennis and Dee's parents are featured heavily this season. First, their dad Frank blackmails his way into the Gang and moves in with Charlie. Then Mac bangs Dee and Dennis' mom. Then finally, Dennis and Dee discover that Frank isn't their real dad - instead, their mom had an affair with philanthropist Bruce Mathis.
Meanwhile, the Gang ups its efforts on the scheming front: first trying to get their neighbor to leave, then attempting to extort welfare from the state. When that doesn't work, they attempt to rig a fight club, exploit a water stain of the Virgin Mary in the Paddy's office and later extort bribes in exchange for running for office.
Finally, the Gang converts Paddy's Pub into yet another highly successful specialty bar: an unregulated bar that caters to drug abusers and gamblers.
Cast
- Main
- Glenn Howerton as Dennis Reynolds
- Kaitlin Olson as Deandra Reynolds
- Rob McElhenney as Mac
- Charlie Day as Charlie Kelly
- Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds
- Recurring
- Mary Elizabeth Ellis as The Waitress
- Anne Archer as Barbara Reynolds
- Lynne Stewart as Bonnie Kelly
- Sandy Martin as Mrs. Mac
- David Hornsby as Matthew "Rickety Cricket" Mara
- Artemis Pebdani as Artemis
- Jimmi Simpson as Liam McPoyle
- Nate Mooney as Ryan McPoyle
- Thesy Surface as Margaret McPoyle
- Gregory Cummins as Luther Mac
Episode List
Notes
- After "Starved" was cancelled in October 2005, John Landgraf have proposed to Sunny's creators a 10:00 PM time-slot - but only if they will able to sign a BIG NAME for the show. Landgraf is a really good friend with Danny DeVito (before he became president of FX, he had worked for Danny DeVito's production company Jersey Films), so he was calling him with this proposition. Later, Rob have come over to Danny to find out that he's already a fan of the series (thanks for his kids). Well, that's the story.
- This is Danny DeVito's first season as a cast member. Due to other commitments he had at the time, he was only available for 20 days of filming, meaning that every scene that Frank was going to be in for the entire season had to be shot before any others. This is a highly unusual situation for a TV series: typically, production takes place on one episode at a time, and production on the next episode does not begin until that episode is completed. It led to a situation where scripts for all 10 episodes had to be ready to be shot by the time production began, and continuity nightmares, since weeks could pass between when scenes meant to be in the same episode were actually shot.
- Starting with the second episode of the season, "The Gang Goes Jihad", the order in which the titles had been shown at the beginning of each episode was reversed, so that the title of the episode comes before the name of the series. Previously, the name of the series had been shown and then the title of the episode (for example, "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" and then "Charlie Has Cancer"). This change allows the title of the episode to serve as the punchline to a joke set up by the show's opening (the first time this was done being the episode "Dennis and Dee Go On Welfare").
- This promo parodied NBC's world famous sitcom "Friends" (two years before, Danny DeVito
was a guest star on that show).